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budgets are an initial stake in the ground, developed by finance teams who comb through historical data, solicit input from functional stakeholders, make assumptions as to what will happen over the next 12 months and forecast how those assumptions will affect the business financials. Most CFOs agree that although their budgets are out of date after the first month of actuals roll in, the process of creating a budget is a strategic exercise, one that helps the Management team set goals for the company and communicate to them throughout the organization. By treating the budget as a strategic asset – updating and reforecasting it each month as actuals come in – the budget will provide a means for accurately measuring success. It will also serve as a tool to indicate where pivots in strategy are warranted. |
