The Business Budgeting Process

How Companies Work Together to Build Better Budgets

What you’ll learn
Identify the relationship between strategic planning and budgeting
Recall key steps in the budgeting process
Recognize the difference between top-down and bottom-up budgeting
Recall the pros and cons of using budgeting software

Requirements
None

Description
Budgeting consumes a massive amount of time and resources. It’s a stressful and busy time.Are there ways to improve the effectiveness of the investment we make in the budget process? Can we make better budgeting decisions that lead to higher performance?In this course, I walk step-by-step through the budget formation process. The purpose and role of the budget can best be explained in the context of strategic planning. We’ll explore which analyses can be done throughout the year to take pressure off the very busy budgeting season. Some lessons cover the nuts and bolts of budget reporting and budgeting tools.This course focuses on:How top leadership sets the budget guidelinesWhether budgets should be built in a top-down processThe major steps in building and communicating with a budgetManaging a company with a budgetBudget reportingBudgeting toolsThis course is part of a three-part series I call Better Budgeting. The three parts are:• The master budget and sub-budgets• The budgeting process• Budgeting alternativesYou can watch all three parts in the order above or watch any part as a stand-alone course. This course does not cover how different parts of the budget are calculated (e.g., revenues, production costs, selling costs, administration costs). See my course “The Master Budget and Sub-Budgets” for that. This course focuses on improving internal management processes around the budget to improve decision-making and company performance.The course author has been the CFO, SVP of Finance, or Director of Operations of companies with just a few employees to companies with $3 billion in assets and hundreds of employees. He’s led, facilitated, or participated in the budgeting process many times.

Overview
Section 1: The Budgeting Process

Lecture 1 Welcome and Overview

Lecture 2 Budgeting and Strategic Planning

Lecture 3 Top-Down or Bottom-Up Budgeting?

Lecture 4 The Budget Process

Lecture 5 Testing Budgets

Lecture 6 Budget Reporting

Lecture 7 Budgeting Tools

Lecture 8 Budget Template

Lecture 9 Bonus Lecture

Business employees tasked with building budgets.,Business advisors who want to better help their clients build budgets.,Business employees or owners who want to better understand how budgets are built.