Corporate budgeting refers to the process by which a business estimates its finances for a future period and plans its operations accordingly. In developing a corporate budget, a business usually starts with a project plan, then determines the amount of time, goals and costs of the project.
Corporate budgeting works best when the company keeps it simple, according to CFO Magazine. With more factors to consider, more things can go wrong with planning and operations. For example, a grocery store may change a budget that separately accounts for powdered milk, fresh milk, long-life milk and evaporated milk so they all fall under a "milk" budget account. This helps operations staff to focus less on the details and more on the big picture.
A business usually uses software to manage its corporate budgeting process. The software shares the company's budget with all the different departments, divisions and stores. This standardizes the assumptions that each budget holds and allows the high-level managers to view the organization's overall performance. The business may use a simple spreadsheet to develop and monitor its corporate budgeting. However, specialized corporate budgeting programs usually work faster and integrate better, possibly reducing the resources the business must spend on corporate budgeting.