Accounting Best Practices, Fifth Edition

Implementation Issues for Budgeting Best Practices

With few exceptions, improvements to the budgeting system are easy to implement and can be done rapidly, with a minimum of fuss. The cost and duration are noted in Exhibit 5.1. The reason is that most changes are to the budgeting model and procedures, neither of which are under the control of anyone but the accounting department, and neither of which need, unlike humans, some explanation and cooperation. Accordingly, one can assume a rapid implementation process that can mostly be completed during the current budget cycle, resulting in immediate and rapid improvement in the entire process.

Exhibit 5.1. Summary of Budgeting Best Practices

	Best Practice	Cost	Install Time
Budget Assumptions
5–1	Link the budget to key business drivers
5–2	Clearly define all assumptions
5–3	Clearly define all capacity levels
5–4	Establish project ranking ...