What is a Budget Planner?

A budget planner is a tool that makes it possible to document the details of income and expenses for a given budget period. Both homes and businesses make use of a budget planner in order to more effectively manage available resources. In times past, the budget planner was usually in the form of forms and instruction kits that would help develop a budget for the home, a special project, a department or for an entire company. Today, there is a wide range of budget planner software packages available.

When used to create a personal budget, a budget planner will account for all sources of revenue that some into the home. This includes salary or wages, tips, interest income, dividends and every other possible avenue of income. At the same time, the budget planner allows for the creation of categories and line items that related to every type of expenditure relevant to the household. Entering the data and organizing both income and expenses makes it much easier to manage money and hopefully identify areas where expenses can be handled with greater efficiency.

By using a budget planner to create a budget, it is possible to account for and possibly eliminate small and unnecessary transactions that ultimately drain away a substantial amount of the revenue entering the home. Identifying and adjusting spending habits to do away with non-essentials can often make it possible for the household to begin saving money in an interest bearing account, thus creating a greater degree of financial security for the home.

Businesses also make use of a budget planner for day to day operations as well as for special projects. Because most types of budget planner software can be customized to fit any budgetary process, it is easy to use the planner to create budgets for marketing campaigns, departmental expenditures, and any special projects the company wishes to initiate. This is done in advance, making it possible to evaluate and fine tune the investment in the project before it is ever launched.

While there are a number of budget planner software packages available for a modest fee, it is also possible to obtain free software that can be used for budgeting purposes. For home budgets that are relatively basic, the free software can work very well. However, for more detailed budgets, such as an operating budget for a company, one of the more versatile fee based software packages would be a better solution.