Budget Preparation & Budget-to-Actual Reporting
Most businesses at this size have a number in somebody's head and a spreadsheet nobody has opened since January. A budget stops being useful the moment nothing is set against it, and the comparison is the part that rarely happens, because it falls due in the same week as everything else. This is the recurring version of both halves: the plan gets built properly once, and then every period somebody puts the actual beside it and hands you the gaps, largest first.
Who it's for
- Businesses past the point where bookkeeping alone is enough, and short of the point where employing somebody senior in finance full time makes sense
- Owners whose numbers arrive on time and then sit there, with nothing set against the plan they were meant to test
- Companies whose day-to-day bookkeeping is already handled, in-house or elsewhere, and who want the layer above it rather than a replacement
How it runs
The actual sequence, start to finish.
- 01
Build the plan from your own numbers
Revenue and cost lines modelled separately off your actual history, with seasonality where it genuinely exists rather than averaged away. Every assumption that goes in is written down beside the line it drives, so you can see what the budget assumes and change it.
- 02
Agree the cycle
A close date, then a reporting date a fixed number of days after it. The value of this work is almost entirely in it arriving while the period it describes is still recent enough to act on.
- 03
Set actual against plan
Every line, each period: budget, actual, and the gap between them in dollars and as a percentage. Gaps are ranked by size so the largest are at the top, and a trend view sits underneath so a single month is visible as a single month.
- 04
Re-cut the plan when it stops describing the business
When the business has genuinely moved, the budget gets rebuilt on your instruction rather than defended for the rest of the year. A plan that was wrong from March onwards makes every report after March meaningless.
What it costs
A recurring engagement rather than a project with an end date, so it is scoped in a conversation rather than quoted off a list. What it costs depends on how many lines the budget carries and how much of it already exists.
Questions about budget preparation & budget-to-actual reporting
How is this different from the Budgeting and Budget vs. Actuals services?
Those two are the component pieces and this is the recurring engagement that runs both. Budgeting & High-Level Analysis is a one-time build with a finished deliverable. Budget vs. Actuals is the monthly variance report, and it needs a budget to already exist. This is both of them on a cycle, including rebuilding the plan when the business moves, for a company that wants the whole thing handled rather than bought in pieces. If you only need one half, buy that half.
Will you tell us why a number moved?
We will show you what moved, by how much, and which lines account for most of it, ranked so the largest is first. What caused it is your read to make, and it is usually a read only somebody inside the business can make honestly: a gap in one month can be a lost customer, a timing difference, or a decision somebody made in the previous quarter. What we will do is point at the specific accounts and periods worth looking at, so you are not starting from a blank page.
Do we have to use you for bookkeeping too?
No, and this is the one service on this site that is genuinely independent of the rest. If your bookkeeping is already handled, in-house or by somebody else, that is a normal arrangement rather than an obstacle. The work sits on top of whatever books exist. The one thing it does need is books that reconcile, because a variance report built on an unreconciled ledger measures the bookkeeping rather than the business.
What if we already have a budget?
Then we work to yours, provided it carries enough detail to hold actuals against. We will say honestly if it does not, and what would have to change. Rebuilding a budget somebody has already spent time on is not automatically the right call.
Why not just hire somebody in-house?
Because a senior finance hire is a six-figure salary plus the employer cost on top of it, and a business in this band needs the work monthly rather than daily. That usually leaves two bad options: pay for a full-time seat you cannot keep full, or go without the work entirely and run the year on a plan nobody is checking. This is the third option, and it costs a fraction of the first.
What if we already have a bookkeeper we are happy with?
Good, and keep them. Part of the work is giving whoever does the day-to-day a structure to work to, which usually makes their job easier rather than harder. Nobody is being audited and nobody is being replaced.
More questions answered on the FAQ page.
Often paired with
Budgeting & High-Level Analysis
A budget built off your real numbers, and the analysis that shows you exactly what is driving your results.
Budget vs. Actuals
Monthly variance reporting that flags drift from plan before it becomes a year-end surprise.
Financial Reporting
Custom KPI dashboards and reporting beyond the standard monthly statements.
Ready to talk about budget preparation & budget-to-actual reporting?
A free 20-minute consultation, no obligation.