Schools prepare two types of budget from the point of view of time coverage. A budget that covers the coming financial year is known as current budget.

Similarly, a budget that covers more than one year and keeps in view the long range perspective is known as long-term budget. Several times in a school, one has to prepare budget for specific programmes. This is known as programme budget. However, in most schools while preparing a budget one refers to previous year's budget and plans the income and expenditure for the current year. This is known as traditional budget. All these types of budget are discussed in the following paragraphs:

(i) Current Budget:

We know that schools receive grants from the Government for a year for carrying out many of their activities. These grants are for salaries of teaching and non-teaching staff, purchase of equipments, maintenance of building, sanitary materials, contingency, student services and the like Students also pay tuition fees, examination fees, sports and games fees, medical fees etc. per term or year. The money that a school gets from these sources is the income of the school in a year. Within that year a school organizes some activities for pupils. These activities include teaching, sports, cultural programmes, examination, construction etc.

(ii) Long-term Budget:

Schools are established by Government or private organisations with certain objectives. In order to achieve the long-term objectives, a school plans well in advance and continues to work year after year to achieve these objectives. Such plans layout the possible sources of school's income and possible heads of expenditure for more than one year, generally five years. But, plans are also prepared for 10-15 years or even more. Taking into consideration such long-term budget the fiscal budget of a school is generally worked out. The long-term budget provides a perspective and priority for the current budget to be prepared.

(iii) School Programme Budget:

This budget is prepared by a school for