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How to Account for Seasonality Using Financial Planning Software

insightsoftware -
August 26, 2019

insightsoftware is a global provider of reporting, analytics, and performance management solutions, empowering organizations to unlock business data and transform the way finance and data teams operate.

How To Account For Seasonality Using Financial Planning Software

You’d be hard-pressed to find a business that looks forward to seasonal fluctuations. That’s because seasonality introduces another layer of complication into any organization’s financial planning. But when you know how to plan for them, seasonal changes are no longer something to fear. With the right financial planning software, you can prepare for and even predict your business’s seasonal changes.

Most industries experience seasonality in some form. Business performance tends to naturally fluctuate throughout the year. For some companies, the summer is their slowest time—with clients and staff out of the office enjoying vacations, it can be hard to even schedule a meeting. For those in retail, the Christmas season represents a huge boom followed by sluggish sales until spring.

Other seasonal trends can be more understated and difficult to predict. These subtle trends often cause seemingly unexplainable peaks and valleys in your organization’s bottom line.

No matter what time of year your company experiences shifts in business, seasonality can have a big impact on cash flow and profitability. That’s why it’s important to understand the natural cycles of your business. Otherwise, you might spend valuable resources implementing unnecessary changes to fix a slump in sales that’s actually a normal part of your business cycle.

Staying on Top of Seasonal Changes with Financial Planning Software

Luckily, there are financial planning software tools available that can help you predict and understand the seasonal ebb and flow of your company.

These tools help you remove the guesswork from financial planning and make planning cycles more predictable.

Financial Planning Software

 

Here’s how you can use technology to beat the uncertainty of seasonal fluctuations.

Use Predictive Analytics

With the growing interconnectivity of the workplace, our computers and devices generate more data than ever before. The sheer amount of data piling up from multiple sources can feel overwhelming. So how do you make your data work for you?

Modern financial software offers predictive analytic functions to harness the power of your data. Predictive analytics uses powerful computational techniques such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, and statistics. As a result, modern financial planning software can find subtle trends and year-to-year fluctuations in your business.

With enough historical data, the software can help you make predictions, identify risks, and see new opportunities in the future.

Automate Your Data Analysis

The amount of data that your business generates could take a lifetime to sift through and analyze manually. But manual data analysis isn’t just slow—it can also lead to errors.

Automating your financial data analysis saves you and your team valuable time and eliminates human error. And if you want to stay on top of seasonal changes in your business, automation will keep you up to date by curating the most current data from multiple sources in one cohesive financial planning solution.

Keep It in the Cloud

Planning Software In The Cloud

 

Big data analytics is moving to the cloud, and for good reason. The cloud offers the perfect home for the vast amounts of data storage and computing power required by analytic software. And when it comes to predicting your organization’s seasonal trends, it makes even more sense.

Cloud-based software solutions deliver the power of analytic solutions to everyone in your company. New ideas for problem-solving and strategic decisions could come from anywhere in your organization. By sharing information with your team members and colleagues, you can promote collaboration and drive innovation.

Conclusion

Few industries are immune to the effects of seasonal fluctuations. Year-to-year changes aren’t always as predictable as the seasons. But with the right software solutions, you can predict seasonal changes and make the best strategic decisions for your organization.Can you predict when your company’s next peak or valley will be? insightsoftware’s Tidemark cloud-based planning software, offers a flexible platform with performance analytics, ability to perform seasonality allocations and drive changes as needed to help streamline your planning process.

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