The budgeting process has evolved from a straightforward annual ritual to a complex test of a corporation’s priorities and plans. As the economy expands and business becomes more competitive, priorities and projections become difficult to de-fine within scheduled time frames. Many corporations find themselves operating on continuing resolutions: that is, oper-ating well into a new fiscal year at last year’s funding levels until policy differences among budget makers can be re-solved. Since budgeting in today’s economy always involves working with less than ideal funding, priorities and trade-offs become part of the budgeting process. Most importantly, when facility managers are working out their funding alloca-tions, the priorities that govern decisions are not likely to be those of the facility management department, but rather those of the company as a whole. For example, a number of critical repair and maintenance jobs should be completed to offset deteriorating conditions at an essential facility. To do so may leave other necessary but less critical items uncompleted. The facility manager decides whether they should be post-poned, funded from a contingency budget (if one exists), or assigned to a different budget. This practical budgeting course will assist you to revisit the way budgeting is being done and ways to improve and create values for your organi-zation. Many budgeting case studies will be used to highlight the importance of using your financial statement to achieve your budget target.
