FITS - Financial Management

As described in the overall FITS implementation approach, we recommend a phased approach to implementing new processes.

FITS Financial Management is for people with little free time to spend on implementing processes and procedures and whose day-to-day activities are unpredictable and must take priority.

Our aim is to help you begin to remove some of the unpredictability by introducing best-practice processes in small steps and so start to realise the benefits as quickly as possible.

FITS Financial Management is concerned with the mechanics of budgeting and recording how much money is actually spent.  It is not concerned with how purchasing should be carried out or what money should be spent on. 

'Total cost of ownership' is a term used to describe what the overall cost of ICT is when other costs such as installation, support, training, consumables, maintenance and administration are added to the initial cost of the actual hardware and software. Visit the purchasing information at Becta site for guidance on purchasing.  We recommend that you read this as well as FITS Financial Management to gain a full picture of the financial implications of ICT and how to manage it.

FITS Financial Management aims to give you a quick, short-term plan to take control of expenditure.  A good start is to get into the habit of recording all actual expenditure. This can be developed to help you prepare the next ICT budget and you can refine your cost recording method as necessary to support any internal charging policies that you may have.  This implementation guide gives you all you need to know to get started in financial management.