Page 128 - Budgeting for Managers

show account codes.
Some Common
Executives really don’t
Errors to Avoid
care that the account code
• Don’t adjust formats
for new computer purchas-
by typing in spaces. Learn to align
cells to the right, left, center, and
es is 102. However, Preparing for Presentation 111
accounting does care. You decimal point. Set items and sub-
can put account code items in separate columns.
• Don’t use multiple rows for column
numbers in their own rows
headers. Learn to use word wrap
and columns and hide
when needed.
them before printing
• Be judicious in your fonts, such as
except when we give the bold, italic, or bold italic. Use them
budget to the accounting only when emphasis makes the text
department. Then you can clearer.
reveal the hidden account
code columns and rows when you deliver the budget to
accounting.
You may also want to show account codes when you’re
tracking the budget. Invoices and other expense documents will
show account codes. If we show account codes while working
with them, it’s easy to verify that the funds were applied to the
correct sub-accounts.
Sometimes, you may need to break out a separate budget
presentation for a particular account code. Perhaps a project is
running over budget or some funds were misallocated. By cre-
ating a separate spreadsheet for the one account code, you can
focus on the problem and decide how to resolve it.
There’s one other time when account codes are useful.
When you’re tracking a budget, as described in Chapter 9,
you’ll want to see the account codes. That way, when you look
at an invoice, you can quickly compare the account code with
the budget to make sure you’re posting the expense to the
proper line item.

Preparing a Budget Presentation
When you prepare a budget presentation, you have to change
your focus from getting the budget right to making the budget