Centage Corporation Annual Survey Finds Cash Flow Budgeting as Top Emerging Trend

NATICK, MA--(Marketwired - March 28, 2017) - According to the second annual CFO Survey, sponsored by Centage Corporation, a leading provider of cloud-based budgeting and forecasting software (Budget Maestro®) for small and medium-sized businesses, 88% of CFOs and financial professionals surveyed value financial reporting as either high or critical among the needs of a robust budgeting and forecasting solution. Of those respondents, 85% noted cash flow budgeting as the most desired reporting feature. Given the complexities of reporting and cash flow forecasting in spreadsheets, the ability to create and automatically adjust these reports with up-to-date, relevant and accurate data is paramount to company success.

See our graphic highlighting the survey results

Dynamic market conditions require more from today's CFOs. Without on-demand access to accurate insight, financial professionals are at a disadvantage. Innovative and comprehensive technology solutions are critical to achieving this level of insight, which helps position financial professionals as valuable, strategic members of the executive team. In fact, respondents ranked technology as the number one opportunity to help the finance team operate more efficiently and cost effectively. Of note, 10% more respondents plan to implement a cloud-based accounting/budgeting solution within the next year as compared to survey responses from last year.

Survey Highlights:

1. The top priority for CFOs surveyed is to control expenses, despite the increased role of CFOs in driving strategy across the enterprise.
2. Cash flow is a critical concern. CFOs will look to leverage current technology or upgrade accounting and financial systems to optimize the visibility of cash balances and movements to improve working capital management.
3. Technology is ranked as the top opportunity. CFOs realize that technology fuels best practices within and beyond the walls of finance. Ensuring that each department has the systems they need to maximize productivity is challenging at best. It is encouraging to find that CFOs recognize this needs to be a top priority in 2017.
4. Ownership of budgeting is spread across the organization:
   • 46% report that Operations leverages the company's budgeting and forecasting system
   • 30% report that Sales leverages the company's budgeting and forecasting system
   • 25% report that Marketing leverages the company's budgeting and forecasting system
5. Despite new functionality offered by budgeting and forecasting solutions, ease of use is by far the top feature CFOs value in a budgeting and forecasting solution.

"We are committed to addressing the real challenges faced by today's financial professionals. Our annual CFO survey ensures we keep a pulse on their evolving needs," said Barry Clapp, president and chief executive officer of Centage Corporation. "Armed with this information, we are better positioned to effectively enhance and develop our budgeting and planning solutions to align with the dynamic needs of our customers."

To download the full report, click here.

To learn more about how Budget Maestro can deliver financial insight for your organization, follow us on Twitter @Centage or visit the Centage Blog.

About Centage
Budget Maestro® by Centage is an easy-to-use, scalable, automated budgeting and forecasting application. It is designed for small to mid-market companies and automates many of the time-consuming and error-prone activities associated with using spreadsheets to generate accurate budgets and forecasts. It features built-in financial and business logic that allows users to create and update their budgets and forecasts, and never worry about formulas, functions, links or any custom programming. It is the only solution in the market that offers synchronized P&L, balance sheet and cash flow reporting that generates automatically and updates seamlessly. Budget Maestro serves more than 9,000 users worldwide. Visit us at Centage.com, follow us on Twitter, or visit the Centage Blog for the latest insights on budgeting and forecasting strategies.

Centage and Budget Maestro are registered trademarks of Centage.