As summer arrives, many companies see the second half of the year as a chance to reassess and improve. This is when they reflect on what went well, what needs to change, and what the budget (after all) didn’t account for.

It was precisely at that time that António, financial director of a business group with several business areas, decided that he would never repeat the same cycle again.

"We had a budget. But in practice, it was a PDF sitting on an intranet"

Last summer, António was exhausted. The budget process had been over for two months, but the headaches remained: the deviations between forecast and reality were piling up, the files were spread across several departments, and each request from management meant hours of data validation.

"We had a budget. But in practice, it was a PDF sitting on an intranet. Reality was advancing, the budget was left behind."

For years, António repeated the same ritual. Annual budgeting done in spreadsheets, endless meetings to consolidate numbers, emails with mismatched versions, and a constant feeling of delay in what the company needed: quick answers, safe decisions, planning based on real data.

The change began in a difficult meeting

It was in a meeting with the CEO and the area managers, where the budget presented no longer made sense for what the company was facing at the time, that António realized: ‘it's not because we work harder that it gets better, we just have to work differently.’

That's when the step that changed everything came up: looking for a Corporate Performance Management (CPM) platform  that could respond to three clear requirements:

• Budgeting with data updated in real time;
• Automatic consolidation of financial information;
• A collaborative environment that involved all business areas.

Less time in spreadsheets, more time thinking about the business

With the support of a specialized team from Izertis, António implemented Talentia CPM, a platform recognized by BARC as a Leader in its most recent edition of the Financial Consolidation & Group Accounting Survey 2025.

It now has:

• An integrated and always up-to-date view of financial data;
• Scenario simulations in minutes, not days;
• A shared budget process with each business unit, with clear responsibilities;
• And, above all, the peace of mind of being able to respond with confidence to any request from the administration.

"Today, I feel that we budget in a lively way. The plan adjusts to reality, not the other way around."

Budgeting is not predicting everything, it is being prepared to change

No one can guarantee what the market will bring in the next quarter. But what António learned is that good budgeting does not have to be an exercise in guesswork. It must be an agile, reliable and decision-making process.

That's the role that platforms like Talentia CPM take on today: giving leaders tools to budget, engage the right teams at the right time, and ensure that the plan keeps up with the organization's transformation, and doesn't fall behind.
And in your company, what is the budget process like?

At Izertis, with experts in CPM and budgeting, we help companies transform their approach to budgeting, based on technology, method and specialized knowledge. 

If you feel like you're still navigating between multiple versions of spreadsheets, maybe it's time to take the leap.

Talk to us and find out how your budget can be a real competitive advantage!