Category: Plan & Forecast
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Better Forecasting And Budgeting Starts With Analysis – IBM Cognos 10 in Action
FORECAST ANALYSIS Much has been written about developing better forecasting and budgeting templates or improving the overall process. But to my surprise there is hardly any focus on the role of analysis. I have seen many organizations where managers ‘survive’ the forecasting and budgeting cycle without ever spending time performing meaningful analysis of their data.…
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Budgeting – Your Northern Star (Guest Post)
A budget plants an iron rod of confidence and accountability into the spine of your business. I recently blogged about Six Ideas for Setting Successful Budgets: Budgeting begins with assessing the current business environment Leave your optimism at the curb Budgeting must be driven by strategy Connect the dots A careless budget will cause more…
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Annual Budgeting – Our favorite season?
BUDGETING Yes, it’s that time of the year. The time that is often filled with pain and fear. No, I am not talking about Halloween but about the corporate budgeting process. Much has been written about the annual budget. And most of the written stuff is not positive. Jack Welch alone has provided us with…
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Rolling Forecasts Keep on Rolling
Am I surprised? Yes. Maybe I shouldn’t. Our rolling forecasts events were popular in the past, but they keep getting more and more popular. ROLLING FORECASTS TODAY Rolling Forecasts are indeed an important topic. And why wouldn’t they? Business and life in general is turbulent these days. No doubt about that. Just think about all…
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How to reduce detail in your forecasts
Rolling Forecasts are quite popular today. But to implement them properly it is usually imperative to reduce the detail in the forecasting models. Less detail speeds up the process and helps to increase the accuracy. A recent post on this blog looked at some of the problems with too much detail. The big question though…
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Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication
Have you ever been to a giant buffet? Try to remember what it was like. We usually get excited when we see the various options and we ‘cruise the aisles’ to identify what we want. If you are like me, you have a hard time deciding and you end up wandering around taking a little…
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A Few Thoughts About Planning
There is an interesting discussion going on right now. Actually, it’s been going on for a few years. There are some people that argue against planning: “Why plan today? The world is so volatile! Any plan is typically rendered useless within a few weeks or months.” And then there are others who argue that planning…
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Improve your forecasts – 6 things we can learn from weather forecasters
Back in April, I posted an interview with a master forecaster: Franz the Frog. Interestingly enough, this post is one of the most popular entries on this blog. But all jokes and irony aside: Weather forecasters are indeed world champions in forecasting and there are some lessons that we as finance professionals can learn from…
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Success with Forecasting – A discussion with Pieter Coens
Please meet Pieter Coens. Pieter is the Director of Finance & Control at Landal GreenParks in the Netherlands. He started his career in public accounting and joined Landal over 16 years ago. Pieter has held various positions in finance at Landal. Landal GreenParks is a leader in bungalow-park management and rental. Landal has over 65 parks…
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3 ways to analyze and communicate Forecast Accuracy
Analyzing Forecast Accuracy What’s the best kept secret in your company? Well, hopefully not your forecast accuracy numbers? Forecast accuracy should not be a calculation that happens behind closed doors. But the numbers should be communicated and analyzed to be really useful. Here are three ways you can communicate and analyze your numbers: The table…