Budgeting consumes a massive amount of time and resources. It's a stressful and busy time. Are there ways to improve the effectiveness of the investment we make in the budget process? Can we make better budgeting decisions that lead to higher performance?

In this course, I walk step-by-step through the budget formation process. The purpose and role of the budget can best be explained in the context of strategic planning. We'll explore which analyses can be done throughout the year to take pressure off the very busy budgeting season. Some lessons cover the nuts and bolts of budget reporting and budgeting tools. This course focuses on the management process of building a budget.

Check out the Master Budget and Sub-Budgets course to learn about how to calculate the parts of the budget and how they fit together.

This course is part of a three-part series I call Better Budgeting. The three parts are:

• The master budget and sub-budgets
• The budgeting process
• Budgeting alternatives

You can watch all three parts in the order above or watch any part as a stand-alone course. You can also watch all three combined in the Better Budgeting course.

The course author has been the CFO, SVP of Finance, or Director of Operations of companies with just a few employees to companies with $3 billion in assets and hundreds of employees. He's led, facilitated, or participated in the budgeting process many times.