The new year is here and your managing partner or executive director has asked you to prepare the budget for the firm. Where do you start? How can you accurately predict and then control the financial results for the next year? How do you get it approved? This introductory session will answer these questions and more, as well as provide you with a working model spreadsheet in Excel.

Objectives:

• Identify the key drivers in building a budget.
• Determine how to predict accurate financial results.
• Devise how to control the financial results for the new year
• Discuss how to get the budget approved.

Mike Palmer is a former CPA and the Executive Director of Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis LLP, a California-based law firm with 200 lawyers and five offices. An ALA member since 1987 and a past president of ALA, Palmer has worked in public accounting and has held various finance and administration positions, in addition to his law firm experience of more than 29 years.