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Are you using the right tools to stay on top of your budget planning?

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It is the beginning of yet another year, and already this one seems to be off to a better start than the last. This time last year we were struggling to come to terms with the real threat of possibly being rated junk credit status, and the consequences of that downgrade.

2017 seems stark in contrast, as the general feeling is one of optimism. It may have something to do with the fact that we eluded junk status, and a few other less than positive predictions; but actually it has more to do with how well our country has geared up in preparation for the expansion of our overall business environment in South Africa.

With our economy stabilising as the year progressed, due mostly to the mediating effect of our commodity items’ sterling performance in the market, we can look forward to a strengthening of the Rand. This and the projected policy changes could reduce constrictive red tape and make it easier to do business in South Africa. Bolstered by the fact that government has maintained strong financial control through individuals with key understanding of finance and business; ratified most recently when vice president Cyril Ramaphosa and finance minister Pravin Gordhan were chosen to represent South Africa at the next World Economic Forum.

As you can tell, It is more important than ever to gear up your company to take advantage of this optimistic economic climate and focus on growth with extensive budgeting and planning for the year ahead.

Why you’re going to need more than Excel on it’s own to plan for this one

You got by using just Excel last year, manually updating your workbooks month on month, but the demand on data analytics for trend analysis is growing and you are going to need a quicker and more adaptable business tool – especially as you go into your preparation and planning for your new budget.

This is where Power BI in Excel comes in; it can enable the kind of functionality you will need to do in-depth analysis without too much effort. This includes setting up automation (wherever this is possible) to help you build data and finance modelling tools that will eliminate all instances where human error could creep in as well as save you valuable time in manual labour.

Power BI can help you see the effect of every change on your business

We’ve built multiple solutions powered by Excel and Power BI for our customers, which gave them the power to do financial planning for not only the year to come but also multiple years. They were able to see exactly what effect each individual change had across their entire business, from their standardised financial statements, income statements, cash flow statements, to their balance sheets.

Don’t miss a thing as you plan your budgets for 2017, analyse your business’s unique trends by using Excel and Power BI and drill down into the detail.

We can’t promise that there won’t be a few hiccoughs by policy makers or some calamitous changes in cabinet, but if you use Power BI to plan your year ahead you already have one up on 2017.

If you’d like to start using Power BI for your business then leave your details below and we’ll get in contact.

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