Sage said the new product was designed by incorporating functionality developed with the input of accountants and small to medium-sized businesses, and features a new intuitive user interface to help navigate between multiple records.
Sage Financial Forecasting enables businesses to view a full set of automatically updated forecast reports: profit & loss, cash flow, funds flow, and balance sheet. The software uses double-entry accounting to ensure the integrity of data, and has been designed to integrate with other Sage accounting software and Microsoft Excel, preventing re-keying of data and associated errors, according to the company.
Sage Financial Forecasting offers also the ability to explore what if? scenarios and the financial implications of developing new strategies or expanding a business, Sage said. It can be used to help prepare presentations to banks and other investors, or for the preparation of annual budgets for management.
Specific features include a values pane that enables the user to view management information on screen to see the impact of forecast adjustments on the bottom line; 13-period accounting, which supports annual, monthly and weekly forecasting, allowing for 12 or 13 period accounting; input figures, which means the ability to input financial information based on cash receipts with automatic VAT and net sales calculation; and sales price scenario that offers the flexibility to specify a sales target or value and then explore various units and pricing strategies to find an ideal mix.
