Budgeted

Budgeted is the past participle of budget and, as an adjective, refers to items, amounts, or plans that have been prepared within a specified budget. In finance and accounting, budgeted figures represent the planned costs, revenues, or resources for a future period, serving as a baseline for performance measurement.

As a verb, to budget something means to allocate or plan it within the constraints of a budget. For example, a department budgets $500,000 for capital expenditures in the coming year. Budgeted amounts are often contrasted with actual amounts when performance is assessed, and variances (differences) are analyzed to explain over- or under-spending.

In project management and management accounting, the budgeted cost or budgeted revenue is set during the planning phase and used to guide procurement, staffing, and scheduling. Organizations may track budgeted figures in management reports and internal dashboards, updating forecasts as circumstances change.

Limitations: Budgeted numbers are educated estimates and depend on assumptions such as market conditions, inflation, and project scope. They can become obsolete if plans change, requiring revisions or rolling forecasts. The term should not be confused with estimated or forecast in some contexts; while related, budgeted figures are anchored to an approved budget.

See also: Budgeting; Variance analysis; Forecasting.