The Importance Of Budgeting And Forecasting In BI

The budgeting and forecasting process for most organisations is often long and tedious. The process also occurs on an annual basis. In order to improve accuracy, companies may even run this process more frequently. This involves rolling forecasts, continuous planning, and driver-based planning.

Using business intelligence solutions supports teams by providing clear access to data from a centralised location. Read on to learn more about how budgeting and forecasting can relate to your organisation’s BI strategy.

BDI is also running a series of webinars focused on specific Sysynkt features to demonstrate how you can streamline your budgeting processes through an affordable and customisable software solution. Book your free tickets today, and enhance your budgeting and forecasting processes today.

Table of Contents

Join the BDI mailing list

Keep up to date with the latest events, webinars, and product launches from BDI.

Sign Up

What differences are there between budgeting and forecasting and other processes?

Unlike other business processes, budgeting and forecasting require a high degree of forward-thinking.

This forms a fundamental difference between business processes and also defines how the data from these processes are managed. Fundamentally, actual events are captured as transactions in supply chain systems, ERPs, invoicing and accounting systems, etc. Databases often store this data. However, budgets and forecasts typically reside in spreadsheets. These spreadsheets often aggregate data and are edited by several people in an organisation.

A company’s financial planning process will differ from another company in the same sector. This is why some users prefer Excel, as it provides a level of flexibility and customisation. However, spreadsheets have limited functionality and can create errors further down the line.

How does this relate to BI?

BI tools, especially user-facing solutions, such as data visualisation tools and dashboards are great at capturing historical data.

Tools such as Sysynkt have robust features which facilitate direct connections to systems containing transactional data. They also often produce dashboards, allowing effective insights from users.

For example, Sysynkt provides an overview of recent spending on user dashboards, allowing users to see a clear overview of their personal financial situation.

Combining plans and forecasts with data

Preparing a dashboard for budgeting and forecasting is the beginning of the challenge. Driving valuable insights requires actual data combined with planning and forecasting data. Combining transactional data alongside forecasts provides users with freedom and flexibility to create ad-hoc data visualisation.

Integrating budgeting and forecasting in BI projects is one of BDI’s specialities. We are proud of our budgeting and forecasting module for BI solutions and work closely with our customer’s to achieve their overarching goals.

If you would like to learn more about how the budgeting and forecasting process is supported by strong BI, then please contact a BDI business expert today. We would welcome the opportunity to talk through our available options, and find the right solution for your organisation and their goals.

Budgeting and forecasting with Sysynkt

BDI is proudly partnered with Sysynkt, an innovative true cloud FMS solution. Sysynkt was built from the ground up to fully incorporate modern technology and cloud capability, creating a fully accessible solution for your organisation. Bring open banking functionality and connections with your other business software (such as SalesForce and HubSpot) for a centralised and streamlined experience.

BDI is running a series of webinars focused on specific Sysynkt features to demonstrate how you can streamline your budgeting processes through an affordable and customisable software solution.

For example, on the 15th of September we will be demonstrating the procure to pay features in our ‘Purchase Management’ webinar. See how Google AI can be applied to your invoicing processes, automatically parsing documents and matching invoices against existing POs within your system to reduce admin time. Tickets are available now via Eventbrite.

Ready to start?

Our team of data intelligence experts are ready and waiting to work with your organisation