Quick, Easy, Flexible Budgeting!

 

ASI-Budget/ Forecasting Module: The FRx Forecaster Analytics Alternative

By Ryan Wetherhead of Accounting System Integrators

 

 

Accounting System Integrators, LLC, a solutions developer for the Microsoft Business Solutions-Solomon, has developed the ASI-Budget/ Forecasting Module, which is the FRx Forecaster Analytics Alternative.  

 

ASI-Budget/Forecasting makes financial budgeting, forecasting and reporting faster, easier and more accurate. It not only automates the typical spreadsheet budgeting process but also improves it by centrally managing the flow of data throughout your company – eliminating the need to update and consolidate separately maintained spreadsheets.

With this valuable module, all authorized persons – such as the finance manager, director, department heads and other staff – can review and modify budgets within the same system. Access to various budgets is securely limited to those responsible for each particular budget.

 

The Budget set up area allows for a number of choices as far as how to operate your budgeting system.  The set up function customizes the total budget process including budgeting options, distribution method, user rights assignment and more.  The user can set up the budgeting module for multi-company, multi-currency, and the ability to use the 13th period.  Set default options to create and process the budget within the company’s desires.  Assign user responsibility by category, sub account, category/sub account, and also by budget phase with the ability to assign user-defined responsibilities.  Finally, this solution integrates with General Ledger and FRx Reporting.

 


 

Budget Entry

 

The Budget Entry function is the place for simple budgeting, where the user has the ability to enter in budgets as well as modify existing budgets.  With the Budget Entry function, the user can review, maintain, and update each budget line item. 

 

Other features that accompany the Budget Entry function are Budget Users Maintenance & User Rights.  The purpose of these functions are organizational in that user access and usage of the budgeting system is defined by company, currency, and ledger.  User rights enable access to responsibilities within the budgeting process including budget generator, budget development, budget approval, generate final budget and modify final budget.  

 

Seasonal Maintenance is another option in Budget Entry, and is a user-defined distribution method that enables data to be allocated according to a company’s desires during budget entry or budget generation. 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Budget Generator

 

The Budget Generator gives the ability to generate a budget from actual amounts or from other budgets with a percentage increase or decrease.  Also easy to use, save for future use by defining budget templates with ID and description.  User can quickly generate a new budget or forecast out five years with simplicity.  Budget information is able to be generated for the budget approval process or sent directly to the final budget stage where the data is available for modification and reporting through FRx Financial reporting.  The source of budget generation can be any ledger ID, fiscal year or combination.  With Budget Generation, the user can create budget templates from general to specific, with overwrite where overlaps occur. 

 

Category Maintenance is a feature that comes with the Budget Generator function.  This feature gives the user the ability to break down the budget into more detail than sub accounts.  With the category function the user can organize accounts and sub accounts into appropriate categories.  Categories can be defined to a specific sub account, across sub accounts, a specific account, or across accounts. 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

Budget Development & Approval

 

The Budget Development and Approval module is the place to manage all budget activity where an approval process is required.  This feature eliminates the need to update and consolidate separately maintained spreadsheets and can create budgets for current or future years. 

The user can create budget line items using various distribution methods, and in both the development and approval stages, the user can select a status handle for each line item as either Active, Hold, Reject or Ready for the next stage.       

 

The Budget Administration screen is used to display the budget processing status.  This shows the overall view of the process and is available to the manager to assist in tracking the budget process and the stage of each budget.  Budget details enable details for each budget presented.

 

Two additional features that accompany the development and approval functions are, Responsibility & Due Date Maintenance. The User Responsibility screen is used to assign responsibility to each category / sub-account. The Due Date Maintenance screen assists in tracking the budget process.  This function can help the user know when the budget needs to be developed by, when it needs to be approved by, and when the final budget needs to be ready.  This also keeps track of individuals responsible for the different stages of the budget process.  This gives the supervisor the ability to keep tabs on the user activity. 

 

This solution works well for the company that is looking for an easy but complete budget/forecasting alternative solution.  This module poses an excellent opportunity for both resellers and customers.  If you have any questions about this product or would like to see an online demonstration feel free to contact Ryan Wetherhead of Accounting System Integrators at ryan@asillc.com or at 203.239.7740.