The budget cycle & benchmarking
The budget cycle is a key moment for companies, as it determines for a large extent where your resources will be allocated. You want to make sure you base your decisions on the right input. Often, companies solely work with internal knowledge and assumptions. This can be improved by incorporating benchmarking during the budget process.
Why benchmarking during the budget cycle?
Benchmarking helps to objectively validate your decisions and determine the right focus. For example, you may strive for more growth, but a benchmark shows that you are already the fastest growing in the industry. It might be more beneficial to work on your profitability. By benchmarking your own performance against the competition, you can see where your company can improve and become more competitive. It helps to set growth & profit targets that fit your company’s strategy.
How it will benefit your budget process
Create a common view of your performance
With a benchmark, you create one common view of how your company is performing compared to the competition. You make sure that everyone is aligned and works from the same starting point.
Determine your focus points
A KPI benchmark shows in which areas you are performing well and where you can improve, or become more competitive. Determine the right focus points that align with your strategic ambitions.
Add context to your briefing
With the right briefing for budget holders, management is able to define ambition levels and challenge the company. A benchmark will give context to the what and why behind the briefing.
Check & challenge the budgets
A benchmark helps finance and control to check the budgets. Are they realistic but still ambitious? Is something missing? It gives them the tools to fact check and challenge growth assumptions.
Get your budget faster approved
Often, the budget goes back and forth, as stakeholders want higher targets, while budget holders try to work them down. Benchmarks provide objective reasoning to determine & approve the final budgets faster.
Start benchmarking during the budget cyclewith the Performance Monitor
Our tool, the Performance Monitor, is the one-stop solution for benchmarking and competitive analysis. Want to incorporate benchmarking during your budget cycle? Let's get in touch to see how our online dashboard can help you out. During a free demo, we will show you the dashboard, all its features and how it can help you determining your strategic ambitions.