| Monday, February 20, 2006 |
| Budget Battles |
Please excuse the fact that I will be laying low this week. It's budget prep week here. Our fiscal year starts July 1, and this being my first year here - I now have to build a budget that I own and am accountable for. So far, I've just been managing the one I inherited, and I don't think much time or planning has gone into the process in the last two years. Re: a complete and total mess.
It's like teaching a college class for the first time: preparing the reading list, syllabus, gathering slides, doing the lecture outlines and notes, etc.... A royal time suck the first time, but after giving it a trial run, you tweak what works, eliminate what didn't, and keep it updated and fresh from there on out.
Sadly, there is woefully little automated on-line financial data here. I get tons of paper from a variety of sources and systems (Human Resources, Accounts Payable, Professional Billing, Development, etc.), and then there are the Endowment Accounts which are just a black hole of slush funds and entitlements with very little history to work from since - well, they are Endowment Accounts. The biggest time suck thus far has been to build complex spreadsheets with macros allowing me to perform pro-formas and foot everything to a master budget. That alone took me all day Friday working from home and most of yesterday.
Once they're done however, I'll have a tool I can use to manage everything and just pop the numbers in next year, and hopefully - voila!
So.... ah'lll beee bahck. |
posted by Broadsheet @ 5:48 PM   |
|
| 3 Editorial Opinions: |
-
A "black hole of slush funds" has a certain ring to it. Say, I've got this idea...
-
I'm so with you.. I spent plenty of time trying to figure out a way to fund a trip to the Carribean, but it requires triple signature authority for a reason. That said, trying to BUDGET anything that may suddenly result in a NEED for a trip to the Carribean, is currently driving ME crazy.
-
I know you're busy...
Do you have time to rant about this?
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/17/business/media/17adco.html
Words escape me to describe the mysogyny of the new VW ads. They are a thing of horror.
But I would like to point out to VW that one effect they will surely have, is to prevent me from EVER buying a car from them.
Ironically, I doubt women in Germany would put up with this drivel. Apparently VW saves it especially for us yakking annoying American females.
|
| |
| << Home |
| |
|
|
A "black hole of slush funds" has a certain ring to it. Say, I've got this idea...