A Budget is a management tool that is an expression of planned expenditures and revenues. "Budgets serve many important functions in government. In one sense, budgets are contracts annually agreed on by the executive and legislative branches that allow executive agencies and departments to raise and spend public funds in specified ways for the coming fiscal year, as stated by Stillman in "The American Bureaucracy" He also says that budgets impose a mutual set of legal obligations between the elected and appointed officers of public organizations with regard to taxation and expenditure policies, therefore, is a legal contract that provides a vehicle for fiscal controls over subordinate units of government by the politically elected representatives of the people.
Budgetary decisions are made, according to Rubin in her book The Politics of Public Budgeting, by envisioning governments as "not merely technical managerial documents" but rather "they are also intrinsically and irreducibly political." Her ideas are similar to that of general budget concepts over balancing expenditures and revenues, but differ in fundamental ways according to Stillman. "The open environments within which budgets are developed, the variety of actors involved, the constraints imposed as well as the emphasis on public accountability, give budgets special and distinctive features in the public sector."
The differences between microbudgeting and macrobudgeting are just what their prefaces imply. "On the one hand there are a number budget actors, who have all individual motivations, who strategize to get what they want from the budget. The focus on the actors and their strategies is called microbudgeting." They do not bargain with one another over the budget. They are assigned budget roles by the budget process, the issues they examine are often framed by the budget process, and the timing and coordination of their decisions are often regulated by the budget process, according to Rubin. She goes on to say that actors are not free to come to budget agreements alone. They are bound by the environmental constraints. There are decisions that they are not permitted to make because they are either against the law, the courts disagree, or previous decision makers have bound their hands. "Budgetary decision making has to account not just for budgetary actors but also for budget process and the environment. This more top-down and systematic perspective on budgeting is called macrobudgeting."
Budget strategies are affected by environment, budget process, and individual strategies, all of which influence the outcomes.
At the beginning of the 20th century, government budgeting was a decentralized process more conducive to the small government ideals at that time. The executive branch was less involved in the process and less influential in terms of funding decisions. There were no definitive procedures and no real central authority. The submission process was informal and chaotic. Each agency subm...
What is your role in development of the budget? What percentage of its development is at your discretion?
“After World War I, such arguments succeeded in rationalizing the budget process under the president’s authority: the 1921 Budget and Accounting Act gave presidents responsibility for overseeing individual agencies budget requires and unified; coordinated executive budget. A new organization, the Bureau of the Budget (BoB), was created within the Treasury Department to serve as the administration’s staff arm in endeavor” (Rudalevige,
“A budget is more than just a series of numbers on a page; it is an embodiment of our values”, Barack Obama. The utterance of these words could not have been a breath more of truth. For the Federal Budget is a reflection of the founder’s aspirations stated on the preamble. To specify, in the simplest of forms the preamble is a mission statement for the nation; it vaguely identifies the steps required for the prosperity of the nation. With the creation of the preamble, along came the Federal Budget; the budget being the nation’s budget that states the overall expenditures. The preamble being utilized in the birth process of the Federal Budget, Due to the lack of alignment between the federal budget and the preamble, funding in The big Five,
Since there is criticism towards traditional budgeting, the different approach to the traditional budget has gained its momentum. Over the years, traditional budgeting lost its relevance with the modern business world, and it no longer satisfies the needs of the managers. With new budgetary systems alternatives, it will suit better for the need of the modern business.
The sole purpose of needing a balanced national budget is to establish a budget for the country so that all government funding is equally distributed. Because the government gets money from taxes and fees, and spends it on things like national defense, infrastructure, grants for research, education, and the arts, and social programs such as social security and Medicare.
Participative budgeting has the advantage of transferring information from the subordinate to their superior This knowledge is likely to be more reliable and accurate as the subordinate has direct contact with the activity and therefore is in the best position to make budget estimates. Participative Budgeting also gives subordinates the opportunity to discuss organisational issues with superiors, in which an exchange of information and ideas can help to solve problems and agree future actions (Nouri & Parker 1998). This transferral of information is important particularly when dealing with a matter of high task difficulty as, the more difficult a task, the greater the need for consultation with subordinates. Participative budgeting has a higher performance rate when dealing with more difficult and more volatile tasks than non consultative budgeting (Lau & Tan 1998)
The federal government has a budget. This is called the Federal budget, and is made up of five important steps.It goes through a period called “fiscal year”. It begins October 1 and it ends September 30 of the next year.The budget can become very complex, just because of how many parties are are involved, and how big the budget is.This period can begin in any 12 months chosen for keeping accounts.
Line item budgeting categorizes various expenses and places them in list format on a document for budgetary purposes. This type of budgeting is considered the heartbeat of budgeting due to the systematic method by which it controls revenue and expenses, this is made evident when Tyer and Willand (1992), pointed out “Statutory or administrative controls could be imposed on the transfer of funds from one-line item to another, or between broad categories of expenditure.” According to Schick (1971), “line item budgets were attractive to legislative officials because they did not focus explicit attention on substantive policy issues or choices.”
A company's budget serves as a guideline in planning and committing costs in order to meet tactical and strategic goals. Tactical goals such as providing budgetary costs for daily operations, and strategic objectives that include R&D, production, marketing, and distribution are all part of the budgeting process. Serving as a guideline rather than being set in stone, the budget is a snapshot of manager's "best thinking at the time it is prepared." (Marshall, 2003, p.496) The budget is a method in which to reign-in discretionary spending, and will likely show variances between what costs have been anticipated and what costs are actually incurred.
Budget is combining your income and expenses to decide how much money you are going to spend on an item. Budget is an important step to determine your financial health and financial stability. It’s an important financial tool because it can help plan for expenses, cut cost were unneeded, save for future goals, plan for emergencies that occur inexpediently, and list what you are spending and saving.
‘Beyond Budgeting is the set of guiding principles that, if followed, will enable an organization to manage its performance and decentralize its decision making process without the need for traditional budgets. Its purpose is to enable the organization to meet the success factors of the information economy (e.g. being adaptive in unpredictable conditions).’
The primary purposes of the governmental budget are to legitimize public expenditures and to account for and control the usage of public resources. As budgets evolve, officials find that the annual budget should be used for planning, coordinating, and scheduling programs. Demands on municipalities force them to engage in establishing priorities and monitoring how well the priorities are achieved. It is no longer possible for a municipal government to do everything for everyone. A municipal government must prioritize the services that are mandatory, urgent, and that are done well. Resources must be aligned with strategies and citizen’s needs by allocating them over some time frame; usually twelve months – a fiscal year.
Another reason for importance of participatory budgeting is that of enhancing transparency. There is an important inextricable link between budget public engagement and fiscal transparency. Participatory budgeting allows access of adequate information which cannot be provided by traditional political institutions, (WorldBank, 2003). When there is lack of transparency in the budgetary process bureaucrats tend to misuse public fund making policies choices that are exclusive to the citizens, (www.bidpa.bw,
The national budget is the main instrument through which governments collect resources from the economy, in a sufficient and appropriate manner; and allocate and use those resources responsively, efficiently and effectively (Todorovic & Djordjevic, 2009). The work of public budget has increased extremely more complicated, abstruse and worrying (Hou, 2006, p.730).