CCH Tagetik unifies budgeting, planning & forecasting processes at the strategic, corporate and operational level. Budgets are stored together with the consolidated actuals in the same software solution.
In the current economic environment, planning, budgeting and forecasting cant be limited to basic planning of revenues and expenses. There is a need for a more dynamic planning process. More sophisticated operational and financial planning models are necessary, which cannot be delivered with the more commonly used Excel-based process. A more unified approach is needed for operational plans, profit & loss, balance sheet, cash flow.
With CCH Tagetik, a realistic budget and forecast can be generated and supported. In CCH Tagetik, as in real business-life, top management imposes strategic goals to the organization. To attain these targets, the business needs to prepare operational plans:
- The Sales & Marketing department can have a marketing campaign which will positively affect sales forecasts
- The Production Department can invest in a new asset, which will increase production capacity
- The HR Department will make projections of the number of FTEs which will be working for the company the coming years
Sophisticated workflows help departments to draft realistic and integrated plans in detail. Input is gathered per right cost-driver or revenue-driver (number of production runs, number of units sold, FTEs, square meters ). To transform this input into a bottom-line, CCH Tagetik uses formulas, allocations and eliminations behind the scenes.
In this manner, these operational plans are translated into a financial plan. Operations will see their operational plan translated into day-to-day operational goals. Powerful modelling through a driver-based approach allows Finance to quickly model the impact of different scenarios on P&L, balance sheet and cash flow. Also, financial targets can be allocated to the appropriate operational level.
This driver-based financial plan can translate to a Budget or (Rolling) Forecast. One extra feature here is that Budget and Forecast-input is always monthly (vs. YTD input in the consolidation-part) for easier input.
A strength of using CCH Tagetik here is that all departments will create their plans on the same software platform. This way a unified business plan is created. CCH Tagetik minimizes human error by offering budgeting-processes into a single application. Budget owners can collect, approve and submit data. From the top-level P&L, a drill down to each unit is possible. Also, a P&L from one unit can roll up into a branch or the entire group. The same logic regarding currency conversions or intercompany matching which is used in the Actual Consolidation can be used for Budget and Forecast.
From a transparency perspective, all additions and modifications are documented and traceable, as opposed to Excel-documents. So the Finance department can directly drill down into the financial statements to investigate which changes were made, when and by whom. After a change, the impact can be directly seen in the consolidated financial statements.
Can't wait? Discover the CCH Tagetik budget and planning solution now and view the recorded demo explaining you some of the highlight of the application.
In this video we let you discover different steps in the budget process from the end-user perspective: "Budgeting with CCH Tagetik"
Eager to get started? Do not hesitate to contact us for more information.