Managing budgets in spreadsheets outside the accounting system requires either the budget numbers to be imported into the accounting system or the actuals to be exported from the accounting system in order to manage comparative reporting. In systems that support Microsoft Object Linking and Embedding (OLE), budget data may be managed from within the accounting system by using an "embedded" budget spreadsheet to pass data to and from the accounting system.While spreadsheets, which remain the budgeting tool of choice, are a good paradigm for the entry, viewing and analysis of budget data, they are poor at managing budget structures and producing matrix-based comparative reporting, both of which are best handled when the data is stored in a database rather than in spreadsheet files. 3.Budgeting can be a function of financial reporting. Financial report writers may be able to assist with the comparative and variance reporting of actual and budget data by acting as a "bridge" system between an accounting database and budgeting worksheets. In this case, actuals may be extracted from the accounting system and placed into specific columns in a financial report, while equivalent budget data is extracted from spreadsheets and placed in appropriate columns. This is useful for viewing and distributing budget reporting but again does not help much with managing budget structures or the process of building and revising budgets. 4.Stand-alone budget packages. A separate stand-alone budgeting package based on an underlying database and designed specifically to manage budget clearly has the best potential to handle all aspects of the budgeting process. Budgets can be exported from these systems into accounting systems for comparative reporting, or actuals can be imported from multivendor accounting systems. Such systems are few and far b...
