Can handle an unlimited number of budget versions
Description
Alowing multiple budget versions in a planning tool accommodates strategic planning and allows flexibility when dealing with changes to budgets, supporting iterative changes and nuanced financial planning. Handling multiple budget versions gives users the ability to compare and track different budget scenarios, aiding in informed decision-making.
Example Use Case
Scenario: An international manufacturing company uses CPM software to manage its budgeting needs. The company frequently modifies its financial plans due to fluctuations in market conditions, changes in resource availability, and shifts in strategic objectives. This requires working on several versions of budgets concurrently.
Solution: The CPM software is capable of creating and handling an unlimited number of budget versions. This flexibility makes it easy for the manufacturing company to update financial plans, compare different budget scenarios in real-time, and make recent versions available for further planning.
Considerations
There is nothing worse than creating multiple budget versions only to have to delete them when you run out of space. When asking about budget versions, make sure the versions are always live - meaning there is no “maximum active” restriction or anything to that effect. If you have to archive a version to make another one active, you're going to find that it's a huge hassle especially with multiple users on their own versions.
It's a red flag if the system is unable to scale beyond a few versions. It is practically inevitable that a growing business will need many, many versions over time.
Questions to Ask a Vendor
- Version Limit: Is there an upper limit to the number of budget versions that your system can manage simultaneously?
- Comparison Features: What features does your software provide for comparing and analyzing different versions of budgets?
- User Access Control: How does your system handle user access and permission controls for different budget versions?