How Can EPM Improve Federal Budget Formulation and Execution Processes?

Government agencies are facing continued budgetary constraints and pressure to improve financial transparency. These challenges make it increasingly important for federal departments to embrace technological innovations and transform their outdated methods of budget formulation, allocation, and execution.

Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) systems have moved far beyond manual entry processes and spreadsheets and offer automated and cloud-based solutions that users can access from any location. Instead of static data collection and reporting, they provide highly versatile prediction and financial forecasting tools combined with greater transparency and better analytics.

Implementing these streamlined budgeting, analysis, and reporting solutions can help federal agencies in their efforts to modernize and improve budget formulation and execution processes.

Here are just some of the ways that modern EPM solutions can benefit federal agencies:

Replace outdated methods

Many federal agencies are still relying on manual entry and Excel spreadsheets to manage their budgets. These antiquated methods are time-consuming, prevent real-time data analysis and result in poor transparency and reporting.

Implementing a modern cloud based EPM solution gives immediate access to data, resulting in improved transparency and much more efficient processing.

Automate repetitive tasks

Many financial tasks carried out by federal agencies are repetitive manual processes that take up long hours, cause delays and result in user error. Staff may even duplicate some pieces of work, resulting in even more time wasted, especially at busy times such as financial year-end.

Cloud-based EPM software can centralize and automate routine tasks like scheduling reports, which helps to reduce filing hours, minimize delays, and speed up critical year-end tasks. A simplified, role-based user interface will also free up staff from mundane, repetitive work and allow them to focus on more important tasks. 

Eliminate errors

Using manual entry spreadsheets to track and model data places federal agency staff at risk of user error, inaccurate calculations, and lost data which can all cause issues in the budget formulation process. And because there is no real-time view of the data, the problem may be compounded by failure to spot the errors quickly enough.

Modern EPM systems allow a single agency view of data from multiple offices, which improves accuracy and transparency. It’s possible to formulate a budget at numerous levels and view the actual execution of the budget in real-time. Instead of a disjointed system of unlinked budget files, federal agencies can use the EPM to view a complete picture of their budgetary plans.

Improve efficiency

The pandemic has made it clear that federal agencies need to work in more agile ways so that they can respond quickly to changing situations. But existing manual data entry and reporting methods are slow and laborious.

EPM systems use data science and artificial intelligence to analyze data more effectively and manage budgets more efficiently. Instead of working on a traditional calendar-based system, federal decision-makers can shift to dynamic and event-based cycles, allowing them to assess situations more rapidly and revise plans in response to events as they happen. With improved financial forecasting and analytical capabilities, project planning and budgeting processes become more accessible and effective.

Provide more useful information

Simply capturing data isn’t enough; you need to be able to analyze it to gain the full value of the information it contains. Manual entry spreadsheets and reporting make analysis a time-consuming task that can be ineffective and inaccurate.

 EPM tools combine data capture with visualization and analysis tools that give more efficient planning and forecasting results. They are easy to use, increase transparency and allow federal agencies to track fund spending over multiple fiscal years. More accurate reporting makes it easier to understand financial results and create better plans.

 Moving from manual data entry and reporting to a streamlined cloud based EPM solution provides federal agencies with greater efficiency, visibility, and reporting potential. The improved functionality offered by EPM systems allows staff to create agile forecasts, increase transparency and formulate budgets while responding to events more efficiently.