The Simulation Model and Methods of Budgeting
The Simulation Model and Methods of Budgeting
2. Methods of Budgeting
1. Incremental Budgeting
- The process is mainly concerned with the incremental (or marginal) adjustments to
the current budgeted allowance. In that respect it is rather similar to the NI block
funding: any changes are up or down from the existing funding for particular
activities.
2. Zero-based Budgeting
- Zero-based budgeting – unlike the incremental approach – starts from the basis that
no budget lines should be carried forward from one period to the next simply
because they occurred previously. Instead, everything that is included in the budget
must be considered and justified.
- The process requires specification of minimum levels of service provision, the current
level, and an ‘incremental’ level – either between the minimum and the current or an
improvement over the current level. Options for delivering at each level can then be
evaluated and a justification put forward along with the request for resources.
d. Performance-Based Budgeting
o The main aim of this approach is to connect performance information with the
allocation and management of resources. Performance-based budgets need
to contain information on the following elements:
1. inputs (measured in monetary terms);
2. outputs (units of output);
3. efficiency/productivity data (cost per activity);
4. effectiveness information (level of goal achievement).
e. Participatory Budgeting
o Participatory budgeting is based on the following principles:
1. citizens’ groups have as much power as possible in the decision-
making process.
2. representation must be fair and equitable.
3. appropriate training is given to participatory groups. This may
require a dedicated council team.
4. there is some commonality/theme in the type of budget/grant
being allocated e.g.
o regeneration;
o neighborhood development;
o project based;
o so that decision making can be made by reference to some benchmark or
standard.
o the process is linked directly to the council’s budget-making process.
o it is generally targeted at ‘hard to reach’ groups not otherwise involved in
decision-making processes – thus making the biggest gains.
f. Resource-Restricted Budgeting
o Resource-restricted budgets are similar to cash-limited budgets. Limits are
applied to particular resources (i.e. staff or equipment) and works rather like the
incremental approach but in reverse.
o It begins with the supply aspects (for example the number of staff that is
available to meet future needs) and it is assumed fundamentally that these are
fixed. From this point it works backwards to the required incremental change.
b. Contingency Budgeting
o Contingency budgeting is useful for new organizations where detailed
budgeting is difficult because there is no past experience to draw upon. The
absence of reliable detail is compensated for by a contingency budget to
cover as many areas as required.
b. Activity-Based Budgeting
o Activity-based budgeting is an approach developed from activity-based
costing used in the private sector. Rather than assuming that overheads are
related to volumes of production or service, the technique attempts to identify
what drives costs by linking overheads to activities. This provides more
robust information for budget preparation as planned changes in production
or service can be connected to changes in costs.
o This budgetary model does not incorporate assumptions about likely inflation
or pay increases which are not known on 31 October in the base service
budgets. Instead, a provision for inflation and unconfirmed pay awards is held
back as a contingency and released to services budgets during the course of
the financial year as and when pay awards or inflationary pressures become
known.
d. Cash-Limited Budgeting
o Under this approach. Budget holders are required to plan their activities to
ensure that their net expenditure does not exceed a pre-set cash limit. It relies on
assumptions about inflation and pay awards, for instance, which are not known at
the time the base budget estimates are made.