Ethics in Action The director of marketing for Starr Computer Co., Megan Hewitt, had the following discussion with the company controller, Cam Morley, on July 26 of the current year: Megan: Cam, it looks like I’m going to spend much less than indicated on my July budget. Cam: I’m glad to hear it. Megan: Well, I’m not so sure it’s good news. I’m concerned that the president will see that I’m under budget and reduce my budget in the future. The only reason that I look good is that we’ve delayed an advertising campaign. Once the campaign hits in September, I’m sure my actual expenditures will go up. You see, we are also having our sales convention in September. Having the advertising campaign and the convention at the same time is going to kill my September numbers. Cam: I don’t think that’s anything to worry about. We all expect some variation in actual spending month to month. What’s really important is staying within the budgeted targets for the year. Does that look as if it’s going to be a problem? Megan: I don’t think so, but just the same, I’d like to be on the safe side. Cam: What do you mean? Megan: Well, this is what I’d like to do. I want to pay the convention-related costs in advance this month. I’ll pay the hotel for room and convention space and purchase the airline tickets in advance. In this way, I can charge all these expenditures to July’s budget. This would cause my actual expenses to come close to budget for July. Moreover, when the big advertising campaign hits in September, I won’t have to worry about expenditures for the convention on my September budget as well. The convention costs will already be paid. Thus, my September expenses should be pretty close to budget. Cam: I can’t tell you when to make your convention purchases, but I’m not too sure that September items should be expensed in July’s budget. Megan: What’s the problem? It looks like “no harm, no foul” to me. I can’t see that there’s anything wrong with this—it’s just smart management. How should Cam Morley respond to Megan Hewitt’s request to expense the advanced payments for convention-related costs against July’s budget?

Norton Company, a manufacturer of infant furniture and carriages, is in the initial stages of preparing the annual budget for the coming year. Scott Ford has recently joined Nortons accounting staff and is interested in learning as much as possible about the companys budgeting process. During a recent lunch with Marge Atkins, sales manager, and Pete Granger, production manager, Ford initiated the following conversation. FORD: Since Im new around here and am going to be involved with the preparation of the annual budget, Id be interested in learning how the two of you estimate sales and production numbers. ATKINS: We start out very methodically by looking at recent history, discussing what we know about current accounts, potential customers, and the general state of consumer spending. Then, we add that usual dose of intuition to come up with the best forecast we can. GRANGER: I usually take the sales projections as the basis for my projections. Of course, we have to make an estimate of what this years closing inventories will be, which is sometimes difficult. FORD: Why does that present a problem? There must have been an estimate of closing inventories in the budget for the current year. GRANGER: Those numbers arent always reliable since Marge makes some adjustments to the sales numbers before passing them on to me. FORD: What kind of adjustments? ATKINS: Well, we dont want to fall short of the sales projections so we generally give ourselves a little breathing room by lowering the initial sales projection anywhere from 5 to 10 percent. GRANGER: So, you can see why this years budget is not a very reliable starting point. We always have to adjust the projected production rates as the year progresses, and of course, this changes the ending inventory estimates. By the way, we make similar adjustments to expenses by adding at least 10 percent to the estimates; I think everyone around here does the same thing. Required: 1. Marge Atkins and Pete Granger have described the use of budgetary slack. a. Explain why Atkins and Granger behave in this manner, and describe the benefits they expect to realize from the use of budgetary slack. b. Explain how the use of budgetary slack can adversely affect Atkins and Granger. 2. As a management accountant, Scott Ford believes that the behavior described by Marge Atkins and Pete Granger may be unethical and that he may have an obligation not to support this behavior. By citing the specific standards of competence, confidentiality, integrity, and/or credibility from the Statement of Ethical Professional Practice (in Chapter 1), explain why the use of budgetary slack may be unethical. (CMA adapted)

Ethics and professional conduct in business The director of marketing for Truss Industries Inc.. Ellen Knutson, had the following discussion with the company controller. Bud Wyckoff. on February 26 of the current year: Ellen: Bud, it looks like I'm going to spend much less than indicated on my February budget. Butt: I'm glad to hear it. Ellen: Well. I'm not so sure it's good news. I'm concerned that the president will see that I'm under budget and reduce my budget in the future. The only reason that I look good is that we've delayed an advertising campaign. Once the campaign hits in May. I'm sure my actual expenditures will go up. You see. we are also having our sales convention in May. Having the advertising campaign and the convention at the same time is going to kill my May numbers.

The management of Hess, Inc., is developing a flexible budget for the upcoming year. It was not pleased with the small amount of net income the budget showed at all sales levels and Is contemplating using a less expensive material. This action reduces direct material cost by $1 per unit. What would be the effects on financial statements and a flexible budget if management takes this approach? Are there other factors that need to be considered?

Frank Flynn is the payroll manager for Powlus Supply Company. During the budgeting process, Sam Kinder, director of finance, asked Flynn to arrive at a set percentage that could be applied to each budgeted salary figure to cover the additional cost that will be incurred by Powlus Supply for each employee. After some discussion, it was determined that the best way to compute this percentage would be to base these additional costs of payroll on the average salary paid by the company. Kinder wants this additional payroll cost percentage to cover payroll taxes (FICA, FUTA, and SUTA) and other payroll costs covered by the company (workers compensation expense, health insurance costs, and vacation pay). Flynn gathers the following information in order to complete the analysis: Compute the percentage that can be used in the budget.

Carmichael Corporation is in the process of preparing next years budget. The pro forma income statement for the current year is as follows: Required: 1. What is the break-even sales revenue (rounded to the nearest dollar) for Carmichael Corporation for the current year? 2. For the coming year, the management of Carmichael Corporation anticipates an 8 percent increase in variable costs and a 60,000 increase in fixed expenses. What is the break-even point in dollars for next year? (CMA adapted)

The director of marketing for Eclipse Computer co., Sandeep Sauda, had the following discussion with the company controller, Deon Johnson, on July 26 of the current year: Sandeep: Deon, it looks like I'm going to spend much less than indicated on my July budget. Deon: I'm glad to hear it. Sandeep: Well, I'm not so sure it's good news. I'm concerned that the president will see that I'm under budget and reduce my budget in the future. The only reason that I look good is that we've delayed an advertising campaign. Once the campaign hits in September, I'm sure my actual expenditures will go up. You see, we are also having our sales convention in September. Having the advertising campaign and the convention at the same time is going to kill my September numbers. Deon: I don't think that's anything to worry about. We all expect some variation in actual spending month to month. What's really important is staying within the budgeted targets for the year. Does that look as if…

B. Another team member who is preparing the Budgeted Balance Sheet for the business for the same quarter and has asked you to furnish him with the figures for the expected trade receivables and payables to be included in the statement at December 31, 2021. Is that a reasonable request? If yes, what should these amounts be? C. Upon receipt of the budget the team manager has now informed you that the management of Miller Merchandising & More have indicated a desire to maintain a minimum cash balance of $125,000 each month. Based on the budget prepared, will the business be achieving this desired target? Given that the management does not wish to borrow any funds from outside sources, suggest three (3) internal strategies that the business may employ in order to improve the organization’s monthly cash flow. Each strategy must be fully explained.

Westmont Corporation uses a comprehensive budgeting system for planning and control purposes. While departmental supervisors are happy with the system, the factory manager is not. A report for the company's Assembly Department for March follows: After receiving this report, the supervisor of the Assembly Department stated, "These reports are super. It makes me feel good to see how well things are going in my department. I can't understand why those people upstairs complain so much about the reports." For the last several years, the company's marketing department chronically failed to meet the sales goals expressed in the company's monthly budgets. Required: The company's president is uneasy about the cost reports, identify at least two reasons. What kind of reports should be used to give better insight into how well departmental supervisors are controlling costs? Complete the new performance report for the quarter, based on Flexible Budget Performance approach. Were costs well…

(b) Another team member who is preparing the Budgeted Balance Sheet for the business for the same quarter and has asked you to furnish him with the figures for the expected trade receivables and payables to be included in the statement. Is that a reasonable request? If yes, what should these amounts be? (c) Upon receipt of the budget, the team manager, Hilux James, has now informed you that, in keeping with industry players, the management of Toyota & Sons have indicated an industry requirement to maintain a minimum cash balance of $155,000 each month. He has also noted that management is very keen on keeping the gearing ratio of the business as low as possible and would therefore prefer to cushion any gaps internally using equity financing. Based on the budget prepared, will the business be achieving this desired target? Suggest three (3) internal strategies that may be employed by management to improve the organization’s monthly cash flow and militate against or reduce any…

(b) Another team member who is preparing the Budgeted Balance Sheet for the business for the same quarter and has asked you to furnish him with the figures for the expected trade receivables and payables to be included in the statement. Is that a reasonable request? If yes, what should these amounts be? (c) Upon receipt of the budget, the team manager, Hilux James, has now informed you that, in keeping with industry players, the management of Toyota & Sons have indicated an industry requirement to maintain a minimum cash balance of $155,000 each month. He has also noted that management is very keen on keeping the gearing ratio of the business as low as possible and would therefore prefer to cushion any gaps internally using equity financing.Based on the budget prepared, will the business be achieving this desired target? Suggest three (3) internal strategies that may be employed by management to improve the organization’s monthly cash flow and militate against or reduce any…

KK ENTERPRISE was set up by a man and his with some few years ago. The trade in a lot of products. They don’t have enough knowledge in accounting for decision making. They need professional assistance to prepare budgets for the period October to December 2020. The following information has been provided to assist in the budgeting process: · Budgeted monthly sales revenue for 2020 is as follows: October GH¢ 40,000, November GH¢ 70,000, December GH¢ 50,000, January 2018 45,000. Sales are 20% cash and 80% credit. Credit sales are collected over a three- month period, 15% in the month of sale, 70% in the month following sale and 15% in the second month following sale. Total sales revenue in August amounts to GH¢30,000 and September’s total sales revenue amounts to GH¢36,000. Cost of sales is expected to amount to 60% of sales revenue each month. The business maintains its closing inventory levels at 75% of the following month’s cost of sales. Inventory at the beginning of October is…

The Finch Management Association held its annual public relations luncheon in April Year 2. Based on the previous year’s results, the organization allocated $24,312 of its operating budget to cover the cost of the luncheon. To ensure that costs would be appropriately controlled, Molly Hubbard, the treasurer, prepared the following budget for the Year 2 luncheon. The budget for the luncheon was based on the following expectations: The meal cost per person was expected to be $12.40. The cost driver for meals was attendance, which was expected to be 1,460 individuals. Postage was based on $0.56 per invitation and 3,300 invitations were expected to be mailed. The cost driver for postage was number of invitations mailed. The facility charge is $1,600 for a room that will accommodate up to 1,600 people; the charge for one to hold more than 1,600 people is $2,100. A fixed amount was designated for printing, decorations, the speaker’s gift, and publicity. FINCH MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION…

Solution Summary: The author opines that the controller should reject Mr. M's request to include the convention related costs in July’s budget.

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