CHAPTER 21 Budgeting
CP 21–5 (FIN MAN); CP 6–5 (MAN)
a. The amount of actual expenditures was less than budget for the first 10 months of
the budget year. As the budget year-end neared, the manager spent the remaining
excess budget and, as a result, went over the budget for May and June. The
b. The budget system encourages this type of wasteful behavior. The budget could
be redesigned in a number of ways. The budget could be designed to flex with
underlying activity and adjusted monthly. Thus, the manager would always have
budgeted resources for changes in underlying activity. For example, if the number
of prisoners in the jail increased, then the budget would increase proportionately.
A manager with the flexible budget would be less likely to “reserve” the budget
during the year, since an activity change would be automatically reflected in the
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