Getting started with SIBP Scenarios
With all the uncertainty currently unleashed around the world, it is hard to imagine finding time to make budget revisions. The COVID-19 pandemic has broken most 2020 budgets, forcing planners to reevaluate their assumptions, calculations, and forecasts. With so many variables to consider, it is difficult to start developing multiple scenarios and contingency plans. In the midst of this global pandemic, budgeting can help answer some anxiety-inducing questions. Scenarios can help answer questions like: What are the short term impacts to the budget? What will it take to return to pre-pandemic levels of production? Sage Intacct has a solution to help address some of these budgeting anxieties.
Sage Intacct Budgeting and Planning (SIBP) enables you to leverage the power of scenarios to develop budget models. This feature helps planners quickly test the impact of budget adjustments. Check out CLA’s SPARK Blog for an introduction to Sage Intacct Budgeting and Planning and learn more about what it can do for you: CLA’s Sage Intacct Spark #2
Budgeting & Planning
Building scenarios in SIBP is a powerful tool for making revisions to budgets. Scenarios allows you to make adjustments to an active operating budget, without committing to these changes. You can compare the impact of multiple scenarios to find the right fit. Utilizing the scenario feature can help you model the impact of the pandemic on short term revenue. Scenarios can also be used to model the longer term effects that reduced revenue will have into the future. Multiple forecasts can be created to test different scenarios. You can create as many scenarios as needed–there are no limits. SIBP is a standalone cloud software that makes getting started as simple as 1, 2, 3. Click on “Scenario”, then add a New Scenario or select one that was previously created to get started.
Getting started with Scenarios
When working on a scenario, a light blue box at the top of the budget indicates that you are now editing a scenario. Think of a scenario as a clear film, layered on top of your budget, that allows you to make adjustments. In a scenario, you can make modifications to underlying assumptions, models, and any other inputs to to the budget. Once changes are made, the impact to the related budget line is displayed immediately. You can even delete entire budget lines. Any changes made to a scenario only appear on the scenario and not on the actual budget. As long as a scenario is active, it will not change your underlying budget.
Comparing Budgets to Scenarios
Once scenarios are built, comparing them to the budget is done on the Sheets tab. Comparisons can be made on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis. Just like budgets you can can share your scenarios with stakeholders.
Budgeting and planning is difficult, streamline the process with Sage Intacct Budgeting and Planning. Reach out to your CLA Intacct Team to learn more about Sage Intacct Budgeting and Planning, and how we can help you stay one step ahead!
Interested in learning more about Sage Intacct Budgeting and Planning? Reach out to us here. Missed the first spark? Find it here! Or read our Sage Intacct Budget Tips and Tricks here!
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A Consultant on CLA's Intacct team, who brings over a decade of management and accounting experience in the technology, manufacturing, and service industries. Throughout his experiences, Ted has driven finance teams to achieve more through leveraging technology to improve business processes.