# Smarter Budgeting for a Global Consultancy

> Building a smarter budgeting system for a global management consultancy, replacing spreadsheets with a collaborative platform.

**One source of truth for 20+ teams**

Building a Smarter Budgeting System for a Global Consultancy.  
Client: Global Management Consultancy  
Industry: Management Consulting  
Services: Budgeting, Dashboards  

## Key metrics

- 20+ — Product leads on one system
- On demand — Leadership roll-ups and forecasts

## What we built

Replaced Excel workbooks and email approvals with a submission workspace for 20+ leads, an admin workspace with automated roll-ups, and Slack notifications through the budget cycle.

## Challenge

When a global management consultancy's Product & Platforms team set out to modernize their annual budgeting process, they were juggling over twenty products, dozens of stakeholders, and an overwhelming amount of spreadsheets. For the Finance & Planning team, managing this cycle meant long hours of manual consolidation, unclear ownership, and constant rounds of email and Slack messages just to confirm what was approved and what wasn't.

The budgeting process had grown increasingly complex. Each of the twenty product leaders managed their own budgets, while the F&P team manually consolidated everything into large Excel workbooks. Updates were submitted over email, revisions tracked in comment threads, and key data — like rate cards, hiring plans, and vendor spend — were constantly at risk of becoming outdated.

## Solution

SimplaDocs partnered with the consultancy to design and deliver a collaborative budgeting and forecasting platform built on Coda, tailored specifically to the firm's needs.

The solution centered around two connected spaces: a submission workspace for the 20 product and platform leads to enter and track their labor and non-labor budget requests, and an administrative workspace for the Finance & Planning team to review, approve, and report on submissions with automated roll-ups and forecasting dashboards.

Throughout the budgeting cycle, automated Slack notifications kept communication flowing — alerting users when requests were submitted, reviewed, or returned for updates. Dashboards gave leadership real-time visibility into budget allocations, trends, and forecasting scenarios.

- Submission workspace for 20+ product leads
- Administrative workspace with automated roll-ups and forecasting
- Automated Slack notifications for budget cycle communication
- Structured data exports aligned with SAP and financial workflows

## Results

- Reduced manual coordination and rework across email and Slack
- Given leadership on-demand visibility into roll-ups, forecasts, and key trends
- Streamlined approvals and eliminated version confusion between departments
- Enabled faster decision-making cycles

## Impact

Today, the budgeting process is faster, clearer, and more collaborative. Product leaders can submit and track requests with confidence, while the finance team can focus on analysis rather than administration.

What began as a spreadsheet replacement became something bigger — a shared space that aligned finance, product, and leadership on a single source of truth.

> It's not just about the tool. It's about how much smoother the entire process feels. We finally have time to focus on strategy, not spreadsheets.
> — Finance & Planning Lead, Global Consultancy

> Instead of chasing updates, we were reviewing decisions. The conversation shifted from "What's the latest file?" to "What does this data tell us?"
> — Finance & Planning Lead, Global Consultancy

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Source: https://simpladocs.com/work/global-management-consultancy