Turn your budgeting cycle from a headache into a happy outcome with these tips.
Did you know that you can use the historical records from your Acumatica cloud ERP system to make the budgeting process less painful and more productive?
If last year’s budgeting cycle left you tired and cranky, it’s time to take a fresh look at budget preparation. Budgeting doesn’t have to be a dreaded chore. Small to medium-sized business can benefit from using a good ERP system instead of a general ledger or out of the box accounting package. A meaningful, detailed budget doesn’t have to be a wish or hope. It can be a reality.
Zero-Based Budgeting
Most companies today employ a variation of Zero-Based Budgeting, where each line item in the budget is thoroughly evaluated and justified, rather than adjusted from the previous budget. To start zero-based budgeting, begin with a budget versus actual assessment. This takes into account the annual budget with a comparison to actual expenses. From there, you can see where there are discrepancies.
General Ledger Systems such as simple accounting packages can make both BVA and budget preparation easier. You can look at the actual and budgets and make calculations from there.
However, there’s probably a lot you can’t find in a GLS. Discrepancies should be examined, but a GLS may not provide the details that you need to understand exactly why things did or didn’t turn out as expected.
General Ledgers also tend to be set up by area of responsibility such as department or workgroup. As each is completed, budgets are summarized and consolidated into a major area of responsibility such as division, office, or branch.
After that, you have to deal with which budget is compared to the actual results in the BVA. And, as previously mentioned, determining why there’s a discrepancy between budget and actual can be challenging.
These challenges are not insurmountable, but they do take time to research. If you’re using spreadsheets, you may need to track down computerized or paper folders with the background information you need to justify changes to budgets. It may take a lot more time to create a budget than it would if you had the information available on a good ERP system.
Acumatica Cloud ERP Offer Detailed Information
Although you might think such details would be the purview of large companies, it’s actually small to mid-sized businesses that benefit the most from a detailed budget. A loss of only a few percentage points can mean a lot to a small business which doesn’t have a cushion to soften the blow. Finding out where and why such losses occurred can make a big impact.
Not many GL systems available to SMBs include such detailed features, and many SMBs rely on spreadsheets alone for budgeting. While spreadsheets are initially the simplest option, combining spreadsheets into a single global budget is prone to errors, not to mention tedious and time-consuming.
With its flexible deployment and licensing options, Acumatica’s general accounting software solution can provide faster budgeting and analytics to accommodate smaller organizational structures and empower strategic business planning and budgeting.
Acumatica cloud ERP offers businesses:
- A full suite of integrated business management applications including a Financial Management Suite, Distribution Management Suite, Customer Management Suite, and Project Accounting Suite.
- Flexible and customizable deployment.
- Very easy to use dashboard that makes Acumatica cloud ERP easy to learn for most employees.
If you’re ready to take the ERP plunge, Acumatica cloud ERP is one of the best choices for small to mid-sized businesses. It can take the pain out of budgeting by providing you with critical information and insights from one convenient dashboard. The less time you take to manually track budgets on spreadsheets, the more time there is available to create innovative products and solutions that will please your customers.
Emerald TC
Emerald TC specializes in helping mid-market, multi-location companies increase efficiency, productivity, and profits. We support Sage and Acumatica ERP products and offer Sage 100, Sage 500, Acumatica Cloud ERP and more to help your business manage supply chain needs, improve productivity, and remain competitive in a global marketplace. Let’s discuss how we can help you. Contact us or call 678-456-6919 today.