Decision Resources has a lot of experience working with Finance Departments within companies. Although we work in many different industries, there are budgeting pain points that commonly exist in nearly any Finance department that we see again and again. When setting a strategy for making budgeting work better, it helps to think of it in a similar way to how you might define other strategies in general.

 

• Current situation – How are things now?
• Vision – How would you like them to be?
• Roadmap – How do we get there?

An analysis within your department might come up with something like the following:
 

Current situation	Vision
Difficult to consolidate figures	Real time consolidation
No centralised control	Top level rules
Lack of auditability in spreadsheets	Full audit trail
Uncontrolled workflows	Automated and controlled workflow - no chasing up figures
Contributors unsure of what numbers to use	Auto baseline population and input validation

Once you have identified these things, you can do a gap analysis and effectively determine a roadmap for how you can reach your vision. The roadmap should attack the highest value things first, so that you can quickly get a return on investment. For many of these things, it’s easy to just think of a ROI in terms of time saved – which in many departments can be enormous. However, there are many other consequences of uncontrolled budget processes that can be overlooked:

• Possibility of incorrect numbers
• Poor engagement between Finance department and external contributors
• Rework and staff frustration at repetitive and low value cut/paste spreadsheet operations
• Governance and compliance risk

With the right vision, it’s possible to make real progress towards a more efficient budgeting process.