Elementum

Budget Adoption Checklist.

Take the budget from a proposal to the organization's adopted plan through a formal board vote, recorded so it is the reference for the year. Until the board adopts it, it is only a draft.

After the budget is built and stress-checked, in Build and Run the Budget. This is a board act and cannot be done by staff alone.

Before the meeting

The board has seen the draft budget and its key assumptions in advance, not for the first time at the vote.

The Treasurer or finance committee has reviewed it and can speak to it.

Any gap or major assumption is stated plainly, not buried.

At the meeting

The budget and its key assumptions are presented in plain terms.

The board's questions are answered honestly, including on any gap.

The board adopts the budget by formal vote.

After the meeting

The adoption is recorded in the minutes, with the budget as the reference for the year.

The adopted budget and its assumptions are filed where staff and board can find them.

If the board will not engage

Adopting the budget is the board committing the organization to a financial plan; a staff member cannot make that commitment on its behalf. If the board will not seriously consider or adopt a budget, that is a governance problem, and it routes to board governance and development.

Follows the Annual Budget Builder. Precedes the Budget-versus-Actual Review.

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