Our budget is created in July by the Treasurer and President. We have an Executive Board meeting to review the items and discuss any new projects or plans that we wish to incorporate for the new school year.
In August, we have a meeting with all our Chairpersons. We provide them with copies of all needed forms (facility request forms, expense vouchers, & their responsibilities according to the bylaws). At that meeting we tell them what their budget is. However, if they they are to review their plans and present any changes before the first PTO meeting in September.
It gives us a month to hear their plans & consider their requests for increase or adjust things down.
Our September PTO meeting is with parents and that is when we present the budget for the year. We explain any increases or decreases from the previous years, name our fundraisers for the year & plans for income, discuss any major project we wish to accomplish that year. The budget is then discussed, voted & accepted at the September meeting.

Don't feel its too early to set your budget. Being that you are new, it may take you a while to actually determine your expense amounts and projected income.
You may also want to take the summer to write up (if you don't have bylaws) some guidelines for your chairpersons in spending their allotted budgets. Our bylaws state that although chairpersons are responsibile for their budgeted amounts, they must still present all plans to the Executive Board. (It's just a way to ensure that funds are being spent wisely)

Good Luck

IMO, you should start with what you'd like to purchase/sopnsor/support. Add up all of these things -- don't vote on anything at the first meeting. Accept ideas. Have your officers realistically estimate the cost of each thing, both in dollars and in time. (Even if something is not very expensive, it may require more volunteer hours than your group can handle.) Add up the dollars and then decide if you could possibly raise that much. If you can, plan to buy it all. At the next meeting, have members vote on what is most important to them. (ie number these 1-x, 1 being most important to our school.) Tally up, and as you have the dollars for each, buy it.

Remember to add costs of doing business, like buying paper and copying and getting permits and stuff if necessary.

If you could not raise that much, still have members prioritize, but make it clear that there is a good chance things on the bottom of the list will not be purchased.

Figure out your fundraisers, either as a big group or in committees. I like to take ideas from a meeting and let small committees study them. Stick them on a calendar and estimate when $$ will come in and go out.

Once the school year comes, you can keep the running list of agreed upon purchases and note how much has been raised towards the goal.

You can even use this as PR for your PTO -- have a big sign with your target items and 'meters' that you can color in.

There are ohter ways to approach this, but I think that if you start with where you want to go, it is easier to figure out the best way to get there.

TIP: Allow your group to move slowly. Rushing things leads to mistakes.

:confused: As a newly established PTO and president, I am trying to figure out how to run our program. I want to create structure and procedures for the longevity of it and have a PTO in the future that will outlive my involvement. However, starting from scratch has been nothing short of mind numbing. I know that June is not a good month to be having meetings and doing budgets but we just established in March and have been working our way into it. What I have decided to do is announce a budget meeting during our next meeting. Anyone that has a request for the PTO for next year can come and have a few minutes to give their proposal/request and submit some supporting estimates. Following this then a budget would be decided. The school has operated for so long without a PTO fund they are really not asking much of us at this time so basically these would be teachers and possibly parents with their opinions/wants/needs. Has anyone done this before? Have I opened a big can of worms for myself? The other issue is who then ultimately decides on the budget? So far we have just done a majority rules and if you're at the meeting when we vote, you get a vote. It has been pretty casual. I did say up front at our first meeting that I planned on running votes majority rules and if there is ever a conflict the board members would decide. I don't know how to decide on a budget though. Should this be board members only voting and in a closed meeting once we hear all proposals....or should it be majority rules for all those who attend the next meeting. I don't want this to end in mass chaos but we definitely need goals and a budget for the next year. Also, I have been trying to figure out from past posts how other PTOs operate. do you set a budget then raise the funds to pay for this budget or do you raise funds the year before and then determine how to spend the money the next year. Do you clear out the bank account at the end of the year or do you hold onto money for the next. SOOOOOOO many questions and so little time! :eek: