Improving the way we track & manage operating expenses
Without a single source of truth to track and manage budget, a client was struggling to keep their team’s spend on track by end of year. Brilliant Muse implemented a budget management requesting and tracking process that reduced the amount the team would underspend at year’s end.
Challenge
A client team that Brilliant Muse works with, with a large operating expenses budget, lacked an accurate, single source of truth for budget visibility, a budget management process, and training and tools to help teams manage their operating expenses.
Action
Brilliant Muse facilitated an understandable budget management process for the client’s team that aligned to central business budget reporting, annual planning, and outlined defined tasks for financial hygiene. This initiative was launched through the creation of a budget management and request process playbook, education with team leads and program managers, as well as weekly office hours and monthly and quarterly snapshots into current spend that successfully reduced EOY underspend by $4.5m.
Impact
This process increased visibility, as well as budget request efficiency, resulting in a $560k underspend of 2022 budget (<2%). This was a 3% improvement from the original December projection.
Path Forward
The new Opex process and budget management was implemented starting in Q4 2022 and continued through 2023. Two additional client teams added Brilliant Muse team members to expand the budget management offering across other areas of their organization.