Page 60 - Budgeting for Managers

Gathering Production Figures
been wrong; without the actual figures, we have no way of
knowing. Tax returns are a good source in one way: we can
always get them, since corporate accounting will have a copy.
However, the figures presented on tax returns are quite a bit dif-
ferent from the numbers we use to manage our department 43
internally during the year. This is not tax cheating, but the result
of legitimate alternatives for presenting information to the
Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Using Actual Figures
You can get actual figures for previous accounting periods from
the accounting system if books were properly kept in the last
accounting period. It’s good to look at several periods if you can
get them. You should request the figures in a format that’s easy
for you. If you’re going to prepare a monthly budget, you should
get monthly figures, and so forth. Also, it’s much easier to use
figures in a spreadsheet program than printed reports. There are
very few things more irritating than typing numbers into a com-
puter when they came from a computer but were provided in
hard copy.
The accounting department is not the only source of past
figures. Some departments keep internal records. Sometimes,
we can’t find any internal records at all, but we can request a
copy of our account from a
vendor or credit card com-
Ask for Help
pany. Of course, this infor-
This may sound simple, but
mation may be incom-
never hesitate to ask for help from
plete. Any figures we can the folks in accounting when you get
get fairly easily are worth your figures.Account codes, in partic-
it. However, at a certain ular, can be confusing. Most account-
point, we don’t want to ants understand that, as specialists,
waste time gathering past part of their job is to explain
numbers and spending accounting to other managers. If
you’ve had a bad experience, where
hours organizing a past
you were criticized for asking or you
budget. There are other
got an answer that made no sense,
ways of figuring out our
find someone else and try again.
budget for this year.