The Silent Killers of Financial Planning and the One That Stands Above the Rest
In the world of corporate finance, complexity is a given. Budgets stretch across functions, teams forecast from different angles, and assumptions evolve by the hour. But when financial planning begins to feel more like a battlefield than a boardroom discipline, it’s rarely due to strategy, talent, or even market volatility.
The culprit is often quieter. Slower. Hidden in plain sight.
The #1 Killer: No Single Version of the Truth
Across all our client conversations - across industries, countries, and company sizes - one theme consistently rises to the top: “We can’t agree on the numbers.”
You may think it’s a process issue, or a tooling problem. And in some ways, it is. But what it really boils down to is this:
Without a single version of the truth, financial planning is little more than an illusion of control.
Spreadsheets are often to blame. They’re flexible, familiar, and dangerously easy to duplicate. You can have dozens - sometimes hundreds - floating through inboxes, each representing a slightly different view of reality. Even when password-protected, Excel is notoriously insecure (A five-minute Google search can tell you exactly how to crack it.)
And yet, billion-dollar companies still rely on them to plan their future.
Why This Breaks Planning
Without central control, versioning, or auditability, you get:
Conflicting assumptions in different models
Untraceable last-minute changes
Hours wasted reconciling numbers instead of analysing them
Decision paralysis due to mistrust in data
In short, you get chaos dressed in rows and columns.
The Case for an EPM System
Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) systems are built to eliminate these issues. They enforce structure without sacrificing agility. They bring transparency to who changed what, when, and why. And most importantly, they deliver a single version of the truth accessible by every team, from finance to operations.
If your company has over 50 people, you should start considering an EPM solution. Beyond 500, it becomes business-critical.
Still, we often see billion-dollar firms using Excel as their planning backbone. Why? Because change is hard and because many software vendors take the wrong path into the organisation.
The IT Detour
Too many implementations go through the IT team, who, understandably, see it as just another system to support. They're focused on stability, database integrity, and minimising bugs, not driving business insights. As a result, end users, the finance teams, planners, and executives are left with tools that don't solve their pain.
For an EPM system to succeed, it must be championed by the business, not just tolerated by IT.
The Research Is Clear
Studies show that companies with unified planning platforms are:
2.5x more likely to reforecast quickly during volatility
70% more confident in their reported numbers
50% faster at budget consolidation cycles
These aren’t just efficiency gains—they’re competitive advantages.
If you're struggling to align on numbers, constantly reconciling data, or making high-stakes decisions on untrusted forecasts, it’s time to ask: Do we have a single version of the truth?
Because until you do, even the best plans are built on shaky ground.
If you need some clarity, book your call with our team today here