A day in the life of budget analyst - Essay Example

A day in the life of budget analyst Budget analyst is the person who analyzes the budget of the private and public organizations. Budget analysis means to gain control of your money. Bernard Meltzer said that use talent that you have, you will make your own world as well as those people who are related to you. From this quote it is very clear that budget analysts must be such like a bird who have good voice mean he must have such skills that the whole organization can get benefit from it. Financing is the most important in every organization because no organization can run without the finance. So the management of the finance is very much important. He provides benefits of its analytical skills, communication skills, detailed oriented skills, mathematical skills, writing skills to all the organization. He makes budget, interpret its each item carefully so that a single mistake of him can lead to a disastrous loss. For this purpose organization hire budget analyst. Budget analyst also called budget coordinator, budget examiner, budget officer, chief financial officer and treasurer (Gloria. A 1987). In simple words we can say that budget analyst help the public and private organizations in managing their finance. They prepare budget reports and monitor the institutional spending. The budget is prepared monthly, quarterly, semiannually and on yearly basis (Ross & Firth 1987). The life of a budget analyst is very difficult. Here I will discuss a day in the life of budget analyst. Budget analyst performs the following duties in a day of his life: Work with project manager and discuss the organization’s budget Check the manager’s budget proposal in terms of completeness, accuracy and compliance with the law and regulations Make a consolidated organizational budget by compiling the all departments budget. Give its recommendations to all departments and legislator for funding. Meet with chief operation officer to solve any agency conflict and make some other alternatives if the projected results are not satisfactory. Monitor all the resources from where funds are expected, either the give positive inflows or not. Monitor the organizational spending, either they can be covered through inflow funds or not. Make analysis about projected needs. Analyze the data to determine the costs and benefits of different projects from where future inflows are expected. He may give suggestions of program spending cuts and redistribution of extra funds. Top executive take decision on the work of budget analyst so the budget analyst who makes reports and budgets must give true picture about the organization’s inflows and outflows. He communicates its suggestions and opinions to officials. If there is any difference between desired budget and actual budget then he make a report to officials in which he explain the reasons of variation and give suggestions for reconciliation of actual and desired budget. He provides policy analysis and draft budget related legislation (Gloria. A 1987). Budget analyst has the following skills to perform its routine task. Analytical skill-He has ability to understand the things and of its interpretation as well. Communication skills-to defend its interpretation because there is need of explanation of the results Detail oriented-ability to make explanation of every item of the budget Math skill-strong accounting skills and strong grip on finance usage of database software Writing skill-make such a budget and the interpretation of it are easily understandable to the others. He works in office. His shift is full time. But sometimes he has to do some extra work when the review of budget is made. He has normally bachelor’s degree but some organizations prefer that analyst have master’s degree. Because preparing the budget is not a simple task. For the development of budget strong numerical and analytical skills are required. These analytical skills are statistical techniques or accounting methods. He must have strong grip in finance. For the govt. organizations bachelor’s degree is enough for entry level budget analyst but private organizations demand master’s degree and specially business graduates. He can get the position of certified govt. financial manager. For this purpose he has bachelor’s degree and 24 credit hours financial management. He lean the work of budget analysis through complete budget cycle. At the entry level he has fewer responsibilities but with the passage of time when he gets experience can get the post of senior analyst. Salary of him varies according to the education and experience. Normally the median wage of him is $68000 per annum. Medan wage is hat wage in which half of the employees have high wages and half of the remaining has low wages. Lowest 10% budget analyst earns $40000 per annum. And highest 10% has more than $100000 per annum. There are many occupations that are related to budget analysis. These are followings: Accountant Auditors Cost estimator Economics Financial analyst Financial managers Management analysts Tax examiner, collector an revenue agents Accountant prepares the financial reports and sees that either tax is paid properly or not. Auditor sees that either the financial statements give true picture or not. They see the financial operations of the organizations. Cost estimators gather and analyze the data to project the time, money, resources and labor that is required for product manufacturing and providing services. Economist sees the production distribution of resources. Financial managers give suggestion that is very important for increasing the organization’s wealth. Management analyst also called management consultants; they give suggestion to improve the organizations efficiency and effectiveness. They provides the suggestions how an organization can be earn more revenue and more profitable. Tax examiner and collectors and revenue agent collect the tax from business entities and citizens of the states. They also review the tax return. Budget analysis can be found in every organization like profit, nonprofit and govt. In private organizations he analyze the budget and gives new ways of improving the efficiency and profits. While the nonprofit and govt. organizations he tries to improve the efficiency. He have many responsibilities like preparation of annual budgets, examine the budget estimates in terms of accuracy completeness and legislation, make cost benefit analysis of the incoming resources and spending, give suggestions to improve the overall consolidated budget, explore the new alternatives for financing, review the past budgets and make comparison of it with the current budget and then evaluate the performance of the organization (Quattrone, Paolo and Hopper 2006). Mostly bachelor’s degree is required for the entry level in budget analyst but most firms require master’ degree especially statistics and business graduates. Entry level analyst gets formal training and also learns through complete budget cycle. He usually works in comfortable environment. Long working hours are common only just when the budget development is going on. He spend majority of it time working independently, compiling data and making results and interpretations from it. During the budget development there is huge pressure n it but in normal circumstances he is normal and not in stress. When he is relaxed a training session is conducted. It is the complex decision how the resources of organization are distributed efficiently. So in large organizations it is a challenge for budget analyst. They play primarily role in preparing, developing and executing the budgets. Without budget analyst it is impossible for large organizations to run because there are many meters like legislation and giving suggestions to improve the budget. Without proper budget analysis through proper budget analysis it is possible that organizations may bankrupt. References Quattrone, Paolo, and Trevor Hopper. "What is< i> IT?: SAP, accounting, and visibility in a multinational organisation." Information and Organization 16.3 (2006): 212-250 . Grizzle, Gloria A. "Linking performance to funding decisions: What is the budgeter's role?." Public Productivity Review (1987): 33-44. Mear, Ross, and Michael Firth. "Assessing the accuracy of financial analyst security return predictions." Accounting, Organizations and Society 12.4 (1987): 331-340. http://www.bls.gov/ooh/business-and-financial/budget-analysts.html www.ehow.com/info_7760085_budget-analysis.html Read More