Benchmark – IT Budgeting
The purpose of this assignment is to understand the IT budgeting process, analyze the result and explain the variance between the budget and the actual results.
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Review the "IT Budget" Excel spreadsheet to complete the assignment.
Part 1: Existing IT Budget
Review the existing IT budget presented on the "IT Budget" spreadsheet and answer the following questions in an outline:
Why is it important to prepare an IT budget?
What are some key takeaways from this budget example?
What types of details seem to be missing from this budget?
What is the purpose of the internal charge-back and how would you communicate this to those receiving the charge?
If your leadership team asked you to cut your budget by 5%, what steps would you take?
What types of backup information you would need to support your budget process?
Part 2: Actual IT Cost
Using the following assumptions, complete the Actual Cost 2021 results (the highlighted portion of the "IT Budget" spreadsheet).
Your new project was $5k over plan, but it was started midyear instead of starting January 1st.
Your existing staff was required to do unplanned regulatory training costing $2,000.
You were only able to replace 10 servers instead of 12.
You had a 10% overrun on your implementation costs for new projects.
Part 3: Summary of Actual vs. Budget
In your outline document, summarize the actual vs. budget comparison, including comments about considerations for your IT budget for the next year, given this years' results.
General Requirements
While APA style is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected, and documentation of sources should be presented using APA formatting guidelines, which can be found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.
This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
You are not required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite.
Benchmark Information:
This benchmark assignment assesses the following programmatic competencies:
MS Information Technology Management
4.2: Interpret financial and accounting information to manage information technology budgeting processes.
Budget
| Topic 6 | |||||
| GOAL, Inc. IT Budget | |||||
| Annual Budget 2021 | Comments | Actual Cost 2021 | Variance | ||
| Committed Expenditures | |||||
| Service Contracts | 50,000 | 50,000 | |||
| Repairs | 5,000 | 5,000 | |||
| Leases | 15,000 | 15,000 | |||
| Software | 20,000 | 20,000 | |||
| Internal Support | 40,000 | 40,000 | |||
| External Support | 23,000 | 23,000 | |||
| Depreciation | 13,500 | 13,500 | |||
| Supplies | 400 | 400 | |||
| Training | 2,000 | 2,000 | |||
| TOTAL COMMITED EXPENDITURES | 168,900 | – 0 | 168,900 | ||
| Upgrades | |||||
| CPU Upgrades | 4,220 | 4,220 | |||
| Memory Addition | 5,000 | 5,000 | |||
| TOTAL UPGRADES | 9,220 | – 0 | 9,220 | ||
| Replacements | |||||
| Depreciation | 4,000 | 12 servers @ $1,000 each depreciated over 3 years | – 0 | 4,000 | |
| Implementation Costs | 3,200 | 3,200 | |||
| Leases | 3,000 | 3,000 | |||
| TOTAL REPLACEMENTS | 10,200 | – 0 | 10,200 | ||
| – 0 | |||||
| New Projects | – 0 | ||||
| Capital Cost of New Hardware | – 0 | ||||
| Depreciation | 5,000 | 1 server @ $20,000 depreciated over 4 years | – 0 | 5,000 | |
| Implementation Costs | 3,200 | 3,200 | |||
| Leases | 3,000 | 3,000 | |||
| Internal Support | 20,000 | 20,000 | |||
| TOTAL NEW PROJECTS | 31,200 | – 0 | 31,200 | ||
| – 0 | |||||
| TOTAL COSTS | 219,520 | – 0 | 219,520 | ||
| – 0 | |||||
| Internal charge-back | – 0 | ||||
| Department A (25% utilization) | (54,880) | – 0 | (54,880) | ||
| Department A (25% utilization) | (109,760) | – 0 | (109,760) | ||
| Department A (50% utilization) | (54,880) | – 0 | (54,880) | ||
| (219,520) | – 0 | (219,520) | |||
