The Budget Process Yesterday vs. Today

© 2008 XLerant, Inc., All rights reserved. Privileged and confidential information of XLerant, Inc. www.XLerant.com| 1

BudgetPak… the future of budgeting….


Yesterday’s Problem

Budget - (Fr.) bougette (purse

)- a list of all

planned expenses and

revenues.


Consulting #5600300

Transportation #5700300

Office Supplies #5600300

Software #5960300

Hotel #5700344

Meals #5700333

Rent #5789000

Dues & Subs #5788300

Telephone #5700555

JanuaryFebruaryMarch April

TOTAL BUDGET

Back in the day…..

Rows of General Ledger Accounts

Columns of time periods


VisiCalc, Lotus, Excel – the 80’s & 90’s




Consulting #5600300



Software #5960300

Hotel #5700344

Meals #5700333

Rent #5789000


Telephone #5700555

JanuaryFebruaryMarch April

TOTAL BUDGET

Most Products on the Market Today



What’s wrong with this picture?


The Beloved Rows and Columns

Consulting #5600300



Software #5960300

Hotel #5700344

Meals #5700333

Rent #5789000


Telephone #5700555

January February March April

TOTAL BUDGET

Consulting #5600300



Software #5960300

Hotel #5700344

Meals #5700333

Rent #5789000


Telephone #5700555

January February March April

TOTAL BUDGET


The Grid Doesn’t Work Well

The “Garbage-In” Problem

People dislike budgeting

They don’t know how to budget (never had “Budgeting 101”)

Lack of Ownership

Frustrated by the mechanics


Don’t take our word for it…..

• 2/3 of planning/budgeting software licenses purchased for non-finance managers go unused

• 44% of companies report catastrophic failure of anybody outside of Finance to use the system).

• 41% budgets are submitted with errors or omissions

• Only half of non-finance managers are Excel literate

• 90% of companies have failed to achieve “best practice” budgeting


Getting everyone to cooperate


What Finance is looking for

• Automate the process (to make it more productive)

• Robust reporting “out of the box”

• Departments do it themselves (and do it right)

• Give them the right tools – self serve in controlled environment

• Air tight approval workflow, roll ups & audit trail

• Easy access to the story behind the numbers

• Easy interchange of data

• Eliminate common errors and omissions

• One version of the truth


What Managers are looking for

• Simple: Answer questions, respond to prompts

• Intuitive and personalized

• A system that thinks in business terms

• Automatically do the financial work for me

• Show me the impact of my budget decisions

• Allow me to make changes easily


Sign contracts

• Kick off meeting (Finance, IT)

• 1 to 6 weeks configuration (typical)

• ½ Day a week time commitment (client side)

• Conference room pilot

• User training (1 hour)

• Full rollout

Implementation Timeline


• Founders managed Financial Planning & Analysis (Pepsi, Kraft Foods, Reader’s Digest)

• Authored Value Planning (J. Wiley & Sons, 2000)

• Awarded 2007 Accounting software (by CT Tech Council)

• VC Funded (2007)

• 100% Referenceable Clients

XLerant


Christopher W. Nielson

700 Canal Street

Stamford, CT 06902

(P) 203 328 3787

[email protected]

www.XLerant.com

Contact Information

Economy & Finance

The Budget Process Yesterday vs. Today