This article will explore the topic of project budgeting, forecasting, and modelling processes, more specifically the Independent Software Vendor (ISV) planning solutions to upgrade your Microsoft Dynamics SL analytics.
It is not a new concept that budgeting is an essential task as part of traditional performance management – but especially in the context of the modern business world. The caliber of your budgeting and forecasting processes can, at times, be make or break for companies, particularly in the context of the all-too-recent recession. Company-wide planning tasks are usually routine and typically involve multiple people coming together with actual transactions and projected numbers for the period you’re planning. On the other hand, some companies and/or project managers have to budget and/or forecast for a specific project. If you are a freelancer, a consultant, or a project manager billing clients for hours of work, overseeing multiple projects, or bidding on a job, project budgeting and forecasting is a normal part of your career.
Solver has worked with consultants and project managers over the years that want to take their documentation, planning, and analytics to the next level for more precise, streamlined tracking, budgeting, and bidding capabilities. There are some industries that are structured in projects, like the construction industry. One of the more recent project-based professional interactions we’ve had was working on overhauling Business Intelligence (BI) solutions for a company as a management consultant. She commented, “Most people think that project budgeting is just guessing and perhaps rounding up numbers, but actually, it is a pretty precise process with adequate planning tools.” We couldn’t agree more.
You can always use the built-in budgeting functionality for project planning within Microsoft Dynamics SL, but like most accounting systems, you are restricted to creating business user friendly data entry screens to secure your budget for a project, so a lot of companies typically produce a budget manually in Excel.
To compare, traditional planning is structured around a particular time period, like a fiscal or calendar year, while project budgeting focuses on a task. As an example, our management consultant pal, will go about the work of analyzing the efficacy of the organization’s current BI tools, evaluate how they manage the performance of the company, research and seek out an adequate software solution and implement the tool, in a range of 9-12 months. The management consultant’s responsibility in this project is a great example of project budgeting, but it also provides a great view of modern BI deployment processes. In this article, we’ll discuss the hypotheticals of project budgeting, using this management consultant’s task as a case study, and we’ll pinpoint the modern features and functionalities you should be seeking in a modern planning solution.
To continue learning more about project budgeting tools for Microsoft Dynamics SL, read the rest of this article here.
by Solver, Inc.