Using Balancing Act in Budget Cutting
Some features in this article are only available in full accounts.
The economic downturn is making it necessary for many organizations to cut spending. Balancing Act can help with this unfortunate task by presenting cut options, with whatever level of detail you want, so that stakeholders can understand options, see their cost impact, and then provide informed input to decision makers. These simulations can be complex, with layers of detail and information, or extremely simple, such as letting users answer "yes" or "no" to an item. You can also let users choose a revenue scenario.
Click here for an example of a quick, internal facing budget cut simulation for a department.
Balancing Act has three features that might be useful if you find yourself in the position of creating a simulation to cut budgets.
- Use the scenario question creation feature in the .csv import to quickly create yes/no scenario questions. By default, the dollar value associated with "no" will be the negative of the starting amount with the effect being that the item is cut. You can always edit the scenario question as usual to add options and context. Note: Depending on how you have set up revenue, you may need to adjust the starting amount to zero.
- Turn off the pie chart in simulation settings. Pie charts don't show up well with negative numbers. Under the simulation settings, you can choose which charts you want to see or turn off.
- Customize the entry modal to provide stakeholders with context for the situation and request the type of input that will be useful. The example above linked in the blue box presents one example internally. Here is another example in which a Mayor speaks into the camera and asks for input.
If you are using Balancing Act internally, you may want to turn off the "share" option. This is a checkbox under "Settings."
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