Here's what we examine....

• Structure:

  Product/service catalog: principles used in its definition, items (sell, not do), granularity (purchase decisions, levels of service), suitability to purpose, units (understandable, controllable, measurable, usage based), wording (clarity), definitions (results).

  Deliverables (investment-based budgeting only): scenarios, attributes, prime-sub relationships, ventures/subsidies versus overhead.

  Compensation costs: blended average with staff augmentation, billable-time (by type by LOB within organization), skill sets/tiers with productivity normalization, costs/perquisites, billable hours, headroom for growth using contractors.

  External costs: direct (per project/unit) versus indirect, treatment of indirect (cost pool definitions and granularity, break-even at pessimistic (with scale up), treatment of reimbursables (investment-based budgeting only); blending of job shop outsourcing (eg, cloud) for overflow work.

  Internal indirect: pools versus sales to appropriate LOBs within organization (spider web), cost pool definitions and granularity (including cost of supervision), break-even at pessimistic (with scale up), treatment of reimbursables (investment-based budgeting only).

  Overhead: amortization choices, distinction from subsidies/ventures, not applied to internal sales or ventures.

  Capital and expense: linked, conversions (all to expense for billing, capitalization of labor).

  Rate calculations: stable regardless of volume changes (growth in contractors, amortization of indirect), client, funding source; set within each LOB within organization; optionally with/without subcontractors (teams); optionally with/without overhead.

• Data:

  Deliverables (investment-based budgeting only): forecasted units (source), direct costs (source).

  Compensation costs: billable-time ratios.

  External costs: source.

• Process:

  Participation: Role of leadership team versus finance team.

  Documentation: steps, frameworks, tools.

• Tools:

  Participative: Supports management participation, ease of learning and use, data input tools, data integrity checking (including rate errors).

  Safe: locked, secure.

  Functionality: includes staff planning tool to model staffing under scenarios (eg, model cost of headcount caps); treatment of circularity (mapping, breaking, iteration); treatment of set rates (markups, fixed fees); treatment of revenues (core budget, allocations, fee for service, checkbooks); currency conversions.

  Reports: analysis, scrutiny, budget presentation, catalog, rates (by LOB within organization, option to share rates across groups); roll-ups by client, service portfolio, contract bundle, manager/cost center, other attributes; for all, transparency (drill-down).

  Uploads: costs to budget submission, rates to invoicing system, hours to project-management system, management metrics.