Budgeting Survey (source: BYP22-5 Kimmel textbook)

The following were some of the key findings of the Budgeting Survey 2010:

The biggest pain point faced was dealing with other manages within the company. The second biggest hurdle was working with spreadsheets and other technology-driven tools. 75% of SMB/SME companies budgeted with spreadsheets alone or in combination with a GL/ERP system. On average, an annual budgeting cycle took 4-8 weeks. Most firms built-in an acceptable variance level of plus or minus 5-10%. 82% of the larger companies linked compensation and goal-achievement with 57% linking 20% of the total compensation to meeting operational goals. 85% of the executives at firms with annual revenue of $10 million and above view budgets as a cash flow management tool. This figure rises to 93% for companies smaller than $10 million. The most common Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) were Net Income/Loss, Gross Profit, Operating Expenses as a Percentage of Sales, and EBIT.

Questions:

What are cited as the two most common "pain points" of budgeting? What percentage of companies that participated in the survey said that they prepare annual budgets? Of those that prepare budgets, what percentages say that they start the budgeting process by first generating sales projections? What is the most common amount of time for the annual budgeting process?