Streamline Budgeting in the New Millennium.

The article discusses how firms can streamline the budgeting process. At the outset greater responsibility for budgets should be given to operational management. Doing so will result in more realistic budget targets that are more likely to be achieved. A sound budget, however, must reflect all linkages that exist in a firm's enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. Two techniques can help reduce the considerable complexity involved. Activity budgeting subsumes functional categories into process-oriented ones. Global budgeting consolidates similar categories. Taken together, these approaches will result in budgets that are more compact and comprehensible.