ABSTRACT

In public services, managers often write reports that have financial implications. A report proposing to buy a computer system for issuing books in a library might involve not only people in the library but also people in personnel, maintenance and insurance. Nearly all these people will be looking for figures relating to activity and costs. The author of the report will have to put these figures into a form which is recognized and easy to assimilate. This chapter explains the financial language which managers need to use, in order to discuss their plans with other people working in public services. In public services budgeting is necessary because:

● By tradition, many public services work to annual budget cycles in which spending of any kind has to be approved prior to the period in which it is spent.