Are budgets obsolete?

There isn’t a day that goes by that we don’t talk about budgeting with our customers and prospects.  And as you would expect, every one of those companies has a different perspectives on the importance of budgets and how to effectively manage them.  In CFO Magazine, Russ Banham’s article Let It Roll challenges the effectiveness of budgeting and shares how many companies are moving to rolling forecasts to make business decisions.

Over the past year, we’ve found that manufacturers are increasingly concerned with improving their forecasting and analysis capabilities.   While calculating accurate product costs is the foundation of most of our implementations, giving companies the ability to analyze scenarios inside their cost system expands their ability to see the real impact of changing market conditions, customer demand, and manufacturing processes have on the bottom line.  The recent study, “The CFO Agenda: Finance’s Top Issues in 2011”, from The Hackett Group supports that fact by reporting that 81% of CFOs are focused on improving the accuracy, cycle times and efficiency of their forecasting process.

We’d love to hear from you whether budgets are obsolete in your business.  Chime in on our blog and let us know what you think.