Week 8 Flashcards

1
Q

Define the benefits of planning in terms of budgeting

A

To achieve goals and objectives an organisation must plan a long-term course of action.

These goals and objectives are set out in the company’s strategy

Strategy

  • Decide what objectives need to be met to achieve the company’s long-term goals
  • What are the best ways of achieving these objectives?
  • What resources are needed?

The budgeting process quantifies the strategy

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

Identify the steps of a basic planning process

A
  1. Identify the business objectives
  2. Consider options
  3. Evaluate options and make a selection
  4. Prepare Business plans (long-term budgets)
  5. Prepare budgets (short term)
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

Identify the steps of a detailed planning process and what two stages they occur in.

A

Stage 1: Long-term planning process

  1. Identify objectives
  2. Identify potential courses of actions (i.e. strategies)
  3. Evaluate alternative strategic options
  4. Select alternative courses of action

Stage 2: Annual budgeting process

  1. Implement long-term plan in the form of the annual budget
  2. Monitor actual results
  3. Respond to divergencies from plan
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

Why are plans divided into long and short term?

A

To achieve goals and objectives an organisation must plan a long-term course of action.

In the short-term, goals and objectives are often operationalised by the setting of targets and so the organisation must plan a course of action to meet those targets.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

Why should a firm budget?

A

To determine income & expenditure

To assist in policy making and planning

To authorise the future expenditure

To provide the basis for controlling income and expenditure

To set a standard for evaluating the performance

To motivate managers and employees

To co-ordinate the activities of multi-purpose organisations

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

Identify and explain the stages of a budgeting process

A
  1. Communication of objectives: Budgets should be prepared in line with overall organisational objectives
  2. Identification of the principal budget factor: - A limiting factor on the whole organisation - e.g. materials, sales, machine time (usually sales volume). - Whatever the limiting factor, the budget must be geared to that
  3. Preparation of functional budgets: Budgets prepared within each department or function within the business (e.g. sales, production, advertising)
  4. Challenge and coordination of budgets: - Prepared by subordinates for approval by superiors who may challenge targets or assumptions in budgets - Will also help ensure various functions are coordinated
  5. Preparation of master budget: - A statement of the plans of an organisation in the form of projected financial statements - Functional budgets feed into the master budget
  6. On-going review of budgets: Ongoing comparison of actual performance against budgeted
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

Define a sales budget

A

Usually, the first budget to be prepared as it tends to determine the overall level of activity for the forthcoming period

Details the expected sales for the budget period

Depending on the organisation, sales can be managed on a geographical basis, on a product type basis, on a location by product basis or some other basis.

Can be displayed for the year as a whole or can be analysed by quarter/month

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

Define a marketing budget

A

Estimate of costs needed to promote the business:

Advertising costs

Website development

Public relations

Staffing

Utilisation of office space

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

Define an Administrative budget

A

Details cost estimates for the cost of running a company that is not tied to producing a product or service

Payroll

Consulting

Legal fees

Depreciation

Rent

Insurance

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

Define a Production budget

A

Once the sales budget is known, production can then be planned. To link sales and production:

Production =sales + closing inventory – opening inventory

Example: If sales are budgeted to be 147,000 units, opening inventory 10,000 units and closing inventory 4,500 units, the budgeted production in units is as follows:

  • Production = sales + closing inv – opening inv
  • Production = 147,000 + 4,500 – 10,000
  • Production = 141,500
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

Fill in the blanks for a budgeting chart with the different types of budget.

A
  1. Sales budget
  2. Marketing budget
  3. Admin budget
  4. Production budget
  5. Direct labour budget
  6. Cash budget
  7. manufacturing overhead budget
  8. Ending inventory budget
  9. Direct materials budget
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

Define a direct materials budget

A

Once you have identified the budgeted production level, you can determine the amount of materials you are going to use:

Example: Suppose budgeted production is 100 units

Each unit requires 3kg of raw materials

Thus 3 x 10 = 300kg = materials to be used

Once estimated materials usage has been calculated, the business can decide what raw materials it will have to purchase.

Thus, the number of materials needed to be purchased can be calculated

material to be purchased = material to be used + units in closing inventory – units in opening inventory

Example: If material usage is budgeted to be 71,000 units, opening inventory 1,000 units and closing inventory 10,500 units, the budgeted purchases in units is:

  • Purchases = usage + closing inventory – opening inventory
  • Purchases = 71,000 + 10,500 – 1,000
  • Purchases = 80,500
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

Define a direct labour budget

A

The direct labor budget is used to calculate the number of labor hours that will be needed to produce the units itemized in the production budget. A more complex direct labor budget will calculate not only the total number of hours needed, but will also break down this information by labor category. The direct labor budget is useful for anticipating the number of employees who will be needed to staff the manufacturing area throughout the budget period. This allows management to anticipate hiring needs, as well as when to schedule overtime, and when layoffs are likely. The budget provides information at an aggregate level, and so is not typically used for specific hiring and lay off requirements. Details the expected hours of labour required Example: Suppose for Jan, Feb and March 2015, a firm estimated that it will produce 140, 180 and 210 units, respectively. 2 hours of labour is required for each unit at a cost of €10 per hour

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

Define the Manufacturing overhead budget

A

Budget for all other manufacturing costs e.g. factory heating & lighting, supervisors salary, factory rent

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

Define Cash budgets

A

May be drawn up on a quarterly, monthly, weekly or daily basis

To be useful, cash budgets should be regularly updated as a result of comparing actual estimated figures with actual results

Significant variances or deviations from estimated figures must always be investigated

It is essential for the firm to plan its cash flows carefully. Detailed cash planning can see exactly how cash levels will vary from one time period to the next

The principle behind cash budgets:

Take the cash balance at the start of a period and add the receipts and deduct the payments you expect for that period. The result is the estimated balance as at the end of that period.

The general rule when drawing up a cash budget is as follows: See attached image

When drawing up cash budgets, pay careful attention to when cash inflows and outflows occur as most transactions tend to take place on credit terms and there may be a time difference between when the transaction occurs and when the cash is received or paid

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

What is a Master budget?

A

Represents the integration of all of the individual functional budgets, culminating in the preparation of a budgeted Income statement, Balance sheet/SFP and cash budget for the organisation as a whole

17
Q

Identify the 6 different techniques for creating a budget.

A
  1. Incremental budget
  2. Feedback control
  3. Feedforward control
  4. Flexible budget
  5. Fixed budget
  6. Zero-based budget
18
Q

Define Incremental budget

A

Takes last year’s budget and updates it

Marginal focus and attention only paid to incremental differences

Argued to be more practical - Cuts down on the amount of time spent

19
Q

Define Zero-Based Budgeting

A

The budgetary process assumes that it is starting from anew

A Clean sheet approach

Forces a justification each year of the activity in question

Considerable time and effort is involved in this approach

  • Justification
  • Consideration
  • Investigation
20
Q

Define Fixed budgets

A

A budget which remains unchanged regardless of activity levels

More specifically:

  • Budget is prepared on the basis of the estimated volume of production and level of sales. No plans are made for the possibility of actual activity differing from budgeted
  • When actual activity levels during a period achieve budgeted levels, the fixed budget is not adjusted (in retrospect) to represent a new target for new activity levels

Useful for identifying broad objectives of firm and controlling fixed costs

21
Q

Define Flexible Budgets

A

A budget which, by recognising different cost behaviour patterns, is designed to change as activity levels change

Flexible budgets show what costs and revenues can be for different levels of activity

Differences between actual results and flexible budget figures are variances

22
Q

Define Feedback control

A

Compare actual performance with budgeted performance

Identify divergences from the plan

This highlights what has not gone according to plan (budget)

Take necessary action to correct future performance

23
Q

Define Feedforward control

A

Project current performance into future periods

Compare expected actual performance to budgeted performance

This will highlight areas in which performance must be improved to meet targets