Budgeting: Every Finance Manager's Headache

Every year-end, all companies do their budgeting for the coming year. This means, actual expenses as of the cut-off date are collated, evaluated and then a budget for the following year is drawn from the proposed projects and actual operating expenses as assessed previously.

It just so happened that our company first gives all department heads to "propose" their own budgets. But then, these are subject to checking and revising and correcting, of course, by the Corporate Officers, before it gets approved.

So how come I'm writing these down? Because I'm irked. Annoyed. Irritated. That some of the department heads think that once they have proposed something, it becomes law. Hello?! What's so hard to understand that we still have to go through the checking process and the approval? Our budget cannot be approved if it didn't pass the qualifications or limits set by the authorized "approvers" - who in this case is the Corporate Finance Officer. How come you all sound so irritated that your proposed budget went down? Tell me, would you rather have the same budget as last year because we didn't budge and accepted the limits set by Management? Or will you be willing to accept the new proposed budget and stop blaming me because the figures you're seeing now are significantly lower than what you proposed beforehand?

I know. It's law that everyone should hate the Finance Manager. But hey, is this YOUR money we're talking about? Isn't this the company's? Isn't this the owners' money you're planning to spend relentlessly?

Gimme a friggin' break...