46
Track your spending
To ensure you stay within budget, it's necessary to track
your spending. This helps you know when you're getting
close to your limits so you can make the necessary
adjustments in time. Although this adds one more
responsibility to your already busy life, it allows you to be
in control of your lab's finances. Try to make this a monthly
habit in order to become more aware of your purchases.
An easy way to track your spending is by using a
spreadsheet or bookkeeping so ware. This can be
particularly helpful to record your funding sources,
suppliers and purchase history. Some of these tools
include Quartzy, iLab Operations So ware and Google
Sheets.
Plan for a rainy day
While having only predictable costs are ideal in a research lab,
the reality is quite different. Projects and experiments change,
equipment breaks and your lab's needs can vary widely. In
general, it's the variable and the unexpected expenses that
can spell a lab's doom, so they are the costs that need more
foresight.
Planning for unexpected expenses makes you better prepared
to face them. Either prepare your lab with enough equipment
and supplies for a rainy day, or create an emergency fund in your
budget for this purpose.
