What is budget management? Budget planning as the basis of management. II. Budget management is a tool for planning the achievement of specific goals

If an enterprise draws up budgets (that is, certain financial plans), then can we say that a budgeting system has been introduced there? Most often, after a close acquaintance with how budgets are drawn up and used, the answer is negative. Understanding what exactly budget management is is still quite a rare event even among heads of financial services of enterprises. Meanwhile, the term “budgeting” itself is widely used and attracts attention as a fashionable management technology. In our opinion, it’s time to carefully understand what principles are key to budgeting technology in order to distinguish “correct” budgeting from “false” ones.

Budgets are plans for the activities of an enterprise and its various structural units, expressed in financial indicators. The main purpose of budgets is to support the solution of three management tasks:

• financial forecast;
• comparative analysis of planned and actually achieved results;
• assessment and analysis of identified deviations.

Thus, budgets are only instruments of corporate governance. Availability some Budgets do not mean that they can be used effectively, or that they actually “work” in the enterprise management circuit.

We highlight seven basic principles, building a full-fledged budget management system. Let's look at each of them in more detail.

1. Budgeting is a tool for achieving company goals

Before you can develop a plan, you need to define your goals. Planning without goal setting is quite pointless. Goals are formed at the strategic level of corporate management. Thus, budgeting is a tool for implementing the enterprise strategy. With the help of this technology, an inextricable link is ensured between strategic goals and plans aimed at achieving them, and with operational processes ensuring the implementation of plans. Budgeting is what puts strategy into action.

Formally, you can draw up budgets without worrying about any goals. This is what they do often. If any meaning can be found in this activity, it consists only in obtaining a financial forecast: what will happen if we continue to “go with the flow.”

2. Budgeting is business management

The basis for budgeting is financial structure. It should reflect, first of all, the structure of the business and the types of activities in which the enterprise is engaged. If an enterprise runs several businesses that are relatively independent sources of profit, then each business must have its own budgets. This is necessary in order to correctly evaluate the results of activities in each area and ensure effective management of each of them.

Again, you can formally draw up a single company budget without having to deal with the difficult task of building the correct financial structure. This is also a fairly common situation. The benefit of such a budget is negligible. It is impossible to determine from it where profit arises and where it is “eaten up”, what target indicators are set for the heads of various structural units, and to what extent they have been achieved. In other words, such The budget is useless as a management tool.

3. Budgeting is management based on balanced financial indicators

Before starting to develop budgets, it is necessary to determine what financial indicators the management of the enterprise is guided by, what indicators are accepted as criteria for the success of the company for the planning period. These indicators must be linked to strategic goals and defined very specifically. For example, to say that we choose profit as one of the key indicators is to say nothing. Profits can be long-term or current, so they need to be linked to a time period. In addition, profit can be marginal, gross or net. This choice determines the priorities for company leaders and managers at all levels.

In addition, financial indicators must be balanced, since an improvement in one indicator often leads to a deterioration in another. Finally, the indicators must represent a system that covers all elements of the financial structure.

A balanced system of target financial indicators and restrictions constitutes the “architecture” of the budgeting system, in accordance with which budgets are developed.

4. Budgeting is management using budgets

The main tools of budget management technology are three main budgets:

• Traffic budget Money, designed to control liquidity;
• An income and expense budget to help you manage operational efficiency;
• Forecast balance required for management asset value companies.

Master budgets are compiled not only for the company as a whole, but also for each business unit (profit center), and represent only the “tip of the iceberg” of the budget system, which includes many interrelated operating and support budgets.

5. Budgeting covers the entire management loop

Any management process is a closed loop, including the stages of planning, control, analysis and regulation. According to the results last stage decisions can be made to redistribute resources, adjust plans, reward those who have distinguished themselves, punish the guilty, etc.

However, the budgeting process often focuses only on the planning function. Obviously, if the plan does not “work” as a tool for monitoring and analyzing the results achieved, and does not serve as the basis for building a system of motivation for managers and employees, its importance is depreciated.

6. Budgeting covers all levels of management

One of the important features of an effective budgeting system is its “total” distribution to all levels of the organizational structure. Involving each employee responsible for one or another “line” of the budget in the budgeting process allows you to solve several important problems:

• Reducing the complexity of the budgeting process by decentralizing it (an overly centralized budget is difficult to develop, adjust and monitor its execution).
• Increasing the responsibility of specific performers by delegating to them powers and responsibility for the implementation of certain budget indicators.
• Building an effective motivation system related to the company’s financial plans.

It is important to understand that budgeting is collective planning, in which managers at all levels of management participate. Consistent coordination of plans at all levels of the organization is similar to the process of concluding an agreement between the “managers” of the company to achieve an agreed result. Therefore, the budget can be defined as agreement between participants financial management about coordinated actions aimed at achieving the company's goals.

7. Budgeting is carried out on a regular basis

Often the developed plan is put “on the shelf” until the end of the year, when it’s time to sum up the results. It is clear that such a plan is useless and the time spent developing it is wasted.

Budgeting, like any management process, must be carried out continuously. The approved plan is only the basis for continued planning work. It is quite fair to observe that any plan becomes obsolete the moment it is approved. The reason for this is the constant change in conditions and parameters that served as the basis for the preparation of plans. Our understanding and assessment of the situation also changes, and there is a constant need to make adjustments to the plans developed. Awareness of this eternal dissatisfaction with the result of planning prompted General Eisenhower to exclaim: “Plans are nothing, planning is everything!” Indeed, the planning process is, in a sense, more important than the result it is aimed at achieving. Since it is during planning that managers at all levels collectively develop coordinated approaches to solving problems, comprehend the tasks facing them, and assess limitations, opportunities and risks.

To summarize, let us give a definition of budget management that summarizes the provisions discussed above.

Budgeting is a business management technology at all levels of a company, ensuring the achievement of its strategic goals with the help of budgets based on balanced financial indicators.

This article outlines only the most general provisions budget management concepts. In reality, there are no mandatory requirements for how budgets should be used to manage a business. Unlike accounting, there are no established guidelines or rules. The introduction of budget management technology is a creative process, which should be guided by an understanding of the “mechanisms” of management, knowledge own business and common sense.

Making the transition to budget management is not so difficult and expensive - you just need to set a goal, study the budgeting mechanism, and involve a programmer in this work to create additional reports in 1C. At the first stage, this will be enough to obtain actual data on the expenses of each financial responsibility center (hereinafter referred to as the FRC). Then add planned data to the actual data - and you can draw up a consolidated budget for the enterprise. Management will immediately approve this and ask for maximum detail. On at this stage it will be possible to talk about purchasing an additional software product. To begin with, the financial and economic department needs to understand and correctly use the budgeting mechanism, involve staff in this matter (including the heads of the Central Federal District) and include an item on the implementation of budget indicators in the motivational programs of each participant in the process. And if motivational programs have not yet been developed, then budgeting can serve as the basis for their creation.

Budgeting(budget management) - an operational system for managing a company by responsibility centers through budgets, allowing you to achieve your goals through the most effective use resources.

Each enterprise may have its own budgeting specifics. It depends on the object financial planning, and from the system of financial and non-financial goals. Therefore, speaking about purpose of budgeting, it must be remembered that in each company, as a management technology, it can pursue its own goals and use its own tools and tools.

Budgets can be drawn up both for the enterprise as a whole and for its divisions.

Basic (total) budget- this is a work plan for the enterprise as a whole, coordinated across all divisions and functions, combining blocks of individual budgets and characterizing the information flow for making and monitoring management decisions in the field of financial planning.

The main budget considers future profits in quantitative terms, cash flows and supporting plans. Basic budget represents the result of numerous discussions and decisions about the future of the enterprise, provides both operational and financial management.

Calculations carried out in the process of forming the enterprise’s budget make it possible to fully and timely determine the required amount of funds for the implementation of decisions made, as well as the sources of receipt of these funds (own, credit, investor funds, etc.).

In addition, the functions of the budget change depending on the phase of formation and implementation they are in. At the beginning of an accounting period, a budget represents a plan for sales, expenses, and other financial transactions in the coming period. At the end of the reporting period, it plays the role of a meter, allowing you to compare the results obtained with planned indicators and adjust further activities.

Highlight three main approaches to the budgeting process:

• top down;
• down up;
• bottom up/top down.

An approach top down means that top management carries out the budgeting process with minimal involvement of lower-level division and department managers. This approach makes it possible to fully take into account the company’s strategic goals, reduce time costs and avoid problems associated with the coordination and aggregation of individual budgets. However, the disadvantage of this approach is the weak motivation of lower and middle managers to achieve goals.

An approach down up It is used in large enterprises, where department heads draw up budgets for sections and their departments, which are then combined into the budgets of the workshop, production and plant, respectively. In this case, middle and senior managers will have to agree and coordinate various budget indicators. One of the disadvantages of this approach is that planned indicators for expenses can be overestimated, and for income - underestimated, so that if they are not met, more or less the expected result will be obtained.

An approach bottom up/top down is the most balanced and allows you to avoid the negative consequences of its two predecessors. In this approach, top management gives general directives regarding the company's goals, and lower and middle management prepares a budget aimed at achieving the company's goals.

IN general case can be distinguished four stages of setting up a budgeting system.

Stage I. Approval of the organizational structure. As a rule, some enterprises do not pay due attention to the creation and approval of the organizational structure, and this is an important document for the transition to budget management. The task of this stage- conducting an audit of the organizational structure and approval of its composition and form by the General Director. For ease of use, it is presented in the form hierarchical list.

Example 1

A trading and manufacturing enterprise produces food products and sells them wholesale various groups buyers. The company also provides consulting services and rents out premises. The company has:

• production area;
• warehouse for storing raw materials and finished products;
• own logistics service.

Administrative functions (personnel management, secretariat, legal service, accounting, financial department, etc.) are carried out centrally for all types of business. The decision on the acquisition of non-current assets at the enterprise is made by the Board of Directors.

The organizational structure for this enterprise is shown in Fig. 1.

Figure 1. Organizational structure for a trading and manufacturing enterprise

Stage II. Formation of a financial structure. The purpose of the second stage (formation of the financial structure) is to develop a model of the structure that allows establishing responsibility for the execution of budgets and controlling the sources of income and expenses. It is developed based on the financial structure. As part of this work, central federal districts are formed from organizational units (divisions). Based on the division of the Central Federal District by type of income/costs, which are determined based on the functional activities of the center, five main types of CFD:

1) investment centers(CI);

2)profit centers(CPU);

3) marginal income centers(CMD);

4) income centers(CD);

5) cost centers(CZ).

Each Central Federal District carries out its activities in accordance with the budget of income and/or expenses planned for the current period. The main task The Central Federal District is to fulfill its production tasks within the framework of the indicators established by the budget. Each Central Federal District operates on the basis of its own regulations on the Central Federal District.

To unite the Central Federal District There are certain rules in the financial structure (Fig. 2). One of the budgeting rules is that overhead costs are written off using the “direct costing” system. Direct costing system- distribution of overhead costs according to a certain base, which is applicable for management accounting, but not applicable for budgetary management.

Figure 2. Financial structure of the Central Federal District association

The financial structure shows how to manage a business using the CFO (Table 1).

Table 1. Business management using CFD

Next, a directory of financial responsibility centers is created ( Directory of the Central Federal District) with a responsible person assigned to each central financial district. In the 1C database, an additional directory is added and when entering a document, the corresponding central financial district is selected (Table 2).

Table 2. Directory of the Central Federal District

By slightly complicating the reporting, you can obtain reports broken down by the central federal district and cost items. To do this, when entering into the 1C database such documents as bank statements, cash documents, movement of materials, services of third-party organizations, accounting statements and other documents related to the cost part or cash flow, additional analytics are filled in:

• cost (income) item;
• VAT rate (if necessary).

It is important! Accounting can be organized for several legal entities. The summary report when selecting a grouping by central federal district and cost item will look like this (see Table 3).

Example 2

During January, the company incurred the following expenses:

• an electric forklift was purchased - 1 million rubles;
• communication paid to the sales department - 1 thousand rubles;
• communication paid to the warehouse service - 1.5 thousand rubles;
• rent office premises- 50 thousand rubles;
• production electricity - 10 thousand rubles;
• accounting seminar - 3 thousand rubles.

We receive the following report for the month.

Table 3. Report of expenses incurred by the enterprise for the month

To generate income, it is necessary to create an income directory and post the bank statement in accordance with the income items and the Central Federal District.

Thus, having collected income and expenses, we draw up a cash flow budget for the group of companies.

Stage III. Determination of types of budgets. During the third stage, the types of budgets that the enterprise needs to maintain are determined, the relationships between their formation, levels of consolidation and their internal structure are established based on directories of budget items. At this stage, the general scheme for forming the enterprise’s consolidated budget is determined.

All Central Federal Districts form their budgets by cost items based on the actual data received, which we can already receive from 1C, and in accordance with the goals of the enterprise, they are created on their basis three main forecast budgets:

1) cash flow budget (CFB) - liquidity management;

2) income/expense budget (IBB) - profitability management;

3) balance sheet budget (managerial balance sheet) - business cost management.

These forecast reports at the planning stage make it possible to present in specific values ​​the state of the enterprise to which it will come if it is possible to implement all the decisions planned to achieve the goals. If management, through analysis, is convinced that such a result suits it, then the plans are accepted for execution; if not, the process is repeated until it is found best option. The prepared and agreed forecast budget, after analysis for compliance with the set goals, is approved by management and becomes a directive document, mandatory for execution for all Central Federal Districts and the enterprise as a whole.

Stage IV. Development of internal accounting policies, planning systems, analysis and regulation. As a result of the fourth stage, the accounting and financial policy of the organization is formed, that is, the rules for maintaining and consolidating accounting, production and operational accounting, in accordance with the restrictions adopted in the preparation and control (monitoring) of budget implementation. The planning order is determined- from the formation of a sales plan to the approval of the main budget of the enterprise, indicating the participants in the planning process, the regulations for their actions, the format of documents and the timing of their development, coordination and approval.

Analysis is carried out at all stages of budget management- plans are first analyzed, then deviations that arise in the current mode are analyzed. The last thing to analyze is reporting on the actual implementation of the budget of the Central Federal District and the entire enterprise, both at intermediate stages (week, month, quarter) and after the end of the budget period (year).

Analysis data is used to make management decisions - in the current mode; after the end of the budget period and the formation of a new budget - to adjust plans for the next planning period. A budget for the next year should be developed, and then the actions are repeated.

The whole process ends drawing up regulatory documents(domestic legislation):

• Regulations on the financial structure;
• Regulations on financial responsibility centers;
• Regulations on budgets;
• Regulations on accounting policies;
• Planning Regulations;
• Regulations on financial and economic analysis.

It is desirable that these documents be developed and the process carried out regardless of changes in the composition of the financial department employees or the heads of the Central Federal District. When the process is debugged, formalized and clearly presented (for example, in tabular form), then the time costs are minimal, and the accuracy and result are maximum.

Budget management system

Budget management system can be considered a combination of two elements: governing bodies and stages and methods of management activities in the budget process.

There are three groups of budget management bodies. TO first group include legislative and executive authorities. Since the State Budget as the main financial plan of the state is approved in the form of a Law, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (VRU) acts as the leading budget management body. Numerous local budgets are approved at the appropriate levels by local legislative bodies - councils, which are the leading body for managing the local budget. Executive authorities (Cabinet of Ministers, state administrations, executive committees) ensure the preparation of the draft budget and its implementation.

Second group constitute the operational budget management bodies. It includes: bodies of the system of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine and local financial authorities, the Control and Audit Service of Ukraine, the State Treasury, the State Tax Administration, the Accounts Chamber of Ukraine.

Third group form non-financial bodies. While performing their assigned functions, they are also related to the budget. The first subgroup includes: State Customs Service and its divisions; bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs; justice authorities and notary offices; environmental authorities and inspectorates; state inspection bodies for price control, etc.

These bodies are connected with the budget through the formation of revenues, since they are given the right to charge and collect certain payments (duty, state duty) and penalties (fines for violation of customs rules, for violation of environmental legislation, rules of hunting and fishing, use of water, forest and other natural resources, legislation in the field of pricing).

The second subgroup of bodies of the third group of budget process management includes various management structures, first of all, line ministries and departments, as well as enterprises, organizations, institutions whose managers are vested with the functions of managers of funds, that is, they receive funds from the budget and finance subordinate enterprises, organizations, institutions and other structures (are responsible for their intended use). These bodies are linked to the budget in terms of financing expenses.

The structure of the budget process includes two components: budget planning (drafting, reviewing, approving) and implementing the budget.

Components of budget management

The components of budget management are determined general functions management activities. Management science removes such basic functions of management as:

Planning;

Organization of implementation of developed plans;

Motivation;

Control.

Based on the functions of management and the structure of the budget process, the following components of budget management can be distinguished:

1. Budget planning.

2. Organization of budget execution.

3. Accounting for budget implementation,

4. Control over budget execution.

It is worth noting that the main and defining function of budget management is strategic planning.

Function Implementation strategic planning in Ukraine is entrusted to the legislative authorities. An example of such planning can be considered the budget resolution for each year, which the highest legislative body of Ukraine, starting in 1995, transmits executive bodies. The functions of planning the implementation of the strategy and organizing the implementation of developed plans rely on the executive authorities and operational budget management, which are engaged in ongoing budget planning and budget execution within the budget process.

Budget execution includes measures to implement the revenue and expenditure parts of each of the budgets of Ukraine - the State and more than 12 thousand local ones. Consequently, organizing budget implementation is one of the most important components of budget management.

Accounting for budget execution is the third component of budget management. Accounting is important to successfully implement the approved budget. The importance of accounting for budget execution in budget management is determined by the place of accounting in the management system. From taking timely and right decisions The effectiveness of management activities depends on issues of budget planning and execution. These decisions can be made only on the basis of an analysis of the relevant information that characterizes the state of the management object (budget) on a certain date or for a certain period of time. Accounting allows you to perform such an important task - to provide a management system for the necessary information. That is, accounting for budget implementation is the supporting system on which the budget process is based. The correctness of decision-making also depends on the qualifications of budget workers and on the methodology of budget work.

However, the most important component of budget management is information. Even deep knowledge will not ensure achievement of results if the information support does not meet the established requirements.

Budget control is one of the main areas of financial control. It is carried out at all stages of the budget process. During the budget planning process important role plays preliminary control as well as current control. This control is exercised by absolutely all participants in the budget process (government bodies, as well as enterprises, organizations and institutions). Current control is carried out by the authorities state power and management, as well as specialized financial control services (Tax Administration, Control and Audit Service, State Treasury, Audit Chamber and audit firms, Accounts Chamber) in the process of budget execution. In countries with developed market relations, such control is also carried out directly by citizens and is ensured, first of all, by the transparency and openness of the budget process and democratic elections to government bodies, which, in turn, affects control bodies, whose activities become open, and the results can be checked .

Budget is a quantitative expression of a plan, a means of monitoring its implementation and a method of regulation. The main budget of an enterprise covers production, sales, distribution and financing.

Budgeting as a management method for its cycle performs several important functions:

• 1. planning the activities of the enterprise as a whole and for its divisions;
• 2. summarizing and analyzing all collective proposals;
• 3. development of draft budgets;
• 4. calculation of plan options;
• 5. making adjustments;
• 6. final approval of plans, design of communication feedbacks taking into account changing conditions.

Complete budget systems include project and reporting data. The data is used in planning, control, performance evaluation and improvement of the production process, costing and inventory valuation. Budgeting, like cost classification, is responsible for various purposes management.

The advantages of budgeting are manifested in the mandatory short-term and long-term planning enterprise resources, the behavior of competitors in the market and especially the current and programmed market demand for products. Plans are developed for these strategic aspects and budgets are formed at all levels and at different frequencies.

Budget data is more reliable for comparison when assessing the results of practical activities than historical data. There are shortcomings, negative deviations and other similar negative factors in the results of the past period. During the period being compared, there may have been changes in technology, the composition of the workforce, as well as changes in products and the general economic situation.

Managers and administration provide for the use of flexible budgets when business conditions change.

When developing budgets (plans and estimates), special attention is paid to forecasting sales revenue and profit. The forecast is implemented into a plan after analyzing a number of factors such as sales volume of the previous period; economic and production conditions; dependence of sales on the gross national product, income level, employment, prices; product profitability, its level of profitability; market research; pricing policy; marketing research; quality of products; competition; production capacity; trends in the sale of competitive products. From the sales program they move on to the production program and the calculation of the standard equation for finished product inventories.

The next stage of budgeting is for developing estimates.

The generalized estimate characterizes the planned profitability of production for a certain period. The accountant provides a generalized estimate, balance sheet and consolidated cash estimate for consideration by the planning and financial commission. Along with these fundamental documents, calculations of return on capital investments, liquidity, and coefficients characterizing the use of funds are attached. If the commission considers all the calculations reasonable and correct, the main budget of the enterprise will be adopted and will serve as the main criterion for assessing the activities of the heads of structural divisions. The budgeting process does not end there, since it is an ongoing process and is implemented through the preparation of flexible estimates.

An integral part of management accounting is budgeting and analysis of flexible budgets in order to generate relevant information for enterprise management and, on this basis, increase profits with the financial stability of the organization. IN last years business consulting uses the term “budget management,” which expands the concept of “budgeting,” so the book will discuss two approaches to budgeting in the management system.

Budgeting is part of one of the main functions of management and planning, therefore it is present in any effective management system and serves to specify the goals of planning the organization's activities. Individual budgeting tasks include information support for production and sales with the necessary components, preventing the movement of assets and liabilities outside the framework of planned goals and objectives, in particular, excess diversion of funds from circulation, avoiding unnecessary expenses, motivating personnel, monitoring and coordinating work to implement plans, etc. The totality of available budgets allows the administration to see a complete picture of the future activities of the enterprise: material flows, cost structure, financial flows, in particular tax payments, investments, etc. The approved budget formalizes the activities of departments, organizes their work in accordance with common goals enterprises, increases the rhythm of business processes occurring in the enterprise.

The structure of any budget is a multi-stage model of items and planned indicators (a set of control figures) for a certain period of time. A budget is a financial document in a prescribed format. Budgets can be in accounting report formats because a budget is a report about the future.

The quality of budgeting is determined by the structure of budgets, the composition of budget items, the consistency of budgets with each other, the presence of regulations defining the functions of budgets, and managers participating in the budgeting system. Of course, budgeting is effective with a closed management cycle that includes the entire set of functions, including control functions.

The reason that reduces the quality of budgeting is the lack of:

a precisely defined strategy;

a clear link between strategy and current plans;

individual responsibility for the results obtained;

clear criteria for the quality of work.

Budgets should be as transparent, accessible and detailed as possible; budget indicators must be realistic, since their overestimation and impossibility of fulfillment, on the one hand, and unjustified underestimation, on the other, are the result of shortcomings on the part of those in charge.

Regarding an individual enterprise, the term “budget” (from the French bougett - “leather bag”) is considered as an accounting method that allows you to compare actual results with planned ones (i.e., forecast or standard indicators).

Budgeting (in a narrow interpretation) is a method of short-term projection of future values ​​of financial statements, based on the fact that each article provides for someone responsible for its implementation. Intraorganizational financial planning involves the use of budgets. Budgeting, or budgeting, is integral part financial management and managerial accounting. The terms “budget” and “plan” are not identical, although the basis of an enterprise plan is always a consolidated budget. A budget is a quantitative expression of centrally established indicators of an enterprise plan for a certain period of time according to:

use of capital, inventory, financial resources;

attracting sources of financing for current and investment activities;

income and expenses;

cash flow;

investments (capital and financial investments).

Budgets are developed to coordinate the use of firm resources, improve intra-firm communication, identify weaknesses in the organizational structure and distribute job responsibilities.

The systematic nature of budgeting means that in the budget process the totality of budgets individual centers responsibility in mandatory forms the consolidated budget of the organization as a whole. In other words, ultimately, the object of budgeting is the company’s business as a whole, and budget indicators for individual divisions and for individual areas economic activity are established based on the criterion of maximum efficiency of the final financial results of the enterprise as a whole, and not of this individual division.

The budget is the “tip of the iceberg” called the “enterprise plan”, a formalized expression of costs and the expected effect of the totality of approved planning (managerial) decisions for the company as a whole and in the context of individual divisions. A budget cannot exist without a plan, just as form cannot exist without content.

On the other hand, planning at an enterprise can be carried out without drawing up a consolidated budget, such as the development of target indicators for individual divisions and for individual segments of the production and financial cycle - without “end-to-end” coverage of the business. Budgeting is the process of drawing up and implementing this document in the practical activities of the company.

Both strategic and operational planning help control the activities of an enterprise at a certain point in time. Without a plan, a leader only reacts to a certain situation, but does not control it.

The consolidated budget allows you to improve and increase the efficiency of the distribution and use of enterprise resources. As an integral part of management control, the budget creates an objective basis for assessing the performance of the enterprise as a whole and its individual divisions. Without a budget, when comparing the indicators of the current period with previous ones, you can come to erroneous conclusions.

The budget is also the basis and criterion for assessing the implementation of the plan by responsibility centers and their managers: the activities of managers are assessed based on reports on budget implementation, which increases the objectivity of the motivational function within the framework of enterprise management. Comparing actual results achieved with budget data indicates areas to focus attention and action on.

A detailed budget and operational control of its implementation allow making informed and functionally expedient decisions in terms of pricing, analysis of break-even production, planning the quantity and range of products, determining the structure of products taking into account the limiting factor, business restructuring, and capital investments.

Budget management is an operational system for managing an organization through financial responsibility centers using budgets that allow achieving goals through the most efficient use of production resources. Budget management is considered broader than the concept of “budgeting”. In contrast, budget management involves building the financial structure of an enterprise.

The following financial responsibility centers can be identified in an organization: investment centers, profit centers, marginal income centers, revenue/income centers, cost centers.

A financial responsibility center is in many ways identical to the concept of a responsibility center. Responsibility centers can be formed, for example, not only for planning, but also for coordinating the activities of production departments.

The center of financial responsibility is introduced as a special term for budgetary management. Budget management is distinguished from budgeting not only by a specially formed organizational structure, but also monitoring. If budgeting is theoretically possible without feedback, although ineffective, budget management necessarily presupposes its presence.

As with budgeting, with budgetary management the central link is the budget. With the help of a system of interconnected budgets, planning, accounting and analysis of costs and/or income, results of economic activity of the enterprise and individual centers of financial responsibility are carried out.

An important point in budget management is motivation, which uses a mechanism for taking into account deviations from planned indicators of costs and results and delineating centers of responsibility for such deviations. The budget helps employees recognize themselves as part of the process of its implementation, and then acts general rule: If you participate yourself, you will wish the organization success. A budget helps improve production efficiency through a group effect; its presence helps employees feel like a team.

It is possible to use an expanded interpretation of budget management: it is considered as management by deviations (formation of the budget; determination of actual indicators; determination of deviations, analysis of the causes that caused them and decision-making based on the results of the analysis); the interpretation of budget management expands to the concept of management in the system of intra-organizational commercial activities with the participation of transfer prices and an arbitration commission. In practice, there is a substitution of the concepts of management systems, an exaggeration of one of the management functions - planning. Budgeting as an element of the planning function must be present in any deviation management system, in the management system by responsibility centers, and control system, in the internal cost accounting system, etc. In the future, for simplicity of presentation, the concepts of “budgeting” and “budget management” will be understood as synonyms.

Budgetary management of an enterprise is one of the elements of financial management. Budget management refers to the technology of planning accounting and control over an enterprise's funds and its financial results.

Creating a budgeting management system at an enterprise involves performing the following actions:

• 1. appointment of a budget director who is responsible for the preparatory process, standardization of project forms, collection and comparison of data, verification of information and provision of reports;
• 2. attracting external consultants to survey, diagnose and develop a budget management system;
• 3. selection of a software product to support the budgeting process;
• 4. development of budget guidelines - in the form of a set of instructions reflecting the policy, organizational structure of the enterprise, division of rights, duties and responsibilities of performers. The developed instructions serve as a set of rules and recommendations;
• 5. allocation of responsibility centers and appointment of managers bearing personal responsibility for each center;
• 6. organizing training for managers related to the budgeting process;
• 7. development of an operational accounting system and reporting forms;
• 8. formation of document flow schedules for budgeting;
• 9. creation of a budget committee (budget committee) - an advisory group of senior managers and external consultants. The responsibility of this committee is, as a permanent body, to scrutinize strategic and financial plans, develop recommendations and authorize conflict situations, prompt adjustment of financial plans.

Budget development is carried out by a group that should include an accountant, financial manager, sales and purchasing managers. The data received by the group from different services of the enterprise is verified and corrected.

After drawing up and approving the budget, copies of it are distributed to all responsible employees of the enterprise. Periodic budget execution reports, in turn, should also be distributed to employees for review.

Budget management, in addition to organizing work on budget formation, also involves organizing a system for collecting and accumulating information and its subsequent processing and analysis.

The budget cycle is understood as a cyclically repeating chain of actions aimed at preparing the budget, monitoring and necessary adjustments during execution.

The budget process is not limited to the stage of drawing up the consolidated budget. Time budgeting technology is a continuous three-stage cycle, where planning for the next period is carried out on the basis of a plan-fact analysis of the budget execution of the reporting period.

Stages of the budget process:

Plan-actual analysis of last year's budget execution - drawing up a consolidated budget for the reporting period - control (monitoring) of budget execution for the reporting period - plan-fact-analysis of budget execution for the reporting period.

Thus, the budget cycle is represented by a period of time from the beginning of the first stage of the budget process, i.e. drawing up the consolidated budget, until the completion of the third stage - plan-fact-analysis of the execution of the consolidated budget. Ideally, in an organization, the budget process should be continuous, i.e. completion of the analysis of budget execution for the reporting period should coincide in time with the development of the budget next period.

The most important condition for ensuring the continuity of the budget process is the correct methodology for conducting an “end-to-end” plan-fact-analysis of budget execution, on the basis of which figures for the budget indicators of the next period are formed, i.e. plan-fact-analysis is both the starting and final stages of the budget cycle.

By comparing actual and planned indicators, it is possible to identify sources of inefficiency, oblige specific employees to eliminate identified deficiencies and monitor the process of their correction.

Budgeting is based on strategic plan enterprise development, which is compiled using methods of strategic analysis and planning and determines the main goals and priority areas of development. Based on the main indicators of this plan, a consolidated budget of the enterprise is developed for the planned period.

At medium and large enterprises, the process of developing control and analysis of budget execution involves processing large quantity information, which is difficult to do in the absence of technical support.

In the budget process, the level of efficiency and quality of accounting and analytical work increases significantly, and the number of errors is reduced when using software and hardware. The software and hardware used by the enterprise structures involved in the budget process constitute the software and hardware block (component) of the budgeting system.

The consolidated budget of an enterprise must consist of revenue and expenditure parts. The optimal budget is one in which the revenue side is equal to the expenditure side.

Depending on the goals and objectives of management, strategic and current plans are drawn up. Current plans, expressed quantitatively, represent current budgets. Current budgets are divided into tactical and operational.

Often, in the current budget system, a so-called general budget is allocated, which includes an interconnected system of operating financial budgets and an investment budget. The main financial budgets of the organization are:

budget of income and expenses (BDR.);

cash flow budget (CFB);

balance sheet budget (balance sheet budget) (BBL).

Operating budgets support financial budgets and include a different composition of blocks depending on industry affiliation. Information from operating budgets is used both for operational management of the activities of sales, logistics, production, supply departments, and for drawing up financial budgets.

From the point of view of opportunities for analyzing budget implementation, rigid (static) and flexible budgets are distinguished. Hard budgets are calculated for a fixed date. Flexible - recalculated to actual achieved indicators.

When budgeting, a time period is allocated, or, in other words, a budgeting horizon. The budgeting period (horizon) is the time interval for which the budget is drawn up: year, quarter, month, etc. The budgeting period depends on management tasks.

There are methods for calculating budget indicators “from zero” and “from what has been achieved.” With the “from zero point” option, the budget is drawn up each period as if for a newly starting enterprise. With the “from what has been achieved” method, the extrapolation method is used. In theory and practice, budgeting is divided into approaches: “top-down” or “bottom-up”; combined.

With the top-down approach, the budget is prepared by one of the structural divisions of the organization, most often the planning department. Next, the budget is communicated to the divisions of the enterprise and accepted for execution. In bottom-up budgeting, budgets are created by departmental managers in accordance with the organization's goals. Then the individual budgets of the departments are “stitched” into the overall budget of the organization. Department budgets are analyzed, adjusted and approved at all levels of management. As a result, the agreed and approved budget is communicated to lower-level employees, where it serves as a governing document.

Promising approaches to budgeting include operational budgeting, performance budgeting, and kaizen budgeting.

In operational budgeting, the objects of planning are operations and work. When setting up operational budgeting, budget forms and items are projected not onto the organizational management structure of the enterprise, but onto the business process.

Kaizen budgeting is a Japanese term meaning an approach to budgeting that involves continuous improvements over the budgeting period.

IN Lately The term budget management (or budgeting) of an enterprise, which is positioned as modern instrument management of financial activities of companies, works only at the most advanced enterprises and provides them with leadership in the market. What does budget management mean, what elements does the budgeting system include, and why does an enterprise need it? More on this later in the article...

Budgeting as a modern management tool

From the course economic theory It is well known that any resources, including financial ones, are limited. Therefore, the enterprise must manage these limited resources most effectively in order to preserve and increase these resources. For these purposes, the enterprise must have a plan (or budget). But the plan itself does not ensure the effective allocation of resources, therefore, along with the planning system, a system of accounting, control, and analysis of planned and actual data must be established in order to timely monitor deviations from the plan and take corrective actions.

Under budget management (budgeting) refers to modern financial planning technology, which allows planning, control and analysis of enterprise activities through a system of approved budgets.

The main tool here is the budget. Under budget is understood as a financial plan in which all indicators relate to either the income or expenditure side. All financial activities of the enterprise are reflected in the budget.
Budgets vary according to the planning period. There are:

• short-term (planning period up to a year);
• medium-term (term - from one to three years);
• long-term budgets (drawn up for a period of three to five years).

In the West, budgeting technology has long ceased to be considered trendy, having moved into the category of regular management tools. Today in Russia, almost no successful enterprise operates without a budget in one form or another. For many foreign companies, the presence of a financial budget for the enterprise as an integral part of the business plan is a mandatory criterion for investing in the development of this enterprise. The budgeting process itself is seen as helping to reduce the uncertainty and risks that inevitably exist in the market.

The budget determines the main strategic directions of activity for the enterprise, and development scenarios are modeled in it. A common practice for enterprises is to develop several development scenarios (the standard is to use at least 3: optimistic, pessimistic and the most realistic), allowing management to be ready to make flexible decisions depending on the scenario.

The budgets being developed must be consistent with each other; if the budget plans to make a profit, then ways of disposing of the resulting profit are also planned; if losses are planned, it is necessary to ensure the replenishment of working capital to cover current costs, using borrowed funds, for example, by obtaining a loan from a bank.

Budgeting for small, medium and large enterprises

It may seem that budgeting is only necessary for large and medium-sized enterprises. In fact, why would a small enterprise need a budget?

The fact is that the problems of small enterprises are associated mainly with a lack of resources, the margin of financial strength of such enterprises is very small, therefore, without proper control over the cost of production, the availability of funds (by monitoring receivables and payables), these enterprises can easily turn out to be unprofitable and lead to bankruptcy of their owners. Initially, these issues are decided by the head of the enterprise, but human capabilities are limited, so the manager is not able to calculate dozens of options for the development of events, keep records and analyze the resulting deviations, he simply does not have enough time for this. But you still need to organize the actual production process...

This leads enterprises to the need to use tools for management control and analysis of financial activities, one of which is the establishment of a management accounting and budgeting system at the enterprise.

Large enterprises undoubtedly have more resources for budget management, both human and financial, but they also have many problems: the presence of heterogeneous businesses, a large range of products, an extensive cost structure, and a complex organizational structure. Management is faced with various management issues, the solution of which determines whether the enterprise will ultimately make a profit or not, for example, what is more profitable - to produce it ourselves, or to use the services of third-party manufacturers, what types of products are more profitable to produce, etc.

All these problems lead to the fact that without effective management, resources will be spent irrationally, and without proper information, optimal management decisions will not be made.

As practice shows, a budgeting system is necessary for any enterprise, regardless of its scale (both for large and medium-sized, and for small enterprises). The main difference lies in the form and composition of budgets (the number of required budgets for small businesses is usually small, which cannot be said about large ones), as well as the complexity of filling them out and agreeing on them.

Main elements of the budget management system

Many methods for establishing budget management at an enterprise have been developed. At the same time, each technique contains some basic elements on which the structure of the system is based. The main elements of the budget management system are:

• Financial structure;
• Budget structure;
• Budget management regulations.

Under financial structure refers to the organization of financial responsibility centers, defining their hierarchy and intended to manage the cost of the enterprise’s activities. Wherein, Center for Financial Responsibility (FRC) are structural units enterprises distinguished not by their functional characteristics, but by their ability to generate income for the enterprise or accumulate costs and be able to bear responsibility for the amount of costs incurred or income acquired. So, for example, in each commercial organization divisions responsible for the amount of costs incurred can be identified (usually production divisions), called cost centers, as well as divisions responsible for generating income, or central financial district income centers (for example, a sales department).

Under budget structure refers to the set of budgets used to plan and account for the activities of an enterprise.

The budget structure usually includes three main budgets:

• Budget of Income and Expenditures (BIB)- ensures management of the profitability/profitability of the enterprise;
• Cash Flow Budget (CFB)- contributes to enterprise liquidity management;
• Balance Sheet Budget (BBL)- designed to manage enterprise assets,

as well as various operating budgets (sales budget, direct expenses budget, overhead budget, etc.), which are the basis for the formation of basic budgets.

Regulations or provisions on budgetary management in an enterprise are intended for organizing budget activities. They contain the basic principles of budgetary management in an enterprise. The following regulations are usually used:

• Regulations on financial structure- determines the financial structure of the enterprise;
• Regulations on the budget structure- determines the budget structure of the enterprise;
• Regulations on planning and financial and economic analysis- regulates the planning sequence, procedure and methods for assessing achieved results.

Thus, the totality of the above basic elements determines the methodology for setting up a budget management system at an enterprise.

Setting up a budget management system at the enterprise

Due to the fact that establishing budget management at an enterprise is not an easy task, which requires a lot of time and money, it is generally accepted practice to attract third-party consultants to jointly develop a budgeting implementation project. At the same time, optimization of time costs is achieved because third-party consultants, firstly, are experts in the subject area and usually have a clear sequence of implementation actions ready; secondly, consultants are focused on the project, they are not distracted by other duties (like employees of an enterprise that is implementing its planning system on its own); thirdly, from the outside it is often better to see the weak points of the enterprise organization and it is easier to overcome organizational barriers that have existed in the enterprise for years.

IN general view, the establishment of a budget management system at an enterprise can be presented as a sequence of the following stages:

1. Analysis of the existing financial planning model of the Enterprise
2. Formation of the financial structure of the Enterprise
3. Formation of the budget structure of the Enterprise
4. Formation of management accounting policies of the Enterprise
5. Setting up accounting and management accounting
6. Determination of planning methodology and financial and economic analysis
7. Selecting a budgeting automation program
8. Setting up an automated budgeting program
9. Development of budgeting regulations at the enterprise, user training

A special place in the budgeting system is occupied by the organization of accounting and management accounting at the enterprise. Moreover, if accounting is necessary according to legal requirements, then the need for management accounting is associated with modern realities market. This leads to the fact that some enterprises organize a separate division dedicated to management accounting. However, given that management and accounting have many common points of contact (at least primary accounting documents), therefore, keep 2 services dealing with different types accounting is inappropriate. Therefore, it is worth optimizing the procedures for compiling analytical features and combining the interests of the two accounts.

Be that as it may, the need to maintain management accounting leads to the fact that the workload on the accounting department increases, the requirements for the accountant increase: the time frame for preparing reports is reduced, the detail and volume of data increases. But this helps to improve the status of an accountant - from a simple bookkeeper, he turns into an analyst, providing the manager with the necessary information to make adequate management decisions.

To summarize, I would like to note that this article contains only the most general principles setting up a budgeting system at the enterprise. Practice shows that the introduction of budget management at an enterprise helps to increase financial discipline, improve the economic justification of decisions made, improve the operational cost management system, and improve the professional skills of personnel in the field of financial management.