Towards agile forecasting and budgeting

Save time and reduce manual work by automating data updates

Many companies dream of having rolling forecasts and improved accuracy - but making that a reality often takes a lot of manual effort.

Finding the right numbers, ensuring they’re up to date, and manually entering them into a budget spreadsheet takes time. Time that would be much better spent on analyzing those numbers, building scenarios, and making decisions.

With a modern planning solution that integrates with your existing systems, your key figures are always available and up to date - all year round. That means you can flip the traditional “90% updating, 10% analyzing” split on its head.

There's a better way than risky spreadsheet budgeting

Many finance professionals are all too familiar with blowing the dust off a massive Excel file post-summer break - you know, the one with dozens of tabs, thousands of rows, and fragile formulas that (somehow) still work.

Until they don’t.

When you combine one spreadsheet, a bunch of manual data inputs, and multiple users… things get messy fast.

The classic “forecast & budget Excel” often becomes one person’s domain. Usually the CFO or controller has built in checks, automations, and complex formulas that only they understand, which means others are hesitant to touch it.

The more people edit the same file, the greater the risk of mistakes. Sure, you can roll back to a previous version, but you might lose the work of several other contributors in the process. Version control becomes a nightmare: Is this the latest file? Are everyone’s changes in here?

And what happens when three people saved the file to their desktop back in August; and are still working off it in April?

A modern planning tool solves this. User rights can be limited so each person can edit only their own sections. And if something goes wrong, the data isn’t lost - restoring it is quick and easy. Everyone works with the same, up-to-date version. No confusion, no duplicates, no lost work.

Tracking, forecasting and scenario planning shouldn't be this hard

Excel can be fine for budgeting if your business is relatively simple: no complex structures, no multiple scenarios, and not a highly competitive environment.

But building and managing scenarios matters. A budget represents a moment-in-time view of where the company is heading, and it should align with your overall strategy.

In other words: following the budget is how your organization moves toward its strategic goals. And those goals must translate into concrete daily actions for everyone.

It also makes sense to complement your budget with a rolling 12-month forecast that reflects what the future might actually look like.

Plans change. A product you expected to succeed might flop. Another might exceed every expectation.

To really understand what’s happening in your business and market, you need real-time visibility. That’s how you catch trends early and respond before it’s too late.

If you’re only updating forecasts a few times a year, you’ll always be reacting to the past.

Modern planning tools ensure your data is current and accessible at all times.

Good systems let you build and test scenarios quickly and easily. Adjusting sliders and numbers with your mouse to instantly see how pricing changes, cost shifts, or investments impact different parts of the business.

It turns planning from a painful manual task into something fast - even fun.

Don't let finance own the numbers alone

To gain a real competitive edge, companies need to understand where they’re strong and where to invest next. That means finance shouldn’t be the only team analyzing the numbers.

Ownership of financial insights needs to be shared across departments.

When department heads bring their deep domain expertise into the financial picture, you get better, more informed decision-making, especially for investments and business case planning.

“We can produce 100 units with five employees at this margin. What happens if we hire one more and scale production?”

Modern planning tools make it easy to give people access to only the data they need. When information is accessible, it's easier for people to take ownership.

Say goodbye to budget stress

BI Book Planning is the new way to handle budgeting, forecasting, and scenario planning - securely, collaboratively, and with ease.

With BI Book Planning, your budgets and forecasts stay current and aligned with your real business environment.

It’s simple enough for all key stakeholders to use, and it adds real business insight on top of the numbers. Each department lead gets a top-level view of their own P&L, embedded in their day-to-day decision-making. With BI Book, you can even drill all the way down to the transaction level.

That means deeper understanding, and a clearer big picture.

Budgeting and forecasting shouldn’t be annual headaches. Keep the process alive all year long, and it becomes lighter, smarter - and eventually - less intimidating.

Let’s make planning simple, effective, and maybe even a little fun. Together.