Instead of starting with a clean slate, zero-based budgeting forces a fresh perspective on expenses. Every department must justify their needs, building their budgets from the ground up, not relying on past allocations. This microscopic focus identifies and eliminates non-essential expenditures, maximizing value and ensuring only activities crucial to profitability remain. While this bottom-up approach can be a powerful, it’s best reserved for situations demanding drastic cost-cutting, like restructurings or downturns. While effective for discretionary spending, its intensity makes it a periodic tool rather than a daily driver.