| Course | HD570 Health Education Leadership and Management |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 3 |
| Paper type | Budget construction |
| Length | About 610 words, 5 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | MS in Health Education |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for HD570 Unit 3
Seventeen Cents of Every Dollar: A Unit 3 Budget Construction for a Health Plan's Health Education Department, by Line and by Activity
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
HD570: Health Education Leadership and Management
Unit 3 Budget Construction
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Ashcombe Health Plan, its budget and staff time estimates are composite; the budgeting and costing sources cited are real.
Part 1: Line-Item Budget
Personnel Manager, 1.0 full-time equivalent: $98,000. Health educators, 6.0 at an average of $62,000: $372,000. Materials specialist, 1.0: $58,000. Coordinator, 1.0: $44,000. Salaries subtotal: $572,000. Fringe benefits at 28 percent: $160,160. Personnel total: $732,160.
Non-personnel Newsletter printing and mailing, four issues: $48,600. Class materials and room rentals: $12,000. Translation services: $26,400. Texting platform: $9,600. Travel and mileage: $8,200. Training and certification: $6,400. Software and licenses: $11,800. Supplies: $4,430. Health fair fees and materials: $6,000. Non-personnel total: $133,430.
Department total: $865,590.
The line-item view shows what the department buys. It is the format the finance committee uses and the one auditors check. But it says nothing about what the department does with the 85 percent of its budget that is people.
Part 2: Activity Budget
The activity view assigns every cost to the work it supports. Personnel costs are divided by the share of staff time each activity takes. Time shares come from a four-week log kept by all nine staff in October, checked against the department's work request system and calendars. A time-driven approach of this kind uses estimates of time spent on each activity to assign costs, rather than spreading them evenly (Kaplan & Anderson, 2004).
Phone and text outreach for prenatal, postpartum and well-child care: 26 percent, $225,053. Administration, supervision and meetings: 18 percent, $155,806. Review of other departments' member notices: 17 percent, $147,150. Community classes, including the open-enrollment series: 14 percent, $121,183. Department-owned materials development: 10 percent, $86,559. Quarterly newsletter: 9 percent, $77,903. Health fairs: 6 percent, $51,935.
Each figure includes the activity's share of personnel and its direct non-personnel costs, such as printing for the newsletter and translation for notices.
The line-item budget told the finance committee that Health Education spends most of its money on health educators; the activity budget shows that a sixth of those educators' time goes to work that other departments request and receive credit for.
Part 3: What the Activity View Shows
Notice review. Federal rules require that member materials be easy to understand and available in the plan's prevalent languages (Information Requirements, 2024). Other departments send their notices to Health Education for review, and the department complies, but the cost sits in its budget. At $147,150 a year, the review costs more than the department's entire community class program.
The newsletter. At $77,903 including staff time, the newsletter costs about $0.66 per member per year. No one has measured whether members read it.
Outreach. The department's largest activity is also the one most connected to the plan's quality measures. At 26 percent, it is smaller than administration and notice review combined.
Part 4: Uses
The activity budget is not a replacement for the line-item budget, which the finance committee requires. It is a management tool. Budget texts describe the value of program or activity budgeting for linking resources to purposes and results (Finkler et al., 2019). It will inform the Unit 4 reduction choices, the Unit 5 staffing plan and the conversation about a service agreement for notice review.
Part 5: Limits
A four-week log in October may not represent the year; open enrollment and summer differ. Staff estimates of their own time may be imprecise. Administrative time could be partly assigned to other activities. These limits are noted in the department's budget narrative.
References
Finkler, S. A., Smith, D. L., & Calabrese, T. D. (2019). Financial management for public, health, and not-for-profit organizations (6th ed.). CQ Press.
Information Requirements, 42 C.F.R. ยง 438.10 (2024). https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-42/chapter-IV/subchapter-C/part-438/subpart-A/section-438.10
Kaplan, R. S., & Anderson, S. R. (2004). Time-driven activity-based costing. Harvard Business Review, 82(11), 131-138.
Reading the HD 570 Unit 3 instructions
In the third unit, students usually prepare a budget for a health education unit and explain its structure. Prompts commonly ask for personnel and non-personnel costs with clear assumptions, and many ask for a second view organized by program or activity. Show salaries and fringe benefits separately, with the rate used. List non-personnel lines with amounts that add up. For an activity view, explain how staff time was assigned to activities, whether by logs, calendars or estimates, and label the method honestly. Compare what the two views reveal. Note how the budget will be used in later decisions. A budget table plus three to five pages of explanation is typical.
Inside the HD570 Unit 3 example
The line-item budget comes first, with four staff categories, fringe at 28 percent and nine non-personnel lines totaling $865,590. The activity budget follows, built from a four-week time log checked against calendars and the work request system, and assigns every dollar to one of seven activities. The highlighted sentence contrasts what each view shows. A section draws out three findings: notice review costs $147,150 and is required by federal rules on member materials, the newsletter costs about 66 cents per member with no evidence of readership, and outreach is the department's largest activity but smaller than administration and notice review combined. Uses and limits close the construction.
Reading the HD570 Unit 3 grading rubric
Budget assignments are typically assessed on accuracy, completeness, clarity of assumptions, quality of analysis and usefulness for decisions. Accuracy means totals add up and rates are applied correctly. Completeness covers fringe benefits and non-personnel costs, which students often omit. Assumptions should be stated where a reader can check them. Analysis earns the most credit when the second view reveals something the first hides. Usefulness rewards a budget that sets up later decisions, such as reductions or staffing. Honest limits on time data are valued by careful graders. Clean tables and APA style earn the last few points. Graders also look for a short explanation of how the budget will feed later decisions, such as reductions or staffing.
Common HD570 Unit 3 mistakes, and how to avoid them
A common error is leaving out fringe benefits, which understates personnel costs by a quarter or more. Another is an activity budget that divides costs evenly instead of by actual time. Some students present numbers without explaining where they came from. Others build both views but never say what the difference means. Starting with a short time log, even an estimate from staff, makes the activity view credible. If you have a budget from your own setting, share the lines and staffing, and a writer will help you assemble the activity view and explain what it reveals. Checking that every column adds to the stated total before submitting avoids easy deductions.
Get an HD570 Unit 3 example written to your instructions
Within 24-48h, a free first custom sample of the budget can arrive with an assumptions page, a line-item view, an activity view built from staff time, and a reconciliation proving both reach one total. It starts from your template, since formats differ by section, plus the HD570 Unit 3 prompt, rubric and whatever staffing and cost figures the scenario supplies. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
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HD570 Unit 3 questions, answered
Does my budget need both a line-item and an activity view?
Only if your prompt asks for it, but the activity view is where this unit's reasoning usually shows. A line-item budget tells a reader what is bought; an activity view tells them what the money achieves and where staff time really goes. Where only one is required, a short table allocating personnel by activity can still strengthen the narrative.
Where do staff time percentages come from if I cannot run a time study?
From the best available evidence, labeled honestly. Calendars, caseload counts, work request logs or a manager's structured estimate can all serve, provided the method is described and its limits stated. A scenario assignment may supply the figures. What loses marks is an allocation with no stated source, especially when it conveniently supports the budget's conclusion.
Should fringe benefits be included in personnel costs?
Yes, unless your prompt explicitly excludes them. Salaries alone understate what staff cost the organization, often by a quarter or more, and a budget that omits fringe will undercount every activity that relies on staff time. Use a rate your scenario provides or a clearly labeled assumption, and apply it consistently across every role.
Where can I find a free HD570 Unit 3 sample paper?
Here you can read a complete Unit 3 budget construction showing an $865,590 health education budget by line item and by activity.
What does an activity budget show that a line-item budget does not?
It shows what the money is used for. A line-item budget lists salaries and supplies; an activity budget shows how much of that goes to each kind of work.