Monitoring and forecasting spend

What do we mean by monitoring and forecasting spend?

The ability to understand the actual and committed spend against budget, and forecast the forthcoming spend for the remaining periods of the financial year and / or the term of transformation.

Knowledge

• Knowledge of public finance regulations and the council constitution including the scheme of delegation.
• Understanding of cost-of-service delivery, operational pressures, performance, and outcomes.
• Understanding of inflation, and wider economic factors that impact cost or funding.
• Understanding of public sector budget setting and management best practice.
• Understanding of project and programme management methodologies.

Skills

Able to:

• Think strategically: Working with colleagues to take a holistic view of budgets, forecasts, and variances to understand if there are any risks to balancing budgets at year end.
• Analyse budget variances: Understanding the root cause of any deviation from previous forecasts.
• Problem solve: Fixing the root cause of variances and remedying appropriately.
• Collaborate: With budget holders to ensure they review their actual and committed spend and report any other anomalies. Reviewing the new budget forecast and explanations for any over or underspends.
• Manage risks: Identifying any overspend risks and creating mitigating actions to ensure they are appropriately recorded and actioned as part of the wider council risk management framework.
• Produce financial reporting: Enabling regular monitoring and review of the council’s financial position by senior officers, and councillors at relevant governance groups. Act based on any direction and feedback from those stakeholders.

Behaviours

Behaviours associated with financial management and forecasting require team members to be:

• Collaborative
• Diligent
• Analytical
• Solution focused
• Decisive
• Resilient
• Adaptable and pragmatic
• Committed to continual learning

Finance for transformation – maturity index

A related finance for transformation maturity index has been created to enable councils to understand their current maturity and to set, and work towards, a target state. This can be downloaded below.