It’s a common goal for finance managers to improve their forecasting and planning abilities. However, many companies don’t even consider employing business budgeting software and instead rely on spreadsheets and manual budgets. Some continue to hang in there with their old budgeting software, which is risky and time-consuming.
When you continue to utilize your outdated budgeting software, you’re exposing your company to greater risk from erroneous reports and unreliable data. Making big business decisions off these reports can only put your company in even greater jeopardy.
However, even if the prospect of producing erroneous data isn’t enough to cause concern for you, there are further dangers involved with employing antiquated budgeting software. Your company is putting itself in harm’s way on multiple fronts if you do not upgrade or replace the software that is no longer supported.
This article will highlight the pitfalls of using outdated budgeting software.
Older Spreadsheets Lead to More Errors
Many companies still use Excel for financial planning and budgeting because these spreadsheets are handy. Spreadsheets are often synonymous with finance and budgets. While they serve some purpose, relying solely on them for planning and making strategic business decisions is challenging as they are infamous for being prone to errors, inefficient, and lacking in data integrity. They are also prone to corruption. They are rarely error-free. This makes it challenging to use them effectively.
Excel budgeting is a complicated process that demands a significant amount of time to search for and enter data, manipulate it into shape, review, check, audit, and repair any mistakes that may have been made. And last, with a bitter taste in your mouth, you comply—best of luck.
It’s Easy to Lose Data
No, it’s not Wall Street, but if you’re pressed for time and trying to meet a financial goal, it might as well seem like that. If your company’s software isn’t hosted in the cloud, or at the very least, in a hybrid cloud environment, it has no place in your company. Unless you are self-disciplined enough to save your work regularly, or unless you don’t mind the loss of several hours of effort? You should be able to obtain the required information without interruption, from any location, at any time. You should be able to have peace of mind knowing that none of your work will be lost even if the internet is temporarily unavailable to you. You could have a cup of coffee, and by the time you got back, you would probably be ready to go again; although you would be a little more wired, you would still be in good form.
Keeping Up With Your Older Budgeting Software Can Lead to More Costs
It’s a little ironic that you can incur more expenses from the difficulties you’ll experience when maintaining outdated budgeting software, especially when controlling the company’s budget falls on your shoulders. The use of more advanced technology in your budgeting software is therefore crucial to ensuring yours will be convenient to use and cost-effective.
What are the benefits of using today’s latest budgeting software like Performance Canvas?
Consider some of the following advantages to your company as a starting point:
Increase the speed of your budgeting and planning process and minimize the time it takes for your budgeting and forecasting cycle times. This means you can reduce the time it takes to collect and consolidate data.
Perform information analysis using the built-in tools, and understand how well your organization is doing.
You’ll be able to improve your business decisions and gain a competitive advantage by having completely integrated planning and budgeting at your fingertips. This will allow you to be more exact and detailed in your planning.
Reduce reliance (in business and IT divisions), and make your smaller, meaner staff happier by streamlining your processes because they can perform their duties more effortlessly and with less strain on their bodies.
Performance Canvas specializes in financial planning and analysis, corporate budgeting, and reporting. It is also helpful to prevent errors and inconsistencies and encourage front-line managers to interact with the finance team to blend leading standards with bottom-up insights.
