IDG Contributor Network: How to improve the budgeting, planning and forecasting process

June is often the beginning of a new fiscal year. The annual plan is typically approved by the board before the summer holidays, the accountants were barely able to close the books and it is time for the first monthly forecast for the coming year. Everything seems in order, but the same complex forecasting spreadsheets are being converted to a new fiscal year, stale metrics are being calculated and lengthy instructional emails are being readied to be sent throughout the company. Worse yet, compa