See the Future, Budget Better
At Gow and Partners, we’ve been helping clients (limited companies and sole traders alike) reach their full potential for over a decade, and we’re not slowing down.
Maintaining full compliance with HMRC, we continue to help businesses across Lancashire grow their wealth.
Check out our successful Growing Owners Wealth (GOW) solution to learn about our performance-measuring visual analytics, target setting, and how we effectively minimise tax and maximise profits.
Budgets and Forecasts – What’s the Difference?
Budgets and forecasts are important tools for businesses to plan and manage their finances. Being so closely interlinked, we find that people can have a tendency of getting the two confused.
Here are the key differences between budgets and forecasts:
Purpose
A budget is a financial plan that outlines the expected income and expenses for a specific period, most commonly a year. It is used to set targets and goals for the business and to track actual performance against those targets. A forecast, on the other hand, is an estimate of future financial performance, based on current trends and data. It is used to predict how the business will perform in the short or long term.
Time Frame
A budget covers a specific period, usually a year, and is set at the beginning of that period. It is reviewed and revised periodically, but the overall plan remains unchanged. Yet a forecast can cover any period, from a few months to several years, and is typically updated regularly to reflect new information or changing circumstances.
Detail
A budget tends to be more detailed than a forecast, with specific line items for each income and expense category. It is based on assumptions about future performance and takes into account the business's past performance and trends. A forecast is generally less detailed and more flexible, with broader categories of income and expenses and a greater focus on trends and projections.
Accountability
A budget is a tool for holding people accountable for meeting specific targets and goals. It is used to evaluate performance and make decisions about resource allocation. On the contrary, a forecast is a tool for predicting future performance and identifying potential risks and opportunities.
Our Business Budgets
When it comes to managing a business, setting financial goals is crucial to long-term success. We generate and monitor precise, strategic budgets, which have had a huge impact on clients, in terms of both self-awareness and performance.
After helping you determine your goals and generating your budget accordingly, your accounts manager will go on to provide you with a financial health scorecard. This will illustrate how close you are to reaching your targets, over a given period of time, giving your business the kind of accountability it needs to thoroughly excel.
The financial score provides the perfect remedy to the problem of being too busy to sit down and analyse each individual figure in detail, since it offers a clear snapshot into your business performance. It is inclusive to even the busiest of business owners!
Better still, the score boundaries are highly dynamic, designed to grow alongside your business, meaning that we can easily shift the parameters to match new targets.
Budgeting Benefits
- Prepare for your future with strategic financial planning.
- Maximise your understanding and performance.
- Achieve your goals and targets.
Our Financial Forecasts
Our financial forecasts grant you access to invaluable intel, allowing you to establish a set of feasible business goals.
Better still, we can personalise and adjust forecasts based on context and circumstance. For instance, if you are planning on relocating or recruiting new staff members.
Drawing from years of hands-on experience, we offer you tailored expertise, not the pain staking generalities you may have dealt with in the past. Our cashflow forecasts are designed with real-life scenarios in mind, also customisable whenever anything changes.
Acquiring a new property? Set on recruiting that new member of staff?
We provide you with informed cashflow predictions that not only put you in the driver’s seat, but give you the directions.
Forecasting Benefits
- Receive a detailed analysis of your financial health.
- Utilise evidence-backed predictions.
- Rest easy with personalised forecasts.
Your All-in-One Solution
We can include our budgeting and forecasting reports within your tailor-made management reports, creating an invaluable, all-in-one solution.
Kiss goodbye to confusing data presentation.
We work hard to ensure easy navigation, facilitating an enhanced clarity of mind.
It’s no secret that cashflow is vital to the profitability and longevity of any business. This is why we use your real-time data to obtain accurate, realistic budgets for the present.
Our forecasts are equally as strategic. They extract real time data from your accountancy software, giving you the knowledge and confidence required to create and execute your business vision.
Read more about our bespoke cloud accounting packages, and get in touch for a personalised breakdown of what we can offer you specifically.
A Personal Service
We know the financial side of business like the back of our hand, and our accounting experts are eager to help you seek the results you deserve.
Success starts with a solid strategy.
This service allows your business to make well-informed decisions, backed by the numbers. Your accounts manager will talk to you about your short and long-term business vision, taking the time to your wants, as well as your needs.
Budgets and forecasts can be discussed in person at our Dalton Court offices, where you can benefit from insightful meetings and give your business the boardroom it deserves. This can also be done via videocall/telephone from anywhere in the world.
Set Yourself up for Success
Did you know that we run the highest rated accountancy firm in Blackburn with Darwen?
Book your 30 minute discovery call today— enjoy a relaxed, no-obligation chat with one of our qualified accounting advisors. We can assess your situation and determine how to best serve and add value to your business.
Alternatively, you can send us a message with any queries (big or small), and one of our team members will get back to you promptly.
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