6 Ways To Streamline The Budgeting Process

An effective budgeting plan or process is needed for any organization to maintain its financial health. The ability to produce accurate budgets, create meaningful forecasts, and use intelligent budgeting tools can be large indicators of an organization’s effectiveness and growth.

With that said, the budgeting process does not have to be painfully long, confusing, and headache-inducing. There is a way to get rid of the error-prone spreadsheets, complex software, and incredibly expensive subscriptions. Budgeting software should be easy, fast, collaborative, adaptive, smart, affordable, and make your life as a financial or budget manager a whole lot easier!

Luckily, Martus is the ultimate solution for any organization looking to budget better and collaborate positively with each other. Here are the 6 ways you can streamline your budgeting process using Martus Budgeting & Planning Software:

1. Collaborate Better 

We have found that engaging and empowering your leadership by involving them in the budgeting process can bring an incredible sense of teamwork and transparency. No matter what kind of budgeting style your organization follows, it is best to include or at least receive input from all those who will be involved. You can enable your team to be in the know without paper reports, stuffy Excel spreadsheets, and complicated numbers. Budgeting with Cloud-based tools makes collaborating a whole lot easier for everyone.

Martus is easy to use for non-financial users, yet powerful enough to handle more complex budgeting needs with the highest sense of collaboration. Here are a few benefits of our budget worksheets:

• Worksheets created automatically and in seconds
• 100% Cloud-based and accessible by your team
• Widgets optimize budget entry plus line-item notes
• Contains current year activity and budgets as a reference
• Includes approval workflow & more

2. Budget Faster 

In every business or organization’s work day, we’re always looking for ways to save time without cutting the quality of work. Optimizing your time and resources will not only save you money, but it will also save you some headaches when it comes to budgeting.

Here is an awesome statistic for you: on average, organizations have saved 700+ man hours per year by using Martus Budgeting & Planning Software. Not only does that allow the organization to allocate those 700+ hours to other tasks, but it keeps budgeting from being the ultimate culprit of taking too much time. Budget worksheets built in the Cloud alleviate the “large email attachment” headaches that come with outdated spreadsheets as well.

Personnel budgeting can also be time-consuming, especially because of its often variable nature. Here are a few perks of using our personnel budgeting features and how they’ll save you some time:

• Introduces multiple personnel budget scenarios
• Easily uploads employee benefit and compensation details
• Budgets multiple benefit and compensation types including wages, payroll taxes, benefits, and bonuses
• Allocates personnel expenses across multiple dimensions
• Supports taxable and non-taxable positions and compensation

3. Budget Smarter 

Your organization needs to keep on top of its budgeting and adapt as both internal and external factors will always come up. As we are seeing this past year with the changes in the economy, inflation,“The Great Resignation”, and changing demand, budgets may need to update overnight.

Staying flexible and smart with your budgeting requires a software that can adapt quickly, and our Martus Budgeting & Planning Software can do just that. Our software allows you to view the budget process as it happens, letting you “know the score” at all times. Here are just a few benefits of our software when it comes to budgeting smart:

• Allows you to view the status of each budget area
• Analyzes budgets for reasonableness
• Shows multiple budget versions per fiscal year including rolling forecasts
• Lets you easily make mid-year budget adjustments

4. Forecast Further 

We all know by now that everything can change in an instant. Back in March 2020, every single person, business, school, non-profit, church, and other organization had their plans change. Forecasting and creating “What-If” scenarios for your finances are a must, and it is very helpful to have the right tools to let you do that.

With Martus Budgeting & Reporting, you can easily create a multi-year forecast or what-if analysis for your organization’s financial situation. You are able to use:

• Detailed and summary forecasts
• Side-by-side budget and forecast comparisons
• Multi-scenario and 12-month what-if analysis options

5. Report Easier

Whether your financial manager wants to take a quick look at your financials or you’re gearing up for a big presentation to your organization’s leadership, reporting should be simple and easy to understand for everyone. Let’s get you to your numbers quickly.

Martus Budgeting & Reporting Software provides key decision support and financial analysis information in easy-to-understand or graphical formats. You can monitor your conformance with budgets in real-time and even drill down to transactional level details, all while seeing dashboards that just make sense. Martus reports offer:

• Flexible pre-built reporting that comes ready to use
• Data that is always current with daily automated updates from Sage Intacct
• Drilling down to the transaction level in Sage Intacct with source document access
• Restricting users by Martus function, Sage Intacct dimensions, and more
• Graphical Dashboard Views
• Extensive budget vs. actual comparisons
• Tailored views for specific performance data

6. Meet the Mission

Once your processes are faster, better, and easier, your organization is much more likely to meet its financial goals and thrive as an organization. Collaborating with your entire team in creating a budget that is right for both the people working with those funds and the higher-up leadership is the best way you can plan for the future.

Martus has created our Budgeting & Reporting Software to make budgeting much more streamlined for you, making it so your non-profit, school, church, business, or organization can operate how they need to. For more about Martus, learn about what we do here or contact us for a free demo today.