Forecasting and planning finances. Financial planning methods. Financial planning in the enterprise

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Financial planning is an interesting phenomenon. It is believed that its involvement is traditionally associated with solving business problems, with the commercial sphere. But it is not always the case. Ordinary citizens can also engage in financial planning in everyday life. What nuances of financial planning deserve special attention? What tasks within the framework of the relevant activities can the enterprise face?

What is financial planning?

Financial planning is the most important part of management activities in any commercial enterprise. It is best to develop a business in accordance with a well-defined algorithm, based on a model whose functioning depends on factors that are predictable and transparent to the company's management. Financial planning allows you to correlate the capabilities of the organization with the tasks that the owners of the enterprise set for themselves. This process also allows the company's management to discover the necessary sources of cash resources and effective scenarios for their use.

Finance planningIt is designed to assist the management of the enterprise in establishing adequate proportions between the various types of resources that the company possesses. This may be, in fact, capital, or fixed production assets. A financial planner correlates various key indicators (such as, for example, costs, output volumes, capital investments) with current business objectives. This allows you to build a more sustainable business model based on rational criteria.

The ratio of planning and forecasting

In economics, a term is defined that is very close to the one we are considering, namely, “forecasting”. What is its specificity? What is the relationship between forecasting and financial planning? With regard to the two noted terms, a number of common features can be distinguished, namely: the integrity of the object and its economic environment, the use of similar or identical methods in solving the tasks set, the presence of goals correlated with business development priorities.

However, forecasting and financial planning has a number of significant differences. As for the first term, it does not imply strict adherence to the identified patterns. They are, as a rule, probabilistic in nature and are less detailed than those presented in the financial plan. Forecasting is a prospective study of the capabilities of an enterprise, planning is the development of algorithms, the implementation of which is necessary due to the current tasks facing the company's management.

It can also be noted that the activation of plans may imply certain obligations of the company to external players - investors or regulators. Thus, the planning of public finances is most often associated with strict reporting procedures for entities that have access to certain financial resources (most often budgetary) to the competent structures. Forecasting, in turn, cannot be the basis for appropriate control, since, as we noted above, probabilistic criteria are used in it, which in practice can differ significantly from those determined during the corresponding preliminary analysis.

In the commercial sphere, forecasting is often an equally important component of a business development strategy. So, for example, the planning of the finances of a trading enterprise - as an organization that is very dependent on the volume of revenue - is largely tied just to forecast indicators regarding demand from buyers of goods. How can this be expressed? First of all, the fact that the company's management can require subordinate structures to maximally match the performance results with the expected figures, which are determined on the basis of forecasts.

Key tasks of financial planning

Finance planning involves the formation of certain tasks for the management of the company. These include:

- discovery of reserves that can increase the company's revenue;

- efficiency improvementcapital involvement;

determination of optimal formulas for correlating costs and production plan;

- ensuring constructive interaction between the enterprise and partner structures - banks, counterparties, customers in terms of financial communications.

In the process of solving the problems in question, the management of the organization carries out activities within the following main areas: the movement of capital, financial legal relations, as well as accounting activities (accounting, reporting - internal or to state regulators).

These are the main tasks of financial planning. Let us now explore the key principles that may underlie the corresponding activities of the enterprise.

Key planning principles

Let's study the key principles on the basis of which financial planning in an enterprise can be carried out. Researchers identify the following list:

- prioritization;

- using forecasting methods;

- risk analysis;

- coordination and control.

Let's consider their essence in more detail.

Regarding such a principle as prioritization, enterprises in most cases are faced with the fact that production and other tasks related to business development are becoming complex. In order to solve them all, it is often necessary to invest huge resources, including in solving those tasks that are obviously of a secondary nature from the point of view of business development. Managementthe firm must therefore be able to identify the main areas of activity (and concentrate the necessary resources in the appropriate areas).

Another important principle on which financial planning in an enterprise can be based is forecasting. It can be implemented in various aspects. This may be the forecasting of internal production processes, the influence of external factors - both market and administrative. The key method here is the analysis of processes related to the respective areas.

Risk analysis is an example of another significant principle in the process of solving problems that form financial planning. The fact is that almost any business is implemented in environments characterized by certain potential threats. This may be, for example, currency fluctuations or the unstable policy of state regulators. Foreign policy risks are also significant - this is especially noticeable in the example of Western sanctions against Russian enterprises.

Coordination and control are examples of other essential principles of financial planning. What can be said about them? Coordination is a rather complex term. It can be understood, on the one hand, as a combination of various activities at the enterprise into a single concept, on the other hand, the use of management methods common to all production areas, the introduction of universal principles for maintaining corporate culture, and the dissemination of knowledge among employees that contribute to understanding the key priorities of the company. Controls are procedures to ensure thatemployees of the enterprise to the algorithms that are included in the relevant plans.

Planning Methods

Let's study what are the methods of financial planning. There are many approaches to their classification. Among Russian entrepreneurs, the one that is based on the division of activities according to the criterion of their orientation has become quite widespread: from the bottom up (from subordinate departments to management), from top to bottom, as well as through the implementation of counter initiatives of the firm's employees and management. Let's study these methods of financial planning in more detail.

Regarding bottom-up planning, the relevant plans are formed by competent specialists of subordinate structures, based on the results of their detailed analysis of production processes.

The advantage of this method is that the structure of the corresponding business development algorithms will be very detailed, including the smallest nuances, many of which may later turn out to be key in terms of solving production problems.

The second method assumes that the company's management forms general, conceptual tasks, and transfers them to subordinate structures for the purpose of further detailing and structuring in the appropriate type of financial development plan. The advantage of this method is that planning will initially take into account key strategic factors, such as the state of affairs of the company in the market (in the first scenario, specialists from local divisions may havea rather general or completely erroneous idea about it), the specifics of interaction with creditors and investors (similarly, employees of subordinate structures may not know anything about the relevant nuances).

The third scheme is characterized by the simultaneous activation of the key principles of the first two. Thus, it identifies the key benefits of both - strategic financial planning, taking into account factors known only to management, as well as detailing business processes.

What can prevent an enterprise from always working within the framework of the third scheme, since it is so successful? This may be due, for example, to the strict observance of trade secrets in the enterprise. Thus, the company's management does not always have the opportunity to bring to the attention of subordinate employees data relating to the company's credit load or information reflecting the company's interaction with investors. In this case, most likely, a pure bottom-up scenario will be involved.

Planning Tools

So, we have considered the main methods by which financial planning can be carried out. A market economy is a phenomenon that involves competitive relationships between players in a particular business segment. The winning position, most likely, will be with those companies that can use the most effective tools in terms of practical solution of problems related to financial planning. We will study what tools businesses can use in terms of the considereddirections of activities.

Analysis

Among the most common and significant - economic analysis. This tool allows the company to determine the patterns that characterize production processes, as well as areas of interaction between the company and external players - contractors, creditors, customers. Economic analysis allows you to identify what reserves the company has and what they can suffice for. It can be noted that the corresponding tool is considered by many researchers as an independent method of financial planning due to its complexity, the presence of a large number of additional components in it.

Rationing

Another common tool that can be used for planning in the financial system of an enterprise is rationing. Its specificity is that competent specialists working in a company calculate certain planned, expected indicators based on available data on standards (concerning, for example, the production of goods or the provision of services). The sources of the relevant norms can be both official (that is, they may include one or another source of law - for example, a federal law), and internal.

Optimization

The next most important planning tool is optimization. The fact is that on the basis of economic analysis and rationing, several concepts can be developed at once, suggesting scenarios for the distribution of finances in an enterprise. Of these, you must choose the one that reflectsthe state of affairs in the company is the most objective, and therefore can be considered optimal. The main criterion here is the achievement by the enterprise of minimum costs and maximum income when using certain approaches. The plan that predetermines the most complete compliance of the company's activities with these priorities will be chosen as optimal.

These are the main tools by which financial planning can be carried out. Finance is a resource that can be used by an organization in relation to a variety of types of tasks. Thus, the prospects for the use of capital may depend on the specific types of plans involved in the enterprise.

Types of planning

Let's study what types of financial planning are. There are many approaches to their classification. Among Russian researchers, a scheme is widespread according to which planning and control of finances is carried out on the basis of classifying the relevant activities as prospective, current and operational. Let's consider their specifics in more detail.

Forward planning involves the development of key strategic priorities by the enterprise, which must be implemented within a significant period of time, for example, 3-5 years. In this aspect, the development of plans, as a rule, is carried out according to the “top-down” scheme, that is, the corresponding algorithms include information that reflects not only the internal specifics of the development of the company, but also the influence of factors emerging in the external environment.

Current planning involves the developmentcriteria according to which the enterprise should develop over shorter periods of time than when drawing up long-term plans - about 1 year. This mechanism most often involves the use of a mixed scheme for compiling the formation of the corresponding algorithms. That is, the management of the company, on the one hand, provides subordinate structures with some types of strategically significant information regarding the development of the company, on the other hand, it receives from them the details of the stages of the plan.

Operational planning involves solving the problems that the company faces in a specific period of time, or that need to be addressed in the coming months. Most often, planning is carried out according to the “bottom-up” scheme. Management usually does not make sense in this case to disclose to employees the strategic nuances of business development.

Plans not only business

Planning, as we noted at the very beginning of the article, is an important component of working with finances, not only in business. Government agencies and non-profit organizations are also engaged in relevant activities. Family finance planning in Russia is also in the order of things. Techniques for improving the personal well-being of citizens through the use of various useful techniques and ready-made tools, for example, in the form of computer programs, are gaining popularity. Planning is a type of activity that is quite consistent with the daily life of a modern person.

Can it be said that the methods we have noted andtools for drawing up financial plans are equally compatible with any sphere of activity of citizens, whether it is drawing up a family or personal budget? Adjusted for the presence of specific business processes, such as the release of goods or accounting services for financial transactions in general, the key patterns of the commercial sphere are applicable to general civil activities. A person may well, for example, draw up a personal plan for managing capital in the aspect of a strategic period, solving current and operational tasks. It can involve analysis, normalization and optimization.

Of course, in the event that a citizen who does not have the proper level of qualification is engaged in the relevant activity, these activities will be extremely simplified. But they will fully correspond to the specifics of the nuances of financial planning we have discussed above. A personal budget, therefore, may have pronounced similarities with the corresponding plan for mobilizing capital in an enterprise, albeit in a simplified form.