Page 22 - Budgeting for Managers

Budgeting: Why and How
The Unexpected Raise
Juanita prepared a departmental budget for a year that
includes a salary for a current team member of $36,000 per
year, or $3,000 per month. It looked fine to her. When human
resources checked it, they noticed that since each employee gets an 5
annual raise on the anniversary of his or her starting date and this
employee started in August, the 5% raise would make the budget off
by $150 per month for the last five months of the year. With the help
of human resources, Juanita adjusted the salary to $3,150 per month
for August through December and the annual budget for that line item
to $36,750.
The Human Resources Department
If your budget includes money to pay salaries for you or your
team, it will also involve the human resources department,
sometimes called personnel. People in human resources work
closely with accounting and finance with regard to salary and
other employee-related expenses. You should ask them to
check your budget in relation to salaries.
Creating an accurate, workable plan and budget allows your
team to get the money it needs from finance, keep track of it
with accounting and human resources, and succeed. You can
succeed only with a good budget. The success of your team or
department within your budget looks good for your team, for
you, and for your boss. It also helps the bottom line of your
organization.

Eight Steps to Creating a Budget

Now that you know your audience, you’re ready to begin tack-
ling your first budget. As you work through this section, take
your time and make sure that you get a basic understanding of
the ideas. If anything is too complicated right now, don’t worry.
It will show up in more detail in the next 11 chapters.
Choosing Where to Start
There are two basic starting points for a budget. We can look
either at what we did before or at what we are planning to do. In