The Gfoa Recommends That Governments At All Levels Forecast

ForecastingNameCourseTutor’s NameDateGFOA recommends that all levels of government should forecast major revenues and expenditure for three to five years beyond the current budget period CITATION Gov11 \l 7177 (Government Finance Officers Association, 2011). In this paper we will discuss forecasting methods that would be used for revenue and expenditure projections. Appropriate forecasting methods should predict the future as accurately as possible given the information available on historical data and knowledge of future events. The objective of the forecasting methods reviewed is to avoid both underfunding and excessive funding during the forecast period of three years.Revenue ForecastsThe only revenue comes from 1,250 parking spots in the municipal garage; the forecasting method used for revenue will take into account the availability of quality data, the sustainability of the revenues stream and the high degree of accuracy sought. The availability of historical information provides greater certainty and therefore time series forecasting methods will be used to make revenue projections from past trends CITATION PJB02 \l 7177 (Blockwell & Davis, 2002).The following assumptions will be used in making revenue projections:The current trends in economic conditions will be sustained over the