Budget Assignment

Budget management analysis is used by mangers as a tool and helps determine that all resources available are being used efficiently. The budgets are determined yearly and are based upon the previous year’s budget and variances. This paper will discuss specific strategies to manage budgets within forecast, compare five to seven expense results with budget expectations, describe possible reasons for variances, give strategies to keep results aligned with expectations, recommend three benchmarking techniques, and identify those that might improve budget accuracy, and justify the choices made.

This research paper is a brief discussion of budget management analysis. Budgeting is the key to financial management, and is the key to translates an organization goals or plan into money. Budgeting is a rough estimate of how much a company will need to get their work done, and provides the basis for evaluating performance, a source of motivation, coordinating business activities, a tool for management communication and instructions to employees. Without a budget an organization would be like a driver, driving blinded without instructions or any sense of direction, that’s how important a budget is to every organization and individual likewise (Clark, 2005).

We will look at the oversight in my organizations process in project management. Although we have certain processes and procedures in which we use I will incorporation project oversight in those areas. One process that stands out for my organization is called “Post Mortem”, this is a process that the executive branch uses on closure of projects or tasks. Post Mortem is where the manager of that department would documents issues with the process, how the ball was dropped, what process needs to be modified. This is oversight for use and is also consistent with oversight and lessons learned.

A company's budget serves as a guideline in planning and committing costs in order to meet tactical and strategic goals. Tactical goals such as providing budgetary costs for daily operations, and strategic objectives that include R&D, production, marketing, and distribution are all part of the budgeting process. Serving as a guideline rather than being set in stone, the budget is a snapshot of manager's "best thinking at the time it is prepared." (Marshall, 2003, p.496) The budget is a method in which to reign-in discretionary spending, and will likely show variances between what costs have been anticipated and what costs are actually incurred.

The central challenge that budget developers encounter is predicting what the future holds for the internal business and external factors. Reading the future is something that can never be done with perfect precision. The fast pace of technological change, the complexities of global competition and world events make developing effective budgets both more difficult and more important.

This artifact was completed as an individual assignment for the PMGT 614 course. The reflection paper is evidence of my understanding of analytical techniques. The paper addresses the integrated relationships between project planning and monitoring, project control, and the intricate nature of guiding a project from start to finish

No project is done perfect the first time; there is always a chance an error that needs correction or new ideas to make it perfect. So it is with creating and monitoring a budget. Having an accommodation for changes in a budget is a very good practice. It helps managers and budget developers respond to competitive setbacks or breakthrough more precisely and quick; by using available resources for good opportunities or correction of errors.

Budget management analysis is used by mangers as a tool and helps determine that all resources available are being used efficiently. The budgets are determined yearly and are based upon the previous year’s budget and variances. This paper will discuss specific strategies to manage budgets within forecast, compare five to seven expense results with budget expectations, describe possible reasons for variances, give strategies to keep results aligned with expectations, recommend three benchmarking techniques, and identify those that might improve budget accuracy, and justify the choices made.

A post-project review provides a record of the history of a project. It provides written

Budgeting is crucial in the well-being of a company especially the financial health status of a company. In fact, no professionally managed firm would fail to budget, since the budget establishes what is authorized, how to plan for purchasing contracts and hiring, and indicates how much financing is needed to support planned activity. It is routine for a company to budget for its expenses. Expense budgets act as a guideline of how much revenue a company would require keeping the activities running. It is used to set the company’s targets for a certain period.

Postmortem review or project retrospective can be a powerful tool for the project management committee to improve the process for organizational learning and future projects. Project retrospective is done to take some fruitful decisions for improving the future project. The success of an organization is directly linked with the practice of conducting post delivery review after the completion of the project. Evidence based timeline retrospective (EBTR) method is the best way to improve the future projects. Subjective opinion and biased memories can lead to wrong conclusions which in turn make wrong decision in meeting for the future projects. In this report different research study on retrospective review has been highlighted. The features of evidence based retrospective review has been analysed with the help of two case studies.

The 20’s century saw the use of budget involve due to a change in the environment. Indeed the control of output used to be obtained by the dissemination of tasks and so traditional budgets were very much highlighted, with a significant top-down influence. As an example of the importance of budget in the 1970’s IBM had about 3,000 people involved in their budgetary process. During the same period, the oil crisis brought concerns about rising in costs and led to the introduction of zero-based budgeting (ZBB), which can lower cost by avoiding blanket increases or decreases to a prior period’s budget. The increase in business uncertainties was in discrepancy with the stifling effect of fixed plans, promoting the use of rolling budgets. The 1990’s saw the growing influence of shareholders and steered the focus on a budget that included a wider view of organisation results, answering the investment community for quarterly updates on results and expectations (Bill Ryan, 2005). Budgets then started being used as a communication tool between the financial community and the organisation, allowing the corporation to be integrated in the capital market. Moreover companies started using flexible budgets rather than static budgets as nowadays various levels of activities can be observed in most organisations. The use of flexible budgets then enables firms to be consistent with their new environment and the market.

There are certain degrees of risk elements when firms are required to spend in an investment in anticipation of the firm’s long-term benefits. In order to ensure that the best decision is made when new investment projects are considered, firms should carry out investment appraisal to access an investment proposal in financial terms. Such assessments will allow a firm to access the profitability and efficiency of an investment in order to aid in decision making as for which investment plans are viable. http://www.icaew.com/en/members/business-resources/business-management-and-strategy/investment-appraisal/carrying-out-investment-appraisals

Monitoring. Progress on the project needs to be monitored through use of contract programmes; progress is plotted to establish if work is on time, in front or running behind. If work is falling behind, monitoring will catch this early so that resources can be directed to the lagging activity to bring it back on schedule. The financial side of the project must also be closely monitored to ensure that the predicted profit for the contract is met and that a positive cash flow is maintained. This monitoring is called coat value reconciliation, and involves adding up all the costs against revenue at a particular time interval, to show profit or loss.

Budget and budgetary control practices are undeniably indispensable as organizations routinely go about their business activities and operations. These organizations are constantly on the alert on how actual levels of performance agree with planned or budgeted performance. A budget expresses a plan in monetary terms. It is prepared and approved prior to a particular budgeted period and explicitly may show the income, expenditure and the capital to be employed by organizations in achieving their goals and objectives.