Spreadsheets Have Errors
Did you know that 38% of all spreadsheets contain errors and that 90% of people using spreadsheets think they’re correct?
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.
You may have spent time over the years developing a set of spreadsheets for budgets, forecasts and cashflows for client’s or your own business BUT...
- Have you ever experienced doubts or concerns as to the accuracy of your spreadsheets?
- Would you rather spend more time focused on the budget itself rather than reviewing and re-checking spreadsheet formulas, links and calculations?
Don’t get trapped in the never-ending cycle of panic and uncertainty. Invest your time wisely and move beyond spreadsheets to the most comprehensive budgeting software available, Forecast 5.
A purpose-built budget and forecast solution like Forecast 5 takes on a significant amount of processing well beyond what a spreadsheet does, making Forecast 5 up to 10 times faster.
In order to create a proper budget, Forecast 5 creates all the necessary linkages between Profit & Loss records, Cashflow dollars and Balance Sheets, ensuring the double entry rules are maintained and your budget, Cashflow, Funds Flow and Balance Sheet are all correct with valuable, useable information.
Compare that to the spreadsheet model:
- Start with a blank sheet. Spend endless hours building it yourself.
- Is your budget from last year actually right? Probably not!
- Do you really want to use it for this year? Doubt it!
- Who changed it last and deleted that subtotal? or that linked sheet? What a disaster!
- Where is the opening balance sheet? What are the rules for cash collection?
- Have you enough time and energy to spend on the spreadsheet this year?
- Remember that last minute panic when you finally printed the reports and missed that vital totaling mistake? How embarrassing!
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.
Forecast 5 can assist with re-focusing your business activities, enabling you to work smarter. A purpose-built budgeting and cashflow solution that is easy to use, affordable yet comprehensive and accurate.
Forecast 5 is the smarter solution.
Contact us today to book in a demo or click to download a free 21-day trial.
