SOLUTIONS / BUILD A BUDGET & FORECAST
Turn the operating plan
into a useful forecast.
Build a budget and forecast around the drivers, teams and activities of your business. Connect the plan to actual performance and the decisions ahead.
01 / THE WORK BEHIND THE MATERIALS
A clear objective.
A connected approach.
For founders, business owners and operating teams setting an annual plan or refreshing an existing forecast.
Connect the operating drivers
Translate sales plans, capacity, staffing and investment into linked financial assumptions. Keep responsibility for key inputs clear.
Bring the business together
Connect departments, locations or revenue streams to company results and cash flow. Make shared costs and consolidation logic visible.
Compare and refresh
Structure the agreed actuals input, explain variances and update the remaining forecast. Show the effect of revised operating assumptions.
TURN THE OBJECTIVE INTO A WORKING BRIEF
What needs to be clear
before the next decision.
Turn an operating plan into a forecast that can be maintained. A useful structure connects responsibility for assumptions to the reports used to review performance.
| The question | The work behind it | The useful output |
|---|---|---|
| Who owns each assumption? | Map revenue, hiring, operating spend and investment to business activities and responsible teams. | A budget structure with clear inputs and an agreed planning calendar. |
| How will performance be compared? | Align historical actuals and forecast categories, periods and metric definitions. | A consistent basis for reviewing actual results against the plan. |
| What changes when the outlook changes? | Separate completed periods from future assumptions and identify the schedules to refresh. | A forecast structure that supports updates without rewriting the entire operating plan. |
A USEFUL STARTING POINT
Build the basis for the decision.
Define the reporting categories and source information before adding detail. This gives the model a consistent structure for actuals, the original budget and subsequent forecasts.
FOR OUR FIRST CONVERSATION
Three things to clarify.
- Historical financials and the current reporting structure.
- Revenue, staffing, expense and investment plans by the relevant team.
- The reporting cadence and the decisions management wants the forecast to support.
02 / MATERIALS FOR THE NEXT STEP
The right documents.
One consistent basis.
The products follow the project. I can focus on one deliverable or connect several in an agreed scope.
USEFUL INPUTS AFTER OUR FIRST CALL
- Historical financial and operating data
- Chart of accounts and reporting structure
- Sales, hiring and investment plans
- Department or location requirements
- Preferred forecast horizon and update frequency
ILLUSTRATIVE PROJECT SCENARIO
See the decision
in context.
A growing service firm needs to connect hiring and utilization to its annual plan. The model allows the owner to compare the original budget with a revised delivery forecast.
Explore the project exampleA FEW PRACTICAL DETAILS
Before we work together.
LET’S MAKE THE NEXT MOVE CLEARER
Let’s make the next
decision clearer.
Three quick questions. Then choose a time to talk with Henry.