A project budget is the estimated financial plan for a project for which funding is required. The budget document includes the expenses that the client organization anticipates to incur for a specified period of time, as well as earned income that will be generated during the course of the project. Every project, no matter how simple, needs to have a budget that sets limits on how much money is spent on each activity. A budget is a pivotal tool that is used by many project teams within the Postal Service as a baseline to determine whether the project is on track. For the client, the budget correlates directly to the success of the effort.
Budgets are usually set and managed for the duration of the project. In some cases, the client might prefer to work with a separate budget at each stage or phase of the project.