HR Budgeting from Zero

If you're an HR Director who walks into the budget meeting with a 40-line spreadsheet - and walks outwith half of it cut - this book is for you.

You know the drill:

• The CFO asks "what's the ROI on this?" and you have a feeling, not a number.
• Finance slashes your training budget first, every single year, because you can't prove what it returns.
• You inherit last year's budget, add 10%, and call it planning.
• A recruiter resigns mid-year and suddenly your "approved" budget has a hole nobody planned for.

Stop walking in unarmed. This book is the system.

Here's what you'll learn:

• The Zero-Base Build - construct every line from actual headcount plans, not last year's guesswork.
• The Hiring Need Calculator - why growing by 50 people means hiring 120, and how to budget for it.
• The Cost-of-Vacancy Calculator - show Finance what an unfilled role burns per week.
• The Merit Increase Matrix - a salary review that explains itself to the CFO and to every employee.
• The Training ROI Calculator - defend every learning dollar with a payback number.
• The Automation ROI Case - prove the HRIS pays for itself before you buy it.
• The Budget Defense Script - answer the five questions every CFO asks, in their language.
• The Plan-vs-Fact Tracker - catch overspend in week two, not quarter three.

57 ready-to-use templates inside - no email walls, no downloads, every template is on the page.

Boudreau and Cascio's "Investing in People" gives you the theory for $36.50. An HR budgeting consultantcharges $200 an hour. Mike Pritula built these budgets at STB, Wargaming, Preply, and iDeals, and trained150,000+ HR professionals. This book costs less than dinner.

Stop apologizing for your budget. Start defending every line.