5.5.1—Budgets

A budget sets expected income, expenditure or resource use for a future period. It translates objectives into numbers that can be monitored and revised.

Budgets coordinate departments and provide a baseline for control, but targets can motivate or distort behaviour depending on how they are set and used.

A marketing budget can reserve money for a launch while linking spend to expected reach and sales; managers can then investigate a shortfall rather than simply cut blindly.

A budget is a plan under assumptions, not a guaranteed outcome or a substitute for judgement.