Budgeting Essentials

Every employee at every company impacts the budget of the business they work for, either directly or indirectly. Whether you're an accountant, supervisor, janitor, marketing intern, or anything in between, understanding your company's budgetary expectations and goals will help you be a better employee. In this course, we go over the basics of budgeting, including the different types, common timelines, necessary details, and objectives.

It's important to understand which types of budget will work best for your purposes. This course takes a look at the different types of budgets that are used depending on the strategy. We'll go over the most common types of business budgets: Zero-based, Top-Down, Bottom-Up, Value Proposition, and Incremental. Each budgeting method has its pros and cons, and understanding the strengths and weaknesses of each one can help you determine which is the most appropriate for your company at any given stage.

You've determined your budget, distributed it to the proper recipients, and now you're carrying out the plan. The next and perhaps most vital part of the process is budget reporting. Not sure what that is? That's what this course is all about. We define budget reporting and explain two important terms: favorable and unfavorable variances. Budgets aren't meant to be inflexible; they should evolve with the business, and budget reporting is the tool that lets companies adapt and grow.

Expense budgeting plays an integral part in ensuring that a company can turn revenue into profit while still being able to pay the costs associated with running the business.

In this program, we cover what budgeting expenses means and why it is important. We also discuss the difference between fixed and variable costs, and which costs may fall into both categories. A solid understanding of these terms will help you properly estimate total expenses in a given budgetary period and aid in better profit generation.

Budgeting revenue is often where business owners start, because revenue is what provides the money to pay for the expenses incurred by running a company.

Budgeting for revenue is also an estimate and requires careful attention to data to ensure your estimate stays reasonable and accurate. In this course, we cover how to budget revenue correctly, the impact of past, present and future trends, and two important considerations: capacity and supplies. This knowledge will allow you to accurately and reasonably plan a revenue budget.

Discounts on products or services are a part of every business. Perhaps you're running a promotion to increase sales, or lowering prices to move overstock off the shelves. Whatever the case, it's important that you understand how discounts can impact your budget. In this course, we'll take a look at planning and writing discounts into your budget and looking at your company's history of discount patterns. We'll also discuss friends and family discounts, reward programs, and wholesale discounts.

An inventory budget is an estimate of how much money or capital a business needs to purchase inventory. In this program, we'll talk about how to create this type of budget. We'll discuss data analysis and the types of data used for inventory budgeting. We'll go over sales forecasts, bottom-up budgeting, vendor analysis, and internal inventory controls. With an in-depth analysis of these key factors, you can create an accurate budget that helps your company reach its goals.