THE BUDGET CYCLE

By De Castro, Marvin A.

I. Budget Preparation
Christmas is coming, so your class president asked you, as secretary, to make an estimate of the
money you will need for your Christmas Party (Budget Call). You started your estimate by
asking first your classmates (‘bottom-up’ budgeting). You had already made an estimate similar
to this event on the previous year. However, you decided to make a new estimated one instead of
using the old estimate (‘zero-based’ budgeting).
You defended your estimate with the president (Budget hearings).
The president submitted the estimate to your adviser for approval (Presentation to the
Office of the president).

II. Budget Legislation

The adviser consulted her co-teacher to review your estimate (House Deliberations).
The co-teacher gave the estimate to a math teacher after reviewing to further study (Senate
Deliberations). The co-teacher and a math teacher had some disagreements, so they asked the
head teacher to harmonize the conflicts. The head teacher submitted the “Bicam” version of the
estimate back to both Co-teacher and math teacher for ratification.
The two both submitted the ratified estimate to the adviser for enactment (President’s
Enactment). Your approved budget for the Christmas Party P2,000 ( Appropriation).

III. Budget Execution

The adviser told you to take the money from the class treasurer. The treasurer gave you
guidelines on how the money will be released to you, based on your estimates of the timing of
disbursements (Released guidelines and BEDs).
The treasurer told you that you can now incur obligations up to a maximum of P1,850
(Allotment).
You went to Beto’s sari-sari store to purchase ingredients for food, and beverages worth
of P1,150, on credit (Incurrence of Obligations).
Class Treasurer gave you P600 cash to cover your cash disbursement needs to settle the
venue for Christmas Party (Disbursement Authority – Notice of Transfer Allocation). You gave
one of your classmates to cover her expenses in decorating the venue amounted of P100 (Notice
of Transfer Allocation).

 Your disbursement in the event were as follows:

 You – P50 instalment payment to Beto’s sari-sari store and P400 on venue
 Classmate – P100 on decorating
Total Disbursement P550

IV. Budget Accountability

Your budget accountability reports after the event will show the following information (Budget
Accountability Reports):
- Appropriation: P2,000
- Allotment Received: P1,850
- Unreleased Appropriation: P150
- Obligations incurred: P1,750
- Unobligated Allotment: P100
- Disbursements: P550
- Unpaid obligations: P1,100
- Unused NCA: P50

Class Treasurer updates class president and adviser regarding your budget execution through call
and text (Performance Review).
Class president and adviser will audit you when they return (Audit).

- The End -