THE CFO S GUIDE TO BUDGETING IN EXCEL

Transcription

1 THE CFO S GUIDE TO BUDGETING IN EXCEL GETTING IT DONE RIGHT ON TIME! Presented by Rishi Grover President, Vena Solutions August 4, 2016 Copyright Vena TM 1

2 RISHI GROVER President & SVP Solutions Engineering Vena Solutions As President, Rishi is responsible for the day-to-day operations and continued success of client implementations at Vena. Rishi has helped many Fortune 500 companies re-engineer and optimize financial processes including: - Budgeting and Planning - Rolling Forecasts - Management Reporting & Analysis - Strategic Planning and Balance Scorecards - Regulatory Reporting and Disclosure Management 2

3 AGENDA Why do we use Excel for Budgeting? Problems with Excel for Budgeting Best Practices to Enable Excel for Budgeting Technology Options to Automate Budgeting Replace Excel vs. Embrace Excel Key Features to Look For Vena Technology Overview Quick Demo: Enterprise Budgeting with Excel 3

4 VENA THE WAY YOU THINK Created to make businesses work smarter, Vena uses an innovative approach to simplify complex enterprise processes. Gartner: Market Guide for Specialty Budgeting, Planning and Forecasting Applications; Notable mention in 2016 CPM Magic Quadrant E&Y: Nominee for 2014 Entrepreneur of the Year Award Nucleus Research: Value Matrix Leadership Quadrant BPM Partners: Core Vendor and Top Customer Satisfaction Rating Trust Radius: Top Rated CPM Firm for Customer Satisfactions PwC and CIO Review: Most promising, up-and-coming and People s Choice Award 4

5 WHY DO WE USE EXCEL FOR BUDGETING? 5

6 WHY DO WE USE EXCEL FOR BUDGETING? Pros: High user adoption Highly configurable Flexible Strong modeling Powerful calculations Strong data tables More Pros: Conditional formatting Icon sets Spark lines/trend icons Top X rules Advanced charting Pivot tables and Power BI Sorting & filtering

7 WHY DO WE USE EXCEL FOR BUDGETING?

8 PROBLEMS WITH EXCEL FOR BUDGETING 8

9 PROBLEMS WITH EXCEL FOR BUDGETING Budget Inputs Review and Approval Cons: G/L Sub-Ledgers Manually extract data & re-key into spreadsheets Data integrity issues No source system integration Manual consolidations Version control No process management Other Systems Source Data Numerous s and versions of each document

10 BEST PRACTICES TO ENABLE EXCEL FOR BUDGETING 10

11 Recommendation DATA INTEGRITY ISSUES Description Data Validations Conditional Formatting Checklist / Homepage IFERROR() Workbook Protection / Range Protection To ensure entries are in the right format, and within an acceptable set of values/ranges. (Data > Data Validations) To flag any exceptions or missing information. (Home > Conditional Formatting) Include a Home worksheet that summarizes all validation rule results and includes a checklist the preparer must complete. Avoid #REF, #NA calculation results, which can have a ripple effect of errors. Password protect the workbook, worksheet and/or ranges as required. Create ranges for calculations versus input and protect accordingly. (Review > Protect Sheet, Protect Workbook, Allow Users to Edit Ranges) 11

12 NO SOURCE SYSTEM INTEGRATION Recommendation Description Import Worksheet Data Connections Pivot Table Create a dedicated worksheet called Import that allows you to paste in the source system data. Use an Excel table. Alternatively use the Data Connections to retrieve data from a staging environment, text file, Access db into the Excel table in the Import worksheet. Queries can be dynamic. (Data > From Other Sources) Use the pivot table to summarize the source data (if required). Other user worksheets should use pivot table formulas to bring in data as opposed to R1C1 formulas. 12

13 MANUAL CONSOLIDATIONS Recommendation Description Standardize Worksheets start and end Worksheets OR Leverage Pivot Tables to Aggregate Data Input Excel templates should have the main worksheets (either input or summary) that is always standards for each submission. Create a Consolidating workbook that has a start and end worksheet. Copy user submitted worksheets between these two worksheets. =Sum(start:end!G20) Each input template should have an Export worksheet that puts all the user inputs into a Fact Table format. This can then easily be grouped together in a consolidating report and then leverage a Pivot Table to perform the aggregation. 13

14 VERSION CONTROL Recommendation Description Track Changes Standardized Naming Convention Change Table Enable Track Changes. This will track who changes what, when. (Review > Track Changes) Ensure there is a consistent standard for naming Excel files when being submitted. I.e. Dept 101 Budget v2_yyy_mm_dd.xlsx The final version should always be a certain name as well. I.e. Dept 101 Budget FINAL.xlsx Create a worksheet called Change Table. This should be an Excel table with the fields User, Date/Time, Change Description. 14

15 NO PROCESS MANAGEMENT Recommendation Description Document Management Central Status Spreadsheet Electronic Sign-off Enable Shareable Workbooks Ideally leverage a document management system to provide access to your Excel files. This will manage check in/out, as well as simple approval steps. Create a single Excel file that manages the status of each submission. This should be updated by a single member, and be visible to those who require this visibility. Unless this file has all submissions marked as Approved, but the budget is not done. Create a worksheet in your template that documents the Preparer, Submission Date, Approver, Approval Date. Enable the feature Protect and Share Workbook with a password setting. Ensure the Excel files are in a shared directory that the required people have access to. (Review > Protect and Share Workbook) 15

16 TECHNOLOGY OPTIONS TO AUTOMATE BUDGETING 16

17 WHAT ARE OUR OPTIONS? Spreadsheet Environment Flexible Replace Excel Application Environment Controlled Excel-like Functionality Excel-like Look & Feel Budgeting Applications Financial Close Applications Cons: Data integrity issues No source system integration Manual consolidations Lack of audit-ability No process management Pros: Flexible Strong modeling Powerful calculations Rich presentation High user adoption Reporting Applications Pros: Controlled environment High data integrity Database centric Workflow management Auditable Consolidation Applications Cons: Takes you away from spreadsheets Rigid, lack of flexibility IT/consulting intensive High cost of ownership 17

18 WHAT ARE OUR OPTIONS? Spreadsheet Environment Replace Excel Application Environment Flexible Controlled Excel-like Functionality 81% of companies that have a performance management solution supplement it with spreadsheets. Budgeting Applications Financial Close Applications Excel-like Look & Feel Cons: Data integrity issues No source system integration Manual consolidations Lack of audit-ability No process management Pulse Survey Pros: Flexible Strong modeling Powerful calculations Rich presentation High user adoption Reporting Applications Pros: Controlled environment High data integrity Database centric Workflow management Auditable Consolidation Applications Cons: Takes you away from spreadsheets Rigid, lack of flexibility IT/consulting intensive High cost of ownership 18

19 TOP 10 CRITERIA Ability to leverage MS-Excel Centralized database with in-memory technology Workflow and collaboration Intuitive model and process design Data integration capabilities Security and auditing capabilities Real-time reporting and dashboard capabilities Extensibility beyond budgets and finance Enterprise-grade cloud platform Capability to work offline 19

20 VENA TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW 20

21 VENA THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS 21

22 THE BENEFITS Data Integrity Accelerated Cycle Feature Benefit Integration to source data Latest, accurate data Business Rules Numbers always tie-out Automated Aggregations System generated results Increased confidence in the results Feature Process Automation & Rollover Template Rollover Benefit Automate user assignments and workflow Automate actuals-to-date Start reviewing the data sooner Feature Benefit Feature Benefit Security to view or edit data Users only see the data they are supposed to see Compliance Checklists To ensure that the right steps are being followed Workflow controls access throughout the process Users only see data when they are allowed to see it Audit Trail To track who did what, and when they did it Access to information is controlled Security & Collaboration Compliance information always available Control & Auditing

23 THANK YOU! 23