...whether it is a personal budget or a company business budget. Personal budgets are used to make sure that a person is not spending more money then what they are making. Business budget works in much the same way but it is way more complicated. Budgeting properly can help any company set its self on track to be profitable. Budgeting begins with in the building and planning process of a company. This paper will describe the main issues companies face while budgeting, it will also display specific current and future application of the budgeting process for the financial success of business. This paper will also describe the budgeting process and will also touch on the three major purposes; “forecasting the future development of the organization (and its environment), coordinating activities and tasks, and motivating employees, The uncertainty innate in any business environment leads to the need for forecasting future developments and events in order to make the right decisions at the right time and to handle the future effectively” (Weber & Linder, 2005). Necessity of a Budget Budgeting is widely misconceived as a “bad” thing. Many times people feel that a budget restricts them and does not allow them to spend as they please. Budgeting works very much the same way a kite works. As a kite starts to soar in the ski the string is what actually helps keep it up. If you cut the string the kite plummets to the ground. A budget works the same way. The budget acts as the string tied...
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... B Submitted to: Sir Hassan Jabbar Explain the relative merits of the top-down and bottom-up approaches to budget setting? Budgeting Budgeting is a formal process in which a company's expenses and revenues are planned for the future. Top down and bottom up are two most common budgeting techniques. In the top-down approach, upper management prepares budgets with no input from employees or lower-level managers. In the bottom-up budgeting approach, managers and employees at the department level prepare budgets for their individual departments. A final, organizational budget is prepared by consolidating all individual, department budgets. The relative merits of Top-Down Budgeting Financial Control * When upper management evaluates a company's overall financial needs and compares the needs to projected revenues for a year, it gets a clear picture of how much money it can reasonably allocate to different areas. Decisions are made about where finances will have the most positive impact and staffers are given directives on what they have to work with. This approach allows upper managers to maintain complete financial control over a budget. Accountability of Staff * When a staff is given a certain budget to work with, it must make prudent financial decisions about how the money will be used. This may result in greater financial accountability and more comparison-shopping for products,...
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...Beyond Home Care Budget Plan Shanitra Williams Webster University- LRAFB Abstract There are many home care agencies and organizations with the demands of providing services to much of our communities. One must wonder consider what is the cost to funding particular organization to meet this demand? The cost is just as extensive as the reasons why resources are made available to the agencies. There are many governmental grants, and funding that may provide assistance to these agencies. The need to present an appropriate budget is just as important as providing the services. The organization need to have a plan in how their services and resources will be distributed throughout the term of the each year. Above and Beyond Home Care is one many agencies that have the passion to make a difference in individuals who have the will to live independently. But without the proper budget it would have been impossible for this happen. This research will have detail research information about their procedures, annual budgets, participants, results and data analysis. Above and Beyond Home Care is one of many health care agencies that provides services and resources to individuals. I chose this agency not only because of its name but because what is stands for. As I research the background of the agency, I notice that they have the patient to endure just about anything. In the research I volunteered my time and made an effort to seek to understand their need to influence the...
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...VETERANS ADMINISTRATION FISCAL BUDGET THOMAS POULTER UPPER IOWA UNIVERSITY INTRODUCTION In the 1930s, the United States government established the Veterans Administration on a philosophy of President Lincoln; who stated that the country needs “To care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan” by serving and honoring the men and women who are America’s veterans. Approximately one percent of the American population will serve their country in one of the five branches of military service. Today, the Veterans Administration has one of the most comprehensive health care systems for military veterans than any other country. In 1930, the US government budgeted over $73,000.00 to take care of the country’s veterans. The fiscal budget for the Veteran’s Administration continues to grow every year. There are several reasons the budget changes every year. First, the continuing number of veterans rises every year. Second, the budget needs to account for inflation and the consumer price index. Finally, Congress and the President may approve new programs that will help service members cope with medical or mental issues. This paper will discuss the history of the VA; budget preparation; constant dollars and current dollars, increasing budget in percentages and dollars the past 20 years; five year fiscal plan; and a conclusion. HISTORY OF THE VA BUDGET The United States has been caring for service members since the early 1600’s; the first...
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...Budgeting OVERVIEW Brief description This toolkit provides guidelines on how to go about developing and monitoring a budget. It will help you with an overall organisational budget as well as with a budget for a specific project. It includes tools for estimating costs as well as tips for ensuring that your budgets meet the needs of your project or organisation. In the examples section we give actual examples of budgets and how they can be monitored. Why have a toolkit on budgeting? Budgeting is the key to financial management. The toolkit will help you plan, develop and use budgets effectively in your organisation. If you have a sound understanding of the principles of budgeting, you will be well on the way to sound financial management. If you use this toolkit in conjunction with other toolkits, as indicated, you will increase the capacity of your organisation to manage its finances effectively. You will also increase its ability to survive through foresight and planning. Who should use this toolkit? This toolkit is aimed specifically at people who have had little or no experience with budgeting. Perhaps you have not been involved in running an organisation, project or department before. Or perhaps you have not been involved in the financial management side of the work before. Now you are faced with the task of developing a budget, or budgets, and you are not quite sure where to start. If you are in a situation like this, then this toolkit will be useful for you. When will...
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...Budgeting OVERVIEW Brief description This toolkit provides guidelines on how to go about developing and monitoring a budget. It will help you with an overall organisational budget as well as with a budget for a specific project. It includes tools for estimating costs as well as tips for ensuring that your budgets meet the needs of your project or organisation. In the examples section we give actual examples of budgets and how they can be monitored. Why have a toolkit on budgeting? Budgeting is the key to financial management. The toolkit will help you plan, develop and use budgets effectively in your organisation. If you have a sound understanding of the principles of budgeting, you will be well on the way to sound financial management. If you use this toolkit in conjunction with other toolkits, as indicated, you will increase the capacity of your organisation to manage its finances effectively. You will also increase its ability to survive through foresight and planning. Who should use this toolkit? This toolkit is aimed specifically at people who have had little or no experience with budgeting. Perhaps you have not been involved in running an organisation, project or department before. Or perhaps you have not been involved in the financial management side of the work before. Now you are faced with the task of developing a budget, or budgets, and you are not quite sure where to start. If you are in a situation like this, then this toolkit will be useful for...
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...Chapter 4 – Operating Budgets: A budget can be a process, a document, an accounting ledger, a plan, or a system. Local gov’t budgeting process unique – product of geographical, historical, economic, political and social factors peculiar to that jurisdiction. Budgeting is a unified series of steps to line and implement four functions: ❑ policy development – as policy instrument, CEO and legislative body need to articulate the goals, objectives and strategies that underline the budget – the flip side of proposing policy changes is accountability ❑ financial planning – includes gov’t financial condition; current/past-year trend financial act. by dept or prog; formal revenue est; look to the future to anticipate events/conditions; ensure debt service remains under control (while debt service receives first draw on municipal exp, financial plan set a rational debt service level for multi-year period ❑ service/operations planning – blueprint that governs the amount of service provided ❑ communications – way for decision makers to communicate changes in priorities, rationale for decisions and changes to vision in the future The final step in securing a framework w/in w/c the needs of policy setting, financial planning, service planning and communications can work is the development of quantitative performance measures. Environment/actors dictate the extent to which the linkage occurs and the form of linkage. Four phases of local budget cycle: ❑ planning/preparation...
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...trying to restore it back to its prior financial prowess the citizens are not the only individuals who are suffering from the consequences. Law enforcement and government agencies alike are also feeling the brunt of the recession as budget cuts and budget shortfalls and further budgetary concerns begin to become more of a problem and a concern. Valerie Honeycutt Spears wrote an article in regard to the budget concerns in California. Three months into the New Year members of the house were already predicting that a budget shortfall of potentially $200 million was looming. This was based on general funding revenues not being at where they were expected and acknowledging that they had been on a decline for the past nine months. What this means for the state of California is that without the revenue they need and without the prospect of the revenue essentially being there the state is in line for disastrous times ahead. General funds have dropped 9.8%. Because of this, further budget cuts are indeed in store. It was predicted that the drops would continue but at a slightly slower rate. At first it was thought that revenue would slip 1.5%. Instead in the first three months revenue has dropped an astounding 5.6%. To stay on pace for their predictions the revenue can only fall 0.2% for the rest of the year and this is ONLY to maintain their previous predictions regarding how far the budget this year will fall short. The author of this article is stating the facts, which are indeed that...
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...QBT Task 5 - WGU "Educational Budget Cuts" Educational budget cuts are becoming more prevalent. In turn, this is causing detrimental effects for students, teachers, parents and the community alike. A budget cut is when a school and/or district receives a certain budget that they must adhere to. They cannot go over this number. Budget cuts are becoming more strict and more money is needed to cut as times go on. Due to this happening, more important things are being cut and a lot more suffering is being seen. Due to educational budget cuts, students are feeling the brunt of it and the quality of their education is greatly suffering. The average student is in school for six hours a day, five days a week. This comes out to about twenty-four hours of instruction, after factoring in things such as lunch, breaks, taking attendance and waiting for the class to settle down. The students need every minute of education they can get in this short amount of time. They need to make sure they are getting quality education in a very short amount of time. The first issue students are facing is having outdated materials. Having current materials is essential to make sure they are being adequately taught. Students need to know what is going on today as well as what went on in the past. “Many teachers only have outdated textbooks to give their students. It’s not unusual for a teacher to have a social studies textbook that is 10-15 years old. In American History, this would mean that two...
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...Free business plan workbook This workbook asks you many questions. The more you answer the more you understand of your new business. If some questions do not fit to your kind of business - just delete them. If you miss important questions - then insert them. The workbook is that flexible. You are the one in charge of developing your new business. A business plan A business plan is a description of the firm you are to establish and a plan for how to run and develop it. The plan will gather up the threads from all your other preparations and in this way guarantee that you get around all aspects at business start. A business plan is also a basis for negotiations with the bank and possibly business connections to convince them to give credit or a loan. It can also help you to convince family/ friends/ partners that it is a serious plan to start your own business. Follow the chronology of the workbook and you will bit by bit build your own business plan. The Dynamic Business Plan – the book behind the workbook |This workbook is short and concrete. To benefit fully from the workbook and to make sure you |[pic] | |cover all aspect of your start-up, you should read the book: The Dynamic Business Plan. | | |The book explains all the questions asked in the workbook. | | | ...
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...state of Texas are talking about cutting the state budget by a 4% margin overall for the next two years. The lieutenant governor and one of his associate sent out a letter to the agencies of Texas saying it is important that state agency go through a strict review over their program and budget to make sure they are getting their best value of each dollar they spend. For starters to decrease their budget they are having each company take 4% out of their basic levels of the company’s. The budget board of the legislative office and the governor’s office will provide compensation for these base level programs. The letter was sent out all over the state for all of the state-funded programs. State agencies, court justices, smaller...
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...i. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In the case “Avoiding the Alignment Trap”, the objective is to inform the readers that companies relying on technology to distance themselves from competitors can sometimes be a problem versus doing them good as they can potentially fall into the “alignment trap”. This term is used to refer to companies who believe that IT and business priorities have to be tightly linked or aligned to produce growth not putting into consideration other factors. The key problem is aligning a poorly performing It organization to the right business objectives won’t get the objective accomplished and hence the company falls into the alignment trap. IT can pose as a bottleneck to growth in most companies if executives are focusing on the wrong remedy for IT problems if they are not considering other factors. The case recommends that the path to IT-powered growth is to reduce complexity, source IT staffing and software wherever it makes the most sense and create start to finish accountability connected to business results. Once this is accomplished, then align their entire IT organization to the strategic objectives of the overall business using governance principles that cross organizational lines and making business executives responsible for key IT initiatives. ii. CURRENT SITUATION Currently, eleven percent of the surveyed respondents are caught in the alignment trap where they are spending 13% more than the average company on IT but are receiving 14% lower revenue...
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...1. What is your assessment of the new process for managing IT priorities at Volkswagen of America? Are the criticisms justified? Is it an improvement over the old process? The new process is clearly an improvement over the old process. The following are the three strengths of the new process: 1. Matulovic created a new internal IT Department – Business Process, Technology and Organization (BPTO), which would serve as a centralized point of contact for all IT activities and governance issues. This resulted in much improved and effective IT governance, one in which IT supports business goals and that IT-related risks, benefits, and opportunities can be identified in a much clearer and faster fashion. Also, by having an internal IT Department within VWoA, this would mean that VWoA now has dedicated IT employees and internal expertise required in order to keep up with the dramatic growth in the use of IT within VWoA and to remain competitive among the competitors. 2. The design and flow of the new process for funding projects are now much more organized and involve various stakeholders in the decision-making process. By including everyone in the process, the VWoA is able to account for all possible small details and draw a big picture of the project structure from these parts. This process helps the organization streamline projects with similar functions and fund projects with higher priority in order to save money and time and to achieve the best synergy and utilization for...
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...Resource 11. TRAINING MODULE IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT (Created by the Institute for Development Management, Botswana for the NGO Institute, STF. (Some materials in this module have been extracted from “A Guide to Project Management Body of Knowledge, 3rd. edition, 2004) What is a project? “A temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service.” The Three P’s [pic] Working definition of project management Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities in order to meet or exceed stakeholder needs and expectations from a project. (Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge Project Management Institute 2004) Project Management in Your Organization • What are the current methods of project management in your organization? • What project management issues is your organization facing? Important Characteristics of Real Life Projects • Accomplish with shared resources often only available on part-time basis • Require cross-functional team work • Involve uncertainty and are subject to change during execution • Subject to specific deadlines and time and resource constraints • Project manager often lacks functional authority over team members Proven Benefits of Project Management ✓ Provides clear roles, responsibilities, activities and schedules for team efforts ✓ Includes a method for considering the consequences of decreasing or increasing funds, resources...
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...Small Nonprofit Organizations A free resource provided by the Virginia Society of Certified Public Accountants Introduction • Selecting the budget committee • The task of the budget committee • Setting budget priorities and realities — revenues • Setting budget priorities and realities — expenses and costs • When to prepare the budget • A budget for cash flow • A budget for capital expenditures — bought or received • Restricted grants • Changes to the budget • Conclusions Introduction Nonprofit organizations (NPO) wrestle continually with maintaining and improving their operations, especially during today’s uncertain economy. In short, NPOs must constantly strive for sustainability. A well-planned budget will focus on the primary goals and objectives of the organization and provide financial and programmatic adaptability — key ingredients to maximize sustainability. Every volunteer brings to a small NPO the enthusiasm and interest necessary to do a good job. These volunteers are critical to an NPO’s success, because most small NPOs lack the funds necessary to seek and pay for professional guidance in the business world. This guide is written to present the theories and practicalities of budgeting for the small NPO staffed by volunteers, whose expertise do not always correspond with the budgeting needs of the organization. In this guide, Goodworks, Inc., is a hypothetical NPO that receives funds from grants, the general public and sales of ...
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