Optimizing the Yearly Financial Planning and Budgeting Process

First off, hard to knock Excel, b/c even a lot of automated systems are based on it, and it's free (b/c you already have it). However, there are any number of budgeting tools available, from "really large enterprise strength" (e.g. Cognos) to more broad-based cloud offerings (Host Analytics, Adaptive Planning, etc.) to Quickbooks add-ons. And I'm sure these players would argue that their platforms span pretty far in terms of the size of the entity that can utilize them. Can you give us a bit more about your company and what you need? e.g. size, national vs. global, multiple BUs to roll up, etc.? That'll make it a lot easier to make useful suggestions for you.

Bryan, thanks for your comments. I work at a global manufacturing company that has manufacturing and sales operations in several countries, and of course that means several currencies. I have people passing Excel sheets back and forth and also have general communication issues given the the geography of those involved in the budgeting and planning process. I would say that the lack of an ability to "revise" the forecast without jumping through many "hoops" is a big obstacle, so obviously scenario and sensitivity analysis prove challenging.