By the end of Q3, most financial forecasts are out of sync with reality. Expenses shift. Revenue misses the mark. New initiatives get approved without updates to your financial plan. But many teams won’t revisit their forecasts until year-end prep begins—which is too late if something’s already off track.
At Enkel, we help Canadian businesses stay on top of their numbers with clear, real-time reporting and regular forecast reviews. If you want to reduce surprises and make smarter decisions heading into Q4, now’s the time to pressure-test your assumptions.
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TL;DR
- August is the ideal time for a financial forecast review — quiet enough to assess, early enough to adjust.
- Letting forecasts go stale leads to poor planning, cash flow strain, and strategic misfires.
- Enkel helps businesses reforecast quickly and confidently, with clean data and realistic projections.
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Should You Reforecast? Use This Checklist to Decide.
Most teams wait too long to revisit the forecast. If any of the following are true, don’t wait until year-end. Your numbers need a second look right now.
| Checkpoint | Why It Matters |
| You’re still using assumptions from January | Markets shift, costs climb, and plans change. If you haven’t updated since Q1, your forecast is fiction. |
| You’ve made major team or budget changes | New hires, paused projects, expanded departments — any of these can throw off your projections fast. |
| You’re planning fall campaigns with outdated numbers | If you’re approving spend based on original targets, not real-time performance, you could be overextending. |
| Cash flow visibility is fuzzy | If you think you have runway but aren’t totally sure, you’re flying blind. |
| You’re fielding questions from your board, investors, or leadership | And you’re giving vague or caveated answers because your model no longer reflects reality. |
| Revenue or expenses are tracking ±10% from plan | Even small variances compound by Q4. |
15 Must-Track Metrics & KPIs for Nonprofit Success
A 4-Step Financial Forecast Review You Can Actually Run (in 10–14 Days)
This isn’t just a numbers task — it’s a leadership sprint. Here’s how to make it happen fast without overloading your team.
Sprint Timeline: 2 Weeks (Start to Finish)
Who’s Involved:
- Owner/CEO: Final decision-maker, sets review priority
- Controller or Finance Lead: Runs the numbers, flags changes
- Department Leads (Ops, Sales, Marketing, People): Provide input on updated realities
- Bookkeeper or Accounting Partner: Supplies clean reports and historical data
Week 1 — Review & Reforecast
- Kickoff Meeting (1 hr): Align on goals, timelines, and categories to review
- Department Check-Ins (30 mins each): Sales, Ops, People, Marketing
- Finance Work Block (4–6 hrs): Reforecast key categories, adjust cash flow models
Week 2 — Debrief & Apply
- Leadership Sync (1 hr): Walk through the new forecast, flag trade-offs, approve updates
- Owner Signoff: Final approval on any changed targets
- Distribution: Share updated forecast and decisions with affected teams
This is a working sprint — not an all-hands. The goal is targeted clarity, not perfection.
What You’re Risking If You Don’t Reforecast
Too many businesses wait until the cracks become emergencies. We’ve seen what happens when you don’t take action early:
- Cash flow crunches that show up in October because overages weren’t flagged in August.
- Hasty hiring freezes because budgets didn’t reflect real headcount burn.
- Budget resets at year-end that wipe out months of progress and morale.
- Board frustration when projections are obviously off and no one took initiative.
- Wasted time on “nice-to-have” projects when core priorities needed funding.
None of this is inevitable. But the window to prevent it is now.
What Happens When You Don’t Review the Forecast (Real Examples)
Here’s what we’ve seen when teams skip this review, and what we helped prevent once they course-corrected:
| Without a Review | What It Caused | What the Fix Looked Like |
| No payroll forecast update after new hires | Surprise cash crunch in Q4 | Adjusted headcount and spending mid-August |
| Revenue assumptions unchanged after a product delay | Over-hiring based on inflated numbers | Paused recruitment, reallocated budget |
| Sales team launching campaigns with outdated expense data | Missed margin targets | Synced forecast with marketing and sales priorities |
| Waiting until year-end to flag budget overruns | Board pushback and emergency cost cuts | Ran a Q3 clean-up and regained trust |
The forecast doesn’t just guide spending. It sets the tone for how your team makes decisions. A stale model leads to blind bets.
Get Leadership Buy-In to Reforecast. Here’s What to Say.
Whether you’re reporting to a CEO, board, or investor, getting buy-in for a mid-year reforecast starts with how you frame it. Here’s how to make the case clearly and strategically:
- “Our forecast no longer reflects current realities. If we wait until year-end to adjust, we’ll be reacting instead of planning.”
- “This isn’t about scrapping the budget. It’s about making smarter decisions in Q4 with real numbers.”
- “We’ve had [X changes] since the original forecast. It’s riskier not to revisit the model.”
- “We’re seeing cash flow uncertainty. A reforecast would help us stabilize and prioritize with confidence.”
- “I’d rather flag these issues now than explain surprises in October.”
Get Your Numbers Back on Track
If your forecast is showing cracks, now’s the time to fix them.
Book time with an Enkel expert and prep your team (and your forecast) for a confident Q4.
