INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this report is to research and critique on the concept of beyond budgeting. According to the article " Budgeting- An unnecessary evil", a typical corporate budgeting process includes spending a ton of time in budgeting numbers and setting targets for the upcoming year. However, companies don't realize that not only they waste their time and valuable resources, it also takes away opportunities of growth and gives rise to budgetary gaming.

Recently, few companies have abolished the traditional budgeting process by embracing the concept of beyond budgeting. One such company is a 92-year old sink, cabinetry, water cooler and food service equipment manufacturer called Elkay manufacturing. In 2006, when CFO John  joined the company, he realized that
the company was plaqued by the usual budgeting frustrations. The company
 then shifted to what is called a "dynamic or continuous forecasting". The company forecasts on a continuous basis in an effort to adjust to the external factors and shifts resources when and where needed. The use of activity-based costing software allows it to drill down to each line item in the P&L statement. The drill down into the finishing costs revealed that doing the finishing after manufacture wasn't driving sales. With the stopping of finishing function, the company was able to save millions of dollars with very little impact on sales. In order to drive execution and achieve performance targets, the company implemented a balanced-scorercard framework. The company's customer-relationship-management system as well as the activity based costing tool is integrated into the balance score-card.

I am actively involved in preparing budgets annually at Audi Downtown Toronto (ADT). I agree that the process is very hectic and demands a lot of time and analysis. Often times, many numbers are based on the actuals of last year. As a result, we have missed targets, sometimes on a monthly basis and sometimes on an annual basis. Once the budget is finalized, it is locked in and is never adjusted. The compensation of salespeople and service advisors is often impacted by factors outside of their controls (such as basement flooding, road closures blocking access to the building). Staff is very demotivated due to missing targets and lower bonuses. I believe that beyond budgeting should be adopted by ADT. The budgets should be flexible and responsive to deal with unpredictable changes. Department managers should be involved in the budgeting process as opposed to just receiving their targets.

CONCLUSION
Beyond budgeting is not an easy change for most organizations that have been following the traditional budgeting for years. Budget is an important tool that gives the employees the financial targets to be achieved, aligns a company's mission with its financial operations. Budget has to be flexible but can't be eliminated.