The need to enhance organisational performance is intensifying in today’s business environment around the world. Every organisation has their own management control system which is defined by Anthony (1965) as “the process by which managers ensure that resources are obtained and used effectively and efficiently in the accomplishment of the organisation’s objectives.” Budgeting is considered as one of a means companies use in their management control and it is a powerful control mechanism in almost all organisation (Merchant and Van der Stede, 2007). Bierman, Dyckman and Hilton (1990) stated that budgets are used to plan for the organisation’s future activities and also to control current operations. In other words, budgets are used as a …show more content…
The question is why? Why are they still using budgeting when some claimed that it is not good enough? If it is true, then what is the best approach that fits every organisation? This essay structure starts off with the criticisms of budgeting, follows by the ways forward of budgeting for individual organisations and a simple suggestion to solve the endless debate about budgets and budgeting.
Criticisms of budgeting
There is a great deal of criticisms against budgets and budgeting process. “Budget-based systems reward people for lying, and for lying about their lying, and punish them for telling the truth” (Jensen, 2003, p. 380). Because budgets, which involve with accounting numbers, can easily be manipulated by managers and to give rewards or incentives for achieving those targeted budgets can cause even more motivation for managers to manipulate this data. According to agency theory which focuses on the relationship and interaction between a principal and the agent and the mechanisms through which the principal can exercise control over the agent’s behaviour. Individuals’ goal, both principal and agent, is to maximise their own self-interest, therefore, what manager (agent) will do is to attempt to do every possible way to achieve the targets even if it causes damage to the company or other people. Not only it mays lead to fraud, but also it is time consuming and too expensive. As Hope and Fraser (2003) stated that budgeting is
Budgets should not be a managers task only. The whole organization should be involved in the budgeting process.
The budget process is a powerful planning tool for government to make important resource decisions. According the Carney and Schoenfeld‘s article on How to read a Budget, an operating budget is a reflection of government’s financial plans. When a budget is
A budget is an instrument used to help managers ensure that the resources used effectively and proficiently toward the goals of an organization. A budget projection can be made on a yearly base depending on previous year or existing one. They can further be broken down quarterly or monthly depending on it use. Generating a budget is complex undertaking, and for a budget to be effective the organization ought to follow it strictly. However, no matter how closely a business follows their guidelines there will always be some form of variances. The organization should expect a few variances and be able to work these discrepancies in any budget
Ineffective practices in creating and monitoring a budget include failure of management to integrate the operating budget with other planning efforts (Academic Writing Tips, 2011). Organizational leaders should ensure that the long term and intermediate goals correlate with the operating budget. Failure to align the operating budget with various assumptions such as size, scope, and nature of future operations can pose a problem (Academic Writing Tips, 2011). According to Finkler and Ward (2006), upper management and financial officers usually create the operating budget omitting frontline and unit managers. This process can lead to failure in the financial management practices
Budgeting is crucial in the well-being of a company especially the financial health status of a company. In fact, no professionally managed firm would fail to budget, since the budget establishes what is authorized, how to plan for purchasing contracts and hiring, and indicates how much financing is needed to support planned activity. It is routine for a company to budget for its expenses. Expense budgets act as a guideline of how much revenue a company would require keeping the activities running. It is used to set the company’s targets for a certain period.
A company's budget serves as a guideline in planning and committing costs in order to meet tactical and strategic goals. Tactical goals such as providing budgetary costs for daily operations, and strategic objectives that include R&D, production, marketing, and distribution are all part of the budgeting process. Serving as a guideline rather than being set in stone, the budget is a snapshot of manager's "best thinking at the time it is prepared." (Marshall, 2003, p.496) The budget is a method in which to reign-in discretionary spending, and will likely show variances between what costs have been anticipated and what costs are actually incurred.
Budgeting As A Key Component in Short And Long - Term Planning Management. (n.d.). Thinking Made Easy. Retrieved October 1, 2012, from http://ivythesis.typepad.com/term_paper_topics/2012/01/budgeting-as-a-key-component-in-short-and-long-term-planning-management.html
A budget can be disadvantageous also. There is judgment and subjectivity in the budgeting process. It does not consider quality and customer service. Budgets can be seen as pressure devices imposed by management, thus resulting in: bad labour relations. Budget could results departmental conflict arises due to disputes over resource allocation, and departments blaming each other if targets are not attained. It is difficult to reconcile personal and corporate goals
Budget formulation and use are tools that guide many decision making strategies in business. The measures that are least effective could create an avalanche of catastrophic events that can negatively impact the decision making strategies. It is in the best interest of the pertinent parties to draft an operating budget based on a collective set of information relating to organizational vision and mission. Ineffective measures can be catastrophic based on the foundation for measures used in creating the budget. Among the many issues organizations face that relates to creating an effective operating budget results from poor
Budgetary control is part of overall organisation control and is concerned primarily with the control of performance. The use of budgetary control in performance management has of late taken on greater importance especially as a more integrative control mechanism for the organisation. Discuss.
Budgeting is the systematic method of allocating financial, physical, and human resources to achieve an organization’s strategic goals. Budgets are utilized by for-profit and non-profit organizations to monitor the progress towards the goals, assist in the control of spending, and help predict cash flow for the organization.
This research paper is a brief discussion of budget management analysis. Budgeting is the key to financial management, and is the key to translates an organization goals or plan into money. Budgeting is a rough estimate of how much a company will need to get their work done, and provides the basis for evaluating performance, a source of motivation, coordinating business activities, a tool for management communication and instructions to employees. Without a budget an organization would be like a driver, driving blinded without instructions or any sense of direction, that’s how important a budget is to every organization and individual likewise (Clark, 2005).
Budget and budgetary control practices are undeniably indispensable as organizations routinely go about their business activities and operations. These organizations are constantly on the alert on how actual levels of performance agree with planned or budgeted performance. A budget expresses a plan in monetary terms. It is prepared and approved prior to a particular budgeted period and explicitly may show the income, expenditure and the capital to be employed by organizations in achieving their goals and objectives.
Budgetary control is a strong tool of business and it is used is to maximise profits. The management of every business is always trying to focus on planning and they are always trying their best to achieve goals. There
Although participation in budgeting may enforce the managerial performance, it has constrains and can cause some problems as well. This article analyses the possible advantages and limitations of the role of participation in budget setting. In the next section, the possible merits of budgetary participation are demonstrated. This is followed by a section that explains the equivocation existing in the relationship between budgetary participation and performance. Then, in the following section, some negative effects on the application of participation in budgeting progress are illustrated. The final section is the conclusion of the study.