5 ways to turn budgeting from burden to benefit

1. Budgeting without tracking actuals

If you are creating a budget but not comparing it to the actual results, what’s the point?

Tip 1. Track performance regularly, not only for more strategic initiatives, but also for smaller projects. A budget that isn’t updated with actual numbers is just a wish list.

2. Data quality issues

Increasing the quality of your figures should be the first step before you even start the budgeting process. Focus on correcting the most important items first. This helps avoid unnecessary discussions later.

Tip 2. Stick to what’s material. Not every small detail needs attention. Good budgeting starts with reliable figures, ideally prepared during your closing process. That way, you are building on a solid foundation rather than a shaky one.

3. Accountability: Who owns the budget?

Is Finance in the lead? Is the right mix of stakeholders involved? True accountability means that business owners are engaged and responsible for their numbers. Otherwise, budgets become a Finance-only exercise with limited business value.

Tip 3. Treat budgeting like a project. Approach the budgeting process as a recurring project. Involve the right people, define clear roles and responsibilities, and ideally extend it into a continuous forecasting cycle. Over time, each iteration becomes faster, more accurate, and more insightful. This approach adds real business value across the organization, rather than creating resistance among the teams.

4. Outdated budgets and manual fixes

Is your budget already outdated two months after approval, yet still used for reporting? Are you doing manual tweaks to make it work? If so, maybe it’s time to reconsider how much effort goes into the (tweaking) process versus how effective it really is.

Tip 4. Embrace forecasting. Granular budgets are important, but they age fast. Utilize continuous, simple, driver-based forecasts to respond quickly to major changes and speed up your financial planning and reporting process.

5. Devoting excessive time to the budget at the expense of the business

Spending three months on the budget but lacking time for the company? If your team spends months locked in a room preparing the budget and loses touch with the business, something’s wrong. A budget should be a living tool to guide decisions, not to impress colleagues with the total number of versions you have created this year.

Tip 5. Automate to reclaim your time. Automation helps reduce repetitive tasks, minimize errors, and free up time to focus on analysis and strategy instead of number crunching. It will keep your budget up-to-date and the process smoother for everyone. Whether through data integration, workflows, real-time calculations, the use of driver-based forecasting or automated reporting, leverage automation to streamline your FP&A process and free up time for value added activities.

Automation becomes easier with the right technology

Could a tool make budgeting easier? This is a question we hear often: “Can a system solve all our budgeting challenges?” While no tool can do everything, the right solution can help streamline the process, improve data quality, and save valuable time.

Guiding clients through every step of improving the budgeting and EPM process, our budgeting experts bring process expertise to the table, adding hands-on support during the budgeting season or offering training.

We partner with several leading EPM platforms to optimize your budgeting process. One example is Vena Solutions, a user-friendly FP&A collaboration tool known for its Excel-based interface and built-in workflow automation. Its ease of use and fast implementation make it a popular choice among Finance teams. Another strong option is Tagetik, which offers robust capabilities for complex planning and consolidation needs.

Exploring how to streamline your budgeting process and which solution best fits your organization

With this year’s budgeting season still fresh in everyone’s mind, it’s the perfect time to reflect on what worked and explore how things could run even smoother next year.