Imposed budget
An imposed budget, also called a top-down budget, is set by senior management and handed directly to operating managers without consultation, aligning quickly with strategic priorities but risking reduced commitment from managers who.
FrameworkBudgeting
See it move
In an imposed budget, senior management decides financial targets and hands them straight to divisional managers, who execute the plan rather than shape it. The approach is fast and keeps every unit aligned to a strategic priority such as cost reduction, but managers who never negotiated the target often feel less ownership of it and stretch less to achieve it.
Check yourself
At the start of the financial year, group headquarters issues each divisional manager a completed revenue target and overhead ceiling without requesting their input. The covering memo states that managers are to execute within these parameters and will be evaluated against them. Which budget approach does this describe?