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Requirement

Budget can be loaded back into an accounting or ERP system when completed

Functional Area

Integration

Industries
All
Tags
Export
API
DETAILS

Description

This feature allows completion of budgets in the CPM system and, subsequently, the export back into an accounting or ERP system for further use. Some organizations like to have budgets loaded back into an ERP to allow linkages to specific expense accounts.

Example Use Case

Scenario: A mid-sized company uses a specific ERP system for daily financial operations while budgeting and financial forecasting are done on a separate CPM system. The company finalizes its annual budget using the CPM system but cannot use the budget as a control in the ERP.

Solution: They build an integration from ERP to CPM, pushing the finalized budget created on the CPM software back into the ERP. This allows potentially more rapid actuals to budget, and gives them the data needed to configure the ERP to limit expenses based on budgeted values.

Considerations

Buyers ask this all the time - can we upload the budget back into our ERP or accounting system? In the end, they almost never do it. It makes very little sense to do so, as the ERP is not an analytical system and lacks the reporting features common in CPM. If you're looking for detailed transaction reports then sure, do it in the ERP. But for comparing your P&L budget to actuals, forecast comparisons and so on, CPM is the way to go.

In most cases, this requirement comes from someone with an accounting background who is struggling with the idea of financial data in a system outside of the ERP or Excel. They usually get over it once they're comfortable in a CPM environment.

For certain non-profits, this requirement is a must for closely tracking expenses related to a specific grant. They want to make sure the budget for that point in time is very accurate, and the revenue for it actually there (see revenue guarantees) before approving any specific expenditures tied to that grant.

Questions to Ask a Vendor

  • Our ERP: Are you able to automatically export the budget back to our specific ERP system? How does the process work?
  • Manual Uploads: If you can not do this automatically, where can we configure an export that is mapped properly for our ERP?
  • Re-Forecasting: When we inevitably adjust the forecast each month, how are those updates handled?
  • Reporting: We receive X, Y, and Z reports from our ERP system when we upload our Excel budget today. Where would I get those in your CPM platform?