While working on a budget for a conference the other day the idea of a front/back (or top/bottom) came to mind.
Typically the results of creating a budget is that one or two page document that lists each line-item, the planned spending/revenue from that line-item and a comment or note that puts that number or assumption in context.
Behind that document are a host of documents that lead to that key budget document -- the all important supporting information.
When putting together a budget I begin by systematically going through each of these supporting documents. This is where I "start from the back" with the goal of moving that information forward to the overall budget document.
My supporting documents are Excel worksheets that are part of the overall budget workbook. By doing this I can have the later pages pull numbers from the "back pages." These back pages contain a lot of detail -- the number of drink tickets for that reception, the number of rooms that will have a rented computer projector, etc. All this detail is worked out in a "back page" and when something changes -- perhaps one of the four presentations rooms will not need a projector -- I can update that information on back page and have that new budget estimate appear on the main budget document. This is much better than having to re-calculate the number on the main budget document (and clutter the comments with a note that "only 3 rooms have projectors" so I recall how I arrived at that number).
Starting from the back, I typically have the following worksheets that feed sub-totals to the main Budget document:
- Food & Beverage
- Room Fees
- Audio Visual
- Plenary/Guest Speakers
More on each of these next!
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