Budgeting

The Role of Financial Budgets

A financial budget consists of the cash budget, the budgeted balance sheet, and the budget for capital expenses. Similar to the individual budgets that make up the operating budgets, the financial budgets serve to assist with planning and monitoring the financing requirements of the organization. Management plans its capital asset needs and states them in the capital expense budget. Management addresses its collection and payment policies to determine when it will receive cash from sales and when it will pay the material, labor, and overhead expenses. The capital expense budget and the estimated payment and collection of cash allow management to build a cash budget and determine when it will need financing or have additional funds to pay back loans. These budgets taken together will be part of the budgeted balance sheet. Figure 7.6 shows how these budgets relate.