Essential Managers: Managing Budgets (Paperback)

by DK Publishing (Author), Stephen Brookson (Author) "The managers most likely to succeed in today's business environment are those who understand how to use budgets as business tools for departmental and personal..." (more)
Key Phrases: budgeting committee, master budget, budget period (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
If you need to take responsibility for the budget of your organization or department--or if you're not directly responsible for it, but it would help you immensely to be able to understand it--you'll love this energetically formatted pocket-sized book that explains the whole budgeting process in 72 quick-and-clean pages. Opening with a basic explanation of budgets and their purpose, it goes on to illustrate how to prepare one (clarifying objectives, standardizing it), write one (anticipating revenues and estimating expenditures, producing the figures, understanding capital budgets, and producing cash budgets, then consolidating and finalizing them), and monitor one (analyzing discrepancies, monitoring and investigating variances, making adjustments, and recognizing "behavioral" problems). If all of that sounds confusing, you'll be happy to know that boxed tips, sample budget sheets, to-do checklists, and easily followed flow charts demystify the process on every page--even for those (like this reviewer) who barely can balance their own checkbooks! Granted, if you're looking for very specific or in-depth guidance, you might find this book too cursory and general in its approach. But, if you're looking for a thumbnail guide to the basics, it'll do just fine.

It's worth mentioning that the book is part of the "Essential Managers" series by reference publisher Dorling-Kindersley--a series comprising 20 itty-bitty books on business and career topics that range from communication, leadership, and decision-making to the management of time, budgets, change, meetings, people, projects, and teams. Combining the talent of the "For Dummies" book series for breaking down a lot of information into bite-sized bits and sidebars with Dorling-Kindersley's signature design style of crisp, classy graphics on a gleaming white backdrop, the books don't represent the cutting edge of business thinking or reflect necessarily any unique individual perspective. Instead, it's as if someone had collated the best general thinking on these 20 topics, and rolled them out into 72 brightly designed and easy-to-read pages--studded along the way with boxed tips, color shots of a multiracial cast of "coworkers" animatedly hashing through the workplace issues of the day, and, on the last few pages of each volume, a self-test of one's skills in the topic at hand. Again, they're not for anyone who's looking for more in-depth or focused help on any of the covered subjects, but they're perfect as a quick general-interest reference; and, let's face it, they're so damn cute, and look so smart in a neat little stack or row, that probably you'll want to buy a whole bunch to give as gifts to your entire staff or department. --Timothy Murphy

Product Description
Forecasting, expenditures, priorities, and safety margins.

Learn all you need to know about the budgeting process, from preparing a forecast to monitoring variances and making adjustments. Managing Budgets gives you a clear understanding of the budgeting cycles and explains standard concepts and terms. It shows you how to create a personalized budgeting system, anticipate revenues and estimate expenditures, correct errors, and motivate staff to achieve financial targets. Useful tips help you to handle real-life situations and develop first-class budgeting skills that will dramatically improve efficiency and results. The Essential Manager have sold more than 1.9 million copies worldwide! Experienced and novice managers alike can benefit from these compact guides that slip easily into a briefcase or a portfolio. The topics are relevant to every work environment, from large corporations to small businesses. Concise treatments of dozens of business techniques, skills, methods, and problems are presented with hundreds of photos, charts, and diagrams. It is the most exciting and accessible approach to business and self-improvement available.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 72 pages
• Publisher: DK ADULT; 1st edition (August 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789459698
• ISBN-13: 978-0789459695
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 5 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #72,337 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This item is part of The DK Essential Managers Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent primer on budget management, July 12, 2001

By	Andrew King (Oakland, California USA) - See all my reviews

This short book provides a clear blueprint for managers faceing the insidious hurdles of P&L management for the first time. The chapters provide an easy progression from basic COGS management to allocating scarce dollars between competing interests and simultaneously controlling the small items which eat into your profit margin. It is sufficiently general enough in scope to be applied to a number of different situations but specific enough to offer concrete advice.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars We should send a copy to every member in Congress ;>, August 25, 2001

By	Rebecca Johnson "SeasonedwithLove.com" (Washington State) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

Money in...Money out. How do you control the flow and make sure you balance your budget? To learn all you need to know about the budgeing process, you have to first consider the expenditures, anticipate revenues and correct errors.

"Budgeting is the process of preparing, compiling, and monitoring financial budgets. It is a key management tool for planning and controlling a department within an organization."

Tips like: "Always remember that if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail" sounded familiar. Monitoring Budgets is a helpful chapter as it also has a case study. Graphs, charts and a budget analysis all add to the fun.

This compact reminder will help managers to keep an eye on the company budget and will give them some new ideas. I still think a copy of this book would be handy for everyone in Congress.

~The Rebecca Review

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars OK Book, September 3, 2007

By	V. BARVE "BookMan" (CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I was looking for a better book and this book did not give me all the knowledge I was looking for