Talk:2011 Budget/Controls

1. The Board of Trustees will write and publish a budget outlining expected income and expenditure during the financial year.

Suggest 'previous financial year'. We should allow for non-Board member participation writing the budget; technically, we should only require that the Board approves the budget. Mike Peel 19:57, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

Do you mean "next financial year"? Not much point writing a budget for the previous year! Involving others is a good thing, but I don't know if it needs to go in the actual policy. We can change "write" to "approve" without losing anything, though. --Tango 20:08, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

I misread the sentence as "write and publish a budget ... during the financial year". Suggest "for the next financial year". Changing 'write' to 'approve' sounds good. Mike Peel 20:16, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

I prefer "during". We don't spend money *for* the year, we spend it *during* the year. --Tango 20:24, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

2. "This will be published before or soon after the beginning of the financial year."

Suggest a time limit of 1 month after the beginning of the financial year. 'soon' is a relative term. Mike Peel 19:57, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

This policy is only intended to last a year and I intend us to approve it at the same time as we approve the budget, so such a restriction wouldn't really work. I should add something to say that the policy needs to be reviewed in advance of the next year-end, though. --Tango 20:08, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

True, but it would be good to future-proof it regardless. Mike Peel 20:16, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

There is a case for not making it future-proof so we are forced to review it properly! --Tango 20:24, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

3. Opportunity fund

Suggest that the Board allocates funding out of the opportunity fund to project budgets, with a board member attached, rather than approving items individually. Also: this sentence needs less commas... Mike Peel 19:57, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

Yes, that's how I intend it to work. It's not what I've written, that is true - I should amend that. None of my sentences ever require less commas. Some do require fewer commas, though! ;) --Tango 20:08, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

Also suggest renaming "Authorisation of Expenditure form" to "Expense authorisation form", and "Request for Reimbursement form" simply to "Expense form". Mike Peel 19:57, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

We're not just talking about expenses (which usually refers to personal expenses, such as travel and accommodation), we're talking about all expenditure. --Tango 20:08, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

I'm not sure I understand the difference, tbh. Mike Peel 20:16, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

"Expenses" usually refers to costs that someone incurrs as a result of doing their work, such as travel costs. They relate to a specific person. Expenditure refers to all spending. Charles' wages or the GLAM-wiki catering costs, for example, are expenditure but not expenses. (There are other meanings of the word "expense" that are more synonymous with expenditure, but the meaning in this context is usually personal expenses.) --Tango 20:24, 3 February 2011 (UTC)