Planning & Forecasting

Planning for the future is a critical function given today's challenging business environment. "Discretionary" resources are scarce, with increased compliance and regulatory requirements demanding an ever growing share of investment funding. As such, solid planning is essential for making sure that scarce resources are invested in strategies and endeavors that provide the best returns. Our services include comprehensive business planning and financial forecasting, which provide a basis for strategic and tactical operational decisions. Whether it be starting a new business, launching a new product line, developing performance goals, or just developing more efficient planning processes, our projects focus on providing meaningful results in a quick timeframe.

Value Proposition and Key Benefits

Planning ahead is a key aspect of doing business. However, companies can get so focused on day-to-day operations that they miss opportunities to revisit and strengthen company strategies and operational deployment of those strategies. Planning processes that incorporate strategy formulation, financial forecasting and future cash flow analysis components can:

Increase shareholder value by focusing the entire organization on consistent top-level strategies and objectives
Improve ROI by identifying business segments or new opportunities that provide the highest value from future cash flows
Provide a framework for making future decisions and evaluating future performance achievement
Improve efficiency by streamlining annual budgeting processes

Consulting Services

Strategic Planning and Business Plan Preparation

A clear plan with realistic expectations for future performance is critical for guiding all operational aspects of a company toward common goals. The planning process itself can be beneficial by helping executives and line managers collaborate on broader strategies and not just focus on individual segments of the business. Our services include:

Assess correlation of strategies to existing business operations and identify opportunities for improvement
Develop comprehensive business plans for new businesses and new opportunities
Determine key business drivers and develop performance indicators to track future results

Cash Flow Forecasting and Financial Modeling

Computer models of future financial performance are an integral part of any planning process and often form the basis for significant investment decisions. As such, it is critical that the models reflect the appropriate business drivers and assumptions. We work with closely with our customers to develop a thorough understanding of their business before actually developing the computer models. We use a structured modeling approach that segregates data, analytics and reporting to reduce modeling errors and improve flexibility for future enhancements of the models. Our services include:

Develop a comprehensive understanding of your business operations and underlying assumptions that will drive the models
Formulate computer models using a structured approach to maximize flexibility and minimize modeling errors
Produce discounted future cash flow models that can be used for business valuation, ROI and shareholder value analysis
Prepare multiple scenarios that accommodate various levels of certainty about future events and economic conditions
Present results to management and refine models as required

Budgeting Processes

The annual budgeting process for many companies is a valuable but extremely painful and expensive exercise. There are many approaches to budgeting, ranging from activity-based bottom-up budgets to top-down high-level budgets. The key to making any of these approaches work effectively is to make sure that budgets link to company strategies, and to make sure there is controlled flexibility built in for inevitable changes. Our services include:

Review business operations and existing budgeting processes to identify opportunities for improvement
Design and implement methods for incorporating company strategies into budgets
Enhance budget analysis and reporting capabilities