10 Questions To Consider: Forecast 5 vs. Spreadsheets
Check to see if your current process for producing forecasts, cashflows and budgets passes the test:
1. Do you use problematic, error-prone and time-consuming -to-maintain spreadsheets, for creating your Clients/CEO Business Forecasts, cashflows and budgets?
2. Are you fed up with trying and failing to achieve reliable, totally accurate information and results using your current forecast, cashflows and budget system?
3. Have you ever been embarrassed and worried when your spreadsheet or current solution produced incorrect results? In front of your client/CEO or the bank?
4. Do you currently have total peace of mind that the reports you’re providing clients/CEO, which are being used to base life changing financial decisions on are accurate?
5. Do you know these results are 100% accurate? Does the funds flow report validate the balance sheet?
6. What are you balancing to if a complete Balance Sheet isn’t part of your current solution? Have your included fixed assets, depreciation and capital expenditure? Forgot about the new truck does not help – are you concerned?
7. What do you do when your spreadsheet expert is off work when a key client/CEO contacts you needing a rush forecast to make an informed decision regarding a possible business acquisition?
8. How long would it take you to rejig an existing spreadsheet to provide accurate results for the next 5 years? Are you comfortable as to accuracy reporting to your client/CEO?
9. Have you factored currency changes, wage increases, new staff, PAYE/PAYG, stock, purchases and capital Expenditure and the impact on the funds required to handle growth?
10. Do you ever find yourself doing the same laborious error-prone spreadsheet tasks repeatedly or even worse spend time on a non-chargeable task fixing unnecessary spreadsheet errors made in client budgets and cashflows?
Its time for you to be able to trust your numbers and with Forecast 5, you can do just that!
If you use something else, check that it does the full job. Don’t be caught red-faced again when you realise you are only provided half the solution.
With 9 out of 10 spreadsheets (88%) containing errors (Leung, 2014) and with a cell error rate of up to 1 in 20 cells (5%) (Panko, 1998), it is no wonder that your certainty on the figures presented is faltering. Spreadsheets, while a cheap, easy to use and familiar option, are the cause of your budgeting season stress and panic.
With Forecast 5, you can be confident that the results you’ve just reported are correct! Forecast 5 focuses on the delivery of accurate and comprehensive budgets, providing all the logic to complete your budget, cashflow and forecast without the strenuous mental math. The Profit & Loss matches to the Cashflow and the Balance Sheet matches to the Funds Flow. This allows you to not only see what you are spending but where the cash is.
We provide a large range purpose built records, including Sales, Prepayments/Accruals, Stock, Wages, to simplify the process and ensure the budget is as accurate as possible. We have assets, loans and financed assets. Allowing you to take that planned car purchase with hire purchase into account, ensuring that you don’t forget the asset capital expenditure, the depreciation, the debt, the interest, the VAT/GST and the principal repayment and guaranteeing the calculations are all correct.
Having completed the budget, perform a “what if” analysis with results instantly reflected, extend the budget out up to 15 years in seconds or import your actuals, report variances and update the rolling forecasts with the confidence that the results will be right every time.
Don’t keep making the same mistakes. Make the move to Forecast 5 today and reap the benefits of budgeting beyond spreadsheets!
(1)Raymond Pronko – Spreadsheets contain errors
Contact us today to book in a demo or click to download a free 21-day trial.
