We recommend that you start the budgeting process from four to six months before the start of your financial year. You can also choose to set your financial budgets and variance analysis on a monthly basis.
Starting from the initial planning stage, your company should go through a series of stages to finally implement the budget. Common processes include communication within executive management, establishing objectives and targets, developing a detailed budget, compilation and revision of budget model, budget committee review, and approval.
There are four dimensions to consider when translating high-level strategy, such as mission, vision, and goals, into budgets.
- Objectives are your goals.
- Strategies are actions you take to achieve your goals.
- Measures help you track and evaluate the effectiveness of the strategies.
- Targets should be quantifiable and time-based to help you focus on where you would like to reach by the end of a certain period.