Financial Management Planning Cycle
Developing estimates of the financial and other resource needs of voting operations is more effectively implemented within the context of an overall financial management plan than as an ad hoc exercise. Where electoral management bodies are permanent bodies, the establishment of a budget planning cycle, keyed to a legislative timetable for funds approval (see Timing for Electoral Funding), with regular reviews and updates of needs for voting operations expenditures, will assist in the readiness for implementing voting operations processes.
Even where elections are held at irregular intervals, the introduction of such a cycle can be based on historical data on average length between elections. (Full discussion of the responsibilities of electoral management bodies for budgeting/finance can be found in Budgeting/finance, Internal Development of Estimates, Submission and Justification of Request to Legislature, and Reconciliation of Budget to Available Funds.)
Long-term financial planning can bring with it substantial cost efficiencies in the acquisition and introduction of new systems and technologies at a pace that the organisation can digest. It will also provide a reasonable time frame to develop 'bottom up' estimates detailing accurately financial and other resource needed. For this reason, temporary electoral management bodies can be at a disadvantage in two respects when preparing budgets for voting operations:
1. Often there will be insufficient time to develop more accurate 'bottom up' budgets based on actual local conditions in each local administrative area (see Budgeting Systems). This may lead to budgets being calculated more on the basis of the costs of the last election, adjusted for any broad changes in the overall election environment, than on objective current data.
2. The lack of continuity can mean that systems, voting arrangements, materials have to be developed and implemented, staff recruited and purchases made in a very short time frame. This can limit the ability to purchase in a cost-effective manner. The compressed time frame for implementation of the necessary arrangements can result in higher overheads.
