Forecasting
“We can't forecast with any confidence.”
Forecasts fail when they are built somewhere the actuals cannot reach. Build them on posted history and open commitments, keep the assumptions visible, and compare them to reality every period.
What it looks like day to day
- The cash forecast is a spreadsheet with hard-coded numbers
- Assumptions are buried and undocumented
- Nobody compares last quarter's forecast to what happened
- Scenarios take a week to build and go stale immediately
What changes
Same capabilities. One system instead of several.
The modules below are the ones that answer this problem. On the left of the switch they are where most businesses keep them today; on the right they are on one engine, reading and writing the same records.
Drifting apart
The same capabilities, spread across tools that were each the right answer to a smaller problem.
How G1 approaches it
- Project cash from open items and committed spend, not from memory
- Keep assumptions as editable inputs, not as formulas
- Track forecast against actual so the model improves
- Run scenarios against the approved plan, side by side
Modules
What you would actually switch on.
Activated when they earn their place, not sold as a suite. The status on each one is the real one.
- PlannedExplore
Forecasting
Forward numbers built from the same data as the backward ones.
- AvailableExplore
Cash flow
Bank feeds in, reconciliation done, cash position you can trust.
- AvailableExplore
Management accounting
Cost centres, projects and budget versus actual on the same ledger.
- PlannedExplore
Workforce planning
The hiring plan, costed, against the budget it has to fit.
- AvailableExplore
Analytics
Analysis on the live ledger, not a copy of last month's export.
Where it shows up
Industries where this is common.
Not a claim about who we work with — a note on where this situation tends to appear.
The human layer
Technology when you need it. Expertise when you need it.
Some of this is configuration. Some of it is a decision someone has to sit down and make with you. These are the people-shaped parts of solving this particular problem.
Finance expertise
Technical accounting, close discipline, controls and reporting. Practical help from people who have done the job, not a methodology.
- A close that gets shorter and stays shorter
- Controls that hold when the month is busy
- Reporting that a board can act on
Data analysis
Analysis on your own data, for the questions that matter to your business. Margin, cost drivers, customer profitability, working capital — explained, not just charted.
- Definitions agreed before the numbers are argued about
- Drivers identified, not just variances reported
- Analysis you can repeat next quarter
Fractional finance leadership
For businesses that need a finance director's thinking but not a finance director's salary. Planning, reporting discipline, lender and board conversations, and honest advice.
- A plan and a forecast the owner believes
- Board and lender reporting that holds up
- Someone accountable for the numbers
Usually next to it
Problems that tend to travel together.
Forecasting
Tell us how this actually plays out in your business.
We will show you which parts of G1 apply, what is live today and what is not — and say so when the answer is that you do not need us.