Every small business owner should have a budget that lays out the future course of the company's activities. A budget shows where the sales will come from and how the money will be spent, with the ...

A good tool to ask the right questions. A company's planned budget at the beginning of the year will always end up being different from how the year actually plays out. It's just impossible to predict ...

Budgeting is not an exact science: You can't predict with absolute precision the amount you will bring in or spend until it happens. However, comparing what you thought would occur with what actually ...

Have you ever found yourself staring at rows and rows of budget and actual data, wondering how to make sense of it all? You’re not alone. Budget versus actual analysis is one of those tasks that feels ...

Adam Hayes, Ph.D., CFA, is a financial writer with 15+ years Wall Street experience as a derivatives trader. Besides his extensive derivative trading expertise, Adam is an expert in economics and ...