Financial forecasting may be difficult right now, but it’s never been so important

The financial landscape is uncertain – and, for the first time in modern history, it's difficult to find any certainty with financial forecasting. Covid-19 is putting every organisation in an unusual situation.

Many are completing a bottom-up forecast based on brand-new assumptions. However, Covid-19 is an unprecedented challenge. Without any significant predictors of Covid-19’s short- and long-term financial effect, it’s incredibly difficult to model what effect it will have on organisation’s bottom lines.

Everything about these forecasts is different. Your team is working from home. You may be operating with reduced numbers. Your forecasts are out of date almost immediately as government advice and the current situation changes and adapts.

This isn’t good enough when you need to make financially driven business decisions. You need accurate, up-to-the-minute projections.

How can I produce forecasts from accurate data?

At a time when the situation changes daily, speed is crucial. If you’re creating forecasts from static data, you may be able to make some great predictions, but it could take upwards of a week to produce them – and, by the time you’re done, they’re already out of date.

Even worse, if your skilled forecaster falls ill, you could lose the ability to create these projections altogether. They’re skilled in pulling together data from different sources – skills which are hard to adopt if it’s not your usual day job.

This is why analysis features found in financial management software such as IRIS Analytics has become an essential tool for busy finance teams. It enables you to build out robust forecasts using accurate, live financial data. You can even build out reports that can be used time and time again; refresh your reports to pull through up-to-the-minute data and information.

You don’t need to rely on a single trained user, either. The software is designed to be as simple as possible with user-friendly formats, such as spreadsheets, which means any of the team can pick it up with ease.

You can then drill down into your data to help you make informed business decisions. Unlike manual data extraction and forecasts, analytics software is designed to help you analyse every aspect of your financial position in real time, transforming them into rich visuals.

No matter what the coming months throw at you, you’ll be able to become a data expert and build accurate forecasts on the fly using IRIS Analytics. This best in class business analytics software plugs directly into your financial management software, so building board-ready reports is as easy as pushing a button.

We can get you up and running with remote implementation in days, not weeks. Check out IRIS Analytics or contact us directly to find out more.

If you’re a business, discover how IRIS Financials’ unified ledger system can help you to build out and access your data.

If you’re a school, take forecasting one step further with IRIS Financial Planner. It's a budgeting software suite designed specifically for schools.