What is your approach to budgeting, forecasting and other forward-looking projections?

"As accounting manager, I was responsible for the annual budget for our division, as well as reforecasting results throughout the year. Senior leadership, including the CEO, CFO and Controller, should drive the budget process, landing on acceptable revenue and profit growth rates in line with long term goals and investor expectations. Then, the Finance team builds a detailed budget that meets those growth targets. From a granular perspective, my approach is to always use last year as a benchmark. If a line on the P&L is projected to be different, I need to make sure I have a good reason why."