Everyone has heard the saying that if you line up 100 economists and ask them to forecast the economy, you get 100 different answers. Financial forecasting can be anywhere from useless to tricky as the future is difficult to predict. Given that an operating budget is a business’s financial forecast, how can you ensure you’re getting the most out of it to maximize the benefit to your organization?

Proper operating budgets are more than just a set of numbers against which you can measure the business’s performance. In order to ensure you are getting the most bang for your operating budget buck, make sure your budget accomplishes the following:

• It should be a living and breathing document that changes with the organization throughout the year. The organization should support a quarterly forecasting process in case reality begins to track away from the original budget, rendering the original budget meaningless.
• The budget should be implemented by and with all key stakeholders (functional or departmental owners) to drive organizational efficiency and accountability.
• The budget should clearly and seamlessly map to your accounting system and chart of accounts for clear, concise, and automated reporting.
• Make sure you have an operating budget.

It is that time of year, if you are looking for guidance on your operating budget, reach out to us. We have a proven system we can implement across your organization to ensure that you are maximizing your operating budget process ROI.