Why Excel is not your Budgeting and Forecasting Software Application
The proper use of budgeting and forecasting software and business intelligence and financial modelling software has been seriously stymied by the availability of spreadsheets. Users have been not critical of this vital marketplace and as a result their use has been overdeveloped, so many decisions made with the assistance of spreadsheets.
This means the user doesn’t need a technical background to develop proficiency with the tool. Users are able to employ their finance skills and creativity to build models that answer straightforward business questions. Problem arise when these models form the backbone of financial planning and decision making. Spreadsheets expand in terms of the number of cells, formulas, and calculations which means an increase in complexity, rigidity, and risk. Even simple changes often require significant revisions and testing to make sure the logic still works. As models grow, they frequently expand into linked worksheets. All of this extra work involved.
Budgeting, forecasting and planning are key to any business as businesses need to be responsive to changes in customer demands, cash flows, and general business conditions. Business simple can’t stop and changes to spreadsheet models can take hours, days or even weeks as they aren’t able to easily adapt to change. When you compare Excel against Quantrix these similar changes in Quantrix models take only seconds or minutes, leading to substantial gains in productivity and responsiveness to business conditions.
When reviewing any budget, forecast or business plans most people prefer to make decisions with timely information. Remember that updating and budget or forecasting spreadsheets with the latest data tends to break the model, requiring significant time to discover, repair and test. Any changes to the underlying budget or forecast data structure or volume need to be closely monitored to determine the impact on the model. Many times a breakage will go undetected until a colleague, client, or auditor discovers your forecast numbers or planning results that don’t add up. With Quantrix, you simply use the DataLink™ “update” feature to pull in the latest forecast data. Quantrix has the flexibility to accommodate changes to your planning or budgeting data sources so that the model scales and adapts as the data source evolves. With Quantrix, getting the latest version of your budget, plan or forecast is just a matter of clicking a button.
View our Quantrix Video to see how Quantrix can out pass Excel as your Budgeting and Forecasting Software Application.
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