Budgets are not developed to restrict you. Never forget, human beings are the ones that are managing the budget! You can’t take human insight, experience, and instinct out of financial management.
Remember a budget is not created to make you feel like you are trying to drag an anchor through the church pew.
Tip – Budgets guide people, but people control budgets
People often feel as if they are a servant to the budget, instead of the reverse. The budget is a plan, or a guide, to manage the money coming into the church (revenues) and the money going out (expenses). As with any plan, at times, adjustments need to be made. Budgets are not meant to be perfect. By the very nature of a budget, we forecast revenue and expenses. A forecast is a prediction, and without humans to help navigate the budget, it merely becomes a nice looking, Excel spreadsheet!
What do you do about mistakes? Remember, you can always deploy the 3-R Approach to address financial challenges.
The key point – People are the critical link between a budget that works and a budget that fails.