Assumptions made in budgeting

1. An executive summary of your budget to include the summary table (150 words).
   a. Use the Excel budget-planning template on Blackboard to guide your decision making and budgeting. There are multiple tabs in the template.
   b. Be sure to provide a full detailing of the 10% budget cut.
   c. The executive summary and table should be at the front of your document.
2. A list of any assumptions you made while preparing the budget templates (100 words).
   a. Please document any assumptions that guided your thinking so that others can understand how and why you made your decisions.
   b. These assumptions should reflect the priorities and criteria you indicate.
   c. If you are not sure about something (i.e., the appropriate salary for a new worker or exactly how much library management software is needed for next year), it is up to you to make an estimate and justify it based on the information given and what seems logical.
   d. You can create a bulleted list of your assumptions but please make sure to provide enough detail for someone else to follow your logic.
3. A written budget justification (up to 100 words per section that you are using to help guide your decision-making). Do this f or each section (the tabs in the Excel sheet) but there is no need to provide the Excel sheet.
   a. You must state any significant changes in last year’s numbers and explain what drove you to make those changes. (For our purposes, significant is more than a 3% change from the previous year. For instance, if you want to buy two additional computers at $1,000 a piece, which equates to a 5% increase in the “Computers” line item on the equipment replacement tab, you need to explain why you are making that change.)
   b. You are free to write in narrative form or to use bullet points. Either way, your decisions should be clear and your justifications should help us to understand why you made each allocation decisions.
4. Please be sure to include the rubric with your problem response.

As a reminder, here are some of the possible principles or criteria for deciding how to make appropriate cuts to the next year’s budget: Putting your staff in places to succeed; Focusing on patrons (via services, collections, technologies); Enhancing the student experience; Ensuring safety; Planning for the future; Meeting maintenance and repair commitments; Meeting operational needs; Pursuing strategic opportunities; Creating operational reserves; and - of course - others that you may consider important.

Expected structure of what you are to provide:
Executive summary
Budget summary table (cut and paste from below)
Assumptions
Justifications (for each area/tab)

Budget Summary Table (cut and paste into your problem response):

Area (f/ Excel/ tab) Last year’s budget This year’s budget
Total expenses
Library personnel
Acquisitions
Staff development
Tech Maintenance
Library Management & Software Licenses
Equipment Repair and Replacement
Consumables
Building Maintenance
Strategic Initiatives