Here's how you can balance innovation and reliability in budgeting and forecasting.

A planning process that involves building and maintaining rolling forecasts is crucial for companies today and is beneficial for several reasons. First, it improves accuracy by updating financial projections with the latest data, ensuring more reliable forecasts. Second, it aids in better resource allocation, directing funds and efforts where most effective. Third, it supports proactive decision-making by anticipating future needs and adjustments. It also helps to align business plans with strategic goals, keeping financial planning in sync with company objectives. Finally, rolling forecasts boost stakeholder confidence by demonstrating a company's robust control over its financial health and responsiveness to changing conditions.

To some extent, I concur. Rolling forecasts provide adaptability to evolving business conditions by incorporating real-time data into financial projections. This facilitates informed decision-making regarding resource allocation and project investment while minimizing potential risks. However, it's important to note that maintaining rolling forecasts can be time-intensive, and the accuracy of predictions heavily relies on data quality.

To help in planning the bugetting guys need to get constant information from respective departments. Thus can be done by setting up informal channel in organisation thus making it procedure and protocol free. This gives budgeting dept a run time heads up and the other departments need not follow structured protocols.

Actively "contributed to" and managed pipelines and CRMs have always been the most efficient way to forecast. Clear electronic and F2F lines of communication with the sales organization, alignment of objectives for the year, quarter, month, and non-intrusive, but scheduled discussions with the field sales or inside sales team(s), adds technicolor to the CRM and pipeline. If these practices are BEST practices for your company, forecasting and allocating funds for budgeting are generally a breeze. Why? Because the teams facing the customers are always the best source of information on future revenue. They know the customers, the dynamics affecting them, and they know the likelihood of success. Best of luck! - Scott

Founds my eyes the idealistic way.. ~ Firstly need development and embracement of Growth mindset. ~ Establishing the Innovative culture & Set funds for the same. ~ Equipped process with advance technology & establishment of authentic communication for cross functional department. ~ Continuously monitor & be agile with shift mindset in circumstances changes.

I do agree with this perspective! It is crucial that prioritization happens to enable optimization of scarce resources matching the business strategic vision. This ranking clearly enables transparency and allows for acceptability across board based on the impact to be delivered to business.

Goal prioritisation is essential in a dynamic project scenario to control the forecast x realisation of costs for weekly, monthly and current fiscal year closing. Therefore, there must be clear and effective communication between the main stakeholders and shareholders of the company. ?

While it is important to develop and prioritize goals. Those goals must be reactive and proactive in order to adapt to changing environments. Your goals need to be able to expand and contract as conditions permit.

In my experience, calculated allocation is crucial for spending within a budget. Implementing a stage-gate process to evaluate projects at various stages of development aids in making go/no-go decisions based on performance metrics and milestones, ensuring resources are allocated to the best prospects. Additionally, maintaining an innovation fund separate from the operational budget allows flexibility in funding new ideas without jeopardizing day-to-day business activities. This approach balances innovation with reliability, safeguarding your business while promoting growth and development.

KPI set must be specific and measurable to ensure effective performance tracking. Both financial and non financial KPIs are crucial to align each stakeholders' objectives with the company.

Continuous monitoring is key for good financial performance and reporting. Outlining key performance indicators online with budget is crucial. Producing In year monitoring reports indicating original budget, actual expenses, monthly estimate and what is left on a monthly basis will help. Highlighting outcomes is also a necessity.

I find it crucial to embed regular budget reviews in all projects. This promotes adaptability and responding to ever-changing priorities and/or changes in the project environment. Regular reviews are a key process in project financial management as they promote efficiency and effectiveness in utilizing funds (funds are channeled where they are needed most; and this could change as the project progresses) and better advise budget forecasts.

Absolutely, encouraging learning culture, culture of psychological safety, inclusion, etc is non negotiable. As they say, the best ideas can come from the least expected person hence its critical organizations promote the speak up culture. When everyone can speak up without fear or favour, you are sure you have taken in majority of views round the table. People buy into the decisions made and drive it with all sense of ownership and not feel left out.

Leveraging regression tools to support forecasting models is something finance professionals should look into, especially in an environment where there’s a strong correlation between business activity and financial results (eg costs, revenue, etc). Regression models offer easy predictive models to help finance professionals forecast business performance within known levels of tolerance

Some other points to consider': Utilising multiple forecasting methods to improve the accuracy of your financial forecasting. Use a combination of quantitative and qualitative forecasting methods. This approach ensures that you consider both historical data and expert opinion to make informed financial predictions. Financial forecasting should be updated regularly to reflect changes in the market conditions and company performance. This practice helps you to maintain accuracy in your forecast. Involve key stakeholders such as department heads and finance team members in the forecasting process. Their inputs can provide valuable insights into the company's operations leading to more accurate forecasting.

Benchmarking and Evaluation Regularly benchmark your forecasting accuracy against industry standards and evaluate the effectiveness of innovative techniques. This helps in fine-tuning your approach to achieve the optimal balance.

Il convient aussi de tenir compte des points suivants relatifs à l’utilisation de la technologie et des données : ? Outils d’analyse avancée : Exploiter des outils de data analytics pour des prévisions plus précises et des analyses de scénarios. ? Automatisation : Automatiser les processus répétitifs pour gagner en fiabilité et libérer des ressources pour l’innovation.