Let’s chat budgeting!
Budgeting is something we all do, every day. Whether it be our personal day-to-day household budgets, our own time budgets or a business budget, budgeting is a skill we all have learned and are already practicing.
Why budget?
Budgeting sets the stage for the steps we need to take to stay afloat and next, to meet our goals. It helps us understand what we want, what we need and what we need to do to get there.
How do we budget?
Use tools that make sense to you! Our favourite budgeting tool is Excel - it allows us to adapt, incorporate best-case and less-than-ideal case scenarios and make it user-friendly (and pretty
too!).
Where do I start?
✨Use historical data and build from there. Take your financial results from previous months and use that as your starting point.
✨Take information you have today about upcoming months and add that to the numbers you already have. This gives you a starting point!
✨Monitor! There is no point creating a beautiful budget if you don’t use it! Monthly, take your actual results and compare it to your budget. Where did you rock it? What do you need to tweak? This determines what changes you need to make for next month to keep you on track.
✨Adapt! Changes happen. New customers come, you need a new piece of equipment…. Lots can happen! Your budget is flexible. Keep it current and relevant.
There are a ton of free resources to help get you going! Check out @thefinancecafeofficial @startupedmonton @awebusiness @businesslinkab as a starting point. Your friendly CPAs are also equipped to help - it’s a great investment to arm your business with the tools it needs to succeed.