If you are a Finance Director or a Planning Manager, the words ‘Budgeting Season’ probably trigger a physiological response similar to a looming root canal. It’s the time of year defined by broken version control, ‘Sandbagging’ from department heads, and a general sense of organisational dread.
But what if… it didn’t have to be the worst thing you do all year?
At our recent financeSHOWCASE event, Adam Rakich, Consulting Director at Northexis, took to the stage for our brand new ‘5 in Twenty’ format. His mission was simple: provide five actionable ways to make budgeting suck less, immediately, without spending a single penny on new software or consultants.
Here is the breakdown of why your planning process feels like a “Self-Fulfilling Prophecy” and how to flip the script.
1. The mindset shift: stop expecting to get punched
In a highlight from the financeSHOWCASE Podcast, Adam pointed out a critical flaw in the finance professional’s DNA: our attitude.
“It’s mindset, actually. Thinking about how awful everything’s going to be is just going to make it awful. You need to approach it differently, be a bit more positive, because everyone else is going to pick up on your dread.”
If you walk into a budgeting meeting looking like you’re expecting a fight, your stakeholders will provide one. When Finance treats the budget as a ‘policing’ exercise rather than a ‘resource optimisation’ partnership, you create a self-fulfilling prophecy of conflict. The first step to a better budget costs nothing: Change your tone.
2. Beware the ‘Hubris of Jurassic Park’
Adam uses a brilliant analogy to describe corporate planning: The Jurassic Park Effect. In the movie, the creators were so preoccupied with whether or not they could build the park, they didn’t stop to think if they should.
In finance, we often build incredibly complex, granular models just because Excel allows us to. We track 500 line items when 80% of the value sits in five. To make budgeting suck less, you must prioritise materiality over granularity. Stop building ‘dinosaurs’ that you can’t control.
3. Apply the ‘James Bond’ philosophy
What does 007 have to do with your 2027 forecast? It’s about Agility and Intelligence. Bond doesn’t walk into a room with a 400-page manual; he walks in with a clear objective and the ability to pivot when the situation changes.
Your budget shouldn’t be a static document that is ‘dead on arrival’ by February. Adam argues for a planning process that prioritises Scenario Planning over rigid accuracy. The goal isn’t to be ‘right’ about the future; the goal is to be prepared for multiple versions of it.
4. ‘Milk the Cow’ of existing data
We are often told we need “More Data” or a “New ERP” to get better at forecasting. Adam’s ‘5 in Twenty’ session challenges this. Most finance teams are sitting on a goldmine of existing data that is being under-utilized.
Before you ask for a budget for new tech, are you “Milking the Cow” of your current system? Are you looking at the Live Signals in your sales pipeline or the actual drivers of your variable costs, or are you just adding 5% to last year’s spreadsheet?
The ‘5 in Twenty’ verdict: actionable over academic
The beauty of Adam’s approach is that it requires zero investment. It is about changing how you communicate, how you prioritize, and how you view your role within the business.
If you can move the needle on your organization’s mindset, the “awful” part of budgeting starts to disappear, replaced by a process that actually drives business value.
