From the course: Leading in Government

Budgeting for public leaders

From the course: Leading in Government

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Budgeting for public leaders

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- You thought it was hard to make a grocery budget for a family of four. Well, try to make a government budget for a department of 400. At home, your budget is based on income and expenses. Government budgets, whether federal, state, or local, are based on legislation. I know, add the word legislation and things can get complicated, but let me show you how to create and execute any government budget to help you get ahead of the game. Say you've recently been promoted into a management role, and your first assignment is to create and execute a budget for the Department of Aging. What do you do? The first step to creating the budget is to look at the previous year's budget and research how it was created. This will give you an idea of the structure and provide a baseline for comparison. Partner with the budgeting office to learn about required forms and worksheets. Ask them what problems routinely occur during budgeting and how to avoid them. Find out who needs to approve it. Create partnerships with departments that have input or receive output from your department's work. Check with your senior leadership for new and future priorities. Ask questions to see if there's any wiggle room for uncertainties or new possibilities. Plan new initiatives and programs and include funds for them in the budget. The second thing is to execute the budget for your organization's performance period. Start by setting up operating worksheets, teach your team how incoming and outgoing funds should be tracked against the budget and how to include comments to provide clarification. Then schedule time to review it on a periodic basis. Each level of government may have different requirements and formats for weekly, monthly, or quarterly reports. Make this a regular item at the staff meeting or on your periodic status update. Finally, review actual versus planned budgets on a periodic basis. Your team needs to know the process to escalate any potential changes for further review, and any differences must be discussed with the budged office. Being a good steward of tax payer money is your role in the public sector. So as a government leader, you need to effectively and efficiently formulate and execute the budget. This means being smart about planning how and when to create, execute, manage, and review the budget for your department.

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