Project Planning

• Existing Budget processes

1. Identify Budget and Expenditure processes that may exist in the organisation and in other projects
2. Select a process
3. Modify the process if necessary to suit the project
4. Gain approval from the Sponsor for the process

• Approved process for budget control

As for Purchasing, there will probably be company policies around how a budget is established, and expenditure managed. You will probably adopt the same process as used by other projects. In particular look at:

• The process for gaining budget approval
• What is included in project budgets e.g. is the time spent by business resources included?
• How long after approval can expenditure take place
• What are the authorisation levels and limits
• What reporting is required
• Is there any reconciliation between different sets of records required
• Is a project cash flow projection required
• Who is responsible for ensuring there are no discrepancies in the records

As with Procurement, a meeting with the person responsible in the finance area for project expenditure may avoid mistakes down the line.