We simply ask them to split their employees payroll in percentages for each program at the beginning of each year and tweak going forward. We are adopting a new computerized time keeping system that will help track their time towards projects which will help with direct grant reimbursals of staff labor. We thought about asking employees (or their Dept. timekeepers) to track each hour towards a program, but decided that the juice wasn't worth the squeeze! Maybe in the future...
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David Goldman
Deputy City Administrator
City of Oak Harbor
Oak Harbor WA
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Original Message:
Sent: Jan 30, 2026 10:33 AM
From: Katelyn Bentley
Subject: Program Based Budgeting - Merits of detailed time tracking
Hello everyone! My department is currently moving toward Program Based Budgeting. We are in the very beginning stages and still building our program list. We're a year away from full implementation. We have been having lots of discussions about the merits and headaches of doing detailed tracking of staff time against the programs. Personnel is obviously our biggest expenditure and likely will be the biggest cost driver on most of our programs. However, we also know that forcing staff to track every hour of their workday against one program or another will likely create a lot of pushback and confusion. I'm wondering if anyone from an organization that has successfully implemented Program Based Budgeting (or Target Based, Performance Based, etc.) might have some lessons learned from their own roll outs. We are trying to decide whether to push for full time-tracking, or to do a hybrid approach where we make assumptions based on each position's individual work program, or a secret third option that we haven't thought of yet! Any insights would be appreciated.
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Kate Bentley
Budget Manager
Montgomery Parks
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