When CFOs participating in the Centage/IOMA
survey were asked to write in their greatest budgeting “pain point,” the most common issue by far—
regardless of company size—was dealing with
department managers. Specific complaints were that
managers don’t take ownership or hold themselves
accountable for their pieces of the budget, don’t fully cooperate or participate in budget development,
don’t understand the process or what’s required,
don’t meet deadlines, pad their budgets, or provide
unrealistic numbers.
Robert Cowan, who was CFO of the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) at the time of
the survey, elaborates on these issues: “The biggest pain
points in budgeting and forecasting involve getting buyin and involvement in the process from all the users and
departments. Although management is clear that department heads are responsible for their budgets and any
variances, it often seems that too little attention is paid to
the budgeting process and…a well-developed budget.
Sometimes this is due to other priorities at the time the
budget is being created, but oftentimes, it is a direct result
oflack of involvement and/or understanding of the purpose of budgeting and why we go through this extensive
exercise every year.”
Managers’ inability to think about budgets strategically
frustrates many CFOs, such as the author of this anonymous survey comment. “[Our] biggest budget concerns
are getting adequate detail for revenue forecasting we
have multiple product lines, so amounts generated by
product line are as important as an overall revenue total.
[Also an issue is the] capability of managers to think
about the long term and the important metrics that drive
their operations; e.g., if they need to increase revenue,
what are the drivers, and what items can be leveraged?”
Managers aren’t the only ones being called out by
CFOs. Survey respondents cited senior executives for
their lack of direction on or support of the budget, making late changes to key assumptions and targets, not communicating well between parent company and subsidiaries, and micromanaging the numbers. It’s a delicate
balance:Too much direction, and managers feel the numbers don’t belong to them; too little, and the process wanders aimlessly.