best practices for planning budgeting and forecasting online

7/27/2019 Best Practices for Planning Budgeting and Forecasting Online

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True Sky Inc. www.TrueSky.com

Best Practices for Planning,Budgeting and Forecasting

Alan Whitehouse


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Best Practices for Planning, Budgeting and ForecastingCopyright 2013 True Sky Inc.All Rights Reserved

True Sky is a trademark of True Sky Inc.

Microsoft, Excel, SharePoint and Yammer are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All otherbrand and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.

This document may not be reproduced or transmitted in full or in part in any form or by anymeans electronically, verbally or mechanically without the express written consent of TrueSky Inc.

NOTE: The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice. TrueSky shall not be liable for errors or omissions contained herein or any damages that may arisein connection with the use of this material.

True Sky Inc.140 Renfrew DriveUnit 120Markham, ON L3R 6B31-855- TRUE-SKY1-855-878-3759

1-905-752-3355www.TrueSky.com

Publication Date: May 1, 2013


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Table of Contents

Copyright 2013 True Sky Inc. 3

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 5

Purpose of this White Paper .................................................................................................... 5 Some Notes about Terminology ............................................................................................. 5

A Focus on Excel as the Primary Tool ...................................................................................... 5

More Information ................................................................................................................... 6

Chapter 2 Why Do We Budget in the First Place ...................................................................... 7

Because We Have To ............................................................................................................... 7

For Financial Predictability ...................................................................................................... 7

To Understand the Business Drivers ....................................................................................... 8

To Manage Peoples Performance ......................................................................................... 8

The Million Dollar Question ................................................................................................... 8

Chapter 3 The Elements of a Budget ....................................................................................... 9

The People ............................................................................................................................. 9

The Data ................................................................................................................................ 9

The Process ........................................................................................................................... 10

The Typical vs. Ideal Budget Cycle ........................................................................................ 11

People + Data + Process = Accuracy or Lack Thereof ............................................................ 12

Chapter 4 Creating Your Input Templates .............................................................................. 13

Remember That No One Likes Budgeting ............................................................................. 13 Give the Users Some Guidance ............................................................................................. 13

Keep the Templates Simple .................................................................................................. 14

Tailor the Templates to the User and/or Process ................................................................... 17

Connect to Your Data and Stop Copying It In ........................................................................ 19

Validate the Data Up Front ...................................................................................................20

Think About Your Naming Conventions and Distribution Methods ...................................... 21

Chapter 5 Inputting Data........................................................................................................22

Eliminate the Divide by 12 Mentality .....................................................................................22

Budget the Drivers and Calculate the Dollars ........................................................................22

Budget the Underlying Detail ................................................................................................ 23

Budget the Knowledge ......................................................................................................... 23

Want Budgets on Schedule then Consider Fake Deadlines .................................................. 24

Pursue Zero Based Budgeting .............................................................................................. 24

Collaboration Means Success ............................................................................................... 24


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Table of Contents


Chapter 6 Merging Data ........................................................................................................ 26

Storage and Retrieval ........................................................................................................... 26

Use Formulas to Link Workbooks Not Copy/Paste ............................................................... 26

Protect the Workbook to Protect Your Sanity ...................................................................... 26

Use a Planning, Budgeting and Forecasting Application ....................................................... 27 Chapter 7 Reviewing the Data ............................................................................................... 28

Leave Yourself Enough Time................................................................................................ 28

Dont Sweat the Small Stuff ................................................................................................. 28

Decide Who Owns the Numbers .......................................................................................... 29

Make Sure You Understand the Context .............................................................................. 29

Surprises in Review Means You Have Failed ......................................................................... 29

Chapter 8 Analysis ................................................................................................................. 31

This is the Whole Point of Budgeting .................................................................................... 31

Analysis is Strategy not Review ............................................................................................. 31

Analyze All the Content ........................................................................................................ 31

Use Tools Youve Already Have and May Not Know It ........................................................... 32

Chapter 9 Wash, Rinse, Repeat .............................................................................................. 33

Transform Budgeting into Corporate Performance Management ........................................ 33

Investing in a Budgeting Application ..................................................................................... 35

The Final Word ...................................................................................................................... 35

Chapter 10 Reference Links.................................................................................................... 37

Product Links ........................................................................................................................ 37

Excel Functionality Links ....................................................................................................... 37

Chapter 11 About True Sky .................................................................................................... 39

What Is True Sky ................................................................................................................... 39

For More Information Contact ............................................................................................. 40

Chapter 12 About the Author ................................................................................................. 41


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Chapter 1 Introduction



Purpose of this White Paper

This white paper is a companion piece to a live learning event that has been presentednumerous times to financial and accounting professionals across a wide variety of industriesand sizes. The information within is based on real-life experiences gathered over 20 years of helping organizations successfully implement financial, business intelligence andplanning/budgeting solutions.

Some Notes about TerminologyThe words budget/budgeting, plan/planning and forecast/forecasting are used interchangeablethroughout this white paper. Whereas the data being captured, the level of detail and the timehorizons may be different, the concepts in this document apply to all. These concepts equallyapply to financial, product, sales, capital expenditure, compensation or pretty much any othertype of planning process.

The word template is used as a generic term for any sort of input sheet used to collect datafrom end-users. A template could take the form of an Excel worksheet or be an input screenassociated with your ERP/accounting or a screen in your budgeting software solution.

The budget cycle is a re ference to the time horizon over which you budget. The cycle startsfrom the time you begin creating templates and ends when the final numbers are presentedand locked down.

A contributor is someone who inputs numbers into your budgeting system. A reviewer forthis document is the same as an approver and is someone who reviews, approves andpossibly edits the numbers.

A Focus on Excel as the Primary ToolDo a search and depending on the source you choose, you will see estimates stating thatanywhere from 60% to 80% of all organizations use Microsoft Excel as their main planning,budgeting and forecasting tool. This includes small mom and pop businesses all the way upto Fortune 500 size companies. The rest either use a home-grown application, functionalityfound in their ERP/accounting system or a commercial budgeting software solution.


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Therefore, this white paper has a heavy focus on optimizing Excel in the budgeting process.However, many, if not all, of the practices mentioned are transferable to other solutions.Also keep in mind that many commercial budgeting software solutions such as True Skynatively support or make implementing many of these best practices far easier.

More InformationThroughout this white paper there are numerous tips and tricks and mentions of differentsoftware products. You will find a table at the end of this document with URL links to help youquickly find more information.


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Chapter 2 Why Do We Budget in the First Place



In order to improve on any process, you need to understand why that process exists in the firstplace. So the starting question is why do we budget?

Because We Have ToAsk any budget contributor why they budget and because we have to is probably the firstresponse you will get. For many, this isnt a smart-alecky answer as from their point of viewthis really is an exercise in doing what they are told to do, and they would be just as happy tonever have to do it again. However, from an organization point of view because we have to does carry some validity. Maybe you have industry or government regulatory reportingrequirements and have to report back certain specific pieces of information in order to staycertified. Maybe you have certain covenants with your bank or lending institution that requireyou to provide future forecasts to keep lines of credit available. And maybe you haveownership or a board of directors that are not involved on a day-to-day basis but need specificinformation to make decisions about the future of the organization.

For Financial PredictabilityIn life, some surprises are good and some surprises are bad. Surprise birthday parties aregenerally good, surprise trips to the emergency room are generally bad. If you are a publically

traded company, investors see hitting your earnings per share estimate as good and missingyour earnings per share estimate as bad. However, without some sort of planning process,financial predictability is impossible.

This concept doesnt apply only to publically traded companies. Without some sort of process,planning your future costs or revenue is nearly impossible. As an example, lets suppose thatyour business relies heavily on sugar as one of your main ingredients and your sales manager ispredicting a huge client acquisition 6 months from now that will necessitate an increase inproduction by 30%. Since sugar is a commodity item, the opportunity exists for you to hedge

against the risk of a price increase by purchasing sugar futures today. However, without anysort of insight into the future, you are left at the whim of the spot market and the extrarevenue brought in by the sale could easily be eaten up by the higher costs at the time.


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To Understand the Business DriversRunning a business successfully requires more than knowing just the top line numbers. Youmight know instinctively that sales are going to be roughly $1,000,000 per month based onpast trends. But to make that million each month what needs to happen? How manyemployees will you need? What happens if your new labor contract increases wages by 3%?How many tons of raw materials will you need? What happens if your cost of shippingdoubles? What is your overhead? And when all those come together in the end will youactually make a profit or do you need to approach things differently? These are all questionsthat can be answered with a proper budgeting process.

To Manage Peoples Performance

How do you hold people accountable for performance without something to compare themto? In most organizations you are going to compare peoples actual performance to a targetedperformance. Those target numbers need to come from somewhere and most often thosetargets come directly from or are facilitated by the budget process.

The Million Dollar QuestionBefore you read any further, take a minute and ask yourself why your organization budgets andwhat you hope to accomplish by budgeting. That answer should then be the foundation of

your entire budgeting pro cess. However, if you cant answer the question, then all you aredoing by budgeting is wasting time and wasting money.


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Chapter 3 The Elements of a Budget



A successful budget must bring together three major pillars people, data and process. Abreakdown in any of these areas will produce substandard results

The PeoplePeople is the human element that is required to do a budget. It consists of the following fourcomponents:

Involvement . Obviously, the more engaged a person is with the process the better theend product. However, to be successful, involvement needs to be both physical as wellas mental/emotional. People need to be given a reason to care about the quality of thebudget.

Accountability . At the end of the day, if people are never held accountable for thenumbers they provide, then you will find that in the end no real thought or effort goesinto the numbers. Yes this sounds cynical, but it is the truth. You need to make peopleaccountable for the quality of their numbers. But dont forget that a ccountability is atwo way street. If you are holding people accountable for the numbers and youroutinely change those numbers without their knowledge or consent, then you riskbuilding an environment of what does it matter, they are just going to change themanyway which will affect t he quality of the end product.

Time . Time is finite and there are only so many hours in the day. If a user wants to putin accurate numbers, but doesnt have time , then the end product is rushed andsubstandard. You have to give people enough time if you want a quality budget. You dothis by either increasing the time it takes to submit the budget or by reducing theirother tasks during the budget cycle.

The Data

Data refers to the raw numbers you get out of the budgeting process. Notice how the terminformation is specifically not used here. What you collect during the budgeting processtends to be data and not information. It is only information after you have had a chance toprocess it, analyze it and determine the effect it will have on your organization. The dataelement of a budget consists of the following four components:

Detail . Detail refers to the level of detail collected from the users. To make life simpler,organizations will often build templates that capture data at a high level. This forces


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users to create their own spreadsheets with the detail in them to build up this higherlevel. The problem here is that after the user finishes cutting and pasting this data intothe main form, all that fantastic detail is lost. It is easy to summarize too much detail,but you can t drill into details where none exist. Capture as much detail as possible.

Drivers . The easiest way to understand the concept of drivers is with the formula R = Px Q or Revenue equals Price multiplied by Quantity. What most people budget is therevenue, however revenue is driven by your sales price and the quantity sold, each of which are in turn driven by other factors. Whereas you might get the revenuecomponent right, being dramatically off on the sales price and/or the quantity sold canhave severe consequences in your profitability and ability to deliver. Budgeting thedrivers and then doing the math is the first step in turning data into information.

External Information . External Information is any outside information that might beuseful to the contributors or reviewers during the budget cycle. This includes suchitems as economic trends, regulatory rules, expected exchange rates and commoditycosts. These things need to be taken into account when producing the budget.

Timeliness . Not to be confused with time as mentioned above, timeliness is a measureof how up-to-date the data is that is being presented to the users. In most cases, thisrelates to input templates being populated with actuals that come from anERP/accounting system. Due to the outdated methods many people use to populateactuals, such as generating reports and then either manually typing or performingcopy/paste, by the time all the input templates are ready to go, the actuals are already

out of date by weeks - if not months. You are asking people to budget in September forthe next year but all you can provide them is January through April actuals to help guidethem. Data needs to be timely in order to be useful.

The ProcessThe process element is how the people and the data come together and consists of thefollowing components:

1. Accessibility . Accessiblity relates to how easily the people involved in the budgetprocess can access the system, data and components they need to do their job. Themore difficult you make it for the user, the worse the end product will be. You need todevelop mechanisims that make the budget process as accessible as possible

2. Security . Is the data secure enough? Is the data too secure? Who can see which piecesof data? Are you avoiding providing critical, yet needed pieces of informaton due to


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security concerns? You need to walk a fine line between providing the data the usersneed to do their job while not providing too much confidential data that can causeissues if disseminated widely or publically.

3. Visibility . Visibility comes into play on many levels. Approvers need visibility into the

data they are going to review. Contributors need visibility into your business strategyto ensure their numbers are in line with the directions the company desires to take.And managers of the budget need to have the visibility into the state of the budgetingcycle so they can ensure that the process runs smoothly.

4. Confidence . People need confidence in the numbers. They need to know that what isbeing presented to them is correct. A lack of confidence in the numbers will underminethe best budgeting process in the world.

5. Duration . Duration goes hand in hand with timeliness. The ideal budgeting process

needs to move quickly enough so that by the time you are finished, you can actually usethe data collected to make business decisions, rather than lament the fact that the datais so outdated that using it would be useless.

6. Frequency . How many times a year are you budgeting? Once? Four? Twelve? Fifty-two? The more frequent you can budget, the more accurate your numbers will be andthe more useful the data will be to your organization to make quick business decisions.The once a year budget is no longer enough in todays world.

The Typical vs. Ideal Budget CycleThe following diagram shows a typical yearly budget cycle compared to a more ideal yearlybudget cycle. Odds are your current cycle resembles the first image below.

Diagram 1 Typical Budget Cycle


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If you follow the advice in this white paper, hopefully over time you can begin to resemble thesecond image. The key concept being you not only shorten the budget cycle but you giveyourself more time for analysis and strategy.

Diagram 2 More Ideal Budget Cycle with Analysis and Strategy Time

People + Data + Process = Accuracy or Lack Thereof Accuracy is quality of the data you receive back from the people involved in the process . Acomprehensive and accurate budget requires a bringing together of the people, data andprocess elements. Gaps in any of these areas will decrease the accuracy of the final budgetnumbers and the greater the number of gaps the worse the final accuracy.

The rest of this white paper will attempt to provide you with tangible things you can do to helpreduce or eliminate any gaps you may have in the three elements and increase the accuracy

and quality of your budget.


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Chapter 4 Creating Your Input Templates



Any planning process requires capturing of data. The better you are at capturing data thebetter the end results. This section provides some insights on the creation of data input

templates that help facilitate the collection process.

Remember That No One Likes BudgetingThe biggest error that organizations make when preparing for and performing budgetingrelated activities is forgetting the simple fact that NO ONE LIKES DOING BUDGETS! Really.Think about it. What does the typical contributor to a budget get out of the process? They losea lot of time out of their day/week/month trying to get the numbers into the system while stillhaving to find time to get all their other regular work done. Then once the numbers are in, theyface the looming threat of them being rejected and then having to go back and do more work.They deal with the nagging fear that their numbers will be changed without their knowledge.Plus, if you are doing it right, the contributors to the budget are somehow held accountable tothe numbers, either in terms of performance review or allowable spending. So in the back of their minds they worry that if they dont hit these numbers something bad is going to happen.So is it any surprise that when budgeting season comes around, nobody stands up and cheersin excitement? Keeping this in mind when managing the process will help things run smoother,be less stressful and ultimately more successful.

Give the Users Some GuidanceMost organizations create an input template in Excel and simply email it out to thecontributors with a subject line entitled something like here is you budget form and a duedate in the body and pretty much nothing else. They are then surprised when they get floodedwith questions and comments about the process. Probably the quickest return on investmentyou can make during the budgeting cycle is to take a couple of extra minutes and write upinstructions on how to use the particulate input template in question, as well as any budgetguidance you can provide such as allowable increases or mandatory decreases in certain

categories. Be sure to use terminology that the end-users understand. If you are using Excel,make the first tab an Instructions tab. It wont stop the questions, confusion and complaintsentirely, but it will help reduce them.


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Screen Capture 1 User Instruction Example

Keep the Templates SimpleRemember the KISS principal. In this case, it refers to Keep It Simple Stupid and not themakeup-wearing rock band.

The following image is a screen shot of an actual Excel budget template. Although the datahas been changed to protect the confidentiality of the company, the layout has beenuntouched.


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Screen Capture 2 A Complex Template

Now at first pass this template doesnt seem so bad. It is only when you realize that you haveto zoom out to 12% of the original size to be able to actually fit the entire budget templateonto a single screen that you see what kind of a beast this template really is.

Screen Capture 3 A Complex Template at 12% Zoom


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This template is insane and unless you have super human vision it is virtually impossible todigest the information being presented. You will spend all your time scrolling left and right andup and down and by the time you get to the end you have forgotten what was at the start.Below is a copy of a cleaner template that is more user friendly.

Screen Capture 4 Ideal Input Template Design

One of the reasons that people procrastinate doing their budget is because they becomevisually overwhelmed by the templates they are interacting with. In order to make thingseasier on the user, try to build templates that keep the following in mind:

Reduce the amount of data presented to the contributor to the bare minimum requiredto get the job done.

Use the Excel Group function to hide groups of rows or columns that users might needto see but dont need to see initially or all the time.

Shade cells different colors to differentiate between cells requiring input from the userand cells that contain formulas or that are read-only.


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Use indicators and visual clues to warn users when their numbers are outside of acceptable ranges.

Know the most common screen resolutions used in your organization and buildaccordingly. Try to build templates that fit on one screen without vertical or horizontal

scrolling. If that is not possible, try to design such that you just scroll vertically as mostmodern mice have scroll wheels built in making this quicker for the end user.

Instead of one huge worksheet, consider breaking it into multiple worksheets eachcovering a specific area. For instance, have one tab for office expenses, one for travelexpenses, one for marketing expenses and so forth. This has the dual effect of makingthe templates easier to understand and helps the user focus since they are only dealingwith one particular area at a time.

Remember that data input is not the same thing as data reporting. Make sure you build

input templates that are optimized for data entry and you build reports that areoptimized for analyzing and reading. The formats might be the same, but usually not.

Tailor the Templates to the User and/or ProcessMost people that create budget templates are accountants and they think like accountants.However, most people participating in the budget process and contributing to the budget arenot accountants and dont think the same way . They dont think in terms of debits and cre ditsor GL accounts they think in terms of what they need to spend to get the job done, and nothow that spending flushes out on a financial statement. The problem is that most inputtemplates are designed to facilitate use by accountants.

The image below highlights a typical budget input template related to travel expenses. As youcan see it has categories for Airfare, Hotels, and Meals each of which equate to a differentgeneral ledger account.


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Screen Capture 5 Template Designed for Accountants

The problem with this format is that while it is fine for accountants, it is not intuitive for non-accounts. For instance, if you were to ask a sales executive to budget for their yearly travelexpenses related to visiting clients, they are most likely going to think first in terms of whichclient they need to visit, how many trips they need to make to that client and then they willestimate what the major costs are with each trip. So what will they do? Most likely they willcreate their own spreadsheet and use it to calculate the total costs based on all of their tripsand then just copy the aggregated numbers into the main template. You have created extrawork for the contributor, you have increased the risk of bad data due to the user creatingcalculations and the extra step of cutting and pasting the data. Plus that spreadsheet is only

known about by the person who created it and nobody else can use that data for budget versusactual comparisons later on.


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You might want to think about creating something similar to what is shown below.

Screen Capture 6 Template Designed for Non-Accountants

As you can see the trip is the main focus, but it still captures all the information accountingneeds to complete the budget. This format in Excel adds a little additional complexity to thedata merging process, but can be accomplished if designed and linked correctly. However,investing in a commercial budgeting software solution might also make this easier.

Connect to Your Data and Stop Copying It InWhen working with clients and prospects and discussing their current process for gettingactuals into their budget templates, the following scenario presents itself time and time again.The organization run a report from their host (ERP/accounting/CRM/whatever) system andthen either copy/paste that raw data into Excel, or worse yet re-key it by hand. Then theymanually manipulate the data into the format useful for the budget and then copy/paste it into


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the budgeting workbooks. The problem with this is that it is a slow process that is laborintensive and prone to error.

Now imagine the value pushing a button and getting instantly updated actuals from your

accounting system or up to the minute exchange rates from a bank website. What manypeople dont know is th at you can connect to your data directly from within Excel. Excel hasbuilt in functionality to allow you to connect to numerous types of data including SQL Server,Access, text files, XML and even web pages. Granted the initial setup may require some specialknowledge or outside help and the first time setup will take more time. However, from then on,the ability to refresh your data instantly will more than make up for it.

To make this concept easier, look at investing in a commercial budgeting application that hasthis type of functionality as a standard feature.

Validate the Data Up FrontApart from the merging of the data, one of the most tedious aspects of doing the budget isconfirming if the numbers provided by contributors are reasonable. Did that user mean to typein $1,000,000 for new sales or did they really mean to type in $100,000? Is your payroll forJanuary really going to be $40,000 or is it $400,000? Why are you forecasting hiring #DIV/0!new employees for January and bob$$%12 for June ?

A huge amount of time is wasted tracking down typos in t he budget process. However, thereis a solution that can help you out. Excel has a built in data validation function that allows youto create rules for reasonableness for different fields. If you know that certain fields shouldnever be below or above certain thresholds, then you can put those rules in place and catch theissues up front. You can also ensure that values entered are dollars when you want dollars andtext when you want text.

Screen Capture 7 Data Validation Message


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Think About Your Naming Conventions and Distribution MethodsWhen it comes time to roll out the different budgeting workbooks make sure you put sometime and effort into your distribution method and use a formalized naming convention. Forinstance, if you create individual workbooks for each department, for each location and bybudget type, the naming convention might be something like:

Toronto_Finance_OfficeExpenses_Budget_2015.xlsx

Seattle_Finance_OfficeExpenses_Budget_2015.xlsx

Toronto_Production_MaterialsExpenses_Budget_2015.xlsx

In regards to getting the workbooks into the contributors hands, avoid emailing out the

workbooks if at all possible. The reason for this is two-fold. First, people are inundated withemail and an email saying here is your budget template is sure to go to the bottom of the to-dolist. Secondly, people often open a spreadsheet directly from an email and begin working on it.When they try to save the document they will be prompted for a save location and a savename, and then they can rename the workbook to whatever they like - and now your namingconvention has gone out the window and your merging has become far more difficult. Inaddition, the location they are saving to may not be getting backed up which is a recipe for lostdata.

Instead use a network file share and email each user a link to their workbook, asking them tosave only that workbook to only that location. Better yet, consider implementing and using acollaboration and document management solution such as SharePoint. Among the manythings a solution like that handles, is security by document by user, as well as version controland check in/check out to prevent multiple copies of the same workbook being edited at thesame time.


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Chapter 5 Inputting Data



Now that your data entry templates have been created it is time to move on to the datacollection portion of the process. Below are some tips to help you get the best data out of the

people who are working on the budget.

Eliminate the Divide by 12 MentalitySo you take the time to prepare a budget input template and give people spaces to put inmonthly numbers and what do they do? They come up in their heads what they are going tospend during the year, and divide that amount equally by twelve and put one-twelfth into eachcell. The problem with this, is that with a few exceptions such as rents, leases and insurancepayments, expenses and revenue are seldom the same even amount month by month. Yet thebudget is. So you go to compare budget to actual and what do you get big variances eachmonth and you fall back on the it will work itself out next month excuse. But how do youplan for cash flow this way? Yes, at the end of the year the actuals might match the budget,but unfortunately you ran out of cash in September.

Budget the Drivers and Calculate the DollarsEarlier in this document, the concept of budgeting drivers was mentioned, and this sectionexpands on that. Lets say you are budgeting product sales and a user enters in $5,000,000 of

sales revenue for the year. Even though they are not being budgeted, this sales numberconsists of a number of units to be sold and a sales price per unit. For this example, saytraditionally you have a $10,000 per unit list price, and by doing the math that means you areexpecting to build and ship 500 units. The year finishes and actuals have come back at$5,000,000 bu t you havent made any profit. Why? Well, maybe unit prices were cut to $5,000and that drove units sold to 1,000 units. However, because of the extra demands onmanufacturing you have had to buy more equipment, hire more labor, outsource someproduction and fly in (at a far greater expense), extra raw materials due to deadlines ratherthan ship them from overseas at a lower cost. So the person budgeting $5,000,000 hit his or

her numbers, but not in the way you were expecting. The next year they budget $5,000,000again, but due to changes in the market the sales price is $10,000 this year and quantities drop.Now you have excess capacity on the production floor and all the extra raw materials aretaking up valuable space in your plant.


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Budgeting the drivers rather than the end product would have helped you plan better. Buildyour templates such that people put in the drivers and the end result is calculated for them.That way you can look at all the factors and plan accordingly.

Budget the Underlying DetailFinancial budgeting often is driven by an organizations general ledger account structure.Unfortunately, the accounts in the GL do not always match how people budget. A goodexample are marketing expenses. In the GL, it is common to have a single bucket to captureall marketing expenses. However, when putting in their budgets, the people responsible formarketing probably have multiple different marketing campaigns in mind, each with differenttiming and each with different costs. Odds are they are keeping their own spreadsheetsomewhere that lists out each marketing event/activity for the year and the cost, and all they

are entering into the budget template are the final aggregated numbers. The problem withthis setup is that budget reviewers may not have access to this important detail or even know itexists. And six months later when you are doing budget to actual comparisons and thenumbers are dramatically different, you have no way of knowing why. You now have to findthe person who initially put in the numbers, and hope they remember or hope they have saveda copy of their initial detailed spreadsheet.

Design templates that allow your users to build-up their detailed entries into the matchinghigh-level buckets in your general ledger. This can mean extra design work in Excel and is one

of the many advantages of using a commercial budgeting application, as this type of functionality should be a standard feature.

Budget the KnowledgeThis is where you begin turning your budget numbers from just data into information. Youneed to get people to input not just numbers, but also their thoughts behind the numbers.Why are they increasing the sales forecast? Why are they decreasing head count? Answers tothese types of questions are critical for the Analysis phase of the budget cycle.

In Excel, many people will use the Comment feature to add notes about a particular cell andthis is a good start. However, the challenge with this is while you can easily merge the data inthe workbooks/worksheets, the comments do not merge and are traditionally lost. Again, thisfeature is available in most commercial budgeting applications.


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Want Budgets on Schedule then Consider Fake DeadlinesRemember that nobody likes doing budgeting. It is a fact of life and nothing will probablyevery change it. Because of this, many people tend to fall behind by leaving it to the lastminute, and then ask you to extend their deadlines, which then throws off everyone elseinvolved in the process. Although it may sound simplistic, if you have pro blem users who cantget their numbers in on time, give them fake deadlines. Just be prepared for the inevitablequestions/concerns/complaints when the problem users find out that their deadlines aredifferent from everyone elses.

Pursue Zero Based Budgeting

For those of you unfamiliar with zero based budgeting, the concept is that users have to justifytheir budgets from the ground up each and every time, and one way you accomplish this is byproviding them limited or no information on prior period actuals or budgets. The theorybehind this is that when doing budgeting, many people simply take last years figures andapply an inflation factor to them . So over the course of time, the numbers keep gettinglarger and larger whether or not they logically need to increase. By not providing prior figuresyou force contributors to really think about what they are going to spend and why.

Zero based budgeting is a contentious topic and many people object to the concept. They willsay that zero based budgeting is too difficult on users and that it takes more effort and waymore time. Agreed. It is more difficult on the users, and it does take more effort and moretime. However, the end result is far better. So if full zero based budgeting is not possible inyour organization, then consider a blended model where you go zero based for certain majorcategories and budget as usual for other less important items.

Collaboration Means SuccessNobody should work on their budget in a vacuum. First of all, it is hard to breath and secondly,

you get substandard data. Contributors and reviewers should work together on the budget asit is being developed. Contributors should collaborate across different areas, sharingknowledge and even sharing data where it makes sense. By doing the budget in this fashionthere should be fewer surprises. The review process should go smoother and the quality of thedata should increase.


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As a side note, try to avoid using email as your collaboration tool. All the emails flying backand forth and the dreaded reply all can quickly overwhelm inboxes. Instead, take a look atsome different collaboration platforms. SharePoint is one option as it has the ability to hostdiscussion boards. There is also Yammer which is a private social network just for your

organization which, as a bonus, has a free version which is very robust.

Screen Capture 8 Yammer Discussion Board


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Chapter 6 Merging Data



Now that users have inputted their numbers, somehow you have to bring everything back intoone single comprehensive budget. Here are a few ideas that might help make that process gosmoother.

Storage and RetrievalThe previous section mentioned the importance of having a structured naming and distributionmethod for your budget templates. The same concept is just as important, if not more so,when trying to merge everyones data together when they are done with the input. Make surepeople have not changed workbook names and that they are stored in the proper place. Theactual format and structure you use is up to you, but put some thought into it. More

importantly, make sure whatever structure you are using whether it is a network share, localhard drive or document management solution is backed up religiously. Nothing is worse thanhaving people spend weeks on their budget only to accidentally delete a file or have filecorruption and having to start over again from scratch.

Use Formulas to Link Workbooks Not Copy/PasteMost people who are skilled with Excel know that you can link data in different worksheetswithin the same workbook. However, did you know you can also use formulas to link data indifferent worksheets in different workbooks? This can be a huge time saver. The mechanism issimilar to linking cells across different worksheets, but there is some slightly different syntax.Follow the link found at the end of this document for more information on how to do this. Akey thing to remember is to try to avoid using physical drive letters (e.g.,C:\Libraries\Documents\MyWorkbook.xlxs) and use shared network folders using a UNCnaming conventions (e.g., \\ServerName\ExcelDocuments\MyWorkbook.xlsx) instead.

Protect the Workbook to Protect Your SanityIf you are going to use Excel as your front end for the budgeting process, then enabling Excelsprotect function on both the worksheet and the workbook level is of paramount importance.The protect function allows you to lock down certain portions of the spreadsheet, so you nolonger have to worry about users adding rows, deleting columns or changing formulas allthings that make merging the data and make comparisons across workbooks far more difficult.


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IMPORTANT NOTE : Protecting a workbook or a worksheet will require you to enter apassword. Giving this password out to end uses will defeat the purpose of locking things down.Also, make sure you have a logical schema for the format of your passwords and that you storethem someplace safe; and ensure that more than one person responsible for the budgeting

process knows where the passwords can be found.

Use a Planning, Budgeting and Forecasting ApplicationFrom a contributor and reviewer point of view, Excel is probably the best tool possible forworking with budgets. However, from a managing the process point of view, the more usersyou have involved, the more workbooks you are juggling and the more onerous it is to mergethe data. This merge pain is possibly the single biggest thing you can eliminate by using abudgeting application.


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Chapter 7 Reviewing the Data



After you have compiled all the data it is now time to review it. Here are some things to keepin mind about the review process.

Leave Yourself Enough TimeReviewing takes more than five minutes. Implementing these best practices allows time to bespent predominantly on reviewing and ensuring the numbers make sense and not checking if the merge worked successfully or if the numbers actually add up correctly. You want to belooking for business issues and not process issues in the review and these all take time. Didsomeone predict a huge increase in sales but forgot to also increase costs of goods sold? Doesthe person really think they dont need additio nal marketing funds this year? Did this user justify a 25% increase in salary costs? Make sure you give yourself enough time to do thisproperly.

Dont Sweat the Small Stuff Look at the table below and while doing the one of these things is not like the other, one of these things doesnt belong song should be running through your head.

Screen Capture 9 Focusing on the Wrong Item

In this scenario, postage accounts for 0.10% of the total budget. Yet believe it or not, somepeople would spend time debating the amount. Even if the amount was twenty-five times aslarge, it is irrelevant in the big picture. In fact, it doesnt become rele vant until it is fifty or onehundred times larger. The message here is when it comes to reviewing, be sure to focus on thebig ticket items that make a difference.

Account Jan Feb Mar Jan Feb Mar Salaries 1,200,000$ 1,300,000$ 1,150,000$ 1,140,000$ 1,235,000$ 1,092,500$Rents 500,000$ 500,000$ 500,000$ 495,000$ 498,000$ 502,000$Postage 2,000$ 2,000$ 2,000$ 2,310$ 1,859$ 1,992$Taxes 320,000$ 290,000$ 280,000$ 276,000$ 301,000$ 280,000$

Total 2,022,000$ 2,092,000$ 1,932,000$ 1,913,310$ 2,035,859$ 1,876,492$

Budget 2014 Actual 2013


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Decide Who Owns the NumbersWhen you start the budgeting cycle you need to decide who owns the numbers. Think backto the earlier discussion of accountability in the budgeting cycle. The front-line contributors tothe budget and those who are accountable to those numbers should be the only ones who canchange them. Reviewers should only be able to give a thumbs up or a thumbs down and makesuggestions on what needs to be changed. By doing so, you avoid the problems associatedwith people complaining about other people changing their numbers on them. However, if youdo allow reviewers to change the numbers, then it is absolutely critical that those who arebeing held accountable to the budget know what changes were made, who made the changesand why the changes were made.

Make Sure You Understand the ContextLets say that you se ll an item with a sales price of $5,000 and last year you sold 1,000 unitswhich equates to $5,000,000 in revenue. But this year your sales manager is forecasting salesof $7,500,000 a jump of $2.5 million! But what does that truly mean to your organization?Well, if your sales manager is planning on just increasing your sales price by 50% and believesthe number of units you produce wont drop off, then that extra revenue goes right to thebottom line and there really is no extra thought needed.

However, if your sales manager is thinking of decreasing the sales price by 25% and because of the price drop he expects to double the number of units that you sell to 2,000, then what doesthat mean? Can your current manufacturing facility handle the extra volume or do you have tobuy additional machinery and put in more production lines? Do you have to find additionalsources for raw materials? Do you have to hire more people? Each of these questions carryfinancial ripples to your organization.

Even if you get perfect budget figures, but you dont understand the context of the numbers ,then you are still behind the eight ball.

Surprises in Review Means You Have FailedAt the end of the day, the final budget figures should be of no surprise to anyone. During thereview, if you are truly surprised then try to work into your budget cycle more of the conceptsdiscussed in this document.


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Chapter 8 Analysis


Chapter 8 Analysis

Analysis is the process of turning data into information; and it is information that you need tomake informed business decisions. The following are key analysis takeaways.

This is the Whole Point of BudgetingFor most organizations, true analysis happens well after the budget cycle has been completedand the numbers have been reviewed, merged and submitted to their final destination if itever happens at all. Why does this happen? Usually because so much time has been spent oncreating templates, inputting data, merging data and reviewing data that no time (or energy) isleft to actually analyze the data. The whole point of doing a budget is so you can prepare forthe future. Dont forget this!

Analysis is Strategy not ReviewWhat most people call analysis during the budget cycle ends up just being additional reviewwith people spending time correcting data, questioning the numbers and adding additionalmissing data. What they need to do is start questioning what happens next and what theyshould do if the projected numbers actually come to fruition. If sales double as your salesmanager is projecting, how can you possibly hire enough new service technicians? If the priceof electricity increases by 25%, should you scrap your old production line and invest in energy

efficient machines, and if so, what is your payback time? If your sales and costs line up aspredicted how are you going to cover your cash flow requirements? These are all examples of strategic thinking questions that determine the fate of your organization. These types of questions add value to your organization and are what justifies going through the pain andeffort of budgeting.

Analyze All the ContentWhen performing your deep dives and your analysis, make sure you include all the content youhave collected during the budgeting process and not just the numbers. Use the notes peoplehave added, and confirm you have all the backup spreadsheets, business cases and themarketing plans. This additional collateral will help you answer many of the what if typequestions you should be asking.


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Chapter 8 Analysis


Use Tools You veAlready Have and May Not Know ItWhen it comes to analysis there are numerous tools available. Again, this is where acommercial planning solution can add a huge amount of value. However, if that is not anoption then look at the following two features of Excel.

PowerPivot for Excel . PowerPivot for Excel is a free add-on that is designed foranalyzing very large data sets. On the desktop, you can use it against data setscontaining many millions of rows of data and performance is excellent. You can alsointegrate data from various sources, as well as web services and web sites, along withother data sources and link them together fairly easily.

Excel Compare Files . Excel Compare Files is a new feature added to Excel 2013. Itallows you to compare two different workbooks and see what is different betweenthem. This is ideal for comparing different versions of the same data, maybe becausesomeone went back and did edits or maybe because you have separate workbooks forseparate departments. It will show you what fields are different, which formulas aredifferent and more. This feature can also be used to visually see all the otherworkbooks that are linked to the workbook in question.

Screen Capture 10 Comparing Two Workbooks


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Chapter 9 Wash, Rinse, Repeat



Transform Budgeting into Corporate Performance ManagementFor many organizations the budget is a once a year endeavor. However, in todays f ast pacedworld, budgeting once a year just doesnt cut it. Th ings change too quickly. Ideally, you shouldbe taking steps to turn your budgeting into full blown corporate performance management.You do this by incorporating ongoing monitoring of budget vs. actuals, analysis of variancesand reporting back to users the current situation. Ultimately you move to a process of constant review and updating of your plan. By doing so, you will find that your organizationhas become much more agile and can change direction quicker as market forces dictate.

Diagram 3 The Corporate Performance Management Cycle


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Investing in a Budgeting ApplicationNone of the best practices discussed in this white paper require using a commercial budgetingapplication. However, implementation of many of them becomes far easier if you havedeployed planning software within your organization. So when does it make sense to invest ina solution? Investing might make sense for your organization when one or more of thefollowing is true:

You budget individually for multiple departments, locations, divisions, cost centers orbusiness units at the same time and require consolidation of the numbers.

Twenty-five or more users are involved in your budgeting process.

Your user base is geographically distributed across locations and/or time zones.

Rolling forecasts on a quarterly or monthly basis are important.

You currently create, manage and merge more than two dozen individual Excelworkbooks through any single budget cycle.

Capturing back-up documentation or narratives along with the actual budget values isof value.

Your budget process utilizes a complex approval routing with branching approvalsrather than a straight forward pyramid style approval hierarchy.

Adherence to specific regulatory or compliance rules related to either your internal

systems or your external reporting is required.

The Final WordThis white paper has presented a lot of ideas, and therefore the recommendation is to pick andchoose the ones that will have the greatest return on investment for your organization.Implement them over time. In the end, for the best possible results you should be striving forthe following:

Simplicity in the end-user interface Increased functionality and validation

Capture of detailed data and notes

Direct integration with source data

Designs that facilitate what if type m odeling


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What you should receive in return is:

Increased control

Reduced administration

Faster turnaround

Greater accuracy

Useful information

Strategic answers

More time to think

Hopefully you have found the information in this white paper useful. If you have anysuggestions or comments please use the contact information found on the last page.

Good luck with your budgeting!


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Chapter 10 Reference Links



The following tables provides useful links to more information about the products, featuresand functions discussed in this white paper. Please note that these links were valid as of the

publication date of this paper and may change over time.

Product Links

Page Topic (Clickable Link) URL

05 Excel Home Page http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/

06 True Sky Web Site http://www.TrueSky.com

21 SharePoint Home Page http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/compare-sharepoint-options-collaboration-tools-FX103479517.aspx

25 Yammer Home Page https://www.yammer.com/

31 PowerPivot for Excel http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/bi/powerpivot.aspx

Excel Functionality Links

Page Topic (Clickable Link) URL

16 Grouping Excel Rows or Columns http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/outline-group-data-in-a-worksheet-HA102749557.aspx?CTT=1

16 Shading Cells in Excel http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-

help/apply-or-remove-a-cell-shading-format-HA102749057.aspx?CTT=1

17 Excel Conditional Formatting http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/add-change-find-or-clear-conditional-formats-HA102749062.aspx?CTT=1
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/http://www.truesky.com/http://www.truesky.com/http://www.truesky.com/http://www.truesky.com/http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/compare-sharepoint-options-collaboration-tools-FX103479517.aspxhttp://office.microsoft.com/en-us/compare-sharepoint-options-collaboration-tools-FX103479517.aspxhttp://office.microsoft.com/en-us/compare-sharepoint-options-collaboration-tools-FX103479517.aspxhttp://office.microsoft.com/en-us/compare-sharepoint-options-collaboration-tools-FX103479517.aspxhttp://office.microsoft.com/en-us/compare-sharepoint-options-collaboration-tools-FX103479517.aspxhttp://office.microsoft.com/en-us/compare-sharepoint-options-collaboration-tools-FX103479517.aspxhttps://www.yammer.com/https://www.yammer.com/https://www.yammer.com/https://www.yammer.com/http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/bi/powerpivot.aspxhttp://www.microsoft.com/en-us/bi/powerpivot.aspxhttp://www.microsoft.com/en-us/bi/powerpivot.aspxhttp://www.microsoft.com/en-us/bi/powerpivot.aspxhttp://www.microsoft.com/en-us/bi/powerpivot.aspxhttp://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/outline-group-data-in-a-worksheet-HA102749557.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/outline-group-data-in-a-worksheet-HA102749557.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/outline-group-data-in-a-worksheet-HA102749557.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/outline-group-data-in-a-worksheet-HA102749557.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/outline-group-data-in-a-worksheet-HA102749557.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/outline-group-data-in-a-worksheet-HA102749557.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/apply-or-remove-a-cell-shading-format-HA102749057.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/apply-or-remove-a-cell-shading-format-HA102749057.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/apply-or-remove-a-cell-shading-format-HA102749057.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/apply-or-remove-a-cell-shading-format-HA102749057.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/apply-or-remove-a-cell-shading-format-HA102749057.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/apply-or-remove-a-cell-shading-format-HA102749057.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/add-change-find-or-clear-conditional-formats-HA102749062.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/add-change-find-or-clear-conditional-formats-HA102749062.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/add-change-find-or-clear-conditional-formats-HA102749062.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/add-change-find-or-clear-conditional-formats-HA102749062.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/add-change-find-or-clear-conditional-formats-HA102749062.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/add-change-find-or-clear-conditional-formats-HA102749062.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/add-change-find-or-clear-conditional-formats-HA102749062.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/add-change-find-or-clear-conditional-formats-HA102749062.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/add-change-find-or-clear-conditional-formats-HA102749062.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/add-change-find-or-clear-conditional-formats-HA102749062.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/apply-or-remove-a-cell-shading-format-HA102749057.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/apply-or-remove-a-cell-shading-format-HA102749057.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/apply-or-remove-a-cell-shading-format-HA102749057.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/apply-or-remove-a-cell-shading-format-HA102749057.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/outline-group-data-in-a-worksheet-HA102749557.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/outline-group-data-in-a-worksheet-HA102749557.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/outline-group-data-in-a-worksheet-HA102749557.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/outline-group-data-in-a-worksheet-HA102749557.aspx?CTT=1http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/bi/powerpivot.aspxhttp://www.microsoft.com/en-us/bi/powerpivot.aspxhttp://www.microsoft.com/en-us/bi/powerpivot.aspxhttps://www.yammer.com/https://www.yammer.com/http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/compare-sharepoint-options-collaboration-tools-FX103479517.aspxhttp://office.microsoft.com/en-us/compare-sharepoint-options-collaboration-tools-FX103479517.aspxhttp://office.microsoft.com/en-us/compare-sharepoint-options-collaboration-tools-FX103479517.aspxhttp://office.microsoft.com/en-us/compare-sharepoint-options-collaboration-tools-FX103479517.aspxhttp://www.truesky.com/http://www.truesky.com/http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/


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20 Connect Excel to External Data http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/connect-external-data-to-your-workbook-HA103790967.aspx?CTT=1

20 Excel Data Validation http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/apply-data-validation-to-cells-HA102749059.aspx?CTT=1

23 Insert Cell Comments http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/add-a-comment-HA102749060.aspx?CTT=1

26 Connect Excel to Data in OtherWorkbooks

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/connect-data-in-another-workbook-to-your-workbook-HA103791160.aspx?CTT=1

26 Consolidate Different Workbooks http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/consolidate-data-from-multiple-worksheets-in-a-single-worksheet-HA102749046.aspx?CTT=1

26 Protecting an Excel Workbook http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/password-protect-worksheet-or-workbook-elements-HA102748990.aspx?CTT=1

31 Compare Two Workbooks http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/what-you-can-do-with-spreadsheet-inquire-HA102835926.aspx?CTT=1
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/connect-external-data-to-your-workbook-HA103790967.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/connect-external-data-to-your-workbook-HA103790967.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/connect-external-data-to-your-workbook-HA103790967.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/connect-external-data-to-your-workbook-HA103790967.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/connect-external-data-to-your-workbook-HA103790967.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/connect-external-data-to-your-workbook-HA103790967.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/apply-data-validation-to-cells-HA102749059.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/apply-data-validation-to-cells-HA102749059.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/apply-data-validation-to-cells-HA102749059.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/apply-data-validation-to-cells-HA102749059.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/apply-data-validation-to-cells-HA102749059.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/apply-data-validation-to-cells-HA102749059.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/add-a-comment-HA102749060.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/add-a-comment-HA102749060.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/add-a-comment-HA102749060.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/add-a-comment-HA102749060.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/add-a-comment-HA102749060.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/connect-data-in-another-workbook-to-your-workbook-HA103791160.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/connect-data-in-another-workbook-to-your-workbook-HA103791160.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/connect-data-in-another-workbook-to-your-workbook-HA103791160.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/connect-data-in-another-workbook-to-your-workbook-HA103791160.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/connect-data-in-another-workbook-to-your-workbook-HA103791160.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/connect-data-in-another-workbook-to-your-workbook-HA103791160.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/connect-data-in-another-workbook-to-your-workbook-HA103791160.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/consolidate-data-from-multiple-worksheets-in-a-single-worksheet-HA102749046.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/consolidate-data-from-multiple-worksheets-in-a-single-worksheet-HA102749046.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/consolidate-data-from-multiple-worksheets-in-a-single-worksheet-HA102749046.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/consolidate-data-from-multiple-worksheets-in-a-single-worksheet-HA102749046.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/consolidate-data-from-multiple-worksheets-in-a-single-worksheet-HA102749046.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/consolidate-data-from-multiple-worksheets-in-a-single-worksheet-HA102749046.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/password-protect-worksheet-or-workbook-elements-HA102748990.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/password-protect-worksheet-or-workbook-elements-HA102748990.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/password-protect-worksheet-or-workbook-elements-HA102748990.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/password-protect-worksheet-or-workbook-elements-HA102748990.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/password-protect-worksheet-or-workbook-elements-HA102748990.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/password-protect-worksheet-or-workbook-elements-HA102748990.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/what-you-can-do-with-spreadsheet-inquire-HA102835926.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/what-you-can-do-with-spreadsheet-inquire-HA102835926.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/what-you-can-do-with-spreadsheet-inquire-HA102835926.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/what-you-can-do-with-spreadsheet-inquire-HA102835926.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/what-you-can-do-with-spreadsheet-inquire-HA102835926.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/what-you-can-do-with-spreadsheet-inquire-HA102835926.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/what-you-can-do-with-spreadsheet-inquire-HA102835926.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/what-you-can-do-with-spreadsheet-inquire-HA102835926.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/what-you-can-do-with-spreadsheet-inquire-HA102835926.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/what-you-can-do-with-spreadsheet-inquire-HA102835926.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/password-protect-worksheet-or-workbook-elements-HA102748990.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/password-protect-worksheet-or-workbook-elements-HA102748990.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/password-protect-worksheet-or-workbook-elements-HA102748990.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/password-protect-worksheet-or-workbook-elements-HA102748990.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/consolidate-data-from-multiple-worksheets-in-a-single-worksheet-HA102749046.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/consolidate-data-from-multiple-worksheets-in-a-single-worksheet-HA102749046.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/consolidate-data-from-multiple-worksheets-in-a-single-worksheet-HA102749046.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/consolidate-data-from-multiple-worksheets-in-a-single-worksheet-HA102749046.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/connect-data-in-another-workbook-to-your-workbook-HA103791160.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/connect-data-in-another-workbook-to-your-workbook-HA103791160.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/connect-data-in-another-workbook-to-your-workbook-HA103791160.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/connect-data-in-another-workbook-to-your-workbook-HA103791160.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/connect-data-in-another-workbook-to-your-workbook-HA103791160.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/add-a-comment-HA102749060.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/add-a-comment-HA102749060.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/add-a-comment-HA102749060.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/apply-data-validation-to-cells-HA102749059.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/apply-data-validation-to-cells-HA102749059.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/apply-data-validation-to-cells-HA102749059.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/apply-data-validation-to-cells-HA102749059.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/connect-external-data-to-your-workbook-HA103790967.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/connect-external-data-to-your-workbook-HA103790967.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/connect-external-data-to-your-workbook-HA103790967.aspx?CTT=1http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/connect-external-data-to-your-workbook-HA103790967.aspx?CTT=1


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Chapter 11 About True Sky



What Is True SkyTrue Sky is a powerful and flexible Corporate Performance Management (CPM) Solution thathelps your organization manage and streamline the planning, budgeting and forecastingprocess by allowing you to:

Eliminate the need to manually create, maintain and merge dozens or hundreds of individual budget spreadsheets

Create planning models that are specific to your business and your needs

Budget or forecast not only expenses but revenue, compensation, capitalexpenditures or any other process you require

Automatically roll-up and consolidate data without having to create specialized reports Quickly collaborate with other users without having to resort to endless emails

Integrate data from almost any electronic source

Have instant insight to the planning process at any point in time

Perform robust What -if analysis to see the effect caused by changes in items such aswages, fuel costs or any other key drivers in your organization

Build and deploy almost any type of report imaginable, including sales reports,

inventory reports, income statements, balance sheets and cash flow statements Empower your management team by providing them real-time information enabling

better business decisions

Spend more time on the analysis and strategy necessary to drive your business forward

Some of the many features of True Sky include:

An easy to use Excel-based interface that dramatically reduces training time and costs

Dynamic rendering of data to ensure that users see only what they are allowed to see Approval workflows that support simple organizational structures or structures with

complex branching and dotted line approvals

Attachment of notes and electronic documents to help approvers review not only thewhat but the why

Unlimited versioning with the ability to compare versions side-by-side


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A series of robust and easy to use tools to assist end-users with the data entry processin order to get more accurate figures quicker

The ability to integrate with unlimited electronic data sources for access to up-to-the-minute data

Integrated business intelligence with support for the creation of charts, graphs,scorecards and complete dashboards

True Sky gives you more time to think!

For More Information ContactIf you would like to get more information on True Sky please use one of the contact methods

listed below:

Toll Free Phone: 1-855-TRUE-SKYToll Free Phone: 1-855-878-3759Email: [email protected] Web Site: www.TrueSky.com
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.truesky.com/http://www.truesky.com/http://www.truesky.com/mailto:[email protected]


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Chapter 12 About the Author

Chapter 12 About the Author

Alan Whitehouse has spent the last 20 years helping organizations solve their business pains.He has worked with a variety of organizations across numerous industries from small startups

to multi-billion dollar multinational corporations.

Most recently, Alan has spent the last 3 years leading the effort around the development andbringing to market a revolutionary and exciting planning, budgeting and forecasting solutioncalled True Sky. And no, the words revolutionary, exciting and budgeting are not mutuallyexclusive.

In addition to True Sky, he has had hands on experience designing and implementing solutionsbased around:

Microsoft Office Microsoft Dynamics ERP Microsoft SharePoint Server Microsoft Dynamics CRM Microsoft SQL Server Oracle Siebel CRM Microsoft PerformancePoint Server IBM Clarity CPM Microsoft FRx Forecaster IBM Cognos FSR

Alan was awarded the exclusive Most Valuable Professional (MVP) designation by Microsoftfour times for his work in the Business Intelligence space.

His education includes a Bachelors Degree in Economics and a Masters Degree in BusinessAdministration with a formal accounting concentration. How he got into the software industryis anyones guess.

Alan is devilishly handsome, unbelievably witty and exceptionally modest. He currently residesin the Toronto area where he is Chief Software Architect for True Sky Inc. You can stalk him atthe following sites:

Linked-In: http://www.linkedin.com/in/alanwhitehouse Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/alanwhitehouse True Sky: http://www.truesky.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/alanwhitehousehttp://www.linkedin.com/in/alanwhitehousehttp://www.linkedin.com/in/alanwhitehousehttp://www.twitter.com/alanwhitehousehttp://www.twitter.com/alanwhitehousehttp://www.truesky.com/http://www.truesky.com/http://www.truesky.com/http://www.twitter.com/alanwhitehousehttp://www.linkedin.com/in/alanwhitehouse