While there’s rarely any debate about whether or not a project should have a Budget, the benefits beyond knowing how much money is available for a project may not be as obvious. And while it may take some initial time and planning to create a holistic and realistic project budget, it definitely comes with some key benefits. Including the following:

1. A Financial Roadmap

The budget is a pivotal piece to the project plan. It outlines the financial resources available, which further determines the human resources that are required. Sometimes, this can also be done the other way around. The budget serves as a planning tool and helps the organization to create a trajectory for how they will proceed with the project from start to finish.

2. Management Tool

As the team moves along the map and starts to implement the project, they can use the budget to determine if they’re on track to meet their goals. Where some goals might be more arbitrary or less tangible, a budget and all the numbers that come with it, is pretty much as logical and objective as you can get. Real time alerts and reports go a long way in making this tracking possible. If it becomes evident that corrections and changes are needed, we can move on to prioritizing the pieces of the project. Otherwise known as key benefit #3.

3. Prioritization

If the initially planned funds are not sufficient to complete the project at once, the budget will support the organization or project team in prioritizing which parts of the project can be completed based on the remaining budget, while simultaneously determining which pieces will be put on hold.

And for a bonus benefit, project budgets help promote future thinking. In the case that the initial budget does not suffice to complete the project in its entirety, it should now be easier to discern how much will be required to complete the remaining parts of the project.

Read on to see how Genius Project can serve as your budget management software.