Role of the Finance Officer in the Budget Process

The budget process is not simply an exercise in balancing revenues and expenses. Rather, it requires local government leaders to make a series of decisions about topics such as:

• What are the most pressing problems facing the community and what services and programs can we offer to address these problems?
• What is the best way to raise revenue to fund services and programs?
• Which programs should receive increased funding and which should not?

This kind of decision-making is messy. It’s often done by groups, so there are conflicting points of view. It’s usually time constrained, so there isn’t time to consider everything. There is always uncertainty--usually more than we realize. And it’s done by humans, so it’s fraught with bias and inconsistency.

This course will provide you with the skills you need to become a “decision architect” and design a better budget decision-making environment for your organization.

Who Will Benefit: Government finance professionals involved in the creation of an organizational budget.

• Understand the difference between bias and noise and how they can lead to sub-optimal decision-making
• Identify cognitive biases that can negatively impact budget decisions
• Learn skills to help decision-makers see a wider option set, test assumptions and deal with uncertainty, and choose the highest-value options
• Learn how to communicate numbers more effectively
• Understand why it is important to nurture stakeholders’ trust in decision-making processes
• Learn how to instill trust in budget decision-making processes