Corporate Budgeting Software

What is corporate budgeting software?

Corporate budgeting software (or business budgeting software) is an application that allows an organization to create an annual, quarterly, or monthly plan for its business. This data can then be used to track the company’s performance against plan as actual results become available. Companies that purchase corporate budgeting software are often replacing the collection of cumbersome and error-prone spreadsheets they had been using for budgeting in the past. Budgeting software usually includes capabilities to support forecasting as well. Corporate budgeting software is part of performance management suites that many vendors sell that also includes financial reporting and consolidation, performance dashboards, long-range planning and modeling, operational analytics and profitability reporting. Budgeting software is the most popular component of performance management solutions with 78% of respondents to a recent survey identifying it as the area they are focused on.

What are the requirements for corporate budgeting software?

The purchase of corporate budgeting software is typically led by the FP&A (financial planning & analysis) group within a company. Their list of requirements for modern budgeting software usually includes: ease of use, Finance self-sufficiency, built-in financial intelligence, scalability and performance, a cloud-based deployment option, support for complex allocations, top down and bottom up budgeting, rolling forecasts, integration with Excel (in many cases spreadsheets are still used in conjunction with budgeting software), role-based security, audit trails, currency conversion, alternate roll-ups, integration with source systems for performance reporting, availability of mobile access, analytics, and dashboards.

How do you select and purchase corporate budgeting software?

Corporate budgeting software usually impacts people throughout the company, not just in FP&A. The process to select the right software should therefore involve key stakeholders across the company to make sure their needs are taken into consideration. This also aids in higher rates of adoption once the system is rolled out. A high-level roadmap should be developed to identify which areas of performance management, beyond budgeting software, might be required over the next 3-5 years. Key stakeholders should be interviewed as part of the requirements gathering process. Based on those requirements 3 or 4 vendors with the best potential fit should be identified for an onsite scripted demo tied back to those requirements. Scoring of those demos should lead to a clear winner, and a well-documented selection process. To learn more about a cost-effective and streamlined approach to selecting the right budgeting software at the best price visit our vendor selection services information page.

Which vendors offer corporate budgeting software?

There are dozens of vendors that offer corporate budgeting software, but a somewhat smaller group of vendors have emerged as leaders in the space. These vendors typically offer a unified solution that addresses all areas of performance management, or a collection of integrated standalone modules that separately address budgeting, consolidation, analytics, reporting, etc. Some budgeting software vendors target very large companies with complex needs, while others focus on the midmarket and take into account the need for a robust budgeting software solution that requires less resources (financial and otherwise). The leading vendors typically have hundreds, if not thousands, of customers around the world. Below are screenshots for 18 leading budgeting software vendors that illustrate the look and feel of their products.

Click on the images below to enlarge them. Visit PerformancePlace for more detailed information on each vendor.