budgeting
Skill1 starsChanged 3 months agoMITView on GitHub
Build the budget, run rolling forecasts, and explain budget-versus-actual variance and expense anomalies. Use when creating annual operating budgets, departmental spend, or variance.
1 other project uses a version of this.
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- mtzanidakis/budgetingtheir own version, first seen Oct 31, 2026
Other versions1 project uses a version of this.
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Wrote their own version · 1
- mtzanidakis/budgeting★ 1same name
How matches are found. Word for word: the exact same text. Edited: shares passages with this file (“99% same” means 99% of its five-word phrases also appear here; 10% or more counts). Their own version: similar meaning, or, weakest, the same name. We can’t tell which project had it first. Projects are counted among the 200 most-starred candidates, and mentions are links to the repository we found, up to 50 per site, so both counts are a floor.
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The file
We split this skill into the rules it gives an agent
5 rules. About 0 are common, 5 are distinctive, and 0 are very specific to this project.
≈0
Common · estimate
Many files like this have a rule of this kind.
≈5
Distinctive · estimate
This author's own choices. Worth a look.
0
Very specific
Tied to their project's names, files or tools. Probably skip.
- Common
- Distinctive
- Very specific
- Distinctive: line 45
Never budget revenue without tying it to pipeline conversion rates and sales headcount productivity caps.
- Distinctive: line 46
Every new full-time headcount addition must have an assigned requisition ID and fully-loaded financial model approval.
- Distinctive: line 57
NEVER create an annual budget that remains untouched for 12 months despite material market shifts.
- Distinctive: line 58
NEVER rely on straight-line revenue growth assumptions without accounting for sales rep ramp time (typically 3–6 months).
- Distinctive: line 59
NEVER treat projected cost savings from unhired roles as permanent financial buffer.
≈ “Common” is an estimate: at least 1 in 5 of the 350,495 skill files we read have a rule of the same kind, not the same words. “Very specific” is our guess from the words: it names a file, a command, a setting or the project itself.
Files
Budgeting
Budgeting is resource allocation against strategic hypotheses, not an accounting compliance exercise. Operating budgets must establish departmental spend envelopes, forecast cash runway under variable revenue trajectories, and institute rolling 4+8 and 9+3 variance reviews to catch expense anomalies before they threaten liquidity.
1. Operating Budget Architecture
Deconstruct company expenses into three structural layers:
- Headcount Costs (typically 70%–80% of tech OpEx): Model fully-loaded payroll (base salary + employer payroll taxes + healthcare + 401(k) match + hardware/SaaS seat stipends). Use a 1.20x–1.25x multiplier on base salaries.
- Direct Variable COGS: Cloud compute, database storage, payment processing, third-party API token costs. Model directly as a percentage of revenue or active user volume.
- Fixed & Discretionary OpEx: Office rent, legal/accounting retainers, travel and entertainment (T&E), software tooling.
2. Rolling Forecast Models (4+8, 9+3)
Static annual budgets become obsolete within 90 days. Implement rolling forecasts:
- 4+8 Forecast: 4 months of closed historical actuals + 8 months of updated forward projections.
- Scenario Sensitivities:
- Base Case: Budgeted target revenue growth (e.g. +40% YoY).
- Conservative Case: Flat net new bookings; headcount freeze; extends runway by 6 months.
- Downside / Stress Test Case: 20% revenue contraction; immediate elimination of discretionary spend.
3. Budget-vs-Actual (BVA) Variance Analysis
Review departmental performance on the 10th of every month: $$\text{Variance (%)} = \frac{\text{Actual Spend} - \text{Budgeted Spend}}{\text{Budgeted Spend}} \times 100$$
- Variance Thresholds:
- Favorable Variance (< 0% for expenses): Spend below budget; verify if due to delayed hiring or efficiency.
- Unfavorable Variance (> +5% or > $5,000): Requires written department lead variance explanation and corrective remediation plan.
4. Departmental Budget Allocations
| Department | Typical % of Total OpEx | Primary Budget Drivers | Key Performance Metric |
| R&D / Engineering | 45% – 55% | Engineering headcount, cloud infrastructure, AI compute | Features shipped, system uptime, cloud cost/MAU |
| Sales & Marketing | 25% – 35% | Quota-carrying reps, digital media spend, conferences | CAC, Pipeline generated, Magic Number |
| G&A (Ops, Legal, Fin) | 10% – 15% | Legal counsel, accounting audit, insurance, executive team | Month-end close speed, compliance certifications |
Critical Rules
- Never budget revenue without tying it to pipeline conversion rates and sales headcount productivity caps.
- Every new full-time headcount addition must have an assigned requisition ID and fully-loaded financial model approval.
- Budget owners are accountable for gross dollar ceilings; savings in one line item cannot be diverted to unapproved software subscriptions without CFO sign-off.
Verification Checklist
- Fully-loaded headcount multiplier (1.20x–1.25x) applied to all projected salaries.
- Variable COGS tied dynamically to revenue projections.
- Monthly BVA variance reports generated with written management explanations.
- Downside stress-test scenario guarantees minimum 12 months cash runway.
- Capital expenditure (CapEx) separated from operational expenditure (OpEx).
Anti-Patterns
- NEVER create an annual budget that remains untouched for 12 months despite material market shifts.
- NEVER rely on straight-line revenue growth assumptions without accounting for sales rep ramp time (typically 3–6 months).
- NEVER treat projected cost savings from unhired roles as permanent financial buffer.
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