What is the simplest method to project expenses for a company?

• A. Make each Income Statement expense a percentage of revenue.
• B. Start with department headcount, salaries, and benefits.
• C. Tie every expense to revenue and a fixed growth rate.
• D. Use only prior year expense levels.

Answer: (A)

Projecting expenses as a percentage of revenue is a top-down budgeting approach that keeps things simple while reflecting how costs tend to scale with sales. By forecasting revenue first and applying historical expense-to-revenue ratios to each line item, you create a cohesive, proportional expense plan without labor-intensive detail. This method is easy to implement, provides consistency across periods, and allows quick scenario analysis if revenue changes.

Other methods can be more granular but require more data and effort: building from department headcount and benefits dives into staffing assumptions and may miss how costs behave when sales shift; tying every expense to revenue with a fixed growth rate can be too rigid and ignore changing cost structures or inflation; using only prior year expense levels ignores expected changes in revenue, pricing, or strategic initiatives.