Cadalyst - October 2008 - (Page 38)

cadmanager Good business outlook. New projects will mean more staff, which means new computers, more training, and more CAD management time in general. If your boss gives you any indication that any of these change scenarios is on the way, you’ll need to revise your budget accordingly or prepare an alternate plan. Not only will you seem better prepared later if the change comes, but you’ll benefit from the thought process. It’s far better to head into changing times with a plan than to improvise. pany for a budget-format document they like or ask your boss if the company uses a standard budget spreadsheet. If you use a budget format that your senior managers already like, your budget will be better received. For a sample spreadsheet that might give you a good starting point, see my CAD Manager’s ROI Worksheet at www.cad-manager.com/tools. Summing Up After you understand why budgets are so important and you have a method for navigating the process, it’s time to get going and build that budgeting spreadsheet. Don’t wait until the end of the year to undertake this task; get to work now so you’ll have the time to think through the budgeting process without being hurried. As time goes by, keep up with your budget by always collecting new information for your budgeting folder, requesting information from vendors, and tweaking your spreadsheet for next year. I think you’ll find budgeting gets easier as you work at it, and I guarantee that your boss will respect you more as your budgets improve. Robert Green performs CAD programming and consulting throughout the United States and Canada. His book, Expert CAD Management: The Complete Guide is now available. Reach him via his Web site at www.cad-manager.com. Make It Final After you’ve planned, tweaked, reviewed, and tweaked some more, your budget is almost done. The only thing that remains is to get everything formatted nicely and make your budget presentable for the executive management staff who will review it. Ask other managers in your com- Read More at Cadalyst.com CAD Manager’s Newsletter archives www.cadalyst.com/CADManagerNewsletter CAD Manager’s Toolbox/Q&A www.cadalyst.com/CADManagerToolbox CAD Manager Discussion Forum http://forums.cadalyst.com/ 38 www.cadalyst.com cadalyst October 2008 http://www.cad-manager.com/tools http://www.Cadalyst.com http://www.cadalyst.com/CADManagerNewsletter http://www.cadalyst.com/CADManagerToolbox http://forums.cadalyst.com/ http://www.cad-manager.com http://www.thecadstore.com http://www.cadalyst.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Cadalyst - October 2008

Cadalyst - October 2008 Contents Editor’s Window Cad Central SimCity for Real Designs Spring to Life — 3D Publishing Tools Make File Sharing as Easy as Opening a Book Xi MTower 2P64X — Dual Quad-Core Workstation ArchiCAD 12 — BIM Software Dell Precision M6300 — High-End Mobile Workstation Cad Manager Mcad Modeling Aec Insight Cad Cartoon Issue Indexes Hot Tip Harry

Cadalyst - October 2008

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