David Bailey is a full-time NHS accountant who specialises in training staff of all disciplines in budgeting and finance. He is currently South Devon Healthcare's Financial Training Accountant.

Aim and introduction PART ONE: WHAT ARE BUDGETS? Whose budget is it? What are budgets? What is the purpose of budgets? How was my budget set? How is my pay budget calculated? How is my non-pay budget calculated? What do I do if my budget is out of date? Shoudl I agree to my budget? PART TWO: WHAT DO ACCOUNTANTS DO? What do accountants do? What are my responsibilities? PART THREE: WHAT DO MY REPORTS MEAN? What do my reports mean? How can financial information be presented? PART FOUR: HOW DO I MANAGE MY BUDGET? How do I manage my budget? How do I monitor my budget? How do I forsee future problems? Why do budgets overspend and underspend? What can I control in my budget? How do I get more budget to fund my plans? What are the financial rules: If I overspend? If I underspend? If I make a permanent saving? If I want to spend the money on something else? How do I save money from my budget? CASE STUDY A case study in interpreting and controlling budgets INDEX