Best-in-class companies are almost twice as likely to have dedicated applications for planning and budgeting as to rely on features of their ERP solutions. However, notably, in some instances both standalone and separate solutions are used by top-performing businesses.
The ability to satisfy the needs of the company’s financial reporting depends on the capabilities of the solutions implemented, their integration abilities and the unique needs of each organisation. Another factor is the size and structure of the company. Small ones or those with a monolithic structure may not need a consolidation tool while for multinational, multidivisional enterprises this might be an important consideration.
Though a quarter of both best-in-class and industry average companies rely on the features of their ERP solutions or other general purpose financial applications to support this process, most companies prefer specialty applications for planning, budgeting and forecasting processes. Undoubtedly, the general ledger module will have some basic budgeting capabilities, but rarely do these applications have the advanced features that support the planning process, such as “what if” scenario analysis and the ability to do reforecasts.
Find out more about the benefits of deploying a planning and budgeting solution by reading “How Best-in-Class Plan, Budget and Forecast in Today’s Dynamic World,” where you will also explore:
- The pressures in planning faced by companies today
- Agility and flexibility in financial planning
- How to plan and budget with visibility
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