Budgeting
September 21st 2007 20:57
When I first started working at the shop as Manager, some 17 years ago, the then Chairman of the Board used to do a monthly budget for me. I used to look at it and think, well, yes, now what? It’s all very well doing a budget, but as the current treasurer of the shop often said, a budget is only a guideline. And of course, you can do better - or much worse - than your budget.
Budgeting in that business was always a difficult thing, I found, because the income was never consistent, and was often below what you needed, and the outgoings for stock were erratic, because you often needed to buy on the spur of the moment, rather than waiting for next month, when you could afford it budget-wise.
Maybe I wasn’t the world’s best manager, though I was fairly canny as far as keeping track of the cash was concerned.
I know some businesses use budgeting software, and perhaps something like that might have helped. (It would also have given me another job to do, entering all the info!) The treasurer, an accountant, used his own form of manual budgeting - manual in the sense that he entered figures in his own self-produced spreadsheet. I think budgeting software might go a little beyond that! And perhaps it’s geared for businesses that have more than one and a half workers on their staff….
Budgeting in that business was always a difficult thing, I found, because the income was never consistent, and was often below what you needed, and the outgoings for stock were erratic, because you often needed to buy on the spur of the moment, rather than waiting for next month, when you could afford it budget-wise.
Maybe I wasn’t the world’s best manager, though I was fairly canny as far as keeping track of the cash was concerned.
I know some businesses use budgeting software, and perhaps something like that might have helped. (It would also have given me another job to do, entering all the info!) The treasurer, an accountant, used his own form of manual budgeting - manual in the sense that he entered figures in his own self-produced spreadsheet. I think budgeting software might go a little beyond that! And perhaps it’s geared for businesses that have more than one and a half workers on their staff….
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