preparation and presentation of budget

5-Step Guide on How to Prepare a Convincing Annual Budget Presentation

Michelle Harris - Guest Contributor

• Reevaluate company and departmental goals
• Gather budgeting information
• Set up the annual budget
• Create a convincing budget presentation
• Present your budget and win!

Learn how to present your departmental budget and gain the approval of decision-makers.

Every year, leaders are responsible for creating an annual budget for their department. It’s one thing to grapple with the numbers, but presenting the budget can be a more challenging task.

If your annual budget isn’t convincing enough, chances are you won’t get everything you require to run your department the way it needs to. Anything less than what is required and you’ll have a rough time getting through the coming year.

We’ve put together a list of five steps designed to help you prepare an exceptional annual budget presentation that cannot go unnoticed. Using this step-by-step approach will help you convince executive leaders that every component of your budget is absolutely necessary to run your department and meet company goals.

1. Reevaluate company and departmental goals

Before determining your annual budget, go back and review your company’s and department’s goals . Note anything that’s changed from previous years. This is particularly important in the case of a changing economy and market or disruptions in business due to the pandemic and other unexpected events. As goals change, so must the budget—pay close attention to all historical data. As you develop your departmental budget, you want to ensure that it aligns with your department and the company’s overall goals and objectives.

2. Gather budgeting information

Allow plenty of time to gather all of the intel needed to create a detailed and accurate budget. Don’t merely go by the departmental expenses and payments made during the previous year. Your previous year's budget is important, but also pay attention to the actual records to identify shortfalls or a surplus in the budgeted items.

When creating a budget, you have different options on how you approach it and especially when presenting it. Of course, this can all depend on your industry, company, and specific department. Following are the different types of budgets that companies most often use:

Also, discuss budgeting with team members and other stakeholders to ensure that you cover all of your bases. However, every piece of budgeting information should be based on facts rather than opinions. That way, you’ll be sure to have a budget that’s appropriately allocated.

3. Set up the annual budget

Next, sit down to create the actual budget. Depending on your preferred method, or that of your company, you can use spreadsheets or budgeting software. Each budget typically includes the following basic elements:

In addition to the basic items, you may also want to consider additional and unexpected expenses that may occur. You may think of different scenarios that could arise and determine how they might impact your business and affect your budget. You may then tweak the budget as you see fit. This allows you to plan ahead and be well-prepared for any adversity that may surface.

4. Create a convincing budget presentation

Carefully setting up your annual budget and aligning it to your company’s and department’s goals will make the following creative bit easier. The worst thing to do is try to throw together a budget while creating the presentation. You must have your budgeting ducks lined up in a row first.

presentation tips

As you plan out your presentation, consider including the following to help you convince the decision-makers:

Budget presentation title

Budget presentation agenda

Executive summary

Company SWOT analysis

Business challenges

Budget plan and allocation

Budget process and timeline

Departmental deliverables

Steps following budget approval

There are many ways to make an effective and impactful presentation. It can be anything from a simple printed booklet to an interactive multimedia presentation. It doesn’t have to be over-the-top but should show that your budget is well organized, thorough, and fact-based.

5. Present your budget and win!

It doesn't matter how you choose to present your budget—you can use PowerPoint or other media—but it should include graphics and other information to make your case. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:

Keep it brief (not more than 10 slides).

Include charts, diagrams, graphs, etc. for better data visualization.

Showcase your problem-solving skills by giving solutions.

Show enthusiasm, but don't deliver a long speech.

Enhance your annual budget presentation

Unless you’re an experienced accountant or a natural penny pincher, you probably cringe at the thought of creating an annual budget. Even more so, it can be frustrating trying to get your boss to accept your budget. That’s why it’s critical to know how to create an impressive and convincing annual budget presentation that wins the approval of business stakeholders.

There are plenty of options available to help you enhance your presentations to showcase an annual budget that will garner a “yay” rather than a “nay.” At Capterra, we’ve done all the dirty work to compile a list of presentation software for you to easily compare and choose from. Our shortlist gives you the top-ranked suggestions, so you can see which software ranks the highest.

If you need help getting your numbers in order before you’re ready to present, take a look at the available budgeting software , including the best free budgeting software for small businesses .

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About the author.

Michelle Harris is a strategist residing on Florida’s beautiful Gulf Coast. Providing global clients with solutions to head-banging problems is her passion at Shel-Shok, LLC. She is a Ph.D. candidate researching finance decision-making and holds graduate degrees in management and marketing. Her background includes art, education, medicine and conservation (she is a glorified bug hugger!). When not strategizing, you will find her motorcycling, belly dancing, roller derbying and beach bumming.

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How to Prepare a Budget for an Organization: 4 Steps

• 16 Nov 2021

An organization’s budget dictates how it leverages capital to work toward goals. For this reason, the ability to prepare a budget is one of the most crucial skills for any business leader —whether a current or aspiring entrepreneur, executive, functional lead, or manager.

Before preparing your first organizational budget, it’s important to understand what goes into a budget and the key steps involved in creating one.

What Is a Budget?

A budget is a document businesses use to track income and expenses in a detailed enough way to make operational decisions.

Budgets are typically forward-looking in nature. Income is based on projections and estimates for the periods they cover, as are expenses. For this reason, organizations often create both short- (monthly or quarterly) and long-term (annual) budgets, where the short-term budget is regularly adjusted to ensure the long-term budget stays on track.

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Most organizations also prepare what’s known as an “actual budget” or “actual report” to compare estimates against reality following the period covered by the budget. This allows an organization to understand where it went wrong in the budgeting process and adjust estimates moving forward.

Budget vs. Cash Flow Statement

If the definition above sounds similar to a cash flow statement , you’re right: Your organization’s budget and cash flow statement are similar in that they both monitor the flow of money into and out of your business. Yet, they differ in key ways.

First, a budget typically offers more granular details about how money is spent than a cash flow statement does. This provides greater context for making tactical business decisions, such as considering where to trim business expenses.

Related: The Beginner’s Guide to Reading & Understanding Financial Statements

Second, a budget is, quite literally, a tool used to direct work done within an organization. The cash flow statement plays a different role by offering a higher-level overview of how money moves into, throughout, and out of an organization.

Instead of thinking of the two documents as competing, view them as complementary, with each playing a role in driving your business’s performance.

Steps to Prepare a Budget for Your Organization

The steps below can be followed whether creating a budget for a project, initiative, department, or entire organization.

1. Understand Your Organization’s Goals

Before you compile your budget, it’s important to have a firm understanding of the goals your organization is working toward in the period covered by it. By understanding those goals, you can prepare a budget that aligns with and facilitates them.

Related: The Advantages of Data-Driven Decision-Making

For example, consider a business that regularly experiences year-over-year revenue growth that’s offset by rising expenses. That organization might benefit from focusing efforts on better controlling expenses during the budgeting process.

Alternatively, consider a company launching a new product or service. The company may invest more heavily in the fledgling business line to grow it. With this goal, the company may need to trim expenses or growth initiatives elsewhere in its budget.

2. Estimate Your Income for the Period Covered by the Budget

To allocate funds for business expenses, you first need to determine your income and cash flow for the period to the best of your ability.

Depending on the nature of your organization, this can be a simple or complicated process. For example, a business that sells products or services to known clients locked in with contracts will likely have an easier time estimating income than a business that depends on active sales activity. In the second case, it would be important to reference historical sales and marketing data to understand whether the market is changing in a way that might cause you to miss or exceed historical trends.

Related: How to Read & Understand an Income Statement

Beyond income from sales activity, you should include other income sources, such as returns on investments, asset sales, and bond or share offerings.

3. Identify Your Expenses

Once you understand your projected income for the period, you need to estimate your expenses. This process involves three main categories: fixed costs, variable expenses, and one-time expenses.

Fixed costs are any expenses that remain constant over time and don’t dramatically vary from week to week or month to month. In many cases, those expenses are locked in by some form of contract, making it easy to anticipate and account for them. This category usually includes expenses related to overhead, such as rent payments and utilities. Phone, data, and software subscriptions can also fall into this category, along with debt payments. Any expense that’s regular and expected should be included.

Related: 6 Budgeting Tips for Managers

Variable expenses are those your business incurs, which vary over time depending on several factors, including sales activities. Your shipping and distribution costs, for example, are likely to be higher during a period when you sell more product than one when you sell less product. Likewise, utilities such as water, gas, and electricity will be higher during periods of increased use. This is especially true for businesses that manufacture their own products. Sales commissions, materials costs, and labor costs are other examples of variable expenses.

Both fixed expenses and variable expenses are recurring in nature, making it easy to account for them (even if variable expenses must be projected). One-time expenses , also called “one-time spends,” don’t recur and happen more rarely. Purchasing equipment or facilities, developing a new product or service, hiring a consultant, and handling a security breach are all examples of one-time expenses. Understanding major initiatives—and what it will take to accomplish them—and what you’ve spent in previous years on similar expenses can help account for them in your budget, even if you’re unsure of their exact values.

4. Determine Your Budget Surplus or Deficit

After you’ve accounted for all your income and expenses, you can apply them to your budget. This is where you determine whether you have enough projected income to cover all your expenses.

If you have more than enough income to cover your expenses, you have a budget surplus. Knowing this, you should determine how to use additional funds best. You may, for example, move the money into a rainy day fund you can access should your actual income fall short of projections. Alternatively, you may deploy the funds to grow your business.

On the other hand, if your expenses exceed your income, you have a budget deficit. At this point, you must identify the best path forward to close the gap. Can you bring in additional funds by selling more aggressively? Can you lower your fixed or variable expenses? Would you consider selling bonds or shares of company stock to infuse the business with additional capital?

An Important Financial Statement

The person responsible for generating a budget varies depending on an organization’s nature and its budgetary goals. An entrepreneur or small business owner, for example, is likely to prepare an organizational budget on their own. Meanwhile, a larger organization may rely on a member of the accounting department to generate a budget for the entire business. Individual department heads or functional leads might also be called on to submit budget proposals for their teams.

With this in mind, anyone who aspires to start their own business or move into an organizational leadership position can benefit from learning how to prepare a budget.

Do you want to take your career to the next level? Consider enrolling in our eight-week Financial Accounting course or three-course Credential of Readiness (CORe) program to learn financial concepts that can enable you to unlock critical insights into business performance and potential. Not sure which course is right for you? Download our free flowchart .

About the Author

FP&A Guide: Budget Preparation Steps

Budget preparation steps

Join over 2 million professionals who advanced their finance careers with 365. Learn from instructors who have worked at Morgan Stanley, HSBC, PwC, and Coca-Cola and master accounting, financial analysis, investment banking, financial modeling, and more.

An organization’s Budget is often said to be its “business compass.” Learning to identify financial objectives and factor in potential complications, isn’t only the priority of companies, of course. A clear indicator of that is the proliferation of personal budgeting apps in recent years. As it is practiced in the business world, budget preparation is a core function of financial analysis. And unfortunately, there are no apps or shortcuts for it! Here’s what you need to know to get started:

What Is Budget Preparation?

To complete the Budget of an organization, the responsible parties must understand its current operations in detail, so that they can set the proper goals ahead. It essentially involves the coordination of finance and non-finance objectives and efficient communication across the whole organization.

There are two main approaches to budget preparation:

Bottom-up budgeting begins by analyzing specific entity details, such as projected sales units, historical product sales rates, and ultimately calculating projected revenue.

Top-down budgeting begins with broad macro-indicators—such as potential consumer numbers and market share—before considering factors like units and pricing to forecast revenue. 

What Are the Steps to Budget Preparation?

For most companies, the budgeting process requires several months to complete. Some even take an entire fiscal year to prepare the Budget for the next one. Typically, budget preparation is continuous in nature, with the firm building up its projections on predefined goals and objectives.

An organization typically follows several steps when drafting a budget.

Budget Preparation – Step 1:   Define Major Goals and Objectives

These are the quantitative expectations of the company’s future performance. Let’s say that a firm aims at a 5% growth in profitability for the next year. How does it achieve that? Does it expect higher sales? Will cost reduction contribute to this goal? Answering these questions requires the company to prepare a detailed budget, breaking down the overall objective into smaller targets.

Budget Preparation – Step 2:   Gather Data

Here, the department heads provide their estimates and assumptions on the expected sales, production levels, availability of resources, planned restructuring, and so on. Every department or sub-structure in the organization comes up with its own plan and puts it forward for further consideration.

Budget Preparation – Step 3:   Prepare the Model

Once data gathering is complete, the managers pass the estimates over to the Budget Committee, which compiles all the information available and prepares the model . A Budget Committee is a group of people (usually members of the finance team) that bears the overall responsibility of the budgeting process. Quite often, they do some overall adjustments to synchronize the views of all the individual preparers. For instance, if the HR department and the Production department set different priorities, these should be properly aligned.

Budget Preparation – Step 4:   Approve the Budget

Upon preparing and synchronizing the model, the Budget Committee is ready to approve the final Budget.  As soon as the final sign-off is complete, they move on to disseminating the report down the line.

Budget Preparation – Step 5: Communicate the Budget

After Budget approval, the Budget Committee should communicate it to the department managers in charge. The Sales Managers are primarily responsible for implementing the Sales Budget, so they need to be aware of the specific changes in revenue targets for the next year. Production managers should know the approved production levels and plan their resources accordingly. It’s a whole process that thrives on teamwork and cooperation!

Budget Preparation – Step 6: Report Interim Results

Overall, budgeting requires effective communication across departments—not only upon preparation but also during implementation. To that end, reporting interim results is the next key step to consider. Most importantly, financial analysts should monitor major variances and explain the reasons for them.

What’s Next?

These are the basic principles of preparing a company budget workable for the neighborhood flower store and multinational corporations alike. Experienced sales managers and business planners know, however, that there’s a lot more that goes into the actual preparation and implementation of a Master Budget. This document comprises several others – the Operating, Cash Flow, and Capital Budgets – and provides a detailed picture of the company’s financial goals. It is prepared through collaboration between management personnel across different departments, and with the help of managerial accountants who specialize in gathering and analyzing data to enable better budgeting decisions.

But even the most precise budget can sometimes fail to account for unpredicted variations.

Beyond Budgeting

Suppose that the monthly Payroll Expenses for January come up at $100 million, whereas the Budgeted ones are set at $90 million. Why did the variance occur? Was the budget set unreasonably low? Were there any extraordinary charges not considered in advance?

You need to find the reason by examining those variations. Many companies use this feedback as a basis for preparing next year’s annual business plan. With time, you can adjust and revise the goals and expectations and start all over again in the following financial period.

Just like budgeting, variance analysis is a never-ending process that goes along with the company’s operations and you’re likely to encounter it early on in your professional practice.

To can start learning how budgeting and variance analysis work with our course  FP&A: Building a Company’s Budget . Find out how to analyze data, prepare a robust Master Budget, integrate financial models, and much more. This comprehensive training will set you up with the skills you need to tackle real-world tasks as a true and tested financial analyst!

Ready to Take the Next Step toward a Career in Finance?

Whether you are a total beginner or a working professional, our Financial Analyst Career Track has what it takes to build up your knowledge and grow your expertise at your own pace. Find the right fit for you and start learning today!

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Budget vs Forecast: Functions and Differences

Preparing the master budget: step-by-step guide.

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The Right Way to Prepare Your Budget

• HBR Editors

You can be both hopeful and realistic.

You know it’s important to weigh the costs and benefits before committing resources. So what are the crucial strategies when preparing a budget? How can you use past financial data to inform your assumptions? And how can you ensure your budget will help you meet your strategic goals? This advice, adapted from the book Finance Basics , will help you better understand how to create a useful budget. 

• HE This story is by the staff at Harvard Business Review.

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Budget proposal presentation: A comprehensive guide

Learn how to develop a clear budget proposal, build a strong case for funding, and present your data visually.

Raja Bothra

Building presentations

Welcome to our comprehensive guide on budget proposal presentations.

In this blog post, we'll dive deep into the world of budget proposals, exploring what they are, the benefits they offer, and how to create an effective budget proposal presentation that wows your audience.

So, what exactly is a budget proposal, and why is it such a crucial tool in the corporate world? Let's find out.

What is a budget proposal?

Budget - the very word evokes thoughts of financial planning, allocation, and decision-making. It's the cornerstone of any successful organization, whether big or small.

A budget proposal , in essence, is a detailed financial plan that outlines how a company intends to allocate its resources, both monetary and non-monetary, over a specific period, usually a fiscal year. This proposal serves as a roadmap for achieving the company's goals and objectives, ensuring that funds are distributed efficiently and effectively.

Benefits of budget proposal presentations

Now that we understand the fundamental concept of a budget proposal, let's explore why creating a compelling presentation around it can be a game-changer for your organization.

Improved communication and understanding: Effective budget presentation slides can make complex financial data comprehensible to a wide range of stakeholders, from decision-makers to employees. It acts as a bridge between financial experts and those less familiar with finance, facilitating a shared understanding of the company's financial health and priorities.

Strategic decision-making: A well-prepared budget proposal presentation is an essential tool for making strategic decisions. It helps align the company's goals with its financial resources, ensuring that every dollar spent contributes to the achievement of the company's mission statement. This alignment is crucial for meeting short-term objectives and long-term milestones.

Convincing stakeholders: Whether you're presenting your budget to managers, executives, or external stakeholders, a professionally designed presentation can help you make your case effectively. It provides a visual representation of your financial plan, showcasing your commitment to fiscal responsibility and your ability to allocate resources wisely.

Data visualization: Key financial information, such as revenue projections, expenditure breakdowns, and historical data, can be daunting when presented in raw numbers. However, with the right graphs and charts, you can transform complex financial data into easily digestible visuals. Bar charts and graphs are powerful tools for displaying trends, comparisons, and progress over time.

Templates for efficiency: Creating a budget proposal presentation from scratch can be time-consuming. Thankfully, there are budget presentation templates available, both for powerpoint and google slides, that can save you a significant amount of time. These templates are customizable and often come with slide templates tailored for various financial topics.

KPIs and metrics to include in budget proposal presentation

Understanding the importance of a budget proposal presentation is just the beginning. To create a compelling and data-driven case, it's crucial to incorporate the right Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and metrics into your presentation. These metrics provide the foundation for your financial story and allow you to track and communicate your company's financial health effectively.

1. Annual budget

Annual budget overview : Your presentation should kick off with a comprehensive overview of the company's annual budget. This section should outline expected revenues and expenditures for the upcoming fiscal year. It provides the context for the rest of your presentation, setting the stage for the financial journey ahead.

2. Budget allocation

Allocation across departments and projects : Delve into the specifics of how the budget is allocated across different departments and projects within the organization. Highlight any significant changes or shifts in budget allocation compared to the previous fiscal year. This section showcases your strategic planning and resource distribution.

3. Cash flow Analysis

Understanding cash flow : Present a detailed cash flow analysis that shows how money flows into and out of the company. Cash flow analysis is vital for understanding the liquidity and financial stability of your organization. It demonstrates your commitment to maintaining a healthy financial position.

4. Executive summary

High-level overview : Include an executive summary within your presentation. This succinct section provides decision-makers with a high-level overview of your budget proposal. It's particularly essential for busy individuals who need a quick grasp of the proposal's key points. Think of it as the "elevator pitch" for your budget.

5. Financial plan

Elaborate on strategies and tactics : Dive into the company's financial plan. Here, you should outline the strategies and tactics that will be employed to achieve the financial goals set forth in your budget. This section provides insight into the actionable steps that will drive financial success.

6. Visual representation

Utilize graphs and charts : To enhance the clarity and impact of your presentation, incorporate various graphic, diagram, graphs and charts. These visual aids are powerful tools for illustrating key financial data. Use them to showcase revenue trends, expenditure breakdowns, and operating profit. Ensuring that these visuals are editable allows for customization and adaptability.

7. Historical data

Contextualize with historical data : To provide a broader perspective, include historical financial data. Historical data offers context and helps demonstrate areas of growth or improvement. It allows your audience to see the trajectory of your organization's financial performance over time.

In addition to these commonly used KPIs and metrics, it's essential to consider industry-specific or organization-specific metrics that may be relevant to your proposal. These metrics should align with the goals and objectives of your budget.

When selecting KPIs and metrics, keep these factors in mind:

• Relevance : Ensure that the chosen KPIs and metrics directly relate to the goals and objectives outlined in your budget proposal.
• Measurability : Select KPIs and metrics that are measurable and for which you can gather data consistently.
• Actionability : Choose KPIs and metrics that are actionable, meaning that the data collected can be used to make informed decisions and drive improvements in performance.

Once you've selected your KPIs and metrics, consider how to present them effectively within your budget proposal presentation. Use charts, graphs, and clear visual representations to make the data more accessible and engaging. Be prepared to address any questions or concerns that may arise from your audience regarding these metrics.

By incorporating relevant, measurable, and actionable KPIs and metrics into your budget proposal presentation, you can effectively demonstrate the value of your budget and increase your likelihood of gaining approval. Your presentation will not only convey financial data but also tell a compelling financial story that resonates with your audience.

How to structure an effective budget proposal presentation

Structuring an effective budget proposal presentation is crucial for conveying your financial plan clearly and persuasively. A well-organized presentation not only ensures that your audience understands your proposal but also makes a compelling case for its approval. To help you achieve this, here's a detailed breakdown of how to structure your budget proposal presentation:

Introduction

• Start with impact : Begin your presentation with a captivating opening that immediately grabs your audience's attention. You might use a surprising statistic, a thought-provoking quote, or a powerful anecdote to set the tone. Remember, first impressions matter.
• Introduce yourself and your team : Establish credibility by introducing yourself and your team members. Briefly explain your roles and expertise within the organization. This humanizes the presentation and helps build trust with your audience.
• Purpose clarity : Clearly state the purpose of your budget proposal presentation. Let your audience know what to expect. Are you seeking approval, feedback, or a decision? Be transparent about your intentions.

Problem or opportunity

• Identify the problem or opportunity : Dive into the heart of the matter by identifying the specific problem or opportunity that your budget proposal addresses. Provide a concise yet comprehensive description of the issue at hand.
• Importance and impact : Explain why this problem or opportunity is crucial for your organization. Quantify its impact if possible, using data and facts to support your claims. Paint a vivid picture of why action is needed.
• Solution overview : Present a high-level overview of your proposed solution. Briefly outline how your budget will be utilized to address the identified problem or seize the opportunity. This helps your audience connect the dots early in the presentation.
• Detailed budget proposal : Transition into the core of your presentation by presenting your budget proposal in detail. Use clear and concise language to explain the various components of your budget. Avoid overwhelming your audience with too much information; instead, focus on the key aspects.
• Financial strategy : Be specific about how your budget will be deployed to achieve your goals. Highlight any key financial strategies or tactics that underpin your proposal. This demonstrates your thoughtful planning.
• Visual representation : Incorporate visual aids, such as charts and graphs, throughout your presentation. These visuals provide a clear and engaging way to illustrate complex financial data. Ensure that these visuals are editable for customization and can be easily understood by your audience.
• Assumptions and estimates : Transparency is crucial. Clearly explain any assumptions or estimates you've made in developing your budget. This not only builds trust but also allows your audience to understand the basis of your projections.
• Highlight the advantages : Dedicate a section to highlight the benefits of your budget proposal. Explain how it aligns with your organization's overarching goals and objectives. Use specific examples and quantifiable data to bolster your points.
• Address concerns : Anticipate and address potential concerns or objections that your audience may have. Demonstrating that you've considered these concerns and have a plan to mitigate them can bolster confidence in your proposal.
• Summarize key points : In the final section, recap the main points of your presentation. Reinforce the most critical aspects of your budget proposal to ensure they stick with your audience.
• Reiterate the call to action : Remind your audience of your primary call to action, whether it's seeking approval, feedback, or a decision. Be clear and direct in what you're asking for.
• Express gratitude : Conclude your presentation by thanking your audience for their time and consideration. Acknowledge their role in the decision-making process and express your willingness to address any further questions or concerns.

By following this structured approach, you can create a budget proposal presentation that is not only informative but also persuasive. Remember that clarity, engagement, and transparency are key elements in crafting a presentation that effectively communicates your financial plan and garners support from your audience.

Do’s and don'ts on a budget proposal presentation

As we approach the end of our guide, it's essential to highlight some do's and don'ts when creating and delivering your budget proposal presentation.

• Start strong : Commence your presentation with a captivating introduction that grabs your audience's attention from the outset. Clearly articulate the purpose of your presentation, setting the stage for what's to come.
• Clarity and conciseness : Be crystal clear in your communication. Avoid using excessive jargon or technical terms that might bewilder your audience. Keep your language simple and concise, ensuring that your message is easily understood.
• Organize effectively : Structure your presentation logically and in an organized manner. Ensure that your audience can easily follow the flow of your budget proposal. A well-organized presentation fosters better understanding.
• Visual enhancement : Enhance your presentation with visuals. Incorporate charts and graphs to illustrate complex data and concepts. Visual aids not only engage your audience but also simplify the comprehension of intricate financial information.
• Practice, practice, practice : Thoroughly rehearse your presentation to appear confident and knowledgeable. Familiarity with your content will enable you to deliver your presentation smoothly and with conviction.
• Anticipate questions : Be prepared to answer questions from your audience. Anticipate the queries that may arise regarding your budget proposal and have clear, concise responses at the ready.

Don'ts:

• Information overload : Avoid overwhelming your audience with excessive information. Focus on conveying the most critical aspects of your budget proposal, steering clear of unnecessary details that may bog down your presentation.
• Vagueness : Steer clear of vagueness. Be specific about how your budget will be allocated and utilized to achieve your goals. Provide tangible examples and concrete details to reinforce your points.
• Overpromising : Resist the temptation to make promises that cannot be realistically kept. Maintain a sense of realism about what your budget can achieve, ensuring that your audience's expectations align with the proposed plan.
• Neglect follow-up : After your presentation, don't forget to follow up. Send a courteous follow-up email to your audience, expressing gratitude for their time and consideration. This demonstrates professionalism and commitment.

Summarizing key takeaways

• Understanding budget proposals : Budget proposals are detailed financial plans that allocate resources over a specific period, serving as a roadmap for achieving organizational goals.
• Benefits of presentation : Presenting budget proposals effectively enhances communication, aids strategic decision-making, convinces stakeholders, utilizes data visualization, and offers templates for efficiency.
• KPIs and metrics : Include key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics like annual budget overview, budget allocation, cash flow analysis, executive summary, financial plan, visual representation, and historical data to support your budget proposal.
• Structuring your presentation : Structure your budget proposal presentation with a captivating introduction, problem or opportunity identification, solution overview, detailed budget proposal, highlighting benefits, and a clear conclusion.
• Do's : Start strong, maintain clarity and conciseness, organize your presentation effectively, enhance it with visuals, practice thoroughly, and anticipate questions.
• Don'ts : Avoid information overload, vagueness, overpromising, and neglecting follow-up after the presentation. Stay realistic and professional throughout the process.

1. What should I include in my budget presentation?

To create an effective budget presentation, start with a powerpoint template that suits your company's style. Make sure to incorporate topics lke the proposed budget, budget summary, marketing budget, company budget, and departmental budget details. Use bullet points and data points to communicate financial information clearly.

2. How can I make my budget proposal stand out in a competitive landscape?

To differentiate your budget proposal, consider presenting it using a powerpoint presentation. Use the free budget templates ppt available to you to map out how you'll accomplish your goals and make your ideas come to life within a reasonable budget. Highlight key indicators and financial highlights to make your case to managers or executives.

3. What are common pitfalls to avoid when presenting a budget proposal?

One common pitfall is not using an accurate budget. Ensure your budget isn't based solely on the current state of your company but also considers future growth. Additionally, small businesses should consult with an accountant or financial expert to help prepare the budget. Be mindful of presenting the actual budget alongside the proposed budget to show the company budget's overall performance.

4. How can I effectively report on the financial aspects of my budget proposal?

When reporting on the financial aspects, focus on the budget details, income to make, and capital budgeting. Utilize PowerPoint budget slides to communicate financial information in a visually appealing way. Use data points and e.g. graphics to present financial highlights and cog information, ensuring your audience grasps the financial health of the company.

5. Where can I find resources to assist in creating a compelling budget proposal?

To get started, look for free budget templates and proposal templates online. These templates can help you come up with a list of best budgets for your company. Additionally, consider seeking assistance from your departmental team to gather input and ideas for the next project. This collaborative approach will help you create an overall budget that accurately reflects your company's goals and financial needs.

Create your budget proposal presentation with prezent

Our AI presentation platform is designed to help you craft professional and impactful budget proposals with ease. Here's how Prezent can assist you:

• Personalized Fingerprints : Tailor your budget proposal to the preferences of your audience. Prezent's AI can analyze audience preferences and help you create a presentation that resonates with them.
• Presentation Builder : Use our intuitive presentation builder to craft visually appealing slides that convey your budget proposal effectively. You can save time and effort with our user-friendly interface.
• Business Storytelling : Master the art of storytelling in your budget proposal. Prezent offers guides and e-courses to help you structure your presentation for maximum impact.
• Real-time Sharing and Collaboration : Collaborate seamlessly with your team on the budget proposal. Prezent enables real-time sharing and editing, making it easy to work together, whether you're in the same office or miles apart.
• Brand-Approved Design : Ensure your budget proposal adheres to your company's brand guidelines. Prezent provides document management features to keep your presentation on-brand.
• Enterprise-Grade Security : Rest assured that your budget proposal data is secure. We prioritize data security and have third-party assurance to safeguard both our systems and your valuable data.

With Prezent, you can save time, standardize your presentations, and create budget proposals that impress. Start crafting your budget proposal presentation today and elevate your communication to the next level.

Ready to create a budget proposal presentation that stands out? Try our free trial or book a demo today with Prezent!

Remember, it's not enough to come up with a budget plan; you need to make your case effectively.

So, start crafting your budget proposal presentation today and propel your company towards financial success.

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7.3: Introduction to Budgeting and Budgeting Processes

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The budget—For planning and control

Time and money are scarce resources to all individuals and organizations; the efficient and effective use of these resources requires planning. Planning alone, however, is insufficient. Control is also necessary to ensure that plans actually are carried out. A budget is a tool that managers use to plan and control the use of scarce resources. A budget is a plan showing the company’s objectives and how management intends to acquire and use resources to attain those objectives.

A YouTube element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here: pb.libretexts.org/llmanagerialaccounting/?p=152

Companies, nonprofit organizations, and governmental units use many different types of budgets. Responsibility budgets are designed to judge the performance of an individual segment or manager. Capital budgets evaluate long-term capital projects such as the addition of equipment or the relocation of a plant. This chapter examines the master budget , which consists of a planned operating budget and a financial budget. The planned operating budget helps to plan future earnings and results in a projected income statement. The financial budget helps management plan the financing of assets and results in a projected balance sheet.

The budgeting process involves planning for future profitability because earning a reasonable return on resources used is a primary company objective. A company must devise some method to deal with the uncertainty of the future. A company that does no planning whatsoever chooses to deal with the future by default and can react to events only as they occur. Most businesses, however, devise a blueprint for the actions they will take given the foreseeable events that may occur.

A budget: (1) shows management’s operating plans for the coming periods; (2) formalizes management’s plans in quantitative terms; (3) forces all levels of management to think ahead, anticipate results, and take action to remedy possible poor results; and (4) may motivate individuals to strive to achieve stated goals.

Companies can use budget-to-actual comparisons to evaluate individual performance. For instance, the standard variable cost of producing a personal computer at IBM is a budget figure. This figure can be compared with the actual cost of producing personal computers to help evaluate the performance of the personal computer production managers and employees who produce personal computers. We will do this type of comparison in a later chapter.

Many other benefits result from the preparation and use of budgets. For example: (1) businesses can better coordinate their activities; (2) managers become aware of other managers’ plans; (3) employees become more cost conscious and try to conserve resources; (4) the company reviews its organization plan and changes it when necessary; and (5) managers foster a vision that otherwise might not be developed.

The planning process that results in a formal budget provides an opportunity for various levels of management to think through and commit future plans to writing. In addition, a properly prepared budget allows management to follow the management-by-exception principle by devoting attention to results that deviate significantly from planned levels. For all these reasons, a budget must clearly reflect the expected results.

Failing to budget because of the uncertainty of the future is a poor excuse for not budgeting. In fact, the less stable the conditions, the more necessary and desirable is budgeting, although the process becomes more difficult. Obviously, stable operating conditions permit greater reliance on past experience as a basis for budgeting. Remember, however, that budgets involve more than a company’s past results. Budgets also consider a company’s future plans and express expected activities. As a result, budgeted performance is more useful than past performance as a basis for judging actual results.

A budget should describe management’s assumptions relating to: (1) the state of the economy over the planning horizon; (2) plans for adding, deleting, or changing product lines; (3) the nature of the industry’s competition; and (4) the effects of existing or possible government regulations. If these assumptions change during the budget period, management should analyze the effects of the changes and include this in an evaluation of performance based on actual results.

Budgets are quantitative plans for the future. However, they are based mainly on past experience adjusted for future expectations. Thus, accounting data related to the past play an important part in budget preparation. The accounting system and the budget are closely related. The details of the budget must agree with the company’s ledger accounts. In turn, the accounts must be designed to provide the appropriate information for preparing the budget, financial statements, and interim financial reports to facilitate operational control.

Management should frequently compare accounting data with budgeted projections during the budget period and investigate any differences. Budgeting, however, is not a substitute for good management. Instead, the budget is an important tool of managerial control. Managers make decisions in budget preparation that serve as a plan of action.

The period covered by a budget varies according to the nature of the specific activity involved. Cash budgets may cover a week or a month; sales and production budgets may cover a month, a quarter, or a year; and the general operating budget may cover a quarter or a year.

Budgeting involves the coordination of financial and nonfinancial planning to satisfy organizational goals and objectives. No foolproof method exists for preparing an effective budget. However, budget makers should carefully consider the conditions that follow:

• Top management support All management levels must be aware of the budget’s importance to the company and must know that the budget has top management’s support. Top management, then, must clearly state long-range goals and broad objectives. These goals and objectives must be communicated throughout the organization. Long-range goals include the expected quality of products or services, growth rates in sales and earnings, and percentage-of-market targets. Overemphasis on the mechanics of the budgeting process should be avoided.
• Participation in goal setting Management uses budgets to show how it intends to acquire and use resources to achieve the company’s long-range goals. Employees are more likely to strive toward organizational goals if they participate in setting them and in preparing budgets. Often, employees have significant information that could help in preparing a meaningful budget. Also, employees may be motivated to perform their own functions within budget constraints if they are committed to achieving organizational goals.
• Communicating results People should be promptly and clearly informed of their progress. Effective communication implies (1) timeliness, (2) reasonable accuracy, and (3) improved understanding. Managers should effectively communicate results so employees can make any necessary adjustments in their performance.
• Flexibility If significant basic assumptions underlying the budget change during the year, the planned operating budget should be restated. For control purposes, after the actual level of operations is known, the actual revenues and expenses can be compared to expected performance at that level of operations.
• Follow-up Budget follow-up and data feedback are part of the control aspect of budgetary control. Since the budgets are dealing with projections and estimates for future operating results and financial positions, managers must continuously check their budgets and correct them if necessary. Often management uses performance reports as a follow-up tool to compare actual results with budgeted results.

The term budget has negative connotations for many employees. Often in the past, management has imposed a budget from the top without considering the opinions and feelings of the personnel affected. Such a dictatorial process may result in resistance to the budget. A number of reasons may underlie such resistance, including lack of understanding of the process, concern for status, and an expectation of increased pressure to perform. Employees may believe that the performance evaluation method is unfair or that the goals are unrealistic and unattainable. They may lack confidence in the way accounting figures are generated or may prefer a less formal communication and evaluation system. Often these fears are completely unfounded, but if employees believe these problems exist, it is difficult to accomplish the objectives of budgeting.

Problems encountered with such imposed budgets have led accountants and management to adopt participatory budgeting. Participatory budgeting means that all levels of management responsible for actual performance actively participate in setting operating goals for the coming period. Managers and other employees are more likely to understand, accept, and pursue goals when they are involved in formulating them.

Within a participatory budgeting process, accountants should be compilers or coordinators of the budget, not preparers. They should be on hand during the preparation process to present and explain significant financial data. Accountants must identify the relevant cost data that enables management’s objectives to be quantified in dollars. Accountants are responsible for designing meaningful budget reports. Also, accountants must continually strive to make the accounting system more responsive to managerial needs. That responsiveness, in turn, increases confidence in the accounting system.

Although many companies have used participatory budgeting successfully, it does not always work. Studies have shown that in many organizations, participation in the budget formulation failed to make employees more motivated to achieve budgeted goals. Whether or not participation works depends on management’s leadership style, the attitudes of employees, and the organization’s size and structure. Participation is not the answer to all the problems of budget preparation. However, it is one way to achieve better results in organizations that are receptive to the philosophy of participation.

• Accounting Principles: A Business Perspective. Authored by : James Don Edwards, University of Georgia & Roger H. Hermanson, Georgia State University. Provided by : Endeavour International Corporation. Project : The Global Text Project. License : CC BY: Attribution
• Introduction to Budgeting (Managerial Accounting) . Authored by : Education Unlocked. Located at : youtu.be/pCwLhz0ltlE. License : All Rights Reserved . License Terms : Standard YouTube License

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Creating a budget presentation in PowerPoint (+ 12 bonus tips from our best experts)

Investors, lenders, and all the company’s stakeholders are primarily interested in the revenue they get, so they tend to rely on exact numbers before real investments and other contributions. They have many different opportunities to invest in and consequently choose the one that is more likely to win. And that’s precisely when a budget presentation comes in handy as the most effective way to provide a compelling, professional, and differentiated description of the capital they could get after several investments.

If you are wondering how to present budget in PowerPoint, here is a quick guide for you.

How to make a budget for a project in a PowerPoint presentation

First and foremost, a budget presentation PowerPoint has to be clearly targeted toward equity investors and lenders with a lot of appropriate and suitable information. The budget plan presentation should be clear and concise to catch a person’s attention. They are looking for a high-quality project for their portfolio, so you should show you value their time and can fit all necessary info in a couple of sentences, diagrams, graphs, or tables.

Remember, you are the one looking for investors, so your budget presentation PowerPoint slides need to be credible and concise. You can design them on your own using budget presentation PowerPoint templates or opt for the services of a professional presentation agency to save time and sleep.

The main mistakes happen on the statistics and strategy slides of the budget PowerPoint presentation since few of them are easy to follow. Commonly, they are bland, boring, and not able to keep the audience’s attention. It would be frustrating to come up with such a budget planning presentation people worked on for a year.

Numbers. Numbers. Numbers.

But nothing really stands out.

Here’s how to do a good budget presentation:

• Research for previous budget planning PowerPoint presentations to have a confident database to rely on.
• Have a 10-minute conversation with the current team, ask critical questions, try to pull out a story, and incorporate that story in the investment presentation.
• Create a branded company look that resonates with investors. If you are new to presentation design, a pitch deck design service can help develop truly effective budget presentation slides.
• No matter what industry you are in, make a ‘Highlights’ slide that answers all why questions, demonstrates value drivers (+ threats to them), and calls to action.
• Create 3 or 4 different investment options for every investor to find the most affordable asset and proceed to cooperate with you.
• Make your credibility pop out from the proposed budget PowerPoint presentation and leave no questions to potential investors.

Whether you are trying to be compelling, sell assets, or increase your capital – concentrate on the important data and don’t delve into much detail on every budget PowerPoint slide. You would not prefer yawning, attention loss, or refusals from stakeholders, would you?

Some potential budget presentation PowerPoint slides include:

• Performance overview.
• Business summary.
• SWOT analysis.
• Current challenges.
• Budget plan.
• Budget allocation.
• Deliverables.
• Following steps.

To make the most out of each PowerPoint budget slide from the list, double-check every number for accuracy, use illustrative diagrams and charts, and, most importantly, keep the entire budget presentation ppt brief. Bear in mind that ten slides are more than enough to outline the problem, the proposed budget, and the exact ways the invested capital will provide a solution.

12 bonus tips on how to show budget in PowerPoint

Below are the top tips from our best experts to help you design a PowerPoint presentation that your investors will definitely remember, so read on!

Tip #1. Put yourself in the shoes of your investor

Before you dive into your PowerPoint budget presentation, take the time to understand your investors, their concerns, and expectations, and tailor your content accordingly.

Tip #2. Key financial metrics are important

These include revenue growth, profitability, revenue forecasts, etc. Clearly demonstrate how their investment will contribute to the success of your company.

Tip #3. Provide detailed financial projections

Be sure to present income and financial statements and visualize complex information with charts and diagrams for easy understanding.

Tip #4. Identify risk factors

Accept potential risks and uncertainties. Describe how your team plans to mitigate these risks and present contingency plans.

Tip #5. Display your budget breakdown

Investors value a clear understanding of spending, so take the time to display your budget breakdown, emphasizing major expenses and capital allocation.

Tip #6. Ensure your ppt is compelling

Structure your budgeting PowerPoint presentation as a narrative, and be sure to detail past successes, current accomplishments, and future potential for the company.

Tip #7. Focus on the ROI

Clearly communicate potential returns on investments to investors. Demonstrate how their investment will contribute to the overall growth and profitability of the company.

Tip #8. Be transparent about your estimates

Being transparent builds confidence and ensures that investors understand the basis for your calculations, so clearly articulate the assumptions underpinning your financial forecasts.

Tip #9. Practice as much as you can

Rehearse your presentation until you feel confident and comfortable delivering it. Anticipate possible questions and prepare thoughtful answers.

Tip #10. Emphasize key milestones and accomplishments

Highlight specific milestones and key accomplishments that the budget aims to achieve. Remember, investors want to see a roadmap to success.

Tip #11. Maintain clarity throughout your slides

In your company budget presentation, be clear about what you are asking from investors, whether it is funding for a specific project, expansion, or any other business need.

Tip #12. Encourage questions and discussion

Encourage investors to ask questions and participate in discussions. This will show that you are open and willing to address your concerns.

By following these tips on how to present a budget, you can create a persuasive presentation that not only effectively presents financial information but also matches the expectations and interests of your potential investors.

Still confused about how to design a budget presentation in PowerPoint?

Don’t hesitate to contact us any time of the day or night! Our design experts are online 24/7 to help take your presentation project to the next level.

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Budget Proposal Presentation

It’s not enough to come up with a list of goals or brainstorm a list of ideas for your business. You have to map out how you’ll accomplish those goals or make your ideas come to life… within a reasonable budget. 

When you need to make your case to managers or executives for additional resources, a budget proposal presentation is an essential tool. Your presentation should explain your idea, what obstacles you may come across, and why your desired budget is necessary for your project. 

Use a budget proposal presentation to:

• Gain funding for your department
• Explain the budget for a new project or initiative
• Fund new hires for your team

A Budget Proposal Presentation

Every slide in your budget proposal presentation serves an important function. You might present numerical data in easy to read, memorable graphics like timelines, bar graphs, Gantt charts, Venn diagrams, and sales funnels to drive your point home. Each of these features can be added to your template with one click. Some potential slides to include are:

Pro Tips for Your Budget Proposal Presentation Template

Make the most of your budget proposal presentation with these easy tips.

A budget proposal doesn’t have to be much longer than ten slides. Outline the problem, propose your budget, and explain how the budget will help you achieve your goal.

Remember to include a mission statement in the beginning of your presentation. Use one or two sentences to explain the purpose of your budget proposal.

Budget proposals are number-heavy presentations. Use diagrams and charts where you can to make it more readable.

Before you present your budget proposal, double check all your numbers for accuracy.

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Making Budget Presentations

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Taking the Fear Our of the Library Budget Presentations Laying the Groundwork Preparing a Budget Presentation Citizen Support- Rallying Stakeholders Making the Budget Presentation- Do's & Don'ts Follow Up Budgeting Best Practices

BACK TO ADVOCACY LIBRARY

Taking the Fear Out of Library Budget Presentations

Creating and presenting a library budget is not just a matter of assigning numbers to line items on an Excel spreadsheet and presenting it to a group of officials. Far from it. Library budgeting is an ongoing activity, with many parts and many people involved. It is a cyclical process of listening to the community, working with decision-makers, telling compelling stories about your library – and bringing all these elements together in a budget presentation and then starting all over again. We have tapped into the wisdom of veteran librarians with years of experience drafting and presenting budgets in “good times and tough economic times.” The examples offered are from “real budgets.” We have included everything from a Glossary of Terms for those new to library budgeting to the “Do’s and Don’ts of Making a Budget Presentation.” There is a great feature on library budget presentations from the perspective of a decision-maker with years of experience listening to presentations and helping librarians hone their budgeting skills.

BACK TO TOP

Laying the Groundwork

Identifying community priorities.

Library directors don’t create their budgets in a vacuum.  Even in today’s challenging economic times when libraries are lucky to keep their doors open and basic services covered, library directors and staff need to be continually attuned to what their community needs.

Most “formal” community needs assessments are done during a library’s strategic planning process – but it should be an ongoing task to pay attention to community needs and priorities.

What is happening in your community that your library can address with its programs or services?  How can the library be a partner in solving local problems or addressing challenging issues?  For example,

• Helping schools deal with dropout prevention?
• Assisting residents in finding jobs?
• Helping New Americans master essential skills and get access to critical programs and services?

Look to community partners to help share the library’s burden of meeting community needs.

• Can local social services provide funding for early childhood development or literacy programs?
• Are there federal programs or grants to support the library in assisting New Americans who are integrating into the community and acquiring essential skills?
• Are there small businesses or corporations who are willing to fund library programs or services such as a Summer Reading Program or a homework help center?
• Showing that you’ve formed strategic partnerships to meet the community’s needs illustrates that your library is nimble, creative and willing to stretch beyond the limitations of a prescribed budget.

The strategic plan comes from your community's priorities; the budget comes from your plan.   Show how you’ve listened to what the community and your decision-makers want from the library and planned accordingly:

• If a community’s priority is to have a library presence in every neighborhood, you may need to recommend that all branches should be open but with limited hours.
• If the priority is efficiency and budgeting cuts, closing branches and extending hours at fewer branches may be the way to go.
• If helping individuals find jobs is a critical issue, access to computers and a mix of daytime and evening hours is essential.
• If low elementary and high school academic scores in your community is a problem, funding homework help centers should be part of your budget.
• If small businesses in your community are closing, creating a small business resources center shows how your library is supporting the local economy.

Start with the premise that a library is providing local services that are important locally.   Unlike many other units of government (e.g. schools or transportation), budgetary decisions pertaining to libraries are almost always made at the local level.   Stay current with what’s happening in the community from a local political perspective and reflect this perspective in your library budget.

Provide opportunities (a bulletin board, comment cards, Library Appreciation Week, etc. ) for library customers to share their stories about how your library is meeting their needs.  Anecdotes from “real (voting) citizens” are powerful statements to include as part of your budget presentation.

Where Budgets and Friends Meet

Presenting an annual budget isn’t just the job of the library director. You’ve got Friends!

A Library Friends organization can be one of the most powerful allies a library has as the director prepares for and presents an annual budget.  A good Friends group can:

• Help the library director determine what should be in the annual budget.  A well-balanced Friends group reflects the geo-diversity of the neighborhoods the library serves.  Friends Board members can give the library director valuable input about the community’s needs and what budgeting priorities are within their own neighborhoods.
• Mobilize a powerful Advocacy Committee that will work throughout the year to advocate on behalf of the library with local decision-makers.  Friends Board members represent their neighborhood communities and develop relationships with their elected/appointed representatives.  A good Friends advocate is a strong voice and a valuable tool in the budgeting process – and stays connected throughout the year.
• Develop position papers that present the library’s current economic position, its value to the community, funding needs, gaps and opportunities to expand capacity.  The library’s budget spreadsheet is made up of line items and numbers.  A library platform or a “Return on Investment” piece tells the full story of the library and all its value to citizens (in general as it supports specific populations), schools, businesses, the local economy…a good library platform tells it all! Two great examples of this include the Friends of the St. Paul Public Library's 2010 Advocacy Plan and the San Francisco Public Library Advocacy Report.  
• Represent the library to constituent groups. Friends Board members often speak and represent the library with neighborhood groups, broadening community understanding and appreciation for the library’s value.   A well-prepared Friends Board member has a lot of credibility because of their dedicated volunteer status.
• Advocate at the grassroots level.   Friends Board members attend city and county meetings and offer testimony on behalf of the library. They connect with decision-makers regularly, keeping the library visible throughout the year.
• Be the literary voice for the library.   Friends Board members often write op-ed pieces for local newspapers and “letters to the editor.”
• Open doors.   From an elected official’s standpoint, Friends Board members can create links to groups and entities where an endorsement is sought.  This mutual “back-scratching” can benefit the library and the elected official, creating a relationship that can have long-term positive effects for the library.
• Demonstrate how money talks!   Broadly-based private funding from Friends groups demonstrates to local officials that supporters of libraries are powerful, spread out and ready to fight for their library.
• Mobilize other library supporters.  Friends groups organize grassroots support of bonding measures, state or local set-asides or other ballot issues that have long-term effects on libraries.
• Fill the gaps.   One of the biggest roles a library Friends group plays is to provide funding for library programs and services that are not covered by public funding of the library’s budget.  This can be anything from funding a summer reading program to conducting a capital campaign.
• Sing the song of success.   When successes are achieved (fending off budget cuts, renewing ballot measures, etc.) Friends can go back to library supporters and say “Look what you have done through your support – you made this possible.”  There’s nothing sweeter than success achieved through a grassroots effort.

Coalition Building & Strategic Partnerships

Strength in Numbers: Leveraging Strategic Partnerships and Coalitions

Presenting a successful library budget can be greatly enhanced by demonstrating that your library has partners who work together to deliver programs and services to the community.  Working with strategic partners, or in coalition, indicates that your library is finding creative ways of sharing resources and delivering added value by collaborating with other organizations.

• If your library works with schools, arts groups, history centers, museums or other community-based organizations, show how these partnerships allow the library to “deliver more with less” and enhances the services of your partner organizations.
• Demonstrate that your library shares goals with community agencies.  Does your library work with a community organization, such as a workforce development program?  Show the number of individuals who receive help with resume writing, learning job skills, using the Internet for finding jobs…and then describe how your library works with the community agency to achieve shared goals.
• Tell the story of how partnering with small business owners has an economic impact on the community.  Share anecdotes and quotes as part of a handout, or your budget presentation.
• Libraries often share programming with community arts organizations.  In your budget presentation, share information on how such a coalition appeals to private funders, lifting some of the financial burden from the public sector.
• Media partners are visible, powerful allies.  If your library offers sponsored programming or events with local radio or TV stations, or newspapers, illustrate the power of these partnerships by highlighting attendance, sharing audience quotes and demonstrating that your library understands the value and impact of sharing the stage with a media partner.
• Schools and school media centers are under terrific pressure to provide needed resources for students, with shrinking budgets.   Partner with area schools through homework centers or providing books and other resources that will be used in classes or programs.  When you present your budget, show how this collaboration allows schools to expand their resources and your library to work with targeted groups of key customers.
• Defending a budget is as much about impact as it is about the bottom line.  Look for and nurture partnerships that will allow your library to offer new, exciting programs and services and repeat (over and over) the success stories about how creative partnerships have a strong economic and “quality of life”  impact on the community.
• “Back-scratching “can be a rich feature of a partnership or coalition.  Share the success and spread the word about community partnerships.  Speak or write in support of your strategic partners and ask them to do the same for your library.  Having members of an arts organization, or a history center at budget hearings sends the message that the library is a strong community player.
• Other community organizations face the same challenges as the library.  Reach out to your counterparts in other organizations and learn from them, as they learn from you.  There are always strategies and tips to share and support to be enlisted.

Preparing a Budget Presentation

The decision-maker speaks.

Qualities of the Successful Budget Proposal

• The best budgets are always tied to the best spending plans.  Instead of just asking for more, budget presentations must tie performance and justification to requests for increases.
• Decision makers look for the level of production per unit.  When an increase is granted, how will the additional dollars translate into improvements?  If additional staffing dollars are granted, how will the services be improved?  Make sure that your budgeting authority can see, in real-world terms, how the money improves the work.
• In public library systems, budget analysis needs to be weighted to reflect how dollars will make the most impact in the places that are most in need.  Not all things are equal and not all things are fair; understand that the delivery of the dollars need to be weighted with demographics in mind.
• The library world can sometimes be insular.  Good budget directors will work with executive librarians out to ensure that a budget is responsive to constituents.
• Is the budget proposal balanced? The proposal for the year will reflect an increase, a decrease, or a status quo proposal - the librarian needs to be able to discuss the cause of any changes with the budgeting authority.
• Be ready to discuss changes both within the library and outside influences that may be driving changes in budget proposals.
• Decision makers will be most likely to approve budget proposals that are able to show balance between financing, spending, and performance.

Cautionary Tales

• Any lack of direct or frank responses to questions, or even the hint of holding back, will foster negative responses from budget authorities.
• Lack of preparation.  Do not assume that wide public support will result in an easy proposal process, be ready for tough questions at every step.
• During the public presentation, know when to say that you don't know the answer and that you will get the answer to the budgeting authority as soon as possible.
• Be careful of committing to specific numbers in a public forum - if forced, offer a range and agree to follow up at a later date.
• If you know that you have opposition to your proposal ahead of time, avoid any type of confrontation.  Ask your opponent to meet one on one at a later time to work out any concerns or reservations.

Best Practices for the Executive Librarian's Proposal

• Start your presentation with simple graphs and charts that anyone can understand - the lowest level of detail.  You may have your whole proposal approved at a minimal level of discussion.
• Be prepared to add layers of detail should the need arise, but do not offer anything more than you have to.  Work in stages with your detail and supporting materials.
• Dollar amount changes, year-over-year, with brief explanations of each line item that reflects a change.
• Service differences, year-over-year, with a similar level of detail to dollar changes.
• Staffing differences based on pay-grade with the same level of detail about changes year-over-year.
• A direct assessment of the changes and the forces driving the changes (dollars, services, staffing, and performance).
• If the questions require the next level of detail, if possible, try to refer them to the departmental Accountant or to the Assistant Librarian.
• If there are lots of questions, try to get the budget authority to send their questions, in writing, so that they may be answered with the level of detail they deserve - this puts the responsibility back on the questioners.
• Only offer what is needed AS it is needed.  Offering too much information can tend to lengthen the questioning period.
• Remember, start with broad information and be ready to drill down, but at some point, the authority should be willing to move the questioning out of the public venue if it has many detailed questions.
• Be a good listener.  Restate the questions to make sure that they are really what the authority wants to know.
• A good Budget Director will have worked with and coached the person making the proposal in advance, obviating many possible pitfalls.
• Know how to say NO.  Keep the budgeting authority realistic and on track, some things just can not be done.  Make a compromise offer of what you can do with the resources allocated and offer to report back periodically.
• A great deal of compromise may be required.  Always remember that your ideal may not match perfectly with those of your budgeting authority.
• Positivity, no matter the circumstance, is critical
• Prepare and present a document that summarizes what the library is NOT doing or could be doing better.  Use data from other systems and offer comparisons with similarly sized  systems.  Use per capita or per unit service comparisons to strengthen your arguments.

Do's & Don'ts in Making a Library Budget Presentation

From the Decision-Maker’s Perspective

• Once this executive-level presentation has been completed, the nature of the questions should be assessed and the next step will depend on the result of the assessment:
• A good Budget Director will have worked with and coached the person making the proposal in advance, obviating many possible pitfalls. 
• Under-prepare.  Do not assume that wide public support will result in an easy proposal process, be ready for tough questions at every step.
• Avoid giving a direct or frank response to questions.  Even the hint of holding back will foster negative responses from budget authorities.
• Fake an answer!  Know when to say that you don't know the answer and that you will get the answer to the budgeting authority as soon as possible.
• Commit to specific number in a public forum capriciously- if forced, offer a range and agree to follow up at a later date.
• Respond to confrontation publicly if you can help it.  If you know that you have opposition to your proposal ahead of time, ask your opponent to meet one on one at a later time to work out any concerns or reservations.

Executive Librarians Speak

It’s easy to get caught up in the many details of budgeting, but for the Executive Librarian, the most important issues in successful budget proposal planning are community issues – how to best serve our constituents.  Consider the following to ensure that you create and present a successful budget:

Never become so invested in the details of the budgeting process that you are caught off guard by a big-picture question.

Statistics, by themselves, do not tell the whole story:

Some years, there simply is NO money - no amount of pressure or support will be able to change this fact:

Be sure to demonstrate to the budgeting authority that you continuously strive for improvement, not just during tough times. 

Best Practices from the Viewpoint of Executive Librarians

Within the Library Community:

• Forming panels of library administrators to advise on spending streams creates an environment of teamwork.
• Brown-bag budgeting sessions with senior team members can be very illuminating.
• Foster library ecosystem thinking among administrators - keep them thinking about the system as a whole, rather than focusing too closely on their own area of responsibility.
• Help administrators to think like the budgeting authority/decision makers: how will what you are proposing "pay off"?
• Look for opportunities to build cooperative purchasing agreements.

Outside the Library:

Utilize Friends groups:

• To teach patrons about the best ways to communicate with elected officials,
• To keep the public informed about the library's important events and organizational changes.

Utilize patrons:

Keep your budgeting authority up to date on what's happening at the library.

In some cases, early distribution of budget summary information (e.g. usage trending, connection to political priorities, etc.) can be very helpful.

• Maintain good relationships with your vendors.
• Library Trustees (especially those representing the governing body) are a critical way of keeping elected officials informed about the library.
• Request that the governing body include time in their regular meeting agenda each month for a report by the Library Director.  This prevents the feeling that “the only time we ever hear from you is when you want something.”
• When times get tough, your vendors will appreciate knowing that they won't stay that way - things will improve.

If a cut has to be made, be prepared to do it.

10 Things I Know to be True about Budgeting for Libraries

• Budgeting is a year-round exercise. Decision makers need to hear about your services all year – not just when they’re voting on a new budget.  It’s easier to get and hold their attention when they’re not being deluged.  
• You can’t make responsible decisions without the right information. Decide what you need to know and collect that data.  If you know you need to reduce hours, for example, find out what days and times you’re busiest with circulation, visits, phone calls and other electronic communication.  And then think about the data your library should collect next year: what will you need to know to tell the library’s story?  
• Budget staffs have long memories. Do not play fast and loose with the numbers.  If you eliminate 5 FTE by cutting 10 hours of service, you can’t ask for 8 FTE to replace those hours in the future.  The budget folks will remember and you will look like a bad manager at best and deceitful at worst.  
• It’s easier to build up than tear down… and it helps you focus on the future.  If you’re facing substantial cuts, make a list of all the resources the library will still have – buildings, staff, technology, collections.  Then study your usage data and design a new library system with the available resources.  
• We cannot afford irrelevant excellence. We all have those things our libraries do well that aren’t as important as they once were.  It’s just human nature to want to do those things we’re comfortable with and good at.  Have staff at all levels help you find and eliminate those programs or processes that no longer support your service plan and are draining your resources.  
• Even in bad times, you are building for the future. It’s tempting to drastically cut or even eliminate training funds when times are bad.  Don’t.  You’ll need motivated, skilled staff to get through hard times and prepare for the future.   
• A communication plan is essential. What will you tell staff, the library board, elected officials, the public about the budget … and when?  What formats will you use?  Who will speak for the library?  People need to trust that you will tell them what you can, when you can.  
• You need to think like your audience. Whether you’re justifying a budget request to elected officials or explaining service cuts to the high school parent-teacher association, you must consider your audience and recast the message to resonate with them.  Remember, if a library’s materials budget is cut by 20% and circulation remains level, it will look to some people like a good business decision.  
• It’s not always about the numbers. Nothing beats an anecdote from a constituent in making the case for your budget.   Letters, emails, phone calls, testifying at a budget hearing – these are all opportunities for decision makers to hear what’s important to the community.  Elected officials and other decision makers expect you to fight for the library’s budget.  What will sway them is hearing from the public.  
• You can’t say “thank you” too often. Even when your budget is being cut, make sure decision makers are thanked publicly for the difficult work they’re doing.  At a time when they’re getting hammered from all sides, they will appreciate and remember positive words from your supporters.

Graphs to Tell the Story

Graphs can help us tell our library's story.

TREND Graphs show this library OVER TIME - are we getting better or worse?

COMPARISON Graphs show US VS. SIMILAR facilities or standards (at one point in time) - are we leading or falling behind?

• "similar" may be based on municipal population, service population, annual circulation transactions, geographic location
• local governments often want comparisons to neighbors, even though not "similar"
• standards may be State quantifiable standards

Create "Normalized" Statistics:

• Permit comparisons among libraries of different sizes (including ours if we've grown!)
• Personnel costs per FTE: shows what each full-time equivalent staff member costs in pay and benefits - so we don't have to be concerned with size of staff, how many are part-time, etc. (No matter how many hours we're open, the number of FTE's = total staff hours/40.)
• Are we over/under staffed? Circulation per FTE: shows how many circulation transactions each full-time equivalent staff member handles annually
• Cost per circ.: shows operating costs expended for each circulation transaction. (with or without personnel costs)
• Municipal allocation/Equalized Assessed Value: shows funding in relation to community wealth
• Municipal allocation per capita: shows funding per citizen.
• Municipal allocation plus State funding per circ.: compare to cost per circ to see shortfall

Determine Other Info Important to Our Audience: Funding besides municipal allocation (how are we doing at generating other revenues?), Population changes inside/outside of municipality, etc.

(Equalized Assessed Value is available from local, county or State government. All other info above is available from State's agency in charge of libraries.)

Group the statistics to make graphs with IMPACT!

TREND Graphs

• Support Graph (PDF) : municipal support per capita vs. per $1,000 in EAV (trend, last 5 years)

COMPARISON Graphs

• Facility Offerings Graph (PDF) : number of public access pc's, hours open per week, volumes of print material
• Circulation Graph (PDF) : circulation in various categories (Adult, Child, Total), along with cost per circulation transaction.
• Staffing and Pay Graph (PDF) : number of FTE's (Full-Time Equivalents) and total personnel costs per FTE

Other possibilities:

• Programs (COMPARISON or TREND) Graph: number of programs and total annual program attendance. Or, normalize to: number of programs per capita and attendance per program.
• Expenditures and Support (TREND) Graph: total operating and materials expenditures and municipal allocation (are they rising/falling together?)
• Summarize graph results in a box below each graph, so no one misses the message!

Remember: this info can also help in planning!

• At what point will we need more personnel? When our Circ/FTE gets too high…
• How much will another person cost? Use Personnel Cost/FTE to estimate…
• If circulation grows (due to expansion, population growth, etc.) how much will our expenses go up? Use Cost/Circ. (adjusting as necessary for personnel costs!)…..

Use the Right Data to Get Your Budget Passed!

Powerful data in your budget presentation can pave the way to support from your funding sources.  It can tell your story – where you have been, where you are now, and where you hope to go with library services in your community.  It can give them reasons to support your efforts, and ways to justify this to constituents.  Some things to consider:

• The Public Library Association prepares an annual report with extensive data on library services ( www.pla.org ).  Information includes annual funding and expenditures, collection size and services, etc. for a large sample of libraries in the U.S. and Canada.
• Many states collect similar data through their library oversight departments and make it available to the public – for example, Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction has annual data going back many years for every library in the state, available in Excel format on their website.  Even if your library is not in Wisconsin, this information can show how libraries of various sizes serve their communities. 
• More local data may also be available from your library consortium or city and county library service. 
• Don’t forget non-library data!  You may want to compare your library’s budget requests to cost of living increases or discuss how rising unemployment drives increased need for your services, etc.  
• Consider presenting information on the market value of your library’s services to the community.  Check out:  www.maine.gov/msl/services/customcal.htm to see what a bargain libraries are!  
• Here is an example of a chart that would give some perspective on how the “Presenting Library” stacks up to others on key indicators (data from PLDS Statistical Report 2009, for libraries serving population of 25,000 to 49,999).  Note how we have provided the conclusion that we’d like drawn from the information presented:

As this chart shows, high materials expenditure achieves exceptional circulation. Yet total expenditure and FTE's are responable.

• Wisconsin, for example, has Quantitative Standards for Materials Expenditures, Hours Open, etc. based on population served.  Any library anywhere could measure itself against such standards. 
• A chart or graph that demonstrates meeting or exceeding many standards while failing at others can be a powerful way to support funding for those areas.  
• You can compare your library to those in similarly-sized communities or those with similar circulation. 
• Budgeting authorities are often especially interested in how your library compares to those in neighboring communities.  
• Restating total Materials Expenditures into Materials Expenditures per Capita makes it possible to compare libraries serving different sized populations. 
• Restating total Operating Expenditures into Operating Expenditures per Circulation enables you to show how economically you deliver your services (or use it to support a request for funding for efficiency improvements, like self-service kiosks).  
• Funders concerned with your personnel costs may be reassured by seeing your Staff Costs per Circulation, or FTE per Public Service Hour compared to those of similarly-sized libraries.  
• Finally, remember that all this data can do more than just directly support your budget request.  It can also help you to gain the perspective (which you can also share with funding authorities and patrons) that will enable your library to continually monitor its performance and strive to improve its services to the community.  

Citizen Support- Rallying Stakeholders Around the Library

It’s hard to find anyone who doesn’t believe in libraries.  Getting people to raise their voices in support of the library is another story.  Rallying stakeholder support is a powerful tool in passing library budgets, keeping libraries open and keeping a library’s value to the community highly visible.

There are several ways to bring individual citizens and constituent groups out in support of the library and plenty of things stakeholders can do to apply critical pressure on the library’s behalf.

• Grassroots advocacy efforts are one of the oldest and most effective tools for persuading decision-makers.  Libraries of all sizes should have Advocacy Committees made up of citizens from every neighborhood.
• The Advocacy Committee should meet with the Library Director and be educated on all aspects of the library’s budget, library needs, the budgeting cycle and all of the library’s sources of funding.  An advocate who knows what they’re talking about is really powerful.
• Anyone speaking in public on the library’s behalf should have talking points and fast facts about the library and its budget needs. 
• Supporting the library’s budget isn’t just the task of an Advocacy Committee.  Library supporters from all neighborhoods should be encouraged to attend public meetings and budget hearings and, if appropriate, give testimony.
• Central and branch libraries should post notices about budget hearings and public meetings that focus on library issues.
• Even if citizens don’t speak at public meetings, their presence is valuable.  A self-identified group of library supporters carries a strong message: “I’m a library supporter…and I vote.”  This is what decision-makers need to see and hear.
• Buttons abound…libraries across the country have developed buttons for getting their message across.  Wearing a button that tells anyone and everyone that you are a library supporter spreads the word quickly and pervasively.
• Constituent groups served by the library can form a strong advocacy group.  Teenagers who use the library for homework help can learn about the civic process by testifying on their library’s behalf, or by meeting with their elected official (make sure they’re prepared!).  Seniors who view the library as the go-to place for life-long learning are often eager to speak up for the library.  New Americans have powerful, emotional stories to tell about how the library impacts their lives and the importance of supporting the library’s budget.
• Working with the media is another powerful tool to encourage support of a library’s budget.   Press releases, Letters to the Editor, Op-Ed pieces focusing on facts and impact are great ways to garner support for the library and its needs.
• Choose well-known, respected community leaders to write or speak on the library’s budget.  (For an excellent example of “two mayors” speaking on behalf of a library’s budget, read the Viewpoints article from the Saint Paul Pioneer Press (PDF) .
• Keeping information about the library and how it supports the community should be an ongoing priority…not just when the budget is on the table.   

Making the Budget Presentation- Do's & Don'ts

Budget presentation 101 and beyond.

Considering that your budget presentation is an opportunity both to improve your audience’s understanding of library operations and to achieve passage of your funding request, a well-designed presentation is well worth the work!

Let’s assume that you will be presenting your budget request in person and have decided to do so via a handout and a PowerPoint presentation.  Here are suggestions for a basic presentation, then how to “rise above” that level for a more powerful presentation. There is also a PowerPoint template showing, slide-by-slide, how to structure your presentation to maximize your audience’s understanding and support.

At a minimum, your budget presentation should…

• Start (both the hand-out and the Power Point) with the Library’s Mission Statement, to remind your audience of the library’s purpose and role in the community.
• Current Budget
• Current Year’s Projected (or Actual, if the entire year’s transactions are already known) revenue and expenses.
• Next Year’s Budget (the one you’re submitting for funding)
• Then, two columns for “Change in $$” and “Change as a %.”  There is some variation in how this is done, but it is recommend that you compare Next Year’s Budget to Current Year’s Projected, as this is more current than the budget created a year ago.
• Then, you will need some analysis of these figures.  The most basic way to do this is to group revenue and expenditure accounts, such as Personnel (salaries, wages, benefits), Materials/ Programming (books, periodicals, speaker fees), etc.  Then discuss your budget rationale for each group, for example, “Health insurance premiums increased 14%, but we plan to reduce hours and freeze wages so we can hold Personnel costs steady for next year.”

Following these steps would constitute a bare minimum presentation.  This may be sufficient but it can waste an opportunity to showcase your achievements or garner support for your challenges!

Let’s expand our presentation –so that it stimulates the response we seek – better understanding and stronger support. 

To start on this path, carefully determine one or two key messages you would like to convey to your audience related to this budget .  For example, you may wish to show how the community has increased its demand and response to Library programming.  Or, you may wish to convey that limited funding has left you with stale collections that are of diminishing value to the community. 

• Your library can’t do everything for everyone, and your funding authority has multiple demands on it, as well.  Focusing your presentation on a couple of issues can make it possible to reach a consensus on what is most important in your budget request. 

Next, you’ll need to decide how to get those messages across to your audience. 

• show increases in numbers of programs offered per capita and numbers of attendees, both for just your library over some period of time
• compare your library’s programs (numbers or, perhaps, variety)and cost per capita  to those of similar libraries. 
• Finally, you would show exactly how your proposed budget will enable you to improve this service (e.g., another weekly story hour costs $1,000/yr).
• compare your collections (size, age) to those of similar libraries or accepted standards
• compare materials expenditures and annual circulation per capita, either to those of similar libraries or  for just your library over a period of time (or both!). 
• Finally, you would show (again) exactly how your proposed budget will enable you to make the improvements you seek (e.g., 3-year plan to update geography reference materials at $5,000/yr).
• See the Using Comparative Data and the Graphs to Tell the Story  sections of this website for more ideas.
• Consider a brief handout that gives a snapshot of your library for the past year. This handout is a good take-away for your audience to be able to think about what the library has accomplished in the past year in a succinct format.
• As you think about how best to convey your message, remember your audience.  Consider how much time will you have, how comfortable they may be with numbers/charts/graphs, whether they are likely to be overwhelmed if you provide too much data or suspicious if you provide not enough, etc.  In general, limit the number of PowerPoint slides, and keep each one “short and sweet.”
• Note that the beauty of this “message” approach is that your presentations will offer a fresh perspective from year to year as your messages change, enabling you to build over time a fuller understanding within your audience of the library’s services and needs.

Finally, remember to maintain an upbeat, “can do” attitude throughout your presentation.  Keep in mind the Mission Statement and the community you serve.  If presentation is done at a public meeting, you should have encouraged Friends, etc. to attend to demonstrate support for the Library’s service to the community.  Whatever response you get from your funding authority, be sure to thank them for their attention.

Check out the PowerPoint Budget Presentation to view a template for structuring your budget presentation.

Qualities of A Successful Budget Presentation

Best practices for budget presentations.

• Be ready to answer the most unexpected of questions (e.g. “What could you do with half of that?”).
• Understand that the budget details, about which you care deeply, will never be as important to the budget authority; accept this and figure out what is important to its members.
• Remember that your presentation has to be layered – the budget authority might approve your proposal without a single question, having only seen the executive summary.
• Remember that you better have a second (and possibly a third) layer of detail to present to your budget authority.  They just might have a lot of questions for you.
• Avoid any kind of public confrontation – agree to meet personally with a questioner who isn’t satisfied with your answer.
• Do not commit to a specific number in an open forum; if you’re backed into a corner, agree to a range or to discuss it at a follow up meeting.
• Balance is the key for budget authorities who are accountable to voters – if financing, spending, and performance are balanced, your budget will appeal to everyone.
• Know that people who work with numbers for a living want to see how things compare with other things (e.g. year-over-year, per capita performance, increase of total services, etc.); give them what they want.
• Use whatever tools you need to get your message across, but be sure that your message gets through.  Graphs and charts, PowerPoint presentations and executive summaries are great visual aids, but if your message is muddled the process of approval will be unnecessarily complicated.

Main Street Library At a Glance

PowerPoint for Main Street Library

Description and Purpose of Activity

The Main Street Public Library strengthens community, supports literacy, provides access to information, and fosters lifelong learning and enrichment.

 Library activities include selecting, purchasing, cataloging, processing and circulating books, magazines, newspapers, audiobooks, DVDs and music CDs for the use of the community.  Library staff members strive to fully answer requests for information and to locate needed items and articles.  They actively participate in community efforts to improve literacy by offering programs for all ages, particularly pre-school children and their caregivers.  The Library is also a place where free access to the Internet and computing is available.  The Library provides outreach bookmobile service to daycares and other stops within the City and offers a large number of electronic resource subscriptions. 

Accomplishments & Highlights 2009 

• Increased service levels, experiencing the busiest days in the library’s history, following a trend that began in 2007.
• Working with the local work force center, developed a Business and Employment Resource Area in the library.  The collection for this Resource Area was provided with the assistance of the Friends of the Library.
• Replaced furniture in the Teen area with assistance from the Friends of the Library.  Finished repainting Teen area and added display shelving and slat wall (end cap display) in many places throughout the library.
• Continued to gather information (particularly related to fundraising) and plan for a library expansion.

Initiatives in 2010 

• Continue to implement the steps outlined in the 2008-2012 Library Long-Range Plan; evaluate progress towards goals and revise as needed.  Major goals of the plan are:  foster lifelong learning support information literacy and collaboration; the library as a welcoming, accessible and convenient public gathering place; diverse collections of print, media and electronic resources; information related to work and employment, school, business and personal life; developing a library facility that will support the services the Main Street Library community needs
• Cut county bookmobile stops and proportionately reduce bookmobile staff hours accordingly.
• Cut Sunday hours in order to reduce staff expenditures.
• Celebrate the centennial of the Carnegie Library Building.
• Continue to contribute substantially to the economic vitality of the community.

Once the Budget Presentation Is Over

• Once your budget has been approved, the cycle begins again.  There are steps you should take to smooth the way for the next budgeting process.
• Say “Thank you!” to decision-makers who have been part of the budgeting process.  Call or write and let them know that you appreciate their time and consideration of your library’s needs.
• Thank your Advocacy Committee members and other volunteers and stakeholders for their support of your library in the budgeting process.
• Let your staff know your appreciation for their efforts in creating your library’s budget.  Share any specific feedback you may have received from decision-makers.
• Debrief the process with your staff.  What went well?  What could have made the process more efficient?  What should you change in the next budgeting process?
• Begin again the ongoing progress of scanning the community to monitor needs, priorities, challenges and opportunities for providing service.  Keep a budget file that you add notes to that will help inform the next budgeting process.
• If you are requested to come back with a revised budget, respond quickly.  You should always go into a budget presentation with a “Plan B” in the event that your budget doesn’t receive approval.
• Budgeting can be a stressful process.  When your presentation is over, celebrate your efforts with your staff so that everyone feels they’ve participated in a good team effort.

Budgeting Best Practices

Best practices for creating a successful budget.

• The library budget is the result of local money funding an important local function.  Remind your budgeting authority how its library returns value to the community and aligns with the community’s priorities during every budget cycle (and at every other opportunity).
• A community’s priorities are the priorities of the community’s library – library patrons and their elected officials need to know exactly how everyone benefits by supporting this community asset.  Patrons (voters) need to let politicians know that they support libraries.  Politicians will gain votes using the same message to voters.
• Understand how to use comparative data (from similar library communities or against your own library’s historical data) that support your budget narrative.  Have a strong understanding of contemporary and past budget events in your community; learn how to use statistical trends to support your arguments.
• Your profession is collegial and filled with people who love learning and helping others – remember there are many librarians out there who are willing to share their experiences with you.  Your greatest resource for budgeting advice could be your professional colleagues.
• Work with the community’s representatives – board members, Trustees, Friends groups, and elected officials.  Whether the economy is waxing or waning, these groups support and care about libraries and will help you to align the budget with the community’s priorities.
• Budgeting is a year-round practice that requires constant attention; teach staff members and non-staff supporters always to keep their eyes open for opportunities to fine-tune the processes and efficiencies of your library.
• The community’s library is always about the future of the community – your budget proposal relates directly to the youth of your community.
• Always keep your message positive - be ready and willing to compromise.
• You have multitudes of patrons who will never set foot in your library (accessing the library’s resources via the Internet).  Figure out creative ways for  reaching these cyber-patrons to ask for their support.

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This Budgeting Template offers a clear and concise layout for financial planning across cost items throughout the year. It allows sharing the cost per year for each item, with an annual overview and percentage breakdown for each category. The design has well-designed spaces for presenting twelve items with their financial figures and percentages. It enables financial analysts to track fiscal health, allocate resources, and identify areas for cost optimization in budget presentations.

Template 3: Channel Marketing Budget 

Financial strategists can use this channel marketing budget slide to showcase a detailed, month-by-month breakdown of marketing expenditures. The slide categorizes the marketing expenses in Customer Acquisition & Retention (CAR) and Other Expenses. CAR includes costs of human resources, communication, and promotional/coupons. Travel, infrastructure, and channel support are included in other expenses. The design records and compares these numbers for three months to assess expense patterns and comprehensive budget planning. Its clear structure and cumulative totals enable quick assessments of marketing spend over time, aligning with anticipated sales figures. This template will help marketers balance budget allocations with campaign goals and share precise, concise financial projections with stakeholders.

Template 4: Budgeting - Planned/Actual Comparison

This budget comparison slide showcases a side-by-side comparison of monthly planned versus actual expenses throughout the year. It features a bar chart for a direct monthly comparison and a deviation chart for tracking over or underspend. A table over these charts presents planned and actual costs in numbers and value differences for easy reading and interpretation. This template will be an invaluable resource for businesses to facilitate financial analysis, budget management, strategic decision-making, and fiscal transparency.

Template 5: Product Launch Budget Plan

Use this budget plan slide to allocate financial resources across different categories in the product launch phase. Each category is visually represented by progress bars, indicating the percentage of the budget allocated, with color-coding for clear differentiation. You can customize the categories in this layout to match your product launch plan needs. This layout allows an immediate understanding of budget distribution and progress in presentations that require concise financial overviews and strategic planning.

Template 6: Company Budget

This company budget slide is a streamlined visual financial tool designed to organize and present a company's income and expenses clearly. With designated sections for various income streams and a detailed breakdown of costs like wages, rent, and utilities, this slide will help in meticulous budget planning. It offers a comparative snapshot of financial data across two different time frames, allowing for easy financial health and planning visualization.

Template 7: Product Launch Marketing Budget

Planning a product launch in your next financial year? This product launch budget template will help you strategize the fiscal aspects of marketing campaigns. It categorizes expenses into public relations, web marketing, advertising, and collateral over quarterly intervals, ensuring comprehensive and balanced financial planning. This slide will allow the financial planning and product launch team to allocate resources efficiently across various marketing channels and track expenditure trends throughout the product launch lifecycle.

Template 8: Social Media Budget

The Social Media Budget slide is designed to streamline financial planning by including social media strategies and budgets. Featuring clearly defined categories like content creation, social advertising, software, promotions, and social engagement, the template allows users to outline in-house and outsourced expenses to ensure a comprehensive view of costs. This template aids budget presentations by providing a snapshot of total expenditures per category and total expenses across categories for in-house and outsourced services. It helps in precise and strategic resource allocation for optimal social media management.

Template 9: Stacked Line with Markers

Use this line graph to present data trends for a product use for various tasks. With data nodes and ample space to write insights for each data point, it presents axis values like customers or products sold in millions on a horizontal axis. On the vertical axis, it showcases the task numbers. The connected line between two points highlights fluctuations over time and facilitates quick analysis of performance metrics. It will help you gather insights like how many customers use the product for which task or for which task most customers use the product. It is a must-have slide for easy data representation.

Template 10: Volume Open High Low Close Chart

With this volume chart slide, budget presenters can compare and highlight the open, high, low, and close values of two products over a series of dates. It's useful for budget and financial presentations, providing a clear and concise overview of market trends or sales performance with a color-coded volume bar and line graph interface. The design is interactive and easy to edit to create comparison slides in budget presentations.

Tallying the Final Ledger!

A budget presentation is a strategic tool that guides an organization's financial planning and management, ensuring fiscal discipline and long-term sustainability. Use this budget presentation with the required neat and professional visuals, like charts and graphs, to make the most of your budget discussions. Strategize and sort your business finances, marketing campaign budgets, and product launch expenses, all while keeping things transparent and digestible. Break the stereotype of boring finance meetings with this engaging budget presentation!

Example Budget Presentation Powerpoint Presentation Slides with all 40 slides:

Block your distractions with our Example Budget Presentation Powerpoint Presentation Slides. Acquire the ability to achieve fine focus.

The purpose of this presentation is to provide a budgeting template, charts, graphs, and various slides for businesses to create their own budget presentations, as well as showcase their mission, vision, team, financial scores, and goals.

The presentation includes Budgeting Template (Layout-1) and Budgeting Template (Layout-2) in percentage, Channel Marketing Budget, Event Budget, Product Launch Marketing Budget Template, and Social Media Budget Template.

The presentation includes Stacked Line With Markers, Clustered Bar, Volume-Open-High-Low-Close, Stacked Area-Clustered Column, and Open-High-Low-Close-Chart charts and graphs.

The presentation includes slides for mission and vision, about us, our team, our goals, dashboard, financial scores, quotes, comparison, location, our targets, puzzles, circular image, lego blocks, silhouettes, hierarchy, Venn diagram, mind map, magnifying glass, and bulb or idea.

Yes, the content in the presentation can be customized as per the business requirement.

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Warren Mayor Stone to break tradition with budget presentation

A pr. 5—Warren Mayor Lori Stone announced on social media and in a press release she will give a budget presentation on Monday, April 8 at 6 p,m. In the Warren Community Center auditorium.

The presentation is scheduled to take place an hour before the 7 p.m. Planning Commission meeting, which also meets in the auditorium.

A press release issued by Stone on April 4 states the presentation will "focus on new and improved initiatives that align with the mayor's commitment to accountability and transparency." It added the presentation will also include information about infrastructure improvements, public safety, and parks and recreation.

Typically, the budget presentation is part of a City Council meeting or is scheduled in the hour prior to the meeting and presented to the city council.

The Warren City Charter states that the mayor's recommended fiscal year budget must be submitted to the City Council no later than the second Monday of April. Stone's scheduled presentation is not being made to the City Council so it does not appear to fulfill the charter requirement for the budget to be given to City Council on or before the second Monday in April.

Council Secretary Mindy Moore said the mayor has not sent her proposed budget to the Council.

Upon seeing the Facebook post about the mayoral budget presentation Wednesday, Moore contacted Stone and requested a copy of the budget be sent to the City Council. Moore said Stone advised her copies would be available at Monday's presentation..

Moore said she has arranged for City Council Deputy Secretary Mary Kamp to go to City Hall on Monday during regular business hours to pick up a copy of the budget to be shared with the city council.

"There was no communication with the City Council about the budget presentation or submission of the budget," said Moore. "It is very nontransparent."

Monday's event has been advertised as a "formal budget presentation" so it is not clear if Stone will entertain questions from those in attendance.

The City Council will hold budget hearings on April 13 and April 15 but Moore said she does not know if Stone plans to attend and answer questions about her proposed fiscal budget.

(c)2024 The Macomb Daily, Mount Clemens, Mich. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Mayor’s proposed budget up 6.6%

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Mayor Mitch Roth and his department heads will be presenting a proposed $888 million budget to the County Council Finance Committee beginning Tuesday.

His proposed budget is $54.6 million, or 6.6%, higher than the one for fiscal year 2023-2024.

Roth said his administration is dedicated to creating a sustainable Hawaii Island where keiki and their keiki can thrive for generations to come.

“Our proposed budget reflects this commitment by prioritizing the prosperity and well-being of our community,” Roth said. “We are investing heavily in affordable housing and essential infrastructure, which are key to the growth and opportunities for our communities. Additionally, we are focusing on maintaining our parks and roads and preparing for environmental disasters.”

“We are also boosting our emergency services by increasing funding for vehicles and equipment, enhancing our ability to respond quickly and save lives. These investments are vital for the success of our island, both today and for future generations.”

In his proposal, he stated revenues are projected to increase across almost all sources including real property tax, GET surcharge and transient accommodation tax.

The increases in expenditures are primarily attributed to collective bargaining agreements, increases in use of fuel and utility services, rising insurance premiums, and additional supplies and equipment necessary to support increasing demands for county services. Contracts for all collective bargaining units will result in a $30.5 million increase to the budget for employees’ salaries, wages and benefits.

“Providing fair and adequate wages allows us to attract and retain a quality workforce,” Roth said in the proposal’s introduction.

The proposed budget increases funding to repair and perform improvements at parks and recreation facilities, increases spending for the expansion of the fire department’ s fleet of emergency response vehicles, and invests in new technology.

Additionally, the budget includes $11. 1 million to address the homeless population. It also provides $9 million for housing production.

The vast majority of the projected revenue comes from the real property tax, which is estimated to bring in $477 million, an increase of $23.3 million over last year. The increase is attributed to an increase in home values resulting in higher property tax, and new construction.

Over $115 million is expected in grant revenue, an increase of $20 million over last year. The GET surcharge is expected to add $65 million to the county coffers, and revenue from the county’s allotment of the Transient Accommodation Tax is projected at $26 million.

The highest expenditure is $210.6 million for public safety, an increase of 5.7% over last year. That is followed by pension and retirement at $96.7 million, a 9.6 % increase, and highways and streets at $94.4 million, a 24.9% increase

The proposed Capital Budget for FY 2024-2025 and the Capital Improvements Program will require an appropriation of $392 million and includes 57 projects. Of that amount, $307.5 million will be funded either wholly or partially by bonds, $42.4 million from federal grants, $41.4 million from the State Revolving Loan Fund or State Capital Improvement Projects fund, and $ 950,000 to be funded by other sources.

A highlight of capital improvement projects proposed in the budget include:

— East Hawaii Animal Control facility – $20 million

— Civil Defense land mobile radio upgrade – $2 million

— Hilo Wastewater rehabilitation and replacement – $110 million

— Naalehu Wastewater system – $11.5 million

— Repair and improvements at county parks – $10 million

— Hilo Skate Park – $3 million

— Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium upgrades – $6 million

— Department of Public Works facility improvements – $14 million

— Mamalahoa Highway Rehabilitation – $12 million

— Hurricane Lane damage projects – $11 million

— Waianuenue Avenue bridge modernization – $14.2 million

— Kilauea Avenue Safe Routs to School – $12 million

— Kilauea Lava Recovery – $37.8 million

— Pahoa hub planning and construction – $7.2 million

— Battery charging and hydrogen station at Hilo Mass Transit maintenance facility – $8.2 million

— Haihai Affordable Housing Project – $15 million

— Ainaloa Affordable Housing – $20 million

— Ainako Affordable Housing – $16 million

The Finance Committee will hold a special session Tuesday through Thursday to begin the arduous process of reviewing the proposed budget.

“I’m expecting the special finance meetings to go more smoothly and consistently since departments have been provided a uniform template for presenting their respective budgets and program overviews,” said council Vice Chair Holeka Inaba. “In addition, the Finance Department, under the leadership of Director Diane Nakagawa and Deputy Aaron Brown, have worked to include many of the department’s supplemental requests in the initial budget.

“I am hopeful that we will be able to provide some real property tax relief to our residents and look forward to those discussions at the council, as well.”

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