I have to start somewhere

My first assignment in Budgeting is to develop the budget for the financial aid office of the fictional Smith University. I thought it was not too daunting of an assignment. I've made budgets before and I think I generally understand the goals and purposes of budgets. Then I was told that I was not allowed to do any research. When I say I've made budgets, I am of course talking about personal budgets for myself. The only bills I had were my car payment and my cell phone. It wasn't so much a budget as it was determining how much I could spend at Barnes and Noble every month. I have no idea what expenditures a university office has, or how much those things cost. There were two results from my assignment. First, it showed my professor how much I knew. In the process, it showed me how much I didn't know.

Here it is, my first budget:

Smith University
Financial Aid Office
2008 Budget
			Amount
Salaries		70%	$507,500
	Classified
	NonClassified
	Student Help
Staff Development		8%	$58,000
	Training
	Travel
Equipment		8%	$58,000
	Maintenance
	Software
	Upgrades
Supplies		6%	$43,500
Telephone		1%	$7,250
	Long Distance Charges
	Cellular Phones
Promotion		7%	$50,750
	Printing
	Mailing
Total			$725,000

I failed to budget for any fringe benefits for my employees. I suppose I'll have a high turnover rate when they all realize that they don't have any health insurance. I made some other mistakes too, but that is really the one I feel the worst about. Fortunately, I will turn in a revised budget after I do some research, and meet with my campus' financial aid director.