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Continued Budget Process Improvements
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The Budget Department strives to continuously improve the operating budget process. A strong emphasis is placed on reviewing processes and creating refinements that add value by making the process easier and more informative. Many of these improvements lead to greater efficiencies, thereby allowing management and front line staff to focus more on core operations, planning, budget review and decision making. To that end, some of the more recent significant process improvements for the operating budget process include:
- Providing departments adequate time to prepare their budget submissions ( 8 weeks);
- Moving the budget timeline forward to obtain an earlier budget approval;
- Initiating performance measurement estimates and a performance level standard/best practice to align the measures with the budget year and provide a reference point for stakeholders to better understand the department’s situation;
- Developing prioritization models to assist SMT in decision-making;
- Partnering with Purchasing and Departments to pre-calculate & automate contract impacts;
- Evaluating the budgeting software system to determine if the City’s needs are being met;
- Re-formatting the Budget Book in an effort to improve it as a communications tool;
- Greater emphasis on future financial planning rather than administering the budget process.
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