BudgetPak Focus on: SimpleStep Interview
Many people are promoted to the responsibility of managing a departmental budget but without ever receiving training in "Budgeting 101".
Yet managing resources and project budgets requires that executives think about what they need for their business, and translate those needs into a budget that can be tracked and used for ongoing expense management. Unfortunately, without training, managers find the budgeting experience intimidating and very frustrating. As a result, they avoid it, wait until the last minute, and make a lot of mistakes (which only make them more reluctant to participate next year). Given that reality, many finance organizations simply choose to "do it for them" which comes with its own set of unintended consequences. Namely, rework and a lack of ownership driven by miscommunication, misunderstanding and misinterpretation.
The solution to this dilemma can be found by looking at another intimidating process that non finance professionals dread – preparing personal tax returns. Rather than present users with spreadsheets and tabular forms, tax preparation packages make use of plain English prompts and an onboard interview process. Before you think that’s simply not possible with enterprise budgeting, you should take a look at how XLerant’s budgeting software has made it a reality.