Budget sheet

Budget sheet is a statement of annual appropriation, budget release and budget expenditure. It is also called as budget ledger. It is prepared by operating level So, this is the main subsidiary book for operating level offices of Government on The main objective of this statement is to keep control upon the budget. It provides adequate information relating to budget release, budget expenditures, and it is also reveals surpluses on various budget heads. It is a most important tool for the financial administration because it provides sufficient information regarding the use of budget. The operating level offices have to make the budget expenditure remaining within the budget appropriation approved by the Ministry of Finance. The budget sheet is very helpful to exercise the control in this respect. It also provides necessary information for preparing a report of budget expenditure. The transactions are first of all journalized and then entered in it. It is mentioned under AGF No. 8. It has three parts, they are:

i)  Annual appropriation:- This is the 1st part of the budget sheet. The budget amounts approved for the fiscal year are entered in this part under different heads without preparing any journal voucher. All interhead transfer and inter-office transfer of budget are also shown in this part. The amount transferred  from a head is parenthesized to show decrease in the head and the same amount is written in the heads column to which it is transferred outside the bracket.

ii)  Budget release:- This is the 2nd part of the budget sheet. The budget releases, received in different installment, are entered in this part after the journal vouchers are prepared. The budget release amounts are entered in different columns as provided. At the end of the fiscal year, this part is closed by depositing the surplus amount into freeze consolidated fund A/c. The surpluses are shown within the bracket in the columns of concerned budget heads to show the closing. Here brackets stand for credit in debit column and debit in credit column.

iii.  Expenditure:- Expenditure is the last part of the budget sheet. Expenditures made under different heads of amounts are journalized first and then entered in this portion. Expenditures made through petty cash fund are entered in it at the time of reimbursement only or on the basis of payment slip. Posting of advance clearance, brackets are used for mentioning the amount of advance cleared. The actual expenditure is written outside the bracket in the column for which the advance was provided. At the end of every month each column is totalled separately. Just below the monthly totals, the totals of each column upto the last of previous month are shown and totaled together.

Methods or procedure of preparing budget sheet 

 Following are the methods or procedures required for preparation of budget sheet.

i)  The amount of approved annual budget in different heads and sub-head are recorded in the first part of the budget sheet without preparing Journal voucher. In the first part of budget sheet inter head transfer are also recorded. Annual appropriation shown in the 1st part of budget sheet are maximum limitation of budget beyond which no expenditure can be made.

ii)  The amount of budget released from central level office is shown in the second part of the budget sheet. In this part the amount of budget release, imprest fund release and additional imprest fund release are shown. The budget release received are recorded in different heads and sub-heads. The imprest fund release is recorded in the total column only.

iii)  The amount of budget expenditure on different budget heads and subheads are recorded in the last part of the budget sheet. The budget expenditure advance transactions are also shown in this part.

iv)  All the budget expenditure made are shown in the budget expenditure columns in accordance with budget head numbers so provided in the columns. The advances given are treaded as expenditure and shown in the same expenditure column. The actual amount spent is shown outside the bracket and the advance amount cleared are shown within bracket in the same column at the time of advance clearance.

v)  All expenditures made through petty cash fund are also recorded in budget expenditure column.

vi)  At the end of the month all the budget expenditure columns are totaled separately and budget expenditure made till previous month are brought down and totaled to find the ground total of expenditure made. This helps to know the total budget expenditure made till date.