RKL eSolutions Blog Trends and Insights

Best Budget Software: 3 Ways to Enable Active Planning

What does the best budgeting software look like?  Static planning is the curse of many finance departments. It happens when so much of your time is spent on manual, tactical work that you’re constantly forced to compromise. For example, do you create a robust, strategic plan or one that’s simply accurate and up-to-date as possible? Do you engage business partners in the planning process or develop a model that truly reflects your business?

Help is here! The latest version of the Adaptive Suite from Adaptive Insights helps clear the static with a solution that delivers real strategic insights that keep up with the ever-quickening pace of business. You can embrace active planning and shift into a leadership and guiding role, instead of being mired in the drudgery of back-office transactional tasks. These three features are key:

Step-by-step guides for business users


First, a new Process Guide lets your finance team create step-by-step guides for business users, specific to their roles and their daily tasks, with links directly to the location in the model where their input is required. This makes it quick and easy for occasional or new users to participate in each new budget cycle. It ensures that business users complete all the planning steps requiring their attention—in a timely fashion. It also helps them avoid making mistakes in your model because it takes them to, and has them work on, a section that only pertains to them. This provides a much easier environment for everyone to collaborate as a team—and the process is easy and fast.

New Visual Model Overview


Another new feature is the Visual Model Overview, which offers users a graphical way to visualize their business model—to see how it’s all connected and how data flows in a single graphical view. It dynamically updates with the version and level of the model you select. You can analyze your business model and data flows without clicking through multiple pages. Users can actually grasp the overall planning process quickly. What’s more, new administrators can come up to speed with ease and learn the business model in little time compared with the investigative work typically required with spreadsheets and other planning software.

Best Budget Software: Combines ease of use with powerful capabilities


The latest release of Adaptive Suite provides a powerful octane boost to finance users. For example, the new advanced formula expressions capability enhances the rich palette of calculations and logic available in the solution. This allows model owners to streamline the development of complex calculations across the entire suite.

Rapidly express and maintain calculation logic

That, coupled with the new ability to declare account-level formulas, enables users to rapidly express and maintain calculation logic with an “express once, apply everywhere” approach, dramatically increasing model development efficiency. With these advanced formula expressions users get the power they want for acceleration with the handling for the agility to plan and adapt quickly.

RKL and Adaptive Insights: a clear path to active planning

With every release, Adaptive Insights helps finance teams step up their game and become real drivers of business growth. Learn more about Adaptive Suite by speaking with the experts at RKL Technology. We’ll help you discover the best budgeting software for your business—and provide the tools and support so you can get the most out of your investment.

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Mark Severance

Written by Mark Severance

Mark is based in the Los Angeles area, working as the Sales Director for Sage CRE at RKL eSolutions. Mark leads RKL eSolutions customers through the buying process, helping them decide on the best Sage CRE solutions and configuration to suit their business needs.