Budgeting and Forecasting

Robust Budgeting and Forecasting are important to provide you clarity as to how the business is performing and insights as to what actions can be pro-actively taken.

Most organisations will have an annual budget for the next financial year. While this is important as it is the translation of the Strategic Plan and Business Plan into anticipated financial achievement, after a few months the budget feels unrealistic, out of date and frequently starts gathering dust. There is increasingly a sense of financial blindness as to where the organisation is going. The forecasting process each month allows you to report and monitor on current activities and to incorporate the latest activities to provide clarity on where you are going and what it will take to get there.

The problem

When you do your business planning and budgeting, you use the best information available, but you are unable to anticipate all the hurdles that could be raised or challenges such as key staff leaving, a lawsuit or even increased competitor activity. The budget is thrown into disarray. It remains imperative that you understand where you are profitable, anticipated cash low points, can pro-actively put in place strategies to mitigate various risks that might arise and more generally keep driving the business onwards and upwards.

How CFO Evolve can help you

Annual budgeting and monthly forecasting provides you a strong sense of where the organisation is going at all times throughout the year, where and when your cash low points are over the months ahead, anticipated profitability and significantly allows you to focus your team on the activities necessary to improve the situation. The ability to accurately forecast will also increase your chance of gaining investment and on better terms.

What are the benefits of delegating your budgeting and forecasting to us?

Budgeting and monthly forecasting provides your business with a clear understanding of its past and current performance which can help you to make informed business decisions and achieve external investment. Forecasting in particular will answer questions such as;

• Where is the business heading financially?
• Do I need to increase my overdraft or seek investment capital to cater for losses or future growth?
• Do I need to increase or decrease the size of the team and if so where?
• What products or services are becoming unprofitable or less profitable and why?