Business Automation and Software Blog

Business Process Automation and Your Budget

Posted by Robert Baran on Thu, Sep 09, 2010 @ 02:36 PM

04 13 Business Process Automation Budget Accounting SoftwareIn business, we all know that planning, creating and maintaining a budget is crucial to our growth and success. From determining year over year expense and revenue, to identifying when to hire more staff or when we need to increase sales to make a profit – it all begins and ends with our budget.

Unfortunately many companies perform their budgeting process outside of their accounting systems. Spreadsheets and hand-written notes are often utilized instead, creating a time intensive and extra-labor inducing process. The problem with this approach is that the budget is more prone to errors, is harder to maintain and can easily become obsolete when necessary changes and updates are made throughout the year.

If you have good accounting software, we'd like to encourage you to use it to its fullest capacity. Many are equipped with advanced features and capabilities that provide you with the business process automation tools you need to plan more effectively and achieve a better end-result. Not only will your budgeting process become more insightful, it will be easier to turn raw data into critical business intelligence allowing you to achieve your company goals and objectives.

There are many ways an automated budgeting process will improve your organization, some of which include:

Streamlined Integration

Many accounting solutions are equipped with the capability to create or upload commercial spreadsheets to simplify budget management. Here budget balances can be automatically updated and GL account numbers can be easily inserted saving you time and improving accuracy.

Powerful Capabilities

With a wide-range of formula options you can construct virtually any simple or complex budget calculation. You can create rolling or multiple-year budgets simultaneously and perform calculations on a period-by period basis.

Furthermore, you can analyze 'what if' scenarios with preview capabilities and recast budgets as many times as you need to in order to come up with the right plan.

Ease of Use

Many people stick with their old faithful spreadsheets because they're concerned their accounting system's budgeting process will be too complicated. However many are very user friendly and easy to use. They often have similar functionality to spreadsheets and flexible formatting features enabling you to create a detailed budget that is accurate, appealing and easy to manage. From making changes such as font, color and cell locking to adding or removing sheets, rows and columns – you can easily customize it according to your needs, all while maintaining data integrity.

Comprehensive Budget Management & Analysis

If your organization maintains more than one budget at a time, automating it is a must! Your accounting system is much more likely to handle these complex needs accurately.

Additionally, integration of your budget within your accounting solution opens up a whole new world of business analytics and forecasting. Using real numbers and actual results from the Standard Ledger for closed and unclosed periods are just a keystroke away. It brings better visibility to all of your financial information saving you time while providing the insight you need to improve your bottom line.

Are you going through your 2011 Budget Process?

PositiveVision can help! We are excited to offer a new service this Fall, Budget Analysis and Set Up. During your Budget Analysis and Set Up you will meet with your PositiveVision Budget expert to determine the best approach to streamlining your budget process. Then PositiveVision will integrate your budget within your accounting system so that you operate throughout the year more effectively and efficiently.

To make things even better PositiveVision is bringing you a great offer. Receive your first hour free when you schedule your Budget Analysis and Set Up by September 30th.

In this economic climate it's imperative that you get the most out of your systems. Schedule your Budget Analysis and Set Up today by calling our office at 800.559.1323 or e-mail RBaran@positivevision.biz.

Topics: accounting software, business process automation