An Interactive Aid to Financial Planning

The problem of producing financial plans for the subsidiary of a multinational corporation is one which is critical, especially in uncertain times. In addition there is always a pressing time constraint. This paper describes a suite of models which are in use by Caltex Oil South Africa to assist in this area. The approach adopted was to provide simple models which work interactively. The financial planning analysts were able to be very involved in the project because a high level modelling language was used which they could easily comprehend. The tremendous benefits of this type of approach in terms of user acceptance and in other areas are examined.