Driver-Based Budgets

Planning Maestro’s built-in business logic and financial intelligence means you build a driver-based budget model in days. With driver- based budgeting in Planning Maestro, it’s easy to link corporate goals and financial metrics to operational activities, so you can track performance and progress, and course correct when necessary. Test multiple scenarios, generate accurate, automated forecasts, and enforce your chart of accounts.

Watch Demo

Driver-Based Budgeting for Your Business

Driver-based budgeting is a process that ties resources and activities to the financials in the budgeting process with finance-led configuration and built-in intelligence. This approach works to identify key business drivers and creates models around them. These models link to the operating plan and can help predict how an organization would fare when faced with different variables.

A Driver-Based Budget that Programs Itself

Planning Maestro’s built-in accounting rules and business logic mean you can easily build and shape an accurate and dependable driver-based budget on your own, in a matter of days. No programming. No formulas. No links and logic to maintain. It’s all done for you within our business budgeting software, and it’s all GAAP compliant. No more errors from linking complex formulas and macros across spreadsheets.

Keep Your Budget in Sync with Your Accounts

Planning Maestro seamlessly integrates with popular general ledger (GL) sources to fully automate the secure exchange of financial information. Because driver-based budgets are managed at the activity level, all GL transactions are automatically posted to the budget and accurately accounted for.

Why Accurate Cash Flow Insights Matter More During Times of Uncertainty

Download our white paper, Making the Big Shift: Transitioning from Growth to Capital Efficiency, to learn how an insightful, strategic, and accurate cash flow budget will allow you to manage scarce resources effectively.

Empower Your Business With Planning Maestro

Common Challenges During Sluggish Economy	How Planning Maestro Can Help
Cash-flow planning	Small and mid-size businesses are often the first ones to be hit, and often hit the hardest, during “tough and uncertain times”. The ability for a company to develop an insightful, strategic, and accurate cash flow budget or forecast allows you to manage scarce resources effectively, as well as provide investors with greater insight. With less cash to count on, knowing your cash flow position has never been more important: how much is really in the bank, how much is available on short notice, what revenues are coming in when, and what resources are going out and when. Managing your cash flow as tightly as possible is perhaps the most important tool you have to withstand the down economy and come out on the other side intact and poised for growth.
Personnel planning	Many small and midsize businesses operate on a low profit margin and, therefore, become very sensitive to any market fluctuations. Even during times of immense growth, your employees are often your biggest expense. Forecasting workforce expenses accordingly will help prepare your business for even the worst market conditions.
Profitability analysis	All companies strive for growth and earnings, no matter what market conditions look like. It is known that three-quarters of companies will experience a revenue decline during a recession, yet 14% actually experience revenue and profitability growth. Companies that remain strong during uncertain times are often those that have the ability to forecast with accuracy, pivot budgets easily, and analyze how to reduce costs using robust what-if scenario planning.
Business Volatility	For most small to medium sized companies the management of cash inflows and outflows is critical. Your company may have limited resources for borrowing capital quickly. An accurate cash flow statement developed during the plan or forecast process can serve as an alert mechanism for any future problems caused by an unfavorable cash position.

Trusted By More Than 10,000 Users

“We used Planning Maestro to do some worst-case scenario planning, such as losing 50% of our revenue and planned hours. It was a huge benefit to forecast the impact on our revenue. We were fortunate that our worst-case scenario didn’t come to pass, but it was still helpful to know what it would look like so that we could plan ahead.”

- Peter Welch,

CFO, Heartland