As soon as you record in details your financial situation, the software will guide your way out of the debt trap you are trying to get away from. Budgeting software companies offer technical support and promises that mathematical problems about budgeting are a thing of the past. Budgeting software empowers individuals and organizations to plan, analyze and manage money in real time for better performance. The cash expenses will be difficult to keep record of if you are not aware. Lunches, coffee, parking ticket, beers, movies and the like are hard to remember unless you write them down as soon as they are incurred. As you go on with your budgeting, you can add more categories. Modification is constant for spending is not only limited to your regular expenditures. Most often than not, people pay utility bills and buy luxurious items before they a realization that there is no room to save money for other necessary expenses anymore. Zero based budgeting helps in the prevention of this problem. Zero based budgeting is a method of budgeting in which all expenses must be justified in each new period, as opposed to only explaining the amounts requested in excess of the previous period's funding. - Do I need my money for something else more important? - Will this item go on sale? If you happen to take a moment to think about whether you should buy or not, then dont. This only means that you do not probably want to spend your money and save it for something of more importance. Keep these simple thoughts in mind. If their decision on spending their money is wrong, they will learn from it. Teach them about the difference of wants and needs. This is very important in budgeting money. For parents: It is important to teach your children on budgeting money. But make sure to practice what you preach. Being a good example to them and budgeting money wisely, if the best way you can teach them. The Australian National Audit Office has identified the advantages of activity based budgeting: The Advantages - Output costs are supported by a schedule of costed activities - Opportunities to examine work processes - Identifies non value-adding activities that can be eliminated - Basis of a performance measurement system and direct link between strategic goals and operational realities - Enables cost profiles to be managed - Accurate costing data for operational management - Costs are transparent, understandable and actionable Disadvantages - Activity definition may become too detailed and the model may become too complex and difficult to maintain - Underestimation of the task of collecting activity driver data - Implementation may be considered a financial management fad and there is insufficient commitment from operational managers Activity Based Budgeting Disadvantages - Usually requires buying Activity Based Budgeting software - Requires training of all managers including budgeting department - Requires people to really understand what drives their budget - Eliminates excuse that activity volume changed because it makes visible volume changes - Requires everyone to collect or estimate activity volume By understanding how resources are transformed into products or services, and byfocusing on the cost of activities, activity based budgeting helps an organisation to obtain a greaterunderstanding of how costs behave in their organization and which activities create significant amounts of cost.