Ensure adherence to approved budgets

Update the approved budget adherence sheet and send the variance summary to Kendra, the finance director, and to Tom in procurement for review, asking for sign-off by end of business Friday; verify each cost line links to an approved purchase order and flags any overspend before sending.

Before I send the budget adherence summary to Kendra in finance, make it easy to approve: bring material variances above 5% to the top, show the root cause for each overspend, highlight any forecast drift for next quarter, and mark lines that require procurement action so she can sign off quickly.

A vendor invoice just created a 12% overspend on Project Delta and the purchase order status in our sheet is blank. I’m worried Kendra will demand explanations and procurement will point to missing approvals. Should I mark the variance as temporary and escalate to Tom, contact the vendor for a hold, or attach supporting docs and ask Kendra for provisional approval? What’s the most defensible immediate action to keep cashflow and credibility intact?

We repeatedly get surprised by late invoices and unlinked POs which creates last-minute variance fires and damages my credibility with finance. Which habit change will reduce these surprises: mandatory PO linkage before invoice approval, weekly PO-invoice reconciliation meetings with procurement, or a three-day hold policy for any invoice without a PO? Recommend the single change to trial and how to enforce it with vendors and the team.