Budgeting Software

Find computer programs that can forecast and follow the money
By Mark Ingebretsen, Creative Project Manager Stonehand Publishing Use the power of budgeting software to plan your budget and monitor day-to-day progress. Budgeting software choices range from popular programs that can be customized to packages that can be located on your company's own server. A quality budgeting software package should:

1. Serve as a common forum for budget planning and budget forecasting.
2. Easily extract data from popular spreadsheet and database programs.
3. Seamlessly link suppliers and customers to the budgeting process as required.
4. Be easy enough to use so employees at all levels can create and understand budgets.
5. Be scaleable and powerful enough so that data can be extracted and utilized for more robust financial analysis.
6. Contain tools to help budgeters comply with current and future industry and government regulations.
7. Come from a software firm that provides bulletproof security features, ongoing product support and regular upgrades.

 

Assess your company's budgeting requirements

Every company is different. A real estate development firm might create a fresh budget for each new project, while a medical office might work from a single operations budget year after year.
Try: Create a working group drawn from all employees to analyze your company's current budgeting process and forecast its future needs. Palo Alto Software, with the co-sponsorship of the Small Business Administration, created an online presentation that guides entrepreneurs in strategic-planning areas such as the budgeting process. Also check out Law.com's online guide to small business budgeting.

Explore budgeting software already widely used in your industry

Choosing an industry-standard package can help speed the learning curve for new employees who may have used the program elsewhere. Consult your accounting and financial employees, who may have strong preferences about packages.
Try: Just as Microsoft Excel has become the standard business spreadsheet application, budgeting/accounting software packages such as Intuit's QuickBooks: Pro 2006 and Microsoft Dynamics also have wide followings. Compare budget planning and budget forecasting features of packages and visit vendor sites at the Web site Capterra's Budgeting Software Directory.  Find more budgeting software and accounting software at Business.com.

Choose between hosted and non-hosted budgeting solutions

Third-party hosting companies can provide seamless online access to budgeting software, a feature that's especially important if members of the budget team work in different locations.
Try: Adaptive Planning, Expensewatch and Netsuite's NetERP are three hosted enterprise solutions that integrate budgeting with operations monitoring. Find more enterprise resource planning software at Business.com. QuickBooks Online Edition's may suit the needs of smaller firms.

Introduce a new budgeting package via a company-wide training program

New budget software can spark a company-wide initiative to make everyone more aware of budget planning and budget forecasting that, in turn, can enhance cash flow.
Try: Save time, money and effort by opting for products that include detailed online training courses. Though geared to non-profits, the Foundation Center's online course on budgeting embodies the same techniques used by small companies.

• Make sure those with budgeting responsibility regularly input their actual numbers.
• Monitor budgets regularly as they're being implemented and devise alarms when current and projected numbers deviate significantly from budget forecasting.
• Develop methods to compare departmental and company-wide budgets year over year to aid in forecasting and analysis.
• In budget planning, assign a probability to each of your projections to identify where spending may exceed allotted amounts. For example, a budget's energy usage projection might have a low probability as long as energy prices remain volatile, while costs such as employee parking spaces may be easier to pinpoint.