Constructing an expense budget

Each cost centre budget is seen as part of an overall plan designed to meet company objectives. Constructing cost centres' individual budgets involves detailed consultation about company objectives, marketing objectives and relevant income and expense projections. These can be brought into line and match changes in the external business environment.

Using this as a basis it is a reasonably straightforward exercise to calculate other expenses, including the number of people (and their remuneration packages, such as pension expenses, national insurance, travel costs) required to run a particular part of the business.

In the modern business world the rate of change is such that it is impossible to have a clear picture of the future. Inevitably it takes time to build the 'big picture' from lots of small, shifting scenarios relating to individual cost centre budgets. Budgeting may be difficult, but it is essential for a business to stay in control and 'ahead of the game'.

Advantages and disadvantages of expense budgeting

Budgeting provides organisations with detailed analysis of future and current proposed spending patterns, enabling much better control (by responding to variances). Performance can be analysed quantitatively (in numbers), making it possible to measure financial success. Measurement of results can serve as a motivational tool for many employees.

Budget analysis also makes it possible to identify unnecessary costs that can be removed so as to focus funds on value adding activities. Kraft uses budgetary control to remain focused on the hard (quantitative) and soft (qualitative) benefits of re-distributing spend.

However, it is important to keep sight of the organisation's long term goals to avoid the risk that budgeting might lead to short-term focus on financial results. This could foster cost cutting exercises at the expense of strategy. In the worst case, individual managers may pursue exclusively their own narrow goals rather than business wide ones.

If individual managers are not happy with the budget they may co-operate poorly, so it is important to have detailed discussions to achieve collective agreement. This is why Kraft as an organisation retains a consultative approach to constructing budgets.

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The importance of feedback	\|	Alternative types of budgeting

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