Budget tracking is a critical part of financial management—but how it’s done makes all the difference. Many organizations still rely on manual processes like spreadsheets, which are time-consuming, error-prone, and difficult to scale. On the other hand, automation offers a faster, more accurate, and more strategic approach to managing budgets and expenses.
Budget Tracking: Manual
Allocating and tracking expenses by department, project or other categories is often done with spreadsheets. This process is labor-intensive, prone to errors and difficult to manage. A lack of visibility into actual expenses vs budgets also increases the risk of overspending.
Many companies use Microsoft Excel for budget tracking. Tracking budgets manually requires extra work and increases the risk of errors. Spreadsheets are inherently insecure, create version control issues and can’t be audited. The data isn’t real-time and spreadsheets don’t have drill-down capability.
Even with just a few prepaid expenses, you still need to record the expense and update balances at the end of the month. NetSuite does this automatically, saving time, ensuring accuracy and giving you one less thing to worry about.
Okay, so you are already allocating expenses by department. But how do you keep track of allocation percentages? Typical measures like square footage and headcount can change. Who maintains this data? Managing allocations manually also takes time, which extends the close process.
Budget Tracking: Automated
Automating allocations and expense amortization saves time at month-end and increases efficiency, allowing you to close faster with less risk of error. This translates into greater confidence in the accuracy of financial reports provided to stakeholders.
Grow your business through automation instead of adding additional headcount. Save on full-time or part-time employee expenses. Better, more reliable financial insights lead to better decision making. As a result, you can drive more revenue and improve margins.
With automation, your finance team can focus on strategy instead of manual data entry. It’s not just about saving time—it’s about scaling with confidence. Read more about it here.
Ready to eliminate manual tracking and gain real-time visibility into your budgets?
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