Question
Review your Problem Evaluation Paper from Week Two. Select one of your possible solutions for the problem you identified.
Writea 750- to 1,050-word paper in which you explain how you would develop a budget for that solution. Use the information from this week’s readings to develop a possible line-item budget to fund the program.
Sample paper
Budget Construction for Education Purposes
One of the solutions that are necessary in order to stop life imprisonment for children is making education compulsory for all children. When children are not in school, they are more likely to form or join criminal gangs and get involved in criminal activities. Education has a great chance of changing the course of the lives of abused and vulnerable children. In addition to this, children in juvenile facilities should have access to education in order to have the chance and opportunities that other children enjoy. It is also important to make sure that young ex convicts attend school as this would discourage them from getting involved in criminal activities again. To solve this problem more funds should be allocated to education sector to employ more teachers, sensitize people on the need for education. In addition to this, it is important to make sure that there are enough resources and infrastructure in order for this program to gain the milestone it should.
For this program to be a success, it is important to have a line item budget to sustain it. a line item budget is an accounting tool that is used to show how exactly money for a certain project is used. It is mostly useful in that it keeps track of the funds available, total revenues and the expenses incurred. A line budget is useful to entrepreneurs, business owners and for household purposes. Monetary value is attached to each and every category and shows the amount of money allocated for each category. These categories differ depending on the type and purpose of the budget. A line budget for business would have categories such as payroll, projects and miscellaneous while a household budget would have categories that are customized to suit the user’s needs (Webb, 2016).
In order to develop a good line item budget, there are steps that should be followed.
Step 1
The first crucial step is to figure out the source and the total amount of the funds. In this case, federal and state governments are the ones to support and fund this program. In addition to this, it is important to include net proceeds from other sources for example nongovernmental institutions. The structure of the line item budget consists of vertical columns listing the various categories and each of the classes or types of the items. The categories in this program can be payroll, projects, construction among others.
Step 2
In this step, it is necessary to make a list of all the payments that should be made per month. If there are bills that are paid quarterly or half yearly of for example insurance or other projects, the total amount should be split into three or six monthly payments respectively. These amounts should then be entered into every month’s budget. In addition to this, it is necessary to also have a ghost bill to cater for miscellaneous and other types of expenditure that are not anticipated. This amount should be allocated equally for all the months and should be transferred to savings if it is not used. If there are savings that are supposed to be made for future project, the amount should be consistent in all the months and listed alongside the other bills (Campbell, 2016).
Related: Grant Implementation
Step 3
A computer spreadsheet like Ms Excel or a lined notepad is used is used to list all the items and break down the expenses incurred per month. It is more suitable to split up the categories into several subcategories in order to make the budget more effective and easy to manage. An example is listing the utilities like water, insurance, electricity, repairs and so on into subcategories.
Step 4
In this step, all the entries are made alongside the amount of money allocated to each one of them from the funds available monthly. In addition to this, bills from the previous six months or so are examined in order to gain a better insight on the amount for each bill. This figure will help in projecting the amounts required for the future (Arizona University, 2001).
Step 5
Finally, any revenue that is not allocated should be saved for future use or listed in the investment category. It is also important to ensure that the line items can be adjusted when need be. Money can also be borrowed from some items and used for another that needs extra cash whenever the need arises.
Using the line budget to keep track of financial resources needed to spearhead the campaign for education opportunities for all the children has several advantages. Firstly, it is easy to develop compared to other budgets and no advanced financial knowledge and skills are required. It is also simple and flexible and can be understood by all school employees and other stakeholders who might be involved in the program. This means that a very high level of accuracy and efficiency is met and hence accountability is ensured. Finally, it is useful in analyzing the trend by comparing the budgets prepared and the actual results and can predict growth by comparing past and current budgets
References
Arizona University, (2001). Sample Line Item Budget format. Prm.nau.edu. Retrieved 1 July 2016, from http://www.prm.nau.edu/prm426/sample_line_item_budget_format.htm
Campbell, R. (2016). How to Create a Line Item Budget |eHow. Retrieved 1 July 2016, from http://www.ehow.com/how_4798136_line-item-budget.html
Webb, C. (2016). How Do You Create a Line Item Budget?. Budgeting.thenest.com. Retrieved 1 July 2016, from http://budgeting.thenest.com/create-line-item-budget-3414.html
