You Spend More Time Entering Data than You Spend Budgeting
Is spreadsheet budgeting still your main tool for company forecasts and planning?
If the thought of using spreadsheets for 2016 budgeting fills you with dread, you probably have outgrown them as a budgeting tool. Now is the time to start looking for new accounting software that meets your business needs today and scales with you as you grow.
You have outgrown spreadsheet budgeting when you:
- Manually input data into a spreadsheet just to get the budgeting process started
- Can't drill-down to view supporting data
- Struggle to produce detailed financial reports
As you look for a more robust system, you’ll want to consider accounting software that includes the following:
1) G/L integration: Accounting software with built-in budgeting streamlines the process, allows seamless access to data, and provides a powerful tool for managing your business.
Using spreadsheets for company budgets often involves manipulating data for individual departments. This is time-consuming and prone to error. Also, if there are changes, there is no easy way to update all of the spreadsheets. Each individual spreadsheet must be updated manually. All of this takes time and leaves the door open for error.
When budgeting is part of your accounting software package, it is easy to update data and revise budgets. And, as you move through the year, you can use the built-in budgeting tool to compare actual vs. budgeted costs allowing you to monitor expenses and make adjustments as needed.
2) Paperless office: Accounting software that includes paperless office functionality provides seamless access to data during the entire budgeting process. If you’re using spreadsheet budgeting you can attach documents to the spreadsheet (paper or by email) but they could get lost in the manual review process.
With the paperless office, documents, invoices, and comments can be attached to and viewed at any point in the budget process. Drill-downs to distributions, transaction thumbnails, and fiscal year and month-end supporting information right at your fingertips.
3) Queries and reports: Spreadsheet budgeting is one-dimensional. You can’t run a financial report from a stack of spreadsheets.
On the other hand, you CAN run a detailed financial report query in your accounting software.
While spreadsheet budgeting may have worked in the past, your business has grown in size and complexity. Moving to robust accounting software allows you to run detailed budget reports with just a few clicks and to see quickly the impact of a line item decrease or increase.
Let us show you how easy budgeting can be.
