Like every year, the end of summer marks for me the beginning of the budgeting season. Many organizations start their planning processes in August or latest September. For management accountants and other planners, it is a tough time. On top of the normal workload, a solid budget needs to be prepared.

 

Budgeting season articles by hotspotfinance

 

To help you get started with the budgeting season, we recently published some valuable articles like:

5 Secrets to Optimise a Corporate Budgeting Process

4 Tips to Finish Business Budget Planning on Time

How to Set up an Efficient Budgetary Control Process

 

Interesting 3rd party budgeting articles

 

We also noticed some top articles from other authors which could provide great value for management accountants. Below you find a selection of 4 must reads before you start the budgeting season.

 

I like the following article written by Patricia Lotich because it goes further than just explaining the budgeting process. It makes the so important reference to strategic planning and how the budget can be used for variances analysis. A good guide how to proceed with the budget that applies for small and larger companies.

10 Steps to Developing and Managing a Budget

 

The next article I recommend reading is written by Gene Siciliano and focuses on budgeting tips for business owners. It first explains that many businesses don’t use budgets and shows some benefits of actually using them. Although aimed to help small business budgeters, these 8 tips are generally valid.

8 Budgeting Tips for Your Business

 

The next article I recommend is written by George Braun and brings up the strategic aspect. Do you have some plans for the future of your business? Good! When preparing your budget, make sure that these plans are incorporated. A budget is only a financial representation of the future and it should follow your strategic plans.

6 Helpful Tips For More Strategic Business Budgeting

 

The following article provides an informative introduction to the problems companies face with the budgeting process. Gary Cokins and Michael Coveney’s article then goes further and introduces a model explaining the maturity of budgeting within a company. In my eyes, this is a very informative read for all management accountants.

Developing a plan for better planning

 

All the best preparing your budget. Please share your thoughts about the upcoming budgeting season with us.

 

If you know a valuable article that could be a nice addition to this list, let me know.