Module 4 Flashcards
Who sets the goals of a firm?
Board of Directors
Who executes the goals of a firm?
Firm’s executive team
These include organizational structures, policies, strategies, standards, and operating procedures.
Managerial Techniques
This is a detailed plan for acquiring and using financial and other resources over a specified time period.
It represents the firm’s plans for the future expressed in quantitative terms.
Budget
This is the act of preparing a budget.
Budgeting
This is the use of budget to control a firm’s activities.
Budgetary control
This brings together ideas, forecasts, resource availability and financial realities to create a course of action to achieve the firm’s goals and objectives.
The planning process
This opens the lines of communication within the firm (a) up and down
organizational lines of subordinates and superiors and (b) across organizational lines to integrate
functional tasks. It entails coordinating the activities of the various parts of the firm and ensuring
that the parts are in harmony with each other.
The budgeting process
This refers to a firm’s striving to achieve a common set of objectives.
Goal congruence
This serves as a fiscal disciplinarian and helps ensure that managers
understand their authority, responsibility and limitations.
Budget system
This involves developing objectives and preparing various budgets to achieve those objectives.
Planning
This refers to the steps taken by management to increase the likelihood of attaining the objectives set in the planning stage and that all parts of the organization are working together toward that goal.
Control
This long range planning defines the firm’s mission, the long rage goals, and strategic plan.
Strategic planning process
Creating the annual business plan is the task of evaluating the firm’s strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and tactics to build firm wide
priorities for the coming year. Each manager also develops a personal set of goals and a plan of achievements that are consistent with the firm’s business plan.
Business plan and personal goal setting
This includes when to start the process,
submit budgets, review and approve budgets at various management levels – answers who, what and when.
Business schedule
A planning and control system that combines responsibility centers, control reports, activity centers and cost drivers from activity based
costing.
Responsibility accounting system
Rewards are given to managers who achieve their unit’s budget goals and or MBO targets. Tying performance to compensation is becoming an increasingly common practice.
Reward system
Ability to evaluate alternative or “what if” scenarios are an expected part of any financial planning system. Simulation can test a plan to assess goal achievement and evaluate alternative actions.
Financial modeling
It is assumed that every manager is involved in planning and
control. Often, budget objectives are set at the executive level but budgets are constructed
from the bottom up – sometimes called as “grass roots” budgeting.
Participatory budgeting
This is based on idealistic conditions and has a small chance of being met.
Stretch level budget
This budget system is challenging but it can be met through hard work.
Highly achievable budget
This budget system projects revenues and costs at different levels of activity. It
separate costs into fixed and variable components and uses standard costing to
prepare budgets at multiple activity levels. Actual costs are compared with budgeted
costs based on actual level of production to obtain and analyze variances.
Flexible budget
This budget system projects revenues and costs at a particular or single level of activity. It does not segregate costs into fixed and variable components. Actual costs
are compared with the budgeted costs regardless of actual level of production, to
obtain and analyze cost variances.
Fixed or static budget