This chapter explains what senior student affairs officers (SSAOs) and those aspiring to the position should know and do in terms of budgeting to make the transition from division to university leadership. Before SSAOs can help lead any university-wide budget process, particularly ones that unfold amid fiscal decline, they must master divisional practices as a foundation. Toward that end, this chapter first reviews the steps that managing and aspiring SSAOs should consider when preparing divisional budgets: initiating and maintaining a meaningful strategic planning process, knowing intimately each of the budgets that constitute their overall portfolio, and meticulously responding to and involving others in the budget call or exercise. Once they have their own shop in shape, successful SSAOs move beyond division-level budgeting to hone their macrolevel strategic and operational planning skills. These skills, reviewed next, include developing a refined understanding of the various roles of the university budget and both designing and marshaling data-driven supporting materials to actualize those roles. In addition to examining the potential functions of the budget, budget-savvy SSAOs must study viable budget models. Hence, this chapter ends by reviewing and then delineating the advantages and challenges associated with four budget models--incremental and decremental, zero based, responsibility centered, and initiative based--commonly used in institutions of higher learning.