Why should organisations collect, file and maintain accurate financial records? To have a record of how the business is running. This allows us to determine how the business is sitting financially and display what money is going where and whether there is room for improvement. Basically, it is used to anaylse the business as a whole and to determine performance for both employees and for the organisation. What are the expectations of managers and supervisors in relation to budget or financial plans? Managers and supervisors should understand financial information relating to costs, operations, assets, credit analysis, GST transactions, inventory management, invoices and accounts, ect. This will allow them to monitor and control cash …show more content…
It's also important to understand when these transactions are taking place. There is the chance that a customer has bought an item but takes a long time in paying it off. Although you might have made a profit on the sale of the item, there is a cash flow gap as you have not yet received the funds to pay for the item yourself. Simple things like can put smaller businesses in a lot of financial trouble. This cash flow gap could damage credit ratings, miss other opportunities, and force the borrowing of funds. What data do you need to collect, and from whom, in order to construct a cash flow budget? Sales reports - last periods figures Outgoings such as purchases, marketing, loan repayments, etc Staff costs Capital such as stock on hand and cash Describe how the budget is used to monitor work, performance, variation, and team/ division outputs. The budget reports are designed to give a clear overview of how the business is running. Every expense can be calculated as a percentage of the total expense/margin to see if it is cost effective. If it is being overspent then something needs to be done. This could be a number of things such as reducing spending, reducing or increasing staff levels, cross-training staff, incorporate techniques to increase sales, reduce stock levels, outsourcing, and renegotiating supplier costs. Why do you think it is necessary to report on these things? - For the
Budget management analysis is used by mangers as a tool and helps determine that all resources available are being used efficiently. The budgets are determined yearly and are based upon the previous year’s budget and variances. This paper will discuss specific strategies to manage budgets within forecast, compare five to seven expense results with budget expectations, describe possible reasons for variances, give strategies to keep results aligned with expectations, recommend three benchmarking techniques, and identify those that might improve budget accuracy, and justify the choices made.
For example interest rates, the cost of raw materials including fuel, the number of sales or orders that we make and in turn all of these rely on other factors. The best therefore that can be done when developing a budget is to look at all the factors that are likely to affect the budget and decide how to take account of each one. If there is a previous budget (last year or last month) then it is sensible to look at how this has been achieved or not as the case may be, and what factors affected the outcome. If we are looking at monthly budgets it might be a better comparison to look at the same month twelve months ago as well as the previous months. The more factors we take into consideration when estimating a budget, the more accurate our budget will be.
Collection of information is essential to support the major functions and activities of the organisation. To ascertain this it is essential to have regular reports of the organisation and to do this you need regular financial reports and audits. A true vision of the organisation will give any management a better understanding of their situation and will thus help them to make a good viable decision.
3. Explain two methods that can be used in order to identify realistic estimations when developing a budget. [2.2]
Since a company’s’ budget is typically based on knowledge from their financial history therefore, if a budget variance occurs, it can be because inaccurate estimates were done, or one or more factors have changed unexpectedly, and the company need to make some type of adjustments to their budget. Once a company discovered a significant budget variance, they will need to identify the cause, and address it accordingly. For example,
Budgeting systems turn managers’ perspectives forward and by looking to the future and planning, managers are able to anticipate and correct potential problems before they arise (Horngren, Foster & Datar, 2000). Through budgeting, management can plan ahead and maintain enough cash to pay creditors, to have adequate raw materials to meet production requirements, and to have sufficient finished goods to meet expected sales (Kieso, 2002).
1. A budget is a formal statement of future plans, usually expressed in monetary terms.
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 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.
Employees should also be presented with the financial statements of the company so that they can realize the fruits of their efforts. With knowledge come great rewards. The impact of knowing the financial status of the company provides incentives for employee performance; work hard and get a bonus. Also, the offering of financial statement will show the employees are not separate from the work that has help to mold and maintain operations but instead include them in what is going on to offer suggestions for improvement. This makes the workers to feel appreciated and increase their efforts in helping the
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.
“It’s clearly a budget. It’s got a lot of numbers in it” (George W. Busch 2005). This definition of a budget can be supplemented using the Oxford dictionary, which states that a budget is an estimate of income and expenditures for a set period of time. Nowadays almost every business uses budgets and managers use them as a tool in order to set targets. In other words managers can, with the use of budgets, explain in a financial way what are the
The budgeting system allows the managers of each department monitor their expenses in which budgets have been set for materials, salaries and legal expenses amongst others.
The inventory throughout the second quater each an every item is variable and it totals at about £4,009,800 and turns over every 3 months/90 days. Cash sales should amount to about £7,500,000 if the inventory of £4,009,800 valued at cost turns over once in 90 days and if the average mark-up is about £2004, 9000. This figure can be roughly checked by referring to the expenses on the income statement. A rough measure of the cash expenses can usually be obtained by using the operating expenses less any non-cash expenses such as depreciation. Overall this shows that it is very important for Doomy corporations to have cash budget planned for its business, because it can help them assess if they are over spending their money and if the money is going and where it is coming in.
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.