budget-planning

name	budget-planning
description	Build an annual operating budget / plan - revenue, headcount, opex, and cash - from drivers, with monthly phasing. Use for annual planning, departmental budgets, or a board plan.

budget-planning

A budget the business can be held to: driver-based, phased, and tied to the goals.

Process

1. Top-down targets meet bottom-up build: reconcile leadership goals with what the drivers actually support.
2. Revenue plan from drivers (pipeline, capacity, cohorts) - not a flat growth %.
3. Headcount plan: roles, timing, fully-loaded cost - usually the biggest opex line; phase hires realistically.
4. Opex by department/category; separate fixed vs. variable; tie to the revenue plan.
5. Phasing: spread to months (seasonality, hire dates, campaign timing) - not 1/12 flat.
6. Cash & runway: the cash impact and, for startups, burn/runway.
7. Set up variance tracking so actuals can be compared later (variance-analysis).

Output

• The budget (revenue, headcount, opex, EBITDA, cash) by month, with the driver assumptions and the top-down/bottom-up reconciliation - all labeled as a plan/estimate.

Guardrails

• Plan figures are estimates with assumptions (projections-assumptions); base on sourced historicals.
• Realistic phasing + capacity checks (methodology); internal data stays confidential.