ANNUAL BUDGET PREPARATION CHECKLIST
Plan next year's numbers across revenue, cost, capital and cash flow.
Groundwork
- ☐ Prior-year actuals vs budget reviewed
- ☐ Business assumptions and growth targets agreed
- ☐ Budgeting timeline and owners assigned
- ☐ Departmental inputs collected
Revenue & Sales
- ☐ Sales forecast by product / segment prepared
- ☐ Pricing and volume assumptions documented
- ☐ Seasonality and pipeline factored in
Costs & Overheads
- ☐ Direct cost / cost of goods budget prepared
- ☐ Payroll and manpower budget prepared
- ☐ Fixed overheads (rent / utilities / admin) budgeted
- ☐ Marketing and sales spend budgeted
Capital & Financing
- ☐ Capital expenditure (capex) plan prepared
- ☐ Depreciation impact estimated
- ☐ Loan repayments and interest budgeted
- ☐ Working-capital requirement assessed
Cash, Tax & Approval
- ☐ Monthly cash-flow projection prepared
- ☐ GST and advance-tax outflows scheduled
- ☐ Contingency / reserve buffer built in
- ☐ Budget vs target profitability reviewed
- ☐ Budget approved by management / board
- ☐ Monthly variance-tracking mechanism set up
Note: Align the budget with advance-tax instalment dates and GST outflows so cash planning stays realistic through the year.