What software to use for budgets - manufacturer with 750 nominal codes?

What software to use for budgets - manufacturer...

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My scenario is this:
£20m Manufacturing company
Accounts on Sage MMS
8 Production departments

Production overheads are absorbed in to WIP at annual rates.
750 nominal codes.

The budgeting model I have inherited runs to 30 Excel sheets, 60 000 calculations.

You change one number, the whole thing recalculates.

We go through a few budget iterations, and then someone wants a comparison with an earlier version.

This is a nightmare.

What software is there out there to manage budget creation?

We are looking for budgets broken down in to months.
Tom Cadogan

Replies (12)

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By IanClark
31st Oct 2005 19:37

No to 13 periods
BUT Winforecast will work on weekly periods changing during the year, e.g. four week months, five week month etc etc, you can design your own 52 week year splitting the months in any combination, and you can set this in the "other options" tab.

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By AnonymousUser
31st Oct 2005 11:07

Answer
No, however in the new version, Financial Forecasting you can, but that is only available in the single user non consolidation version.

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By listerramjet
31st Oct 2005 13:11
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By carnmores
31st Oct 2005 15:38

No not in
my version, which may have been superceded, but i do not know due to Sages incredily stupid and arrogant attitude, more of this later, dealt only with months or periods one to 12; there is a work around thats is unwiledly email me if you want the details.

not so sure about SFF that may do it, i ve just seen the answer below so it obviously does.

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By chrisgu
31st Oct 2005 10:03

Sage winforecast and 13 periods
If you will excuse asking a supplementary question.. Does anybody know if Winforecast can handle thirteen 4 week periods?

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By carnmores
26th Oct 2005 19:47

i agree win4cast is great
sage ff is a bit unwieldly in places!

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By AnonymousUser
28th Oct 2005 12:20

It depends on your requirements
WinFC is probably a good place to start however it is recommended to get 2 half days of training to get the most from the product. Depending where you are in the country choose your reseller carefully. Feel free to call me if you need me to recommend anyone in your area 0161 304 8922.

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By IanClark
26th Oct 2005 19:28

Sage again
The older version of Winforecast Professional will do all that you need admirably.

The latest version, (at least the one that I have seen) is not quite so good, it doesn't appear to be based on the old Win4cast but on the Sage Forecasting which came into being around Version 9 or so of Sage Line 50.

Look at the new one by all means, but the older Winforecast professional V5.1 is a great product.

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By carnmores
26th Oct 2005 14:47

I do recommend Sage sometimes
the old win4cast product

now called sage financial forecasting sounds exactly what you need

emaail me if you need some more info or go to the web site

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By User deleted
26th Oct 2005 09:29

Speak to the guys at INCA Software
think its - 01784 270 876 (?)

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By Richard Willis
26th Oct 2005 11:58

Use multi company if you have it
Hi Tom

Me again!

We use a dummy company to run our P&L budget. We enter the figures as one-line journals by month and build up the entire year. This is then pulled together with the actuals in Excel, using ODBC links to the database. I'm not sure if the version of Sage you use is very good with these, but if it is Excel freindly, it's a good way to go.

If you have a base budget and enter any amendments as additional journals, these can be modified, or voided, at will to see the new picture without losing the basis.

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Dennis Howlett
By dahowlett
27th Oct 2005 05:01

I'm with Ian
Yep - WinFC - I did the first UK review of what is (was) a fab product. I still have and use it.

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