The Development of Spending Plans

Each business unit or department will create a spending plan or budget which is ultimately brought together to create the final budget plan for the organisation. Bear in mind the overlap with forecasting.

The process usually takes place as follows:

1. Each business unit draws up its own budgets/forecasts of expenditure.
2. Each business unit also draws up its own budgets/forecasts of capital expenditure.
3. In addition to these, the sales business unit will also produce a sales budget/forecast.
4. The production department will also create product volumes and costing budgets/forecasts.
5. All of these are brought together to form the enterprise budget/forecast.

If your organisation is small, you may not have all these departments, in which case the final budget can be generated without having to consult with other departments.

Some organisations work with rolling budgets as opposed to annual budgets. A rolling budget looks five quarters ahead and is revised every three months. Rolling budgets are often smoother as they take into account re-forecasting that should ideally take place in the course of running a business.