Is your business facing difficulties in budgeting and forecasting across multiple entities, global operations, or diverse departments? Whether you're managing rapid growth, navigating market volatility, or handling complex supply chains, a business intelligence solution can be the key to streamlining your planning and budgeting processes. Instead of adding a separate solution, Australian and New Zealand businesses using NetSuite can now leverage NetSuite Planning and Budgeting (NSPB) – a flexible, user-friendly tool that seamlessly integrates with your existing NetSuite environment. In a study by TechValidate, 95% of surveyed customers reported that NSPB significantly enhanced their visibility, control, and forecasting accuracy. Additionally, 90% achieved greater organisational alignment and operational control, while 69% saw a marked improvement in efficiency and automation, freeing up valuable time from previously manual, time-intensive processes.
Read on to learn exactly how NSPB drives results like these and gives you the clarity and precision needed to drive better financial decisions and stay ahead of the curve.
What is NetSuite Planning and Budgeting?
As part of the broader NetSuite Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) suite, NSPB brings together financial data, planning processes, and forecasting capabilities into one unified platform to automate planning, budgeting, and forecasting. The module’s native integration with NetSuite ensures that your financial and operational data are always up-to-date and readily available for analysis. This means you can easily align your budgeting and forecasting processes with your company’s overall strategic objectives. Whether you're looking to simplify workforce planning, perform detailed scenario modelling, or gain deeper insights into your financial performance, NSPB is built to support you.
Some of the high-level benefits include:
- Reduce planning cycle times | Templates and workflows make it simple to collect inputs and assumptions.
- Improve forecast accuracy | Regularly compare and analyse actual versus projected results to run multiple what-if scenarios and refine forecasts.
- Align your organisation | Increase collaboration with business stakeholders and drive better decision-making.
- Gain control and visibility | Everyone is entering data consistently and using the same processes, so all changes are tracked.
A closer look at NetSuite Planning and Budgeting capabilities
NetSuite Planning and Budgeting is a NetSuite module offering a range of powerful features that make organisations more efficient and accurate across their complex financial planning processes.
At the core of NSPB is embedded AI and machine learning, driving automation and standardisation. This allows the module to streamline and accelerate routine tasks like data collection, consolidation, and reporting, reducing the time and effort required for these activities. By integrating NSPB with NetSuite ERP, organisations get seamless access to real-time financial and operational data from across the entire suite. That means no more manual data transfers, and all planning activities are based on the most up-to-date information available, ensuring businesses work with accurate forecasts and budgets that reflect current realities. NSPB also enhances collaboration across the organisation. By providing a centralised hub where multiple stakeholders can contribute to the planning process, it ensures that everyone is aligned with the company’s financial goals.
Key capabilities of NSPB
Workforce planning | Streamline workforce planning by aligning your organisation’s needs with your employees’ priorities. This capability simplifies headcount, salary, and compensation planning, ensuring that your workforce strategy supports your overall business objectives.
Demand forecasting | NSPB offers capabilities to enhance decision-making with demand forecasting that operates at every level—whether it’s by customer, location, or item hierarchy like SKUs and product lines. The automatically synced data within NetSuite allows you to create accurate demand plans and generate purchase orders seamlessly, enabling smarter buying and stocking decisions.
Scenario modelling | The module’s intelligent scenario modelling capabilities allow users to perform complex, multidimensional planning. NSPB empowers finance teams to project revenue, plan capital expenditures, forecast headcount costs, and create multiple budget or forecast versions. This enables them to model various scenarios and understand their potential impact on the business—without the risk of formula errors.
Revenue planning | Keep your revenue forecasts aligned with corporate objectives by integrating sales and financial plans across all business units. This feature enables you to create driver-based revenue forecasts in collaboration with your finance, sales, and service teams. Continuously monitor performance against goals and understand the impact on cash flow and balance sheets, ensuring your business stays on track.
But NetSuite already offers budgeting features
Correct, NetSuite does provide budgeting capabilities as part of NetSuite Advanced Financials. However, the functionality offered by NSPB goes far beyond what’s available in the standard suite. While NetSuite Advanced Financials allows for several budgeting tasks, NSPB offers a more sophisticated and comprehensive solution designed to meet the needs of businesses with complex planning and forecasting requirements. This includes advanced features such as scenario modelling, predictive planning, and detailed variance analysis, which are not available in the core budgeting tools. These capabilities enable businesses to perform in-depth financial analysis, test multiple outcomes, and adjust their plans dynamically based on real-time data. Additionally, NSPB supports collaboration across departments, ensuring that all stakeholders contribute to a unified budgeting process.How to handle planning and budgeting without NSPB
Without NSPB, many businesses lean on traditional methods like the familiar spreadsheet. Of course, this approach has significant limitations. The manual data entry required is not only time-consuming but also prone to mistakes, which can lead to inconsistencies across the organisation. Plus, because spreadsheets don’t support real-time collaboration, departments often work in silos, making it harder to align on a unified financial strategy. Forecasting and scenario modelling also suffer without the right tools. Businesses typically rely on basic forecasting methods and find it challenging to run complex “what-if” scenarios. When they do attempt more advanced modelling using spreadsheets, the risk of errors increases, and the process becomes overwhelming—especially without the ability to factor in multiple dimensions like product lines or geographic regions. Another major hurdle is the presence of data silos, where financial and operational data are stored in separate systems. This fragmentation makes it difficult to get a complete view of the business, which again leads to inaccurate budgets and delayed insights. The manual collection and reconciliation of data only adds to the delays, making it tough to base decisions on up-to-date information. Ultimately, these methods result in prolonged planning cycles and a lack of visibility across the business. Without a centralised platform to manage planning and budgeting, it’s difficult to maintain control over financial data, leading to inconsistencies and less effective decision-making.Which companies will benefit most from NSPB?
NSPB is a versatile tool, but it’s particularly valuable for companies that require robust financial planning and a high degree of accuracy in their budgeting and forecasting processes. Mid-sized to large organisations, especially those with complex financial structures, stand to gain the most from implementing NSPB.
For companies managing multiple subsidiaries, locations, or product lines, NSPB offers the scalability and flexibility needed to handle intricate financial planning across different entities. It’s ideal for businesses that operate in multiple currencies or across international markets, where the complexity of financial forecasting and budgeting increases significantly. The ability to consolidate data from various sources into a single, integrated platform is crucial for these companies, providing a clear and accurate financial overview.
Public companies and those preparing for an IPO will find NSPB invaluable for meeting stringent reporting requirements. Its ability to streamline budgeting and forecasting processes ensures accurate, real-time financial reporting, which is crucial for maintaining investor confidence.
Industries with heavy regulatory requirements, like healthcare and finance, also benefit from NSPB’s enhanced control and compliance features, which support precise scenario modelling and forecasting.
Finally, rapidly growing companies or those undergoing significant changes, such as mergers or expansions, will appreciate NSPB’s predictive planning capabilities. It enables them to quickly adapt to new business conditions and align financial plans with strategic goals.
Key financial roles that NSPB supports
Finance leaders and their teams thrive with NSPB, thanks to its ability to streamline processes, boost accuracy, and deliver strategic insights. Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) | NSPB allows CFOs to move beyond the day-to-day management of financial operations and focus more on strategic planning. With real-time data and predictive analytics, CFOs can make informed decisions that drive the company’s long-term financial health. Financial Controllers | Financial Controllers benefit from NSPB’s automation capabilities, which streamline time-consuming tasks like data entry and budget consolidation. By automating these processes, controllers can close books more efficiently, ensuring accuracy and compliance while freeing up time to focus on higher-level financial analysis and strategic oversight. FP&A Directors and Managers | FP&A Directors and Managers find NSPB particularly valuable for its robust forecasting and scenario modelling features. These capabilities allow them to test different financial outcomes, align budgets with corporate objectives, and provide more accurate and timely insights to senior leadership. Financial Analysts | Financial Analysts gain the ability to delve deeper into data, performing complex analyses without the burden of manual calculations. NSPB’s integration with other NetSuite tools ensures that analysts have access to up-to-date information, allowing them to produce more precise reports and recommendations.Use cases for NSPB
Rapid growth in a global eCommerce business
A mid-sized e-commerce company experiencing rapid growth, expanding into multiple international markets but is struggling to manage complex financial data across various currencies and subsidiaries.
Solution | NSPB automates and streamlines the company’s financial planning process. The platform’s multi-currency support allows for accurate consolidation of financial data across all international subsidiaries. NSPB’s scenario modelling features enable the finance team to test various growth strategies, assess potential market risks, and make informed decisions on resource allocation.
Outcome | The company improves its budgeting accuracy and reduces the time spent on financial consolidation. With NSPB, the finance team can quickly adapt to market changes, supporting the company’s growth and enhancing its competitive edge in new markets.
Public company preparing for an IPO
A technology company backed by private equity, preparing for an initial public offering (IPO). The company needs to ensure that its financial processes meet the stringent requirements of public market regulators and investors. This means all financial plans must be accurate, compliant, and aligned with corporate objectives, while also managing investor expectations.
Solution | NSPB provides the advanced forecasting and scenario modelling tools necessary for the company to prepare for its IPO. The platform’s automation capabilities reduce the risk of errors, and its integration with NetSuite ERP ensures that all financial data is up-to-date and accurate. NSPB also supports multi-year financial planning, enabling the company to project future performance and meet investor expectations.
Outcome | The company successfully prepares for its IPO with confidence, presenting accurate, reliable financial data to potential investors. NSPB’s comprehensive planning capabilities ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and helps the company to easily manage investor relations.
Retail chain expanding into omnichannel sales
A national retail chain is expanding into eCommerce and adopting an omnichannel strategy. The finance team needs to create a unified budget that accounts for inventory management, logistics, marketing spend, and customer service across all sales platforms. Their existing spreadsheet-based budgeting process is too slow and disjointed to keep up with the fast-paced demands of omnichannel retail.
Solution | NSPB consolidates financial data from both physical and digital channels into a single plan. The platform’s scenario modelling and real-time adjustments enable the finance team to rapidly forecast and react to sales trends, promotions, and inventory changes.
Outcome | The retail chain successfully integrates its omnichannel strategy, improving budget management and sales forecasting. NSPB helps the company maintain financial control and visibility, ensuring a seamless customer experience across all sales platforms.
Identifying if NSPB is right for you
To determine if NSPB is the right fit for your business, consider the following questions:- Is your financial team spending too much time on manual data entry and reconciliation?
- Are you struggling to achieve accurate and timely budgets and forecasts?
- Do you need better collaboration across departments during the planning process?
- Is your business managing multiple subsidiaries, locations, or currencies?
- Are you looking for a solution that integrates seamlessly with your existing NetSuite environment?
- Do you require advanced scenario modelling and predictive planning capabilities?
- Are you seeking greater visibility and control over your financial data?
