Finance Manager Mock Interview
Master 25 Finance Manager interview questions covering budgeting, forecasting, and financial leadership.
Question 2 of 25
How have you managed the annual budget process in previous roles?
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Brian Schuchart is a CPA and Senior Finance Business Partner. His professional experience includes senior management roles with NBC Sports, Virtual Health, and the Children's Hospital of Philadephia.
At most companies with December 31st year-ends, the budget process can kick off as early as summer and normally wraps up in December or January. Describe important parts of the process, such as where targets are obtained from, the budget build, and review process. It may be good dialogue to then ask the interviewer how the company's process differs from the one you described.
Brian Schuchart is a CPA and Senior Finance Business Partner. His professional experience includes senior management roles with NBC Sports, Virtual Health, and the Children's Hospital of Philadephia.
"In my previous role, we began the budget process in September. Targets for the upcoming year were developed by the CEO and CFO based on acceptable growth rates. Then, each division built up their budgets based on the targets. Our approach was to use the current year forecast as a jumping off point, and then adjusted based on the top-down direction. In addition to building the detailed monthly budget, we developed budget decks which we reviewed with the CFO. There were several iterations of the budget before it was finalized in early January. How does that compare to the budget process at XYZ Corporation?"
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Yes, Management of budgets includes implementing the activities that are budgeted for and making sure that they are within budget, if the activities result in over expenditure we should apply for redirection of funds from the donor and be implemented if authority is granted.
Chad's Feedback
You've done a nice job explaining tasks associated with managing a budget, but you have not quite answered the question. Describe to the interviewer how you managed the budget process in a previous position. Ensure you discuss the timing of the process, as well as how targets were developed, how the budget was set, and how the review process worked. You may also want to ask the interviewer how the company's process differs from the one you described.
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