- Sage Intacct
Planning and budgeting are essential for business success but doing them the old-fashioned way – manually can feel like swimming against the tide. If your current process involves battling with endless spreadsheets, chasing down data, and fixing recurring errors, you’re not alone. Many businesses struggle with the inefficiencies of manual budgeting, which can ultimately stall growth and drain valuable resources.
So, what’s the alternative? A smarter, integrated solution like Sage Intacct Budgeting and Planning could transform your financial management processes, helping you save time, reduce errors, and make decisions with confidence.
What Manual Budgeting Really Looks Like
If you’re relying on spreadsheets, the process might look something like this:
1. Data Collection: Gathering figures from bank statements, sales reports, and expense logs and manually compiling them into one central file. It’s time-consuming and prone to delays.
2. Spreadsheet Creation: Juggling multiple spreadsheets for different departments or cost centres, each with unique formats and formulas. Managing these can quickly spiral into a logistical nightmare.
3. Template Building: Designing custom templates for income, expenses, and forecasts takes hours, only to be reworked when requirements change.
4. Data Entry: Manually inputting data across multiple files leaves room for inconsistencies and errors.
5. Formula Management: Linking formulas across sheets can result in one small mistake throwing off your entire budget.
6. Collaboration Woes: Sharing spreadsheets via email often creates version control chaos, with outdated or conflicting information slowing everything down.
7. Reporting Hassles: Manually updating charts and graphs for reports eats up hours and rarely offers real-time insights.
Does this sound familiar? If so, it’s worth considering the cost of sticking to manual methods versus the potential benefits of upgrading.
Why Manual Processes Don’t Cut It
Here’s why relying on spreadsheets for budgeting can leave your business in the dust:
• Complexity Overload: The bigger your business, the more overwhelming your spreadsheet system becomes, increasing the risk of errors and inefficiencies.
• Human Error: A simple typo or broken formula can derail your entire budget, leading to flawed forecasts.
• Wasted Time: Re-entering data, fixing errors, and updating templates is a drain on resources that could be better spent on strategic planning.
• Outdated Data: Without real-time updates, decisions are delayed, putting you at a competitive disadvantage.
The Sage Intacct Advantage
With the Sage Intacct Budgeting and Planning software, manual headaches become a thing of the past. This cloud-based financial management system is designed to streamline budgeting and planning, empowering businesses to work smarter, not harder.
Here’s how Sage Intacct can make a difference:
• Real-Time Insights: Get instant updates and a clear view of your financial health, so you can make decisions with confidence.
• Error Reduction: Automation minimises manual data entry, significantly cutting down on mistakes.
• Improved Efficiency: Spend less time on repetitive tasks and more time driving your business forward.
• Seamless Integration: Consolidate data from multiple sources into a single platform, making reporting and decision-making a breeze.
• Scalability: Whether you’re managing one location or multiple entities, Sage Intacct grows with your business.
Partner with Envisage
At Envisage, we specialise in helping businesses like yours implement Sage Intacct to simplify budgeting and planning. Based in Ireland and the UK, our experienced team is here to guide you every step of the way, ensuring you get the most out of your investment.
Ready to transform the way you work? Let’s chat. Contact us to learn how Sage Intacct can help your business thrive.
Catch up on our Sage Intacct Budgeting & Planning webinar
On 13 November, we hosted a webinar on Sage Intacct Budgeting & Planning. The session covered eliminating spreadsheet errors with a cloud-based solution, collaborating across teams for flexible budgeting, and exploring what-if scenarios to guide better decisions.
Watch the recording here: https://bit.ly/3ValE6W
About the Author
Chris Hawley
Chris is the Managing Director at The Noledge Group and brings over 34 years of experience delivering ERP solutions across industries like retail, distribution, manufacturing, and construction. During his 24 years at Sage, he worked with nearly every product and notably transformed Sage 200 as its Product Manager, turning it into a leading solution for SMEs in the UK and Ireland. Chris takes pride in the continued success of Sage 200, supported by Sage Business Partners like Envisage.
