Planning and Budgeting: Finance’s Longtime Riddle

Posted by Tom Kelly, Senior Director of Product Marketing
It’s been over two decades since former General Electric boss Jack Welch described companywide budgeting to Fortune magazine as “the bane of corporate America.”
Yet, while planning and budgeting are vital to smart, fact-based business decision-making, many finance teams are still mired in time-consuming, inefficient processes, using basic tools that deliver questionable results. Indeed, it’s not just corporate America still confronting the challenges of planning and budgeting. For midmarket organizations experiencing or aiming for high growth, inadequate planning and budgeting processes can hinder performance in a competitive business environment where volatility is the norm. After all, forecasts and targets set months in advance do not take into account new challenges or fresh opportunities that arise.