Increasingly, corporations and public-sector organizations are facing tough budgeting and financial reporting pressures from investors and constituencies. They're expected to avoid surprises, improve accuracy and consistency, and meet challenging goals with the same or fewer resources. Yet, most complex organizations are still producing annual budgets with standalone applications or, even worse, spreadsheets. As a result, they must endure a painful budget cycle that takes many months to complete and frustrates staff members in both the parent organization and the departments. Even more concerning is the end result — an annual budget that's likely inaccurate and provides limited operational insights or value.
Your organization can overcome all of these issues and more with a robust budgeting system that connects the various entities and is integrated with other applications. Finally, you'll have an accurate annual budget in significantly less time — one that can easily be corrected throughout the year as business assumptions change. Staff members in the parent organization who are responsible for centrally managing the budgeting cycle and then consolidating submissions will finally have visibility into and better control over the process. And, those at the department level assembling their business plans and the related budgets will have access to quality information as well as the ability to easily collaborate with others during the process.
But here's an added benefit: you can transform your annual budget into an effective analytics tool for decision makers throughout your enterprise. For example, PeopleSoft users can integrate PeopleSoft Budgeting to channel information to and from other applications, including Financials, HRMS, and Analytic Forecasting as well as strategic applications like Planning and Balanced Scorecard. The result: a budgeting application that improves data accuracy and consistency as well as your ability to measure, analyze, and enhance operational activities.
Clearly, the advantages of an integrated budgeting application are too powerful to ignore. But, before you dive in, give careful consideration to the implementation partner you select. To leverage the full potential of the application, you'll need a partner with deep product and functional expertise. One that's experienced with the intricate application set-up requirements, resulting security issues, comprehensive testing, and user training. You may also need a partner that can synchronize your budgeting processes with the application and best practices as well as maximize user comfort and acceptance.
Not sure where to find a partner with such credentials? Give CherryRoad a call. When your organization is ready to implement an integrated budgeting application, we'll meet your every need — with no unpleasant scheduling or billing surprises. To learn more, contact us at info@cherryroad.com.