Learning Objectives:
- Assess the effectiveness of your firm's planning process
- Explain the benefits of having a well-structured annual planning process
- Articulate your organisation's mission, strategies, and limitations--and how they impact the budget
- List the minimum requirements to have an effective budget system
- Document the various pitfalls in your processes that should be avoided
- Identify which of the four methods you currently use to develop your operating budget
- Explain the differences among a forecast, a projection, and a budget
- Estimate expenses in your operating budget using the organisation's most common methods
- Develop appropriate rewards, recognition, and incentives to drive ethical and frugal behaviours
- Implement budget cuts with surgical skill
- Add continuous improvement into the budgeting and planning processes
- Assess the quality of the organisation's variance reporting.
- Work with the organisation's leaders to build a culture of accountability
- Start to define the specific responsibilities of each person in the budget process