Glossary

Budgeting Benchmark Dashboard for Public Sector Organizations

Written by Nils R. | Jul 7, 2021 7:00:00 AM
What is a Budgeting Benchmark Dashboard ? Budgeting Benchmark Dashboards and Reports are considered strategic planning tools and are used by Executives and Planners to analyze how their institution is performing compared to other similar public sector organizations. Some of the main functionality in this type of comparative report is that it can include any type of benchmark metric for any number of future or historical years. In the example below there are five benchmark KPIs: 1) FTEs compared to other similar entities as well as the average, 2) FTEs in a particular department such a Public Safety compared with the benchmark, 3) FTEs in a Culture and Recreation department compared to the benchmark, 4) Total FTEs for the current year compared to similar entities and the average, and (not visible in the screenshot) 5) Population ten year trend compared to the benchmark average. You find an example of this type of comparative report below. Purpose of Budget Benchmark Dashboards Public Sector organizations use Budget Benchmark Dashboards to assist leaders in aligning strategic goals with comparative government organizations. When used as part of good business practices in Planning and Executive departments, a government entity can improve its accuracy when setting budget targets and multi-year goals, and it can reduce the chances that time and investments are wasted on initiatives to achieve unrealistic or that have under-stated goals. Example of a Budget Benchmark Dashboard Here is an example of a Budget Benchmark Dashboard with examples of metrics compared to other organizations and averages. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="2560"] Example of a Budgeting Benchmark Dashboard for Public Sector Organizations[/caption] You can find hundreds of additional examples here Who Uses This Type of Comparative report ? The typical users of this type of comparative report are: Executives, strategic planners, budget officers. Other Reports Often Used in Conjunction with Budget Benchmark Dashboards Progressive Planning and Executive departments sometimes use several different Budget Benchmark Dashboards, along with strategic plans, financial budget dashboards, annual budgets, government KPI dashboards and other management and control tools. Where Does the Data for Analysis Originate From? The Actual (historical transactions) data typically comes from government scorecards and professional budgeting and planning tools. Sometimes these types of metrics are also entered through the organization’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems like: Microsoft Dynamics 365 (D365) Finance, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (D365 BC), Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics SL, Sage Intacct, Sage 100, Sage 300, Sage 500, Sage X3, SAP Business One, SAP ByDesign, Acumatica, Netsuite and others. In analyses where budgets or forecasts are used, the planning data most often originates from in-house Excel spreadsheet models or from professional corporate performance management (CPM/EPM) solutions. What Tools are Typically used for Reporting, Planning and Dashboards? Examples of business software used with the data and ERPs mentioned above are:
  • Native ERP report writers and query tools
  • Spreadsheets (for example Microsoft Excel)
  • Corporate Performance Management (CPM) tools (for example Solver)
  • Dashboards (for example Microsoft Power BI and Tableau)
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