Seek budgets to test assumptions and strategy more than to shave costs

When a law firm submits budget on a matter, there may be a salutary effect on the matter’s cost, but would it be much use if the budget were simply a number; $300,000 for six months?

No.

The real insights from a budget, and therefore its ability to corral costs, come from its strategic overview and assumptions: what goal, what tasks in what order, and how will they be managed brings more potency than the mere budgeted number (See my posts of April 27, 2005 on how far out budgets should go, April 14, 2005 on adjustments to budgets and Nov. 6, 2005 questioning the effectiveness of budgets.).

With budgets, it’s not the cents, it’s the sense.