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Ten tips for choosing the best business forecasting software

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There are just so many options available today. Rather than make our lives easier, it sometimes seems like the internet just overwhelms us with facts. With so much information out there, how are we supposed to know what is accurate? How are we to choose? The professionals here at Questica would like to offer our assistance. We have years of experience working with clients who are new to business forecasting software and looking to make things easier. We ourselves offer a great line of budgeting and forecasting software, but we’ll get to that in a minute. What you need to know now is what to look for. So, here are 10 tips to help you choose the best business forecasting software to make your budgeting life easier!

How to choose the best business forecasting software

  1. Choose a fast user interface. Budgeting is already time-consuming enough without having to slog through unnecessary loading times.
  2. Choose a software you find easy to use. The whole point of taking this on is to make your life easier, not spend so much time learning about how to use the software! The best programs are easy to pick up and hard to put down once you do. Ease-of-use is a big part of that.
  3. Choose software everyone feels comfortable with. Maybe you’re a fast learner or pick up on technology quickly. Great! You should still make sure it’s easy to learn for the rest of your team. You might not have time to teach them yourself!
  4. Make sure it’s easily accessible from anywhere. This is a big one these days. As much as we might hate it sometimes, our work doesn’t stay at the office anymore. We bring it with us on our tablets and phones. For last minute changes or those unexpected times when you can’t get into the office, make sure you can access your budget through the cloud.
  5. Make sure everyone can access it. You don’t need to print out multiple copies anymore. You also don’t need to track down team members to get updates on the budget. Choose software that allows your people to update the budget through cloud computing. It will save you so much time and headaches.
  6. Prepare for multiple projections. You never make just one budget and you always have to revisit it and update it. A good software won’t require you to restart the entire page every time you want to do this. Instead, it will provide multiple overlays allowing you to compare the data as needed.
  7. Look for drag and drop functionality. This should be standard for software of the future and if a company is not providing it, that is not someone you should be going with.
  8. Good software provides flexibility for how you want to use it. Not every company needs to use something one way. The option to do things even slightly differently can be a huge benefit. If your company decides to switch to a rolling forecast from the usual annual forecast, do you want to buy all new software to manage that change?
  9. Aesthetics do matter. Think not only of what you want to be staring at as you work on the budget, but also who you’re presenting it to. A bad software interface will be ugly and difficult to comprehend, meaning you’re spending even more time just explaining what is already there on the screen.
  10. Finally, the software should reflect your company’s values. 

 

If you are interested in switching to business forecasting software, Questica may have exactly what you are looking for. We offer software that is easy to accommodate for mid-large sized businesses, and functional so that small businesses can use it with ease. If you are interested in learning more about Questica, visit our website where you can request a demo. You want to make the right choices when it comes to budgeting. Questica can help.

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