WORKPLACE RESEARCH

Develop a budget template to use

Find out what expenses your section/department has

Do research about the monthly amounts of these expense items

Based on your research, do a zero-based budget for the expenses of your department for the next 6 months

Use the figures from the zero-based budget and develop a budget for the following 6 months. Increase the amounts of the expenses between 2% and 8%, but electricity should increase by 25%

What resources will your department need in order to achieve your objectives for the next 12 months?

Find out what the costs of these resources will be and add them to the budgets as described below

Monitor the actual expenses for your department against your budget for at least three months

Identify variances and suggest corrective measures that correspond to the SOP of your organisation

Show your work to your supervisor and request him/her to allow you to develop the actual budget for your department for the next budget period

What internal and external constraints exist on the budget of your department?

Explain how variances are identified and reported in your organisation

Attach copies of all the above documentation to your assessment

Reflect on the Standard Operating Procedures of your organisation as they refer to budgeting. What improvements could you suggest? Think of report layouts, timing of reports, contents of reports, etc.

Reflect on what you now know about budgets. How will this knowledge help you in your job and your personal life?  Think about balancing your own budget, cutting costs at work, and so on.