A new report by the Canadian Financial Executives Research Foundation (CFERF) called Data Analytics in Canada has found that budgeting is among the top two areas that Canadian businesses want to improve. The other area that businesses rated as most important to improve was profitability analysis and management.

Despite this focus, most Canadian businesses are still using spreadsheets to manage these functions, often in tandem with another software program. This leads to duplicate efforts and lots of wasted time spent manually completing budgeting tasks that could easily be automated with the right software solution.

How using simple spreadsheets for budgeting impacts business productivity

In creating this report, CFERF surveyed 118 Canadian businesspeople and included insights from 19 Canadian finance executives who attended an executive roundtable.

The respondents’ businesses were grouped into three categories based on revenue: small companies (under $100 million in revenue), medium-sized companies ($100 million-under $1 billion), and large companies ($1 billion or more).

Across the board, regardless of business size, respondents whose businesses were still relying on spreadsheets felt that they were not getting the most insight that they could out of their budget data.

One CFO from DBG Canada is quoted as saying, “Can we move away from Excel into something which is more disciplined, more defined, a tool that everybody understands and is used consistently, as opposed to having each person come in a room with their own Excel spreadsheet. There is no consistent format and everybody has their own way of looking at things.”

This means that, instead of there being a single version of the truth across the business, there are many different versions floating around at any given time.

How can you possibly consolidate all that data and be confident that there are no errors? That’s not even mentioning the amount of time it would take to do so. All of this has a sharply negative impact on a business’s productivity, as well as its ability to budget and forecast accurately.

The impact cuts across all business departments

Another issue that many businesses report having is an inability to draw insight from cross-functional areas, because data isn’t standardized across their organizations. 39 percent of businesses said that their business insight is drawn only from core operations and finance, while just 13 percent reported drawing insight from across all operations, including the customer, and actively managing that data. Even fewer – 7 percent – said they draw insight from across all functions of the business, as well as external sources.

This points to a huge missed opportunity for enterprises both large and small. To make the best, most strategic decisions, businesses need to be able to derive as much actionable insight from their numbers as possible, preferably in real time. It’s this that can allow them to stay agile, pivoting as needed when market conditions change.

True Sky can help solve these problems

True Sky was designed to give CFOs the ability to access meaningful information in real time, align strategies and priorities, and be easily adopted across all departments.

Plus, True Sky is based in the Excel interface, meaning that you and your team already know how to use it. Users can adopt True Sky rapidly, whether or not they work in finance. Every person who contributes to the budget can work in a single, dynamic database that updates in real time, instead of keeping their own records in their own static spreadsheets.

This creates a much lower reliance on manual processes, saving you and your business time and money while greatly reducing the risk of human error. In addition, when you have access to real-time numbers, you have the power to make much more strategic business decisions that will ultimately propel your company toward greater success.

Want to learn more about True Sky’s features? Contact us today.