Powerful budgeting for better planning and management

Includes index

1. Overview: from pain to power --
2. Illustrating the problems: the QRS company budget --
3. Illustrating the solution --
4. Objects of the budgeting process --
5. Inherent problems to overcome --
6. Requirements for a powerful budgeting process --
7. Establishing the context: strategy, plan, budget --
8. Dealing with uncertainty: the power of assumptions --
9. Selecting the format: the best parameters --
10. Developing the content: the best numbers --
11. Encouraging excellence: the beauty of gap analysis --
12. Putting it together: process flow and the details --
13. Conclusion: benefits of powerful budgeting --
Appendix: a new manager's first budget.

"For many manager, the budget is just a routine task. For others, it's a bureaucratic nightmare. Now this eye-opening book shows how it can be transformed into a potent planning and management tool." "Powerful Budgeting for Better Planning and Management is the first book to show how budgeting can be used to improve overall business performance. More than a technical approach to "crunching the numbers," it explains how budgeting can help you formulate strategies, set priorities, and achieve business objectives." "Written specifically for managers, this one-of-a-kind guide lays out the requirements for better budgeting in your organization. Pinpointing the most effective techniques, approaches, and practices for making budgeting the valuable management tool it should be, author Robert Finney explains how you can establish the proper strategic context for preparing the budget and select the format that provides the most useful information for management; deal realistically with uncertainty; develop content that provides the best possible numeric predictions; and encourage excellence at all levels of the company." "Finney discusses the obstacles and inherent problems that can disrupt the budgeting process. Using a fictitious company as an example, he discloses the most frequent errors managers make and recommends various ways to correct them. Going beyond the basics, he explores such things as the internal politics of budgeting at a large company and the effect that competing interests can have on final results." "Powerful Budgeting provides extensive coaching for even the most complex budgeting situations, but there is also an appendix for novices entitled "A New Manager's First Budget." And the budgeting process flow presented in the next to last chapter will show you how to organize the budgeting process for accuracy, consistency, and terrific communications." "Powerful Budgeting for Better Planning and Management will not only eliminate the misery of doing budgets the same old way but help you to enhance your own career while you contribute to the overall success of your employer."--Jacket