5.2 Analysing financial performance Flashcards
Budget
A budget is a financial plan.
Purpose of budgets
- Provide a targe for entrepreneurs and managers
- Basis for late assessment of the performance of the business
Income budget
The forecasted earnings from sales, sometimes called a sales budget.
Expenditure budget
Expected spending of a business.
Profit or loss budget calculation and its meaning
Calculated by subtracting forecast expenditure from forecast sales income
Forecasted sales income - forecasted expenditure
Loss = Adverse
Profit = Favourable
The 3 stages of setting budgets
Stage 1: Prepare income budgets
Stage 2: Construct expenditure budgets
Stage 3: Forecast profit or loss by comparison of income and expenditure
Why do businesses set budgets?
- Essential element of a business plan
- Banks would be more likely to grant a loan with this form of financial planning
- Help business decide whether or not to go ahead with a business idea
- Helps with pricing decisions
Difficulties of setting budgets
- No historical evidence available to a business (new or early)
- Entering a new market will not provide information or trading records
- Business may lack experience to estimate/ forecast costs
- Competitors may respond by cutting prices = affects the sales income = expenditure on promotion may have to increase
Variance analysis
The study by managers of the differences between planned activities in the form of budgets and the actual results that were achieved.
When does a positive (favourable) variance occur?
When costs are lower than the forecasted
OR
When profit or revenue is higher
When does a negative (adverse) variance occur?
When costs are higher than expected
OR
Revenues are less than anticipated
Possible responses to positive variances
- Increase production if prices are rising
- Reduce prices if costs are below expectations and the business aims to increase its sales
- To reinvest into the business or pay shareholders higher dividends if profits exceed expectations
Possible responses to negative variance
- To reduce costs (e.g. buying less expensive materials)
- Increase advertising in order to increase sales of the product and revenues
- Reduce prices to increase sales (relies on the elasticity of price)
Benefits of budgets
- Targets can be set for each part of a business
- Inefficiency and waste can be identified: appropriate remedial action can be taken
- Makes managers think about the financial implications of their actions
- Managers focus more about the financial implications of their actions
- Improves financial performance by preventing overspending
- Can help improve internal communication
- Delegates or devolved budgets can be used as a motivator: giving employees authority
Drawbacks of budgets
- Operation of budgets can become inflexible: sales may be lost if the marketing budget is followed when competitors implement major promotional campaigns
- Budgets have to be accurate to have any meaning
What three sections does a cash-flow forecast consist of?
- Receipts
- Payments
- Running balance
What are the receipts?
The expected total month-by-month receipts.
- Sales cash
- Sales credit
- Total cash in
What are the Payments
The expected monthly expenditure by item.
- Supplies
- Wages
- Fuel
- Electricity
- Heating
- Rates
- Mortgage payment
- Interest on loan
What is the running balance?
A running total of the expected bank balance at the beginning and end of each month. They are termed the ‘opening’ and ‘closing’ balance. Closing balance of one month is the beginning balance of the next.
X axis of a break-even chart
Output (units)
Y axis of a break-even chart
Costs/ revenue
What is contribution?
The amount of money left over after variable costs have been subtracted from sales revenue.
Total contribution calculation
Sales Revenue - Total variable costs
Contribution per unit calculation
Sales price per unit - variable cost per unit
What can contribution be used to calculate
- Breakeven point
- Level of profit
Break-even calculation
Fixed costs/ Contribution per unit
Profit calculation (with contribution)
Contribution total - fixed costs
Benefits of break-even analysis
- Starting a new business
- Supporting loan applications
- Measuring profit and losses
- Modelling ‘what if?’ scenarios
Drawbacks of break-even analysis
- No costs are truly fixed
- The total cost line should not be represented by a straight line
- Sales revenue assumes all output produced is sold and at a uniform price = unrealistic
- The analysis is only good as the information provided
- Collecting accurate information is expensive
Gross profit margin calculation
Gross profit / Sales revenue x 100
Operating profit margin
Operating profit/ Sales revenue x 100
Profit for the year margin
Profit for the year/ Sales revenue x 100
What do the profit margins help with?
- Make comparisons both with previous years and other firms simpler and easier to understand.
What are Payables
Money owed for goods and services that have been purchased on credit.
What are receivables?
Money owed by a business’s customers for goods or services purchased on credit.
What does the analysis of the relationship between payables and receivables enable a business to do?
- Forecast periods of time when cash outflows may exceed cash inflows and take action
- Plan when and how to finance major items of expenditure (large outflows of cash)
- Highlight any periods when cash surpluses that could be used elsewhere may exist
- Assess whether an idea will generate enough cash to be worthwhile
- Give evidence to lenders for loans
How to manipulate vast amounts of data?
- Employing a scientific decision-making approach
- Using budgets. cash flows, breakeven and profit ratios = reduces risk
