A budget is a tool that allows an organization to put its strategy into financial terms. It can be described as the financial plan for the organization. The organization as a whole will prepare a profit plan, and it will also be concerned with investment in assets needed to achieve that plan and with cash flow being sufficient to support that plan. So it will typically have a profit plan, a capital budget, and a cash budget, which together will eventually result in a set of forecasted financial statements—an income statement, a balance sheet, and a statement of cash flow. This note focuses on the organization's profit plan.
