Budgeting and forecasting

Our budgeting and forecasting specialists bring clarity to CFOs by creating and implementing robust financial and operating models at pace.

Our operational and financial models are used for a range of activities including budgeting, transactions, covenant compliance and ongoing reporting.

While many models can be overly complex, we ensure that we work with the client to create a model that is fit for purpose. We provide a bespoke approach, do use a standard model and always use an appropriate level of detail e.g. granular detail for budget models, greater focus on material items for transactions.

We have a range of services. We can build a new model, take an existing model and improve it, as well as undertake model reviews to give comfort on how an existing model is working and identify any material errors and undertake any mitigating actions.

Our commercial and industry expertise enables us to build financial models that are designed with you in mind. We know that these models will be used by management but with need all of the functionality that a third party would want to see. These models can be used as both a Corporate Transactions model and as an Operational model by management to continue running the business. Our best practice approach to modelling is comprised of four key pillars:

1) Ongoing use in the business

A key cornerstone of our modelling work is that all of our models are designed to be operationally used and updated by the business long after we have designed and built it, enabling the CFO to have a truly useful business tool. We ensure that the people who own the model in the business are involved at an early stage. We design the model in conjunction with you and ensure that there are comprehensive handover sessions upon completion. This is particularly relevant for budget and rolling quarterly forecast models.

2) Top-down commercial outputs with bottom-up rigour

The models we build are built from detailed bottom-up assumptions that can be audited. We also understand however that management and advisers will review and use the model from the top down, drilling into detail where required and we structure that data in our models not only to make this easy, but to give insightful lookups and outputs so any review is both efficient and effective.

3) A robust driven cashflow

We understand that cash is one of the most important items in the model and so we ensure that it is driven, and not a balancing number. We do this by using t-accounts for each balance sheet line. This enables the user to effortlessly see how assumptions flow into P&L, Balance Sheet and Cash flow.

4) Realtime scenario analysis with an automatic bridge to base case

We understand our models will be used on a regular basis in the business, so it is important we avoid management having to maintain several models. We are strong believers in “one version of the truth” - a single integrated model that has the latest actuals and the latest strategic view from management. We know that management will want to run scenarios and so all our models incorporate the ability to run sensitivities, scenarios and different cases in real time, giving an automatic bridge to the base case on a statement-by-statement, line-by-line and month-by-month basis. This means management can see the impact of changing assumptions flowing through the model on both a summary and detailed level.

Contact us

Get in touch today to see how we can support you in building budget and forecast models to drive value creation.