Using the ERP during the budgeting cycle is no longer necessary
SUMMARY
This article highlights the main challenges faced by corporate finance teams when they are required to consolidate budget iterations directly within the ERP system.
Reading time: 1 minute 58 seconds
Why recalculating the budget directly in the ERP slows down financial performance
In companies with 100 to 2,000 employees, corporate finance teams are asked to revise their budget several times a year. When each iteration must be recalculated or re-imported into an ERP, it introduces delays, inflexibility, and overdependence on IT teams. These limitations reduce organizational agility and hinder timely, informed decision-making. It is therefore essential to rethink the role of the ERP in the budgeting process, in order to regain the agility required in today’s fast-changing economic environment.
Challenge #1: lack of flexibility in ERPs for budgeting scenarios
ERPs are designed to handle fixed, standardized financial data—not to support multiple iterations of scenarios, assumptions, or simulations. When a budget change requires a direct update in the ERP, it quickly becomes cumbersome, complex, and unsuitable for experimentation.
To overcome this, companies can shift the planning logic to an external, more flexible environment that enables the creation of multiple budget versions without affecting official accounting data.
Challenge #2: dependency on IT teams and execution delays
Significant budget changes in an ERP often require IT involvement to adjust structures, reports, or data imports. This creates a bottleneck and limits the autonomy of finance teams.
Implementing a dedicated FP&A solution allows users to make adjustments and run simulations independently, while ensuring secure and seamless integration with the ERP for final data import/export.
Challenge #3: risk of errors and rigidity in consolidation
Budget recalculation within the ERP often involves manual manipulations, rigid templates, and slow consolidation. This increases the risk of errors, complicates traceability, and hinders a clear and timely view of the overall picture.
Using an external analytical engine connected to the ERP enables automatic data consolidation, full version traceability, and instant visibility into the impact of each assumption.
Conclusion
While ERPs are essential for accounting and bookkeeping, they are not designed for the dynamic nature of financial planning. FP&A Swiftfinance offers an approach in which the entire budgeting process is handled outside the ERP, in an environment built for flexibility, speed, and governance. This solution empowers teams to evolve their budgets independently, while maintaining smooth synchronization with official financial systems. .
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3 challenges of having to recalculate the budget in the ERP