Financial Documents for a Government Organization

Introduction

In analysing the various financial documents for a Government Organization, Orlando City Budget Reports and Documents were selected for the purpose below. Orlando City is located in Orange County and is recorded as one of the largest cities in Orange County covering 113.7 square miles. It is home to over 2 million people currently residing in the City. Currently, the city’s mayor is Buddy Dyer who was elected to position in 2003. The City’s history goes back to 1838 in the height of the Seminole Wars. It was termed as a village and in 1875 was incorporated as a Town with 4 square miles. The economy has evolved since 19 th Century to a hub of tourism in the 20 th Century. There are various projects currently underway in the city which seek to foster its growth and development. In this manner, the city requires funds and resources which enable it to properly maintain its population, while at the same time providing safety and security, community services, traffic management systems, maintaining streets and roadways and maintaining parks. To enable all this, the Budget is used as a primary tool which aids in the coordination of all these activities. The City’s current Budget stands at $1,172,424,991 (City of Orlando, 2016).

Part I: The Budget Process

The Budget process of Orlando City is conducted by the Management and Budget Division of the office of Business & Financial Services. The Process begins in December and is terminated in September. There are specific guidelines which are set for to direct the Budgeting Process. These guidelines are provided by the City Council. The process itself is developed to ensure that at any one point, the Organization is able to develop suitable methods and practices which guide the smooth flow of the process (City of Orlando, 2016). The Budget is developed and prepared by the Office of Business and Financial Services working closely with City Departments.

The State has provided a Software which guides the different departments during the Budgeting process. Each of the employees within every department are trained on how to utilize the software and record the various Key Performance Indicators which ultimately form part of the Budgeting process. The KPIs are continually evaluated and enhanced. The Office of Business and Financial Services continue continues to work and develop new measures for the various departments. Through the KPIs, a Balanced Scorecard system is adopted and allows for the Office to determine the performance capabilities of each and every department. With this, the estimates for the various areas to which funds are to be shared.

In March/ April, all the basic operating budget request forms and data for the previous years are distributed to the various departments for the managers in all the department to come up with a budget request form for the new fiscal year. Once this is done, the details are fed into the computerized budget development system. The Budget is then reviewed by the Management and Budget recommends funding levels once it has reviewed and analysed the new position, operating and capital budget requests, service levels and departmental revenue estimates. Each of these are based on a specific criteria. Once this is done, the details are then evaluated by the senior management. After all these have been conducted, the Office of Business and Financial Services holds public hearings where the proposed millage rate and budget is presented to the public who then approve or disapprove of it (City of Orlando, 2016).

Part II: The Budget Document

In development of the budget, previous costs and estimates are taken into account. For this, the Office requires an accurate account of all the documentation that was used and shows proof of the various costs and estimates that are to be included in the Budget even as the numbers are fed into the computerized system. For instance, there must be supporting documentation for Program and Service Fees History. There must be additional documentation which breaks down the various figures provided as Services Fee and to whom these fees were paid to. The Budgeting Office must also provide the various tax documents representing the Utility Users Tax History. For every graph or document presented in the Budget, there must be underlying documentation which provides evidence regarding the origin of the figures in the budget (City of Orlando, 2016). The City Council is responsible for identifying and certifying the validity of the budget. Prior to this, the budget is considered a proposal budget.

The city’s innovations are documented in the City’s Website. The City also takes up to advertising the achievements on their local Bulletin boards and other public Notification boards that are distributed across the city. As an innovative methods, the City develops singular websites for the various projects and innovations that have been completed to provide and online presence. In addition, the City’s Local Office is well equipped with the necessary information, in hard copy, pertaining to any innovations and projects that are present, in progress, or completed in the City. This is quite different from the olden days where the City would post on Bulletin Boards and Newspapers, singularly as a means of awareness. It has expanded to incorporate Technology. There is a database which holds all the information pertaining its innovations, from the various documentation that was utilized, it is scanned and backed up into the database (City of Orlando, 2016). To this, there must be a suitable trail of data and records giving an account of all this information. Hence, the provision of an annual budget greatly relies on information provided by the various departments.

From the above, it is clear that the budgeting process for the City is a time consuming process. In an Interview conducted with one of the Staff members of the Office, he explained that most of the management heads consider the budgeting process as tedious and challenging, however the computerized software assist in the process. For most, the process takes up to months to complete as the process of following up documents from other departments in the Local Government can be frustrating where the details provided are full of errors or are incorrect and show variations with supporting documents. It is up to the manager to ensure they are not lagging behind due to other departments and thus must come up with estimates that meet the City’s projections and are not too large that they raise concerns relating previous year estimates. The process to them, is tedious to be conducted manually and hence requires universal automation for efficiency.

Similarly, the same budgets are required for controlling the funds utilized in the City and at the same time for planning purpose. A task which, for most managers is daunting as they are unable to balance between the two tasks  (Churchill, 1984). The Budgeting process requires to identify the various performances of all the units represented in the Budget and determine its improvement or decline. From this, the Office of Services and Financial, in developing the estimates, has to ensure it is not allocating a lot of resources to an unresponsive area or project. The success of a project or a region is what determines the allocation of budget resources. From this, the project which most shows improvement and is agreed as an area of improvement is given priority as it is in a position to better offer returns for the people (Joyce, 1993). It is important for the Office to identify the importance of assigning resources in accordance with that which can adequately service the citizens for longer periods of time. For instance, most budgeting priorities focus on already developed projects, where the Office can identify a new area which needs improvements, such as implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning Systems which better aid the operations of the whole City/. Through the operations of a centralized system that better harmonizes all the procedures running from the various Offices in the City.

Part III: Overall Recommendations

The City of Orlando in the Budgeting has a centralized system which is connected to the various departments and functions in the City. Similarly, the Budgeting Process will simplify as more people will be able to access the system and upload necessary documents which aid in the process. The time period through which most of the Staff members in the Budgeting Office await for supporting documents is a waste of resource. The Budgets should also take into account new and suggested areas which would better impact the City and provide long term results which not only aid the people’s but also the city’s management as a whole. For the Local Government areas, identifying other key performance indicators which can better aid in budgeting can also serve as a key process in budgeting and resource allocation. Most of these suggestions, may be difficult to implement with the current systems that are in place, however, a trial period and presence of suggestions require periods of testing which can aid in identification of where various problematic areas lie and the solutions that can be offered.

References

Churchill, N. C. (1984, July 1). Budget Choice: Planning Versus Control. Retrieved August 28, 2017, from https://hbr.org/1984/07/budget-choice-planning-versus-control

City of Orlando. (2016). Annual Budget 2016/2017. City of Orlando. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjxoYmWl4fWAhXnJsAKHYeuDg8QFggnMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cityoforlando.net%2FArchive2016%2FBudgetBook16-17FINAL.pdf&usg=AFQjCNH4gE7Y5Z1VuXjUNeSos2TNDLXoLg

Joyce, P. G. (1993). Using Performance Measures for Federal Budgeting: Proposals and Prospects. Public Budgeting <html_ent Glyph=“@amp;” ascii=“&amp;”/> Finance , 13 (4), 3–17. https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-5850.00987