Recent TRG blog posts

Spring is not too far away, and with the change of seasons comes a change in the financial reporting requirements. XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) mandates go into effect April 13, when the SEC (US Securities and Exchange Commission) will require the 500 largest public companies to file XBRL-tagged versions of their financial results. By 2013, all public companies which use International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) will also be submitting their financial returns to the SEC using XBRL.

You have a plan. You have a budget that supports it. Only one thing is missing: a way to easily view and analyse the cause-and-effect relationships between all the plan elements and the resources that support them. Not having this is a common complaint among senior executives who are responsible for managing and reporting on the execution of corporate strategy.

You have a plan. You have a budget that supports it. Only one thing is missing: a way to easily view and analyse the cause-and-effect relationships between all the plan elements and the resources that support them. Not having this is a common complaint among senior executives who are responsible for managing and reporting on the execution of corporate strategy.

When it comes to budgeting, the traditional method used is spreadsheets. However, over the years, spreadsheets have demonstrated themselves to be insufficient to handle budgeting in the ever changing business world. Hence, dedicated corporate budgeting solutions were born to deliver the accuracy, agility and responsiveness that companies so desire. A powerful budgeting solution should help businesses adopt budgeting best practices, such as:

When it comes to budgeting, the traditional method used is spreadsheets. However, over the years, spreadsheets have demonstrated themselves to be insufficient to handle budgeting in the ever changing business world. Hence, dedicated corporate budgeting solutions were born to deliver the accuracy, agility and responsiveness that companies so desire. A powerful budgeting solution should help businesses adopt budgeting best practices, such as:

In 2010, Aberdeen Group carried out a study, which shows the graded popularity of standalone consolidation/reporting tools and consolidation/reporting tools included in ERP systems among best-in-class, industry average and laggard companies. The results indicate that standalone or specialised financial reporting and consolidation tools (71%) were preferred over consolidation features included in ERP applications (37%) by best-in-class companies.

Given the strategic planning best practices, it is obvious that the creation of a good plan requires far more than just collecting a set of financial estimates. To achieve a budget and strategy alignment, use the following six steps:

Given the strategic planning best practices, it is obvious that the creation of a good plan requires far more than just collecting a set of financial estimates. To achieve a budget and strategy alignment, use the following six steps:

Depending on their situation and strategies, companies approach the financial consolidation process in different ways. It is important that businesses thoroughly understand their choices so as to achieve an efficient financial close. The main approaches, some of which may be combined, are discussed below.

Most organisations have plans. There is, however, a huge difference between a good plan and a bad plan. A bad plan, for example, is one that consists only of costs and revenues. This plan provides no guidance for the organisation regarding how it is to achieve the revenue targets. There is no linkage between the high level goals and the day-to-day activities necessary to achieve them.