“The goal is that the budgeting process becomes dynamic,” Jay Deubler, president of Phocas America, told the Business Journal on March 26.
The company’s system “allows you to have a completely integrated approach in your budgeting cadence,” Deubler said. “Success for mid-market businesses—today—is watching the numbers. Budgeting and forecasting are traditionally a once-a-year undertaking because of the required time and resources, but it doesn’t have to be.”
The company, whose global base is in Australia, in January announced a $34 million capital raise to accelerate its growth in America and the United Kingdom, expand into new industries and develop its core products.
The company has 15 employees in its Aliso Viejo office, which is the strategic hub and corporate headquarters for the company’s U.S. operations.
Private Company Focus
Deubler said the company’s cloud-based system provides a “completely integrated approach in your budgeting cadence,” while traditional budgeting is becoming obsolete and unable to adapt to changing market conditions.
Phocas officials says it allows business leaders to take a different approach to the traditionally annualized activities by quickly making micro-adjustments based on changing social and economic conditions.
“Business owners and CFOs are reconsidering their traditional ways of budgeting and reporting due to the unprecedented business conditions of 2020 and 2021. Business leaders want to understand financial performance and stay on top of cash flow in real time,” says Phocas.
Phocas aims to help finance teams “estimate a company’s future revenue by reviewing past financial, sales and purchasing information at a granular level,” according to the company.
Deubler said it’s a “mid-market solution” aimed at companies with $10 million to $1 billion in annual revenue. He said the cost for the software can be anywhere from $8,000 to $25,000 a year, depending on the size of the company.
“We tend to be more in the privately held companies,” Deubler said.
Customers for the recently released budgeting and forecasting software include Trade Supply Group, a building materials company based in New York City, according to Deubler.
Pain Elimination
“Our goal is to reduce or eliminate the pain of the budgeting process,” Matthew Kantelis, vice president of North America sales, told the Business Journal.
“We integrate to the accounting system,” he added.
The company says data and reports are saved in the cloud, enabling business leaders to securely access financial budget plans and forecasts, and seek feedback.
Finance team members “gain lost time from not chasing and cross-checking numbers,” the company says.
“Multiple people can work in the same worksheet, updating it in real time, all seeing the most recent data, and working on the same version.”
Some features of the new budgeting software include:
• Built-in workflow tools allow subject-matter experts to engage in the process.
• Worksheets help navigate the budget, add commentary to cells, and provide visibility to other users’ changes in real time.
• Access to non-financial and operational data already in an enterprise resource planning (ERP) or other transactional system.
