Operating budget 2026/27
Budget document
A community centre budgets $668,800 of income against $665,060 of cost and lands on a surplus of $3,740. That is a margin of half a per cent, and the document is written so a board can see exactly which line puts it at risk.
The document, page by page
Every page as it renders and as it prints, with nothing summarised. Read the wording before you reuse it.
Section by section
What each section is for, so you can keep the ones you need and drop the rest.
- Cover
- The financial year, the organisation, who prepared the budget and the date the board adopted it.
- Headline figures
- Budgeted income, expenditure, surplus and the adoption date, so a reader knows the shape of the year before reading a table.
- Income
- Seven income lines with the prior year actual, the budget and the change, totalled and reconciled to $668,800.
- Expenditure, people
- Wages, superannuation, workers compensation and contract tutors, subtotalled, because three quarters of the cost base is people.
- Expenditure, building and programs
- Utilities, maintenance, cleaning, insurance, marketing, administration, audit, depreciation and materials, subtotalled separately.
- Result
- Income less expenditure for both years side by side, showing the surplus falling from $13,500 to $3,740.
- Why the surplus shrinks
- A callout naming the wage bill as two thirds of the increase and the fee decision the board made in exchange.
- How the year is phased
- Income, expenditure and net by quarter, with two negative quarters inside a positive year.
- What the budget assumes
- Six numbered assumptions on fees, superannuation, the grant, staffing, maintenance and depreciation, each with the figure it rests on.
- What would break this budget
- The three events that would turn a half per cent margin into a deficit, and the review cadence that would catch them.
- Capital items
- The kiln and the lighting upgrade, why each is needed, and the reserves they come out of.
- After the budget is adopted
- Who loads it into the accounts, who owns which lines, and when the budget is revised rather than defended.
- Board resolution
- The wording the board carried, with the figures restated, and treasurer and chair signature blocks.
What makes this document work
Every number is shown against last year
Each income and expenditure line carries the prior year actual, this year budget and the change between them. A reader can tell in one pass which lines moved and by how much, without opening a second document or doing the subtraction themselves.
The year is phased, not just totalled
A quarterly table splits both sides into four periods and shows two negative quarters inside a positive year. That is the part a treasurer actually manages, because term fees arrive in lumps and wages leave every fortnight.
The assumptions are named and priced
Six numbered assumptions say what the budget depends on and what each is worth. Enrolments hold at 1,420, and every hundred lost is about $17,300. That turns a guess into something the board can monitor.
Questions people ask
What goes in a budget document?
Income and expenditure by line for the coming year, the same lines for the year just finished so the change is visible, the result, the assumptions behind the figures, any capital spending and how it is funded, and the approval that adopts it.
Should a budget show last year as well?
Yes. A budget with only one column is a list of hopes. Showing last year turns every line into a claim about a change, which is what a board can question. This one adds a change column so the increase is stated rather than calculated.
Why split the year into quarters?
Because a healthy annual total can hide a quarter where the bank balance runs out. Here quarters two and four are both negative even though the year finishes ahead, which is the single most useful thing on the page for a treasurer.
Where does capital expenditure belong?
Outside the operating result. The kiln and the lighting rig are listed separately, funded from reserves, and the reserves position is shown before and after so the board can see that the spend takes the centre below its own policy floor.
Should a budget document write down its assumptions?
Yes, and this one gives them a section of their own. A budget is a set of guesses about grant timing, occupancy and wage rises, and only the person who built it knows which guesses are load bearing. Writing them down turns a later variance into a conversation about an assumption rather than about competence.
Why does the budget end with a board resolution?
Because a budget has no force until somebody adopts it. The resolution block records the meeting, the motion and who moved it, so the document is both the plan and the evidence it was approved. For an incorporated association that record is usually what an auditor asks for first.
Build your own in about a minute
The button below opens the generator with this use case already described. Change the wording to match your own, generate, then edit anything you like.
Make one like thisOther document examples
Donation receipt
A wildlife charity issues one receipt for a year of giving. The interesting part is the second table, where a raffle ticket and a gala seat are listed and then excluded, because something was received in return for them.
Expense report
A physiotherapist claims back four days at a conference. The interesting part is not the total but the subtraction: the trip cost one number and the reimbursement is a smaller one.
Credit note
A printer credits four hundred misregistered paperbacks back to a publisher. The money is the small part; the value is that the document explains itself well enough that nobody has to ring about it.
Want the steps in the builder? Read Create a document with AI, then Every document component and when to use it. For everything this generator can do, see the document maker.
Written and checked by the OneCraft team. Last checked .