Dan’s thoughts on service charge budgeting

New year resolutions are already out the window, SC budget drafts are in or imminent, and you’re still waiting for information from the same teams as last year. Argh!

Despite service charge budgeting being an annual requirement in every housing organisation, the same challenges occur each year. At its worst, silo working, arbitrary deadlines and poor quality of information create a separation between organisation budgets and service charges to the point that they no longer correlate. This can be a disaster for your finances.

Maintaining good relationships and building an understanding of the importance of service charges will help your organisation set better deadlines and maintain the link between organisation and service charge budgets. That work starts far ahead of budget setting.

If you’re feeling the pain of a difficult budgeting process, don’t wait until next year to fix it. Take the opportunity to learn from this year and act on what you can to improve the process for 2024-25. With the latest global accounts from the RSH being released last week, the gap between income and expenditure has widened further across the sector. Solving the problem starts with better budgeting and all that comes with it.

Need a helping hand? Email hello@ad-esse.com to see how we can help you close the gap between income and expenditure.