This article focuses on the operational budget’s enhancements for the rolling forecast process and shows 7 possible benefits.

We often hear organisations hail the move from traditional annual budgeting to rolling forecast as a great improvement. However what makes rolling forecast great? Is rolling forecast the answer to ease the pain of budgeting? This article explores what rolling forecast is, it’s pros and cons, some best practice times and if rolling forecast can ease the pain of budgeting.

Two years ago, the company moved away from our annual budget and monthly variance reports, and adopted quarterly rolling forecasts supported by key performance indicators and scorecards. Is this approach useful to a line manager?

Today’s FP&A practitioners are highly trained professionals with a greater ability to see the big picture, analyse and interpret data, and build predictive models. They are also experts in harnessing the power of information technology. They are able to create detailed cost and revenue databases that unlock patterns and trends in business behaviour and to build sophisticated and responsive forecasting models. We do rolling forecasts because we know they are better and because we can.

FP&A Trends E-Books is a series of publications consisting of articles on FP&A-related subjects. The issues are regularly published on the FP&A Trends website and are available only to the website subscribers. The first issue is devoted to the rolling forecast philosophy and contains articles from Larysa Melnychuk, Steve Morldige, Richard Reinderhoff, Elena Kiristova and Thorstein Siglaugsson. 

Beyond Budgeting has now been around for twenty years. More and more companies across the world are embarking on a Beyond Budgeting journey, from global giants to smaller ones not yet strangled by corporate controls and bureaucracy, eager to protect their start-up agility as they grow.