Away from confusing lists to automation

Then it can be seen how the company behaves in which situation and how - or whether - it can cope with the different requirements of the markets. The result: a reasonable, secure basis for entrepreneurial decisions.

The weal or woe of a company

The fact is that times have changed fundamentally for entrepreneurs. This also and especially applies to the importance of budget figures for a company and the meticulousness with which banks, for example, look at these figures and check them for sustainability before they decide on the weal or woe of a company, i.e. whether to grant a loan. Good for those who have defined their corporate strategy - i.e., the direction of the company - for the next three to five years and can back this up with operational measures and figures. Or: Bless those whose operational planning is watertight and whose numerical constructs can withstand planning stress tests and budget simulations safely and robustly.

Consider all facets of business planning

Operational data includes sales and costs, the development of profits or losses and, for example, liquidity. It also includes the development of specific product groups, the breakdown of costs and their allocation to planned profits, information during the year on the development of planned figures and, of course, the monitoring of target achievement through variance analyses. In practical terms, this means that good corporate planning covers all facets of planning and controlling and that, above all, all related planning topics are also taken into account:

• Are the planning figures of purchasing, sales and logistics aligned?
• Have the special seasonal requirements for the product been considered when planning staffing?
• Is the competitive situation sufficiently appreciated?

It is therefore crucial to integrate all planning processes: Top-down from management, bottom-up from sales and cost center managers, followed by a joint correction and implementation round.

Integration of the computing processes

A prerequisite for software-supported corporate planning is, of course, the highest possible integration of all internal calculation processes. If only one variable is changed in the planning figures - for example, the planned sales of a certain article - this results in changes in many other values that are related to the planned sales figure: The effects are therefore noticeable in the changing sales costs, in discounts, rebates, merchandise usage, warehousing, from sales and input tax to the payment burden that has to be made to the tax office.

Aha experience

Much news for those who in the future also want to work with a professional planning tool and benefit from data transparency? How to take it. Such a changeover is quite simple and "silent" if the software is intuitive to use, flexible and scalable. Because almost all "switchers", i.e. all those who have worked exclusively with Excel up to now, have one thing in common: they all suffer from the immensely high effort that the creation of the mostly monstrous and hardly controllable and transparent lists entails. And they suffer from their dependence on the employee in the company who still has the overview and who created the Excel lists. The greatest "aha" moment is the realization that the right software is not only a tool, but also brings intelligence. And it is indispensable as the basis for a good decision.

prevero https://www.prevero.com/de/

Image video from prevero

Checklist-10 things to consider when buying a business planning tool