enses and assets with sufficient clarity, and detail SO they are clear and presentable to the executive bearing responsibility for making sure the organizations money is spent wisely and recorded properly. PRACTICAL IP AND TELECOM FOR BROADCAST ENGINEERING AND OPERATIONS Many organizations spend significantly more money than they should for communications equipment and services. Potential savings can range into the tens of millions of dollars or the order of 10% of earnings for the average Fortune 500 company each year. Most executives don't like to hear this; they want to believe they have the best accounting and purchasing available. Others rely on outsourcing solutions or consultants working for contingency fees. Regardless of approach and level of success achieved, it is prudent to examine and review the organizations communications cost man- agement process and practices. Such a review was described in Chapter 11. Properly conducted, it will ensure accurate, valid, proper accounting for and expenditure of the organization's money. Ideally, there are two versions of the departmental expenses sum- mary. One is reality-based-accounting history-and the other is forward-looking-the approved budget. The rest of this chapter is devoted to describing each and how to build and use both of them to manage communications cost and effectiveness. First we will de- scribe and define the ideal reports, then go into how to use them to get through the budgeting and planning process every organization goes through on an annual basis. IDEAL MONTHLY REPORTS The ideal monthly reports will include details about communications operating expenses and fixed assets. The focus of the reports is to declare current reality in the form of actual expenditures to date the current year, and compare actual results to the business plan or budget. These reports should come from the accounting system dir- ectly to each department manager, with copies to each manager's supervisory management chain as determined by organizational policy with respe