Your department may be new to setting its budget or follow what accounting says. You may even be a budgeting veteran who can add a few more pointers. How does your organization decide how to pay for technology and does it work well enough for your team? My biggest challenge was making a case for payback to our CFO who viewed IT as a cost center rather than a resource. It took collaboration and effort, but we ended up (nearly) on the same page.
Having systems in place, namely a priority matrix, helped to justify our decisions as the budgeting process for my department matured. The matrix helped us to defend our decision and was agreed upon by management. My conversations with accounting went from "you're spending a lot" to 'let's plan this out together". This article outlines strategies that you can use to create an IT budget that reflect your department's priorities and meets all cross-functional needs. More importantly, a budget can be a tool that ensures that IT is appropriate staffed to avoid burnout and turnover on your team. This budgeting template will help.
What's been your greatest sticking budgeting point? Is accounting your teammate or could it be a more constructive?
