Week 6: Budget Development and Analysis

Week 6: Budget Development and Analysis
To some, the word “budget” can sometimes feel cringe-worthy or even villainous. After all, it is often the reason resources cannot be secured or desired actions cannot be pursued. But don’t blame the budget; when developed and managed well, a budget is a helpful planning tool that can enable the pursuit of initiatives.

This week, you will develop a budget for a proposed healthcare product or service. You will also calculate some ratios to gain insight into the impact of your budget and describe what the results suggest about your proposal and the organization.

Learning Objectives
Students will:

Apply financial principles to develop budgets and manage resources
Apply expense forecasts, performance benchmarks, process analysis, and implementation planning in financial decision making
Assignment: W6A4 Healthcare Budget Request – Budget Development
How do you make difficult decisions? Do you carefully consider the repercussions of each choice? Perhaps you discuss possible outcomes with others. Maybe you rely on tools for help, even if the tool is a coin that can help you reach a conclusion with a simple flip.

Healthcare organizations generally don’t have an unlimited stack of coins, neither for flipping nor for spending. Therefore, they must be strategic in how they spend the resources they do have.

 

 

Budgeting is a process by which they can decide which projects or purchases are worth the cost involved and whether they should expand their operations, invest in new equipment or services, or pursue other projects with the potential to bring in additional profits.

For this Assignment, you examine how budgets are developed. After developing a sample budget for a product or service, you also examine how ratios can be used to analyze the budget and provide information that can guide choices.

To Prepare
Reflect on the expenses and revenues you considered in the Week 4 Assignment.
Consider any other expenses that you have yet to account for in the development, launch, and implementation of the healthcare product or service you have proposed.
Consult with your internal finance counselor to help identify and estimate any hidden expenses that may not be obvious.
The Assignment: Budget Development
Develop and analyze a budget for your proposed healthcare product or service. To do this, complete the following:

Part 1: Develop the Budget Worksheet:

Open your Excel Assignment Workbook and navigate to the “W6A4 Budget Development” worksheet.

Using the Healthcare Budget Request Guide for guidance, create a 5-year budget for the healthcare product or service that records the projected expenses and revenues associated with the healthcare product or service you have proposed. Be sure to include startup and operating expenses in your budget. You may bring forward the work from the W4A3 Estimated Expenses assignment and add to it.
Calculate the budget ratios as directed in the Healthcare Budget Request Guide.
NOTE: You will copy your worksheet and analysis onto the Healthcare Budget Request Template (Word document) for submission.

Part 2: Summary of Analysis and Interpretation of Results:

Create a brief (1- to 2-page) description of your budget and analysis that clearly describes the budget. Be sure to address the following:

During the course of 5 years, is there an estimated surplus or deficit?
What percentages of the budget are dedicated to various categories you have defined, such as startup costs, etc.?
What does this budget mean for your organization?
Place your analysis on the Healthcare Budget Request Template under the section titled W6A4 Projected Budget (Five Year).

By Day 7 of Week 6
Submit your Assignment.

Submission and Grading Information
To submit your completed Assignments, Parts 1 and 2, for review and grading, do the following:

Part 1: Please save your Assignment using the naming convention “W6A4_lastname_firstname.docx” as the name. *This is on the Healthcare Budget Request Template (Word document).
Part 2: Please save your Assignment using the naming convention “W6A4_lastname_firstname.xlsx” as the name. *This is on the Excel Assignment Workbook (Excel file).
Click the Week 6 Assignment Rubric to review the Grading Criteria for the Assignment.
Click the Week 6 Assignment link. You will also be able to “View Rubric” for grading criteria from this area.
Next, from the Attach File area, click on the Browse My Computer button. Find the document you saved as “W6A4_lastname_firstname.docx” and click Open. Repeat this with the “W6A4_lastname_firstname.xlsx”. Attach both files before submitting!
If applicable: From the Plagiarism Tools area, click the checkbox for I agree to submit my paper(s) to the Global Reference Database. *The plagiarism tool does not accept Excel files.
Click on the Submit button to complete your submission.
Due to the nature of this assignment, your instructor may require more than 7 days to provide you with quality feedback