First budget in 15 years ....

[haggistheoriginal]

Hi there.

 

This is going to sound a little bit weird.

 

For around 15 years over 2 schools, I haven't been asked to provide a budget, I have been given an amount of money to spend and I spend it.

 

This year, however, we have had a change in Business Manager and I have been asked to provide a budget. I have no experience of this (15 years in 2 schools).

 

Would anybody be willing to share an obviously redacted, document but with some light information about what goes where in it please?

 

Many Thanks Cheers all

 

Dave

 

[djm968]

I would ask for a copy of last years ICT budget/expenditure as a starting point. You also need to know if you need to include any annual recurring expenditure, things like broadband/licensing etc in your budget.

[psydii]

One technique that works, is for you to go through everything (hardware, software, licenses, subscriptions, support, consumables etc) that you can recall being spent in the last year to keep the show on the road. Then look back over the last 5 years at all the "one off" expenditures that have occurred, and then look forward to all the "one off" expenditures that you can predict for the next five years.

 

This should give you a solid idea as to what next year's budget should be. You should then repeat the process but with the actual expenditure reports from the finance system and cross check to see what is missing from each perspective.

 

Consolidate this into an accurate view of prior (and projected) expenditure, and you have a well evidenced budget proposal.

 

Now you might not be used to looking forward - but you should have a good sense of how old things are and what needs to be replaced. If *everything* needs to be replaced just spread it out over the next five years and stick it as an appendix 'future expenditures'. If you have an asset register that contains the dates kit was purchased this can also form part of the evidence in an appendix.

 

 

 

I found this (20 year old guide) useful when coming at this problem from the position of operational rather than strategic staff. Hopefully much of the tracking of expenditure is done properly in your Finance package... that said I still keep a track in a spreadsheet just to be sure.

 

 

fits_financial.pdf

 

fm_expend_record.xls

[36Degrees]

How are your POs raised? We went through all our budgets last year and the print outs from PSF were a massive help as you can see what came out of which budget e.g. Software, Communications, Development

[haggistheoriginal]

Thanks for the replies so far, I think I probably have the things to do it with, just not sure how to present it to the heads ....

[TechMonkey]

My budget spreadsheet is pretty fluid, I add tabs and calcs depending on the projects or as needed, but happy to share a blank copy. Drop me a PM and I'll email it over.

 

Main page is just a list of annual costs, what company and what for. Then some annual things, like hardware replacements, training, and consumables. Finally a tab for projects that I have either gotten quoted or a rough estimate. These often come out of CAPEX so may not be part of my budget, but I put them in for completeness. I've also got some tabs that I am meant to enter things as they are purchased to track against my budget but I am pretty bad about keeping that up to date.

[Olliedawg]

You'll probably get a vast amount of answers as im sure everybody does this differently

 

I do mine in excel and split into categories / sheets. So one sheet will contain recurring expenses (licences, broadband etc.. I also put start date / end date), another will contain hardware (PC's,Laptops,Server upgrades) & I also have a sheet for miscellaneous costs

[JoeRogue]

You'll probably get a vast amount of answers as im sure everybody does this differently

 

I do mine in excel and split into categories / sheets. So one sheet will contain recurring expenses (licences, broadband etc.. I also put start date / end date), another will contain hardware (PC's,Laptops,Server upgrades) & I also have a sheet for miscellaneous costs

 

I do similar to this, I have tabs for hardware, software and infrastructure. I try and put down the dates license terms are ending and highlight bits as they are paid.

 

Like people have said, everyone will have their own way but find a way you can understand yourself.

[haggistheoriginal]

I have the dates for the renewals on the calendar

 

I am looking for the inspiration of how it should look