One of the primary goals of Finance is to coordinate the income and expenses of the organization. To this end, the following procedures are adopted as guidelines to the interaction of departments, to divisions, to finance and the Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

The Budgeting Guide (v1.2) is available to help with the creation of departmental budgets

Establishing the Convergence Events Budget

  1. Gather previous years expenses – The Finance Department will document all categories of income and expense for the of the previous year and have this available upon request by the September CONvergence ConCom Meeting.
  2. Draft request budgets – The Department Heads establish a requested budget before the budget meeting which is the October CONvergence ConCom Meeting. The goal is to list all major/onetime expenses as well as the yearly expectations of expenses and incomes.  The request budget is due to be delivered from the Department Heads to the Divisional Director at the October CONvergence ConCom Meeting.
  3. Submit tentative budgets – The Divisional Directors work with the departments to finalize their budget requests and submit it to the CFO.  This is due one week after the October CONvergence ConCom meeting
  4. Adjust tentative budgets – The Divisional Directors, lead by the CFO, agrees on the overall starting Convergence Events budget.  This happens at the November Board of Directors meeting.
  5. Confirm final budget with departments – The Divisional Directors are responsible for reporting the agreed on budgets back to their departments by the November CONvergence ConCom meeting.

To Change a Department’s Approved Budget (Increase or Decrease):

  1. Develop and submit a budget change request to the Divisional Director – The Head(s) of a department are responsible for establishing the need for a change in budget and submitting a written request for the change with adequate supporting explanations.
  2. Divisional Approval Process – The Divisional Director reviews the request and will do one of the following:
    1. Deny and return the request to the Department Head(s). (Reference step 4)
    2. Approve and send on the request to the Convergence Events CFO.
  3. Financial Approval Process – The CFO reviews the request and will do one of the following:
    1. Deny and return the request to the Divisional Director who will inform the Department Head(s) of the decision. (Reference step 4)
    2. Approve the request and inform the Divisional Director of the new budget. The Divisional Director will inform the Department Head(s) of the new budget.
  4. Denial Appeal Process – In the case of either the Divisional Director or the CFO denying a budget change request, the Department Head(s) and/or the Divisional Director will have the option to appeal the denial to the Convergence Events Board of Directors
    1. File an appeal – EMail the following to the Board of Directors:
      1. The unaltered denied budget change request.
      2. The denial and any justification or explanation given with it.
      3. Justification and explanation of the appeal.
      4. Any further relevant information.
    2. Board of Directors Decision – After careful review, which may or may not include a request for more information, the Board of Directors will do one of the following:
      1. Deny and return the appeal to the Divisional Director.
      2. Approve the appeal after which Divisional Director will inform the Department Head(s) of the new budget.