Lock the Vault

Stop “Budget Theater”: Control Spend and Track Outcomes

Companies trumpet savings, then wonder why margins don’t move. In this episode of The Elephant in the Boardroom, Terri Long and Jeremy Eden explain how to stop the money from slipping away: treat new spending with the same rigor you used to create savings, require facts before approvals, and track every action to delivery so you know exactly how the P&L will land.

Key Takeaways

• Lock the vault. Savings don’t count until you control new spend with the same discipline that created the savings.

• Budgets aren’t enough. “I’m under budget” is not a free pass to hire or launch work without analysis.

• Track actions, not just variances. GL vs. budget won’t tell you whether initiatives paid off—or where money leaked.

• Require facts before approvals. If volume is up or a law changed, quantify impact, options, and the least-cost path.

• Make accountability visible. Owners, dates, expected impact, and after-action checks build a culture of truth.

Why Savings Don’t Show Up

• Celebrated initiatives create “found” money that quietly gets reallocated across the org

• Variance reports are backward-looking and too coarse to show where spend crept back in

• Managers optimize to their local budget, not enterprise outcomes

Lock the Vault: Spending Governance That Works

• Set a de minimis threshold for new or expanded spend that must be analyzed and approved

• Ask for options and facts: customer impact, risk, payback, and whether the work can be done differently

• Centralize visibility so enterprise priorities (brand, CX, growth investments) get funded first

• Treat “within budget” the same as “over budget” for material requests: both need analysis

What Variance Tracking Misses (and What to Add)

• GL lines can’t prove that refrigerators saved energy or the new warehouse pays back

• Add an action tracker: each initiative has an owner, value, milestones, and a monthly RAG status

• Replace or augment red items quickly so the overall plan stays whole

Real-World Practices From the Episode

• CEO pushback on “one more hire” forced a better way to achieve the goal—and signaled a new culture

• Enterprise priorities beat silo hoarding: money moves to the highest-return uses, not “use it or lose it” habits

• Lock-the-vault mindset prevents the water-balloon effect of costs popping up elsewhere

Practical Steps You Can Implement This Quarter

• Define approval thresholds and required facts for any material spend (even if “under budget”)

• Stand up an action tracker for savings and investments with monthly reviews

• Add a “promises made vs. delivered” table for key initiatives

• Require at least two options for each material request, with CX and risk impact noted

• Publish a simple policy: savings fund priorities, not discretionary creep

FAQs

• Isn’t “under budget” good enough?

It’s a start, not approval. Material spend still needs facts, options, and enterprise trade-offs.

• How big should the de minimis threshold be?

Set it to catch meaningful spend in your context. In large enterprises, $50k–$250k is common.

• Won’t this slow us down?

It speeds you up by preventing waste, rework, and hidden creep. Use lightweight one-pagers and a fast cadence.