We have our first quarter allocation + carry-over already allocated to the Budget Sub categories in review/edit window and the numbers in the Budget Report are right on. Now it appears from our last instructions that we should estimate the amounts for the other three quarters and enter them as well. I would prefer to work with actual amounts allocated to each quarter, and add the numbers to the previous quarter distributions. No estimates would be made. Will that work or is it OK?
If we do estimate the allocations for the remaining quarters, and the actual amount received for the 2nd quarter, for example, is $350 more than the estimate for that quarter, do we manually break down the $350 to the individual categories or is that done automatically? I am quite certain that have do that manually, but I just want to be sure. I did not think the instructions were clear on that point, at least to me.
Budget Allocations
- aebrown
- Community Administrator
- Posts: 15153
- Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2007 8:48 pm
- Location: Draper, Utah
The Budget Reports are based on annual budgeting, which you are supposed to be doing, according to the Handbook. That's why you are told to put in estimates for future quarters to fill out the year.khasay wrote:We have our first quarter allocation + carry-over already allocated to the Budget Sub categories in review/edit window and the numbers in the Budget Report are right on. Now it appears from our last instructions that we should estimate the amounts for the other three quarters and enter them as well. I would prefer to work with actual amounts allocated to each quarter, and add the numbers to the previous quarter distributions. No estimates would be made. Will that work or is it OK?
If you were to attempt to do quarterly budgeting, the carryover would essentially be applied to the first quarter and thus would skew the numbers (assuming the carryover amount is not insignificant).
What I have done in the past and plan to do with this new system is to create a category called "Contingency" or something like that. Especially if you have a carryover from the previous year, this should be easy to do -- just put your carryover into that subcategory. Then as your quarterly allocations arrive, you can use the contingency category to be your buffer; difference between the estimated and actual allocations can be absorbed by the contingency category.khasay wrote:If we do estimate the allocations for the remaining quarters, and the actual amount received for the 2nd quarter, for example, is $350 more than the estimate for that quarter, do we manually break down the $350 to the individual categories or is that done automatically? I am quite certain that have do that manually, but I just want to be sure. I did not think the instructions were clear on that point, at least to me.
That provides three advantages:
- You only have to adjust one budget number each quarter.
- Your auxiliaries can depend on their budget not changing throughout the year.
- You are budgeting conservatively, and will most likely have a carryover into the next year to use for this same purpose or for some unexpected expense.
Questions that can benefit the larger community should be asked in a public forum, not a private message.