Get started with Financial Management
Uptempo Financial Management is the system of record for managing your marketing budgets. Use it to plan your investments, manage the funding of your campaigns, and optimize the impact of your marketing dollars.
The strategic operating model for marketing financial management
Uptempo Financial Management is built around the way that high-performing marketing organizations define, execute on, and adjust the finances of their marketing plans:
In many organizations, marketing planning starts with a top-down plan, in which leaders define the major targets for the upcoming fiscal year, and allocate budgets.
After the targets and budgets are set, marketing operational teams build out the bottom-up plan by deciding on the tactics and investments they will use to achieve the top-down targets.
Leaders and operational teams then reconcile the top-down and bottom-up plans, adjust budgets, and agree on an overall plan.
When the overall plan has been approved, operational teams begin executing on it. For budget owners, this means refining initial investment estimates, as well as working with Finance to record final funding amounts as purchase orders and actuals become available.
As the execution stage progresses, budget owners evaluate actual spending against expected costs to maximize the use of their budget without overspending. They also measure the performance of initiatives, and tactically reallocate investments to impact.
Uptempo Financial Management is designed to reflect this strategic operating model. It breaks marketing financial management down into three core phases:
- Phase 1: Plan
Corporate marketing starts with a top-down plan supporting corporate goals. This phase includes budgeting (managed by owners) and creating an initial estimate of your investments (the bottom-up plan) that equals the top-down target.
For more details on this phase, see:
Plan.
- Phase 2: Execute
Once planning is complete and the Plan is locked, the Forecast becomes the record of your current estimate. You manage requisition amounts from your finance system as purchase orders (POs), and invoice data as actuals.
For more details on this phase, see:
- Phase 3: Optimize
Measure the performance of your investments, evaluate costs, and create reports. This allows you to assess success, make informed decisions, and adjust planning accordingly.
For more details, see Optimize.
Navigation overview
Uptempo Financial Management consists of four sections to help you drive towards effective financial planning and execution:
Budgets: The access point for all budgets, allowing you to view collaborators, manage imports, POs, actuals, and budget transfers. See Budgets section.
Investments: The workspace where marketing spend data is tracked and data entry occurs. See Investments section.
Insights: Contains dashboards and reports populated by your investments, POs, and actuals to answer critical business questions. See Insights section.