Budgets and Who Owns Them

Who this book is for

Người làm tài chính trong doanh nghiệp Việt Nam, kế toán trưởng, phụ trách tài chính, người kiêm cả sổ sách lẫn dòng tiền ở công ty vài chục người. Người đọc là NGƯỜI LÀM NGHỀ: họ giữ con số và phải giải thích chúng, nhưng người quyết chi thường là người khác. Sách nói về tài chính DOANH NGHIỆP, không phải đầu tư hay tài chính cá nhân.

Sound familiar?

• A month of budgeting work that nobody opens again until year end.
• Every department asks for twenty percent more, knowing it will be cut.
• No named owner for any budget line.
• Reality diverges from plan by the second quarter and the budget stays unchanged.

Each chapter answers one question

1. Chapter 1: Is a budget a forecast, or a promise?

   What purpose is my company's budget serving?

   A budget is not a forecast; it is an agreement about who may spend what to achieve what.

2. Chapter 2: Should budgets come from the top or the bottom?

   Where does my budget start from?

   Both approaches fail in their own way, so most companies need the two to meet in the middle.

3. Chapter 3: Who guards a budget line with no owner?

   Who owns each of my major spending lines?

   A budget line without a name on it is one nobody defends and nobody controls.

4. Chapter 4: Is revising the budget mid-year flexibility or defeat?

   How far must actuals drift before I redo the forecast?

   A budget that cannot be revised will be ignored when reality changes.

5. Chapter 5: Is cutting every department equally really fair?

   If I had to cut spending by twenty percent, where would I cut?

   Cutting every department by ten percent is the fairest approach and also the most destructive.