title: Preparing the operating budget.
abstract: The process of preparing a hospital pharmacy budget is presented. The desired characteristics of a budget and the process by which it is developed and approved are described. Fixed, flexible, and zero-based budget types are explained, as are the major components of a well-developed budget: expense, workload, productivity, revenue, and capital equipment and other expenditures. Specific methods for projecting expenses and revenues, based on historical data, are presented along with a discussion of variables that must be considered in order to achieve an accurate and useful budget. The current shift in emphasis away from revenue capture toward critical analysis of pharmacy costs underscores the importance of budgetary analysis for hospital pharmacy managers.
mesh_terms: D002017:Budgets; D005376:Financial Management; D010607:Pharmacy Service, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*