Proposal for Budget Process

Hello,

having started to regularly publish our monthly ledgers, [1] and having published the grants page, [2] the next step is to have a regularly published, rolling budget, which is currently in the works. The board is currently working on optimizing the budgetting process, and here's a first draft, based on the work of Joel, Norbert and myself.

Feedback welcome!
Florian

[1] https://blog.documentfoundation.org/2015/06/19/publication-of-tdf-ledgers/

[2] http://www.documentfoundation.org/grant-request/

Process

Step 1: 3 Months

* Individual board members and/or staff add items to the budget “Voting” page
     * This will include all requested information including:
         * Short Name;
         * Description;
             * Detailed enough to make us know what is going on;
         * Added By;
         * Owned By;
             * Who will own the project if approved
         * Type
             * Reoccurring or One-Time Cost
             * Optional: Tender yes/no [if something should be tendered or rather not]
         * Category [these might need some fine-tuning, but can always be changed/extended later on]
             * Development;
             * Marketing;
             * Quality Assurance;
             * Infra;
             * Documentation;
             * UX
             * Other
         * Requested Amount, it should contain all costs, including VAT, taxes, fees, postage, insurance, social security etc. -> if in doubt, please ask Florian for details
         * Optional: Man Hours [in case we tender, that might help in comparing rates or at least getting a rough overview]
         * Optional: Staff doable [in case there's a task that can possibly be done by staff members, so it, depending on other pending tasks, will be transformed to a staff task and the sum removed from the budget]
         * Optional: Duration [is this a longer tasks we might have to split up to two fiscal years]
         * Optional: Redmine URL [in case this is already in Redmine, can be added later during the process when approved, of course]

Step 2: 4 Weeks (2 Meetings)

* Review all projects listed
     * Add questions
* Vote Individually Prior to 2nd Meeting
     * Rank: The 1-5 is flawed because there is absolutely no limit that we put on ourselves in terms of how many 1's or 5's we give. By this method basically someone can give everything a 5 which gives us absolutely no information as to that person's actual preferences.
         * Instead: Over the course of a quarter people add items to the projects page. At the end of the quarter each director/deputy ranks them.
             * For example if there are 15 items on the list, we give a rank from 1-15, no repeating.
             * We give ourselves 4 weeks to vote and ask questions.

Step 3: Vote

* By end of 2nd Meeting we vote – going down the list based on average ranking
* Once we get to the first down vote, project voting ends
     * Exception: If there is a low cost item that we want to specially approve because there is the budget for it, of course this is fine.

Step 4: Organization

* Florian organizes the document
     * Approved items
         * Reoccurring approved items go to “Approved Reoccurring Items”
         * One-Time Projects items go to “Approved One Off Projects”
     * Non-Approved
         * Everything else gets moved to “Non-Approved Projects”
* If the person who added it wants to put it back to projects _later_ they are more than free to do this, but at the end of voting the projects page should be clean.
     * If items are put back – all voting should be deleted as these were ranked based on what was there, they would have to be reassessed after new items are added again
* Redmine
     * Florian + staff make tickets for any items that need one and assigns it to the people who said they would own the projects

Step 5: Tracking and Documentation

* Whoever owns a project is responsible for keeping everyone up to date and can be requested at any time to provide an update;
* Florian will provide an overview of the following on a regular basis (no less than once a quarter)
     * Total amount needing to be allocated by End of Year;
     * Current amount allocated
         * Reoccurring;
         * One-Time
     * Current Amount Spent
         * Reoccurring;
         * One-Time
     * Amount Allocated but not spent
         * Can discuss any concerns here and individual directors/deputies may be requested to answer questions;
     * Amount remaining
         * A single amount that highlights how much we need to allocate by end of year.
     * Florian can highlight any areas where he thinks money is needed or where we've overfunded/underfunded.
* Document will be _standardized_
     * Joel more than happy to work with Florian to create a standardized form that will be emailed out no less than once a quarter.

Hello,

there has been a change proposal to the budget process, and I'm attaching the complete, new proposal below.
I ask the board to vote on this, so we can formalize the process.

Florian

Process

Step 1: 3 Months

* Individual board members and/or staff add items to the budget “Voting” page
     * This will include all requested information including:
         * Short Name;
         * Description;
             * Detailed enough to make us know what is going on;
         * Added By;
         * Owned By;
             * Who will own the project if approved
         * Type
             * Reoccurring or One-Time Cost
             * Optional: Tender yes/no [if something should be tendered or rather not]
         * Category [these might need some fine-tuning, but can always be changed/extended later on]
             * Development;
             * Marketing;
             * Quality Assurance;
             * Infra;
             * Documentation;
             * UX
             * Other
         * Requested Amount, it should contain all costs, including VAT, taxes, fees, postage, insurance, social security etc. -> if in doubt, please ask Florian for details
         * Optional: Man Hours [in case we tender, that might help in comparing rates or at least getting a rough overview]
         * Optional: Staff doable [in case there's a task that can possibly be done by staff members, so it, depending on other pending tasks, will be transformed to a staff task and the sum removed from the budget]
         * Optional: Duration [is this a longer tasks we might have to split up to two fiscal years]
         * Optional: Redmine URL [in case this is already in Redmine, can be added later during the process when approved, of course]

Step 2: 4 Weeks (2 Meetings)

* Review all projects listed
      * Add questions
* Vote Individually Prior to 2nd Meeting
      * Score proposals:
          Each director/deputy scores the proposals from 0-100.
   The overall score is the average of all completed scores.
   Each line item must have enough scores to meet quorum.
      * We give ourselves 4 weeks to vote and ask questions.

Step 3: Vote

* By end of 2nd Meeting we vote – going down the list based on average score
* Once we get to the first down vote, project voting ends
      * Exception: If there is a low cost item that we want to specially approve because there is the budget for it, of course this is fine.

Step 4: Organization

* Florian organizes the document
     * Approved items
         * Reoccurring approved items go to “Approved Reoccurring Items”
         * One-Time Projects items go to “Approved One Off Projects”
     * Non-Approved
         * Everything else gets moved to “Non-Approved Projects”
* If the person who added it wants to put it back to projects _later_ they are more than free to do this, but at the end of voting the projects page should be clean.
     * If items are put back – all voting should be deleted as these were ranked based on what was there, they would have to be reassessed after new items are added again
* Redmine
     * Florian + staff make tickets for any items that need one and assigns it to the people who said they would own the projects

Step 5: Tracking and Documentation

* Whoever owns a project is responsible for keeping everyone up to date and can be requested at any time to provide an update;
* Florian will provide an overview of the following on a regular basis (no less than once a quarter)
     * Total amount needing to be allocated by End of Year;
     * Current amount allocated
         * Reoccurring;
         * One-Time
     * Current Amount Spent
         * Reoccurring;
         * One-Time
     * Amount Allocated but not spent
         * Can discuss any concerns here and individual directors/deputies may be requested to answer questions;
     * Amount remaining
         * A single amount that highlights how much we need to allocate by end of year.
     * Florian can highlight any areas where he thinks money is needed or where we've overfunded/underfunded.
* Document will be _standardized_
     * Joel more than happy to work with Florian to create a standardized form that will be emailed out no less than once a quarter.

+1 thanks for that Florian !

    Michael.

+1

Best,

On 24-07-2015 09:12, Florian Effenberger wrote:

Hello,

there has been a change proposal to the budget process, and I’m attaching the complete, new proposal below.
I ask the board to vote on this, so we can formalize the process.

Florian

Process

Step 1: 3 Months

  • Individual board members and/or staff add items to the budget “Voting” page
  • This will include all requested information including:
  • Short Name;
  • Description;
  • Detailed enough to make us know what is going on;
  • Added By;
  • Owned By;
  • Who will own the project if approved
  • Type
  • Reoccurring or One-Time Cost
  • Optional: Tender yes/no [if something should be tendered or rather not]
  • Category [these might need some fine-tuning, but can always be changed/extended later on]
  • Development;
  • Marketing;
  • Quality Assurance;
  • Infra;
  • Documentation;
  • UX
  • Other
  • Requested Amount, it should contain all costs, including VAT, taxes, fees, postage, insurance, social security etc. → if in doubt, please ask Florian for details
  • Optional: Man Hours [in case we tender, that might help in comparing rates or at least getting a rough overview]
  • Optional: Staff doable [in case there’s a task that can possibly be done by staff members, so it, depending on other pending tasks, will be transformed to a staff task and the sum removed from the budget]
  • Optional: Duration [is this a longer tasks we might have to split up to two fiscal years]
  • Optional: Redmine URL [in case this is already in Redmine, can be added later during the process when approved, of course]

Step 2: 4 Weeks (2 Meetings)

  • Review all projects listed
  • Add questions
  • Vote Individually Prior to 2nd Meeting
  • Score proposals:
    Each director/deputy scores the proposals from 0-100.
    The overall score is the average of all completed scores.
    Each line item must have enough scores to meet quorum.
  • We give ourselves 4 weeks to vote and ask questions.

Step 3: Vote

  • By end of 2nd Meeting we vote – going down the list based on average score
  • Once we get to the first down vote, project voting ends
  • Exception: If there is a low cost item that we want to specially approve because there is the budget for it, of course this is fine.

Step 4: Organization

  • Florian organizes the document
  • Approved items
  • Reoccurring approved items go to “Approved Reoccurring Items”
  • One-Time Projects items go to “Approved One Off Projects”
  • Non-Approved
  • Everything else gets moved to “Non-Approved Projects”
  • If the person who added it wants to put it back to projects later they are more than free to do this, but at the end of voting the projects page should be clean.
  • If items are put back – all voting should be deleted as these were ranked based on what was there, they would have to be reassessed after new items are added again
  • Redmine
  • Florian + staff make tickets for any items that need one and assigns it to the people who said they would own the projects

Step 5: Tracking and Documentation

  • Whoever owns a project is responsible for keeping everyone up to date and can be requested at any time to provide an update;
  • Florian will provide an overview of the following on a regular basis (no less than once a quarter)
  • Total amount needing to be allocated by End of Year;
  • Current amount allocated
  • Reoccurring;
  • One-Time
  • Current Amount Spent
  • Reoccurring;
  • One-Time
  • Amount Allocated but not spent
  • Can discuss any concerns here and individual directors/deputies may be requested to answer questions;
  • Amount remaining
  • A single amount that highlights how much we need to allocate by end of year.
  • Florian can highlight any areas where he thinks money is needed or where we’ve overfunded/underfunded.
  • Document will be standardized
  • Joel more than happy to work with Florian to create a standardized form that will be emailed out no less than once a quarter.

Florian Effenberger wrote:

there has been a change proposal to the budget process, and I'm attaching
the complete, new proposal below.
I ask the board to vote on this, so we can formalize the process.

+1 to the referenced propisal.

Best,

-- Thorsten

Looks awesome. +1

Best,
Joel

Hi,

I ask the board to vote on this, so we can formalize the process.

Approving this.

Best,

Bjoern

Hi,

I ask the board to vote on this, so we can formalize the process.

Approving.

  Eike

Hello,

The Board of Directors at the time of voting consists of 7 seat holders without deputies. In order to be quorate, the vote needs to have 1/2 of the Board of Directors members, which gives 4.

A total of 5 Board of Directors members have participated in the vote. The vote is quorate.

A quorum could be reached with a simple majority of 3 votes.

Result of vote: 5 approvals, 0 neutral, 0 disapprovals.
Decision: The request has been accepted.

This message is to be archived by the BoD members and their deputies.

Florian