EPM and Revenue Planning: Modern Budgeting for Modern Businesses

 

EPM software gives you power and flexibility to play around during the revenue planning process to see how the changes you might make could affect your bottom line. It also gives you the ability to be more accurate, because unlike cumbersome and unwieldy spreadsheets, EPM software is smart and easy to use. Here are several ways that EPM software can improve your revenue planning processes.

Allows for Collaboration Among Departments

Is the finance department looking for ways to extend a hand out to other departments so that they can have more of a part in the revenue planning and budgeting processes? EPM software is the ideal way to do just that, while also providing the transparency and accountability to assure that it works.

Can other departments, such as operations or sales and marketing, collaborate with the finance department on revenue planning? After all, their contributions are vital to the company’s revenue. Operations knows what production numbers you can expect. Marketing and sales can give you realistic expectations when it comes to bringing in new business. EPM software makes it easy for everyone to contribute to revenue planning.

Create Alternate Budgets to See How Changes Affect Revenue

What happens if the new marketing campaign really takes off? What will it do to revenue if the workforce goes on strike when the labor contract expires in March? How will the new product line impact revenue? EPM software makes it a cinch to develop alternate budgets to see what changes, decisions, and other factors do to the company’s bottom line.

Plan Revenue According to Different Variables

How easy is it for you to plan revenue according to changes in different variables? With EPM software, you can quickly, easily, and accurately create and compare budgets based on different scenarios for:

• Prices
• Units
• SKUs
• Products
• Customers
• Channels
• Facilities
• Territories

Analyze Different Sales Scenarios

Does your sales department need a means for evaluating different scenarios? EPM software gives you the ability to do this. This helps the sales department make their plans according to the facts instead of guesswork. They can see how different scenarios play out and how it affects their ability to meet monthly, quarterly, and annual sales goals.

Include All the Different Stakeholders in the Revenue Planning Process

 

Is everyone contributing to your revenue planning and budgeting so that it accurately reflects what’s going on in the entire organization? EPM tools
are easy to use for anyone with Excel knowledge so that all of the stakeholders can participate in the process.

Do other departments and managers complain that they have no say in the budgeting process? With EPM software, the finance department can share the information as well as the ability to make changes and contributions to the budgeting process. EPM software adds transparency and accountability, so that everyone knows ahead of time what is driving, hindering, or otherwise affecting revenue. Everyone can get the reports they need to make sound decisions, and when they don’t understand why something is the way it is, EPM software makes it easy to show them so that there is no doubt what those finance folks are up to.