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# Managing the budget

When the budget is agreed, you should be clear about who will take responsibility for managing it. Budget management would normally include:

- Approving expenditure charged to the budget.
- Monitoring expenditure against the budget.
- Liaising and negotiating with the donors.

In emergencies the following are often difficult:

- Major expenditure will be made by different staff in different locations and they will not always be able to get approval first.
- Bringing all the information about expenditure together will take time. Overspending or underspending may only be confirmed when it is too late.

You and your line manager should discuss how you will manage the budget. One approach is that you only take responsibility for managing the specific budget lines for any income and expenditure that happens in the field. For example, this might include national salaries but not international salaries. You could then agree to tell each other about any large differences that develop between actual expenditure and budgeted expenditure. Case study