IT Manager's Handbook by Holtsnider Bill Jaffe Brian D. & Brian D. Jaffe

Author:Holtsnider, Bill, Jaffe, Brian D. & Brian D. Jaffe
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780123914057
Publisher: Elsevier Science
Published: 2012-02-16T05:00:00+00:00

Reviewers for Your Budget

Most likely you'll be reviewing the first drafts of your budget with your director or vice president. In general, it's a good idea to get as many eyes and minds involved with your budget as possible. You don't want to overlook anything. This includes getting your direct reports involved in the process. Solicit from them ideas about projects they know about, things they'd like to get done, hardware and software that needs to be replaced or upgraded, and so on.

In all likelihood, involving your staff in the budget process will benefit both of you—not only will they appreciate the opportunity to be involved, they will most likely offer up some items that you had neglected to think about. At the same time you're collecting the expected dollar amounts for your budget, you want to make sure you're collecting the associated explanations and justifications. You will have to refer to this information when it comes time to explain, justify, and defend your budget. See the section later in this chapter entitled “Getting Approval and Defending Your Budget” on page 165 .

Try to keep as much detailed information as possible, not just high-level summaries. For example, instead of putting $500K in software maintenance, identify the various applications that you pay maintenance for, how much the maintenance is, and when the maintenance comes up for renewal. Having this information readily available makes it that much easier if you are asked to explain your budget. Also, it helps identify those items that should be removed from the budget because they are no longer in use.

You need to thoroughly understand and know your material before making a formal presentation. You should be fully versed in how you came up with your numbers, what assumptions were used, and so on. Many managers, IT and non-IT alike, don't do their homework before making a formal budget presentation. This lack of preparation clearly shows during the meetings. The more knowledgeable you are, the more confidence they'll have in what you say.

In general, the budget may be approved by your CFO or executive committee around the start of the fiscal year. However, it's not unheard of for the final approval to be delayed until a month or two into the new fiscal year.

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