Budget vs. Forecast vs. Plan

Budget, Forecast, and Plan get used interchangeably in most finance conversations, and they shouldn’t be. A budget is a commitment: the number spend gets approved against. A forecast is a current best estimate of what will actually happen, updated as new information arrives. A plan is the strategic frame both sit inside, usually spanning a longer horizon than either.

Confusing them has real stakes: approving spend against a stale budget number that a rolling forecast already knows is wrong is one of the most common, quiet sources of overspend. See the full breakdown in Budget vs. Forecast vs. Plan.