Project Management Toolkit - Arts In Africa

12.1 managing proJeCt FinanCes
The importance of sound financial management and
control cannot be over accentuated because financial
resources in the creative industries are scarce. Good
financial management is essential to the success of
the project and is linked to planning and estimation of
basically everything in the project.
Project managers will very often be called upon to raise
additional funds for the project. For more information on
fundraising please refer to the “Arts Fundraising Toolkit”
published by ARTerial Network
(http://www.artsinafrica.com/publications).
To follow on pages 32 and 33 are two sample budgets. The
first one indicates possible line items which could be used
for setting up an organisational budget. This template
of possible line items can be adapted to use as a project
budget. The second sample shows an extract from an
actual theatre production budget.
Tip: working with the FinanCial manager
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Tip: starting points
For proJeCt FinanCial
management 5
Get quotations for everything.
Identify potential costs and when
they will occur.
Identify potential income and when
that will occur.
Define roles and responsibilities.
Set up necessary documents and
financial procedures.
Each project manager has to share all their conceptual ideas with the finance person, who will
give direction on how to translate projects into financial language. Working hand in hand with a
finance person helps to develop project budgets, manage expenses and report for funders. The
finance person responsible for any project must ensure the project’s well-being; the more they are involved in
the management of finances, the more the finance person will understand and be able to respond to some of the
usual creative needs of the project. Also if you are working with an outsourced financial company, the more they
understand about the project the less time there will be spent with enquiries – this will save money on accounting
fees and financial service fees.
Khadija El Bennaoui of Art Moves Africa, Morocco
PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOLKIT FOR ARTS AND CULTURE 31