Fire departments continue to struggle with the ongoing challenge of balancing limited resources with demands for service. Agencies that are wholly dependent on short term budgeting may be inviting financial crisis. Financial management has become a problem for fire departments that have not adopted a financial planning process which allows for the analysis of future trends and events as they relate to fiscal impact and budget adoption. The purpose of this project was to develop a five-year financial plan, thereby establishing a master planning tool which enhances the organization's ability to (1) plan now for the future, (2) bring current budget preparation and execution in line with multi-year financial planning efforts, and (3) develop a planning tool, a device which facilitates the analysis of future trends and events as they relate to fiscal impact on the department and the budgeting process.Action research methods were employed to answer the following research questions: 1. What are the components of multi-year financial planning? 2. What is the relationship between multi-year financial planning and the budgeting process? A thorough investigation of the literature revealed that the three ingredients necessary in developing a multi-year financial plan are an informed decision making process, a strategic planning process, and a method of forecasting revenue and expenditure streams. At each juncture in the process of developing a five-year financial plan, an informed decision making procedure was implemented. Depending on the specific aspect of the process, key stakeholders were identified and brought to the table. The strategic planning process included conducting an environmental scan and the development of a mission statement, goals, objectives, and performance measures.Forecasting of revenue and expenditure streams was accomplished using, judgemental/expert, trend, deterministic, and econometric analysis, depending on the characteristics of the stream being forecast. The result of the research project was the identification of a comprehensive multi-year financial planning process for the fire district that met the needs of the governing body, management, the district, and the citizens. The five-year financial plan that was developed serves as a management tool used to facilitate the impact of trends and events as they relate to fiscal impact on the department and the budgeting process. Three recommendations stem from this project. First, is the encouragement of any jurisdiction to take a proactive approach to financial planning, beginning with the adoption of an informed decision making process.Second, is to secure a full commitment from stakeholders and conduct a thorough inventory before beginning the process of multi-year financial planning. My final recommendation is do not get discouraged by set backs. Multi-year financial planning requires constant attention and adjustments.