Budget information, analysis, and projection system and method

A method for creating a budget for a subdivision of a budgetary entity, the method comprising the steps of:

• entering an electronic user site, the user site linked to a remote budgetary database comprising numerical data and textual identifiers imported from a plurality of remote sites, each site housing data for an aspect of a budget for a plurality of subdivisions of a unitary organization, the numerical data extracted from the remote sites into a spreadsheet application, the textual identifiers extracted from the remote sites into a word processing application, the database configured into a coherent hierarchical format having accessible links to budget data for the plurality of subdivisions;
• electronically selecting one of the subdivisions, each subdivision electronically linked to prior fiscal period budget data therefor;
• creating a new proposed budget for the subdivision;
• transmitting the new proposed budget to a predetermined remote site and to the remote budgetary database;
• automatically notifying a contact at a remote site to which the subdivision pertains that the created budget has been transmitted to the predetermined remote site.

A method for providing to a user integrated budget data from a plurality of governmental agencies for permitting the user to create a new budget therefrom, the method comprising the steps of:

• accessing a plurality of sources of budget data, each source containing budget data on at least one governmental agency;
• extracting numerical data from the plurality of accessed sources into a spreadsheet application, the numerical data segregated into a first level containing aggregated agency data by department and a second level containing a plurality of subsets of data for each department;
• extracting textual identifiers associated with the numerical data from the plurality of accessed sources into a word processing application;
• extracting a textual narrative for each member of the plurality of subsets from the plurality of accessed sources into the word processing application;
• creating a budgetary information database on a computer remote from the sources of budget data, the database comprising the extracted numerical data, the extracted textual identifiers, and the extracted textual narratives;
• providing a first interface with the database for access by a user, the first interface containing the first-level data;
• providing a second interface with the database for access by the user, the second interface accessible by selecting a department from the first interface, the second interface containing the second-level data for the selected department;
• providing a third interface with the database for access by the user, the third interface accessible by selecting a first subset of the second-level data from the second interface, the third interface containing the textual narrative associated with the first subset;
• receiving from the user an undated budget for the first subset;
• and
• transmitting the undated budget to at least one of the sources of budget data.