Show
Chapter objectives There are two types of control, namely budgetary and financial. This chapter concentrates on budgetary control only. This is because financial control was covered in detail in chapters one and two. Budgetary control is defined by the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants (CIMA) as: "The establishment of budgets relating the responsibilities of executives to the requirements of a policy, and the continuous comparison of actual with budgeted results, either to secure by individual action the objective of that policy, or to provide a basis for its revision". Chapter objectivesThis chapter is intended to provide: · An indication and explanation of the importance of budgetary control in marketing as a key marketing control technique Structure of the chapterOf all business activities, budgeting is one of the most important and, therefore, requires detailed attention. The chapter looks at the concept of responsibility centres, and the advantages and disadvantages of budgetary control. It then goes on to look at the detail of budget construction and the use to which budgets can be put. Like all management tools, the chapter highlights the need for detailed information, if the technique is to be used to its fullest advantage. Budgetary control methodsa) Budget: · A formal statement of the financial resources set aside for carrying out specific activities in a given period of time. An example would be an advertising budget or sales force budget. b) Budgetary control: · A control technique whereby actual results are compared with budgets. Budgetary control and responsibility centres; These enable managers to monitor organisational functions. A responsibility centre can be defined as any functional unit headed by a manager who is responsible for the activities of that unit. There are four types of responsibility centres: a) Revenue centres Advantages of budgeting and budgetary control There are a number of advantages to budgeting and budgetary control: · Compels management to think about the future, which is probably the most important feature of a budgetary planning and control system. Forces management to look ahead, to set out detailed plans for achieving the targets for each department, operation and (ideally) each manager, to anticipate and give the organisation purpose and direction. Problems in budgeting Whilst budgets may be an essential part of any marketing activity they do have a number of disadvantages, particularly in perception terms. · Budgets can be seen as pressure devices imposed by management, thus resulting in:a) bad labour relations Characteristics of a budget A good budget is characterised by the following: · Participation: involve as many people as possible in drawing up a budget. Budget organisation and administration: In organising and administering a budget system the following characteristics may apply: a) Budget centres: Units responsible for the preparation of budgets. A budget centre may encompass several cost centres. Budget preparation Firstly, determine the principal budget factor. This is also known as the key budget factor or limiting budget factor and is the factor which will limit the activities of an undertaking. This limits output, e.g. sales, material or labour. a) Sales budget: this involves a realistic sales forecast. This is prepared in units of each product and also in sales value. Methods of sales forecasting include: · sales force opinions In using these techniques consider: · company's pricing policy b) Production budget: expressed in quantitative terms only and is geared to the sales budget. The production manager's duties include: · analysis of plant utilisation If requirements exceed capacity he may: · subcontract c) Raw materials and purchasing budget: · The materials usage budget is in quantities. Factors influencing a) and b) include: · production requirements d) Labour budget: is both quantitative and financial. This is influenced by: · production requirements e) Cash budget: a cash plan for a defined period of time. It summarises monthly receipts and payments. Hence, it highlights monthly surpluses and deficits of actual cash. Its main uses are: · to maintain control over a firm's cash requirements, e.g. stock and debtors Receipts of cash may come from one of the following: · cash sales Payments of cash may be for one or more of the following: · purchase of stocks Steps in preparing a cash budget i) Step 1: set out a pro forma cash budget month by month. Below is a suggested layout.
ii) Step 2: sort out cash receipts from debtors iii) Step 3: other income iv) Step 4: sort out cash payments to suppliers v) Step 5: establish other cash payments in the month Figure 4.1 shows the composition of a master budget analysis. Figure 4.1 Composition of a master budget
f) Other budgets: These include budgets for: · administration The master budget (figure 4.1) illustrates this. Now attempt exercise 4.1. Exercise 4.1 Budgeting I Draw up a cash budget for D. Sithole showing the balance at the end of each month, from the following information provided by her for the six months ended 31 December 19X2. a) Opening Cash $ 1,200.
Cash is received for sales after 3 months following the sales.
d) Raw materials cost $5/unit. Of this 80% is paid in the month of production and 20% after production. e) Direct labour costs of $8/unit are payable in the month of production. f) Variable expenses are $2/unit. Of this 50% is paid in the same month as production and 50% in the month following production. g) Fixed expenses are $400/month payable each month. h) Machinery costing $2,000 to be paid for in October 19X2. i) Will receive a legacy of $ 2,500 in December 19X2. j) Drawings to be $300/month. An example A sugar cane farm in the Lowveld district may devise an operating budget as follows: · Cultivation With each operation, there will be costs for labour, materials and machinery usage. Therefore, for e.g. harvesting, these may include four resources, namely: · Labour:-cutting Having identified cost centres, the next step will be to make a quantitative calculation of the resources to be used, and to further break this down to shorter periods, say, one month or three months. The length of period chosen is important in that the shorter it is, the greater the control that can be exercised by the budget but the greater the expense in preparation of the budget and reporting of any variances. The quantitative budget for harvesting may be calculated as shown in figure 4.2. Figure 4.2 Quantitative harvesting budget
Each item is measured in different quantitative units - tonnes of cane, man days etc.-and depends on individual judgement of which is the best unit to use. Once the budget in quantitative terms has been prepared, unit costs can then be allocated to the individual items to arrive at a budget for harvesting in financial terms as shown in table 4.2. Charge out costs In table 4.2 tractors have a unit cost of $7.50 per hour - machines like tractors have a whole range of costs like fuel and oil, repairs and maintenance, driver, licence, road tax and insurance and depreciation. Some of the costs are fixed, e.g. depreciation and insurance, whereas some vary directly with use of the tractor, e.g. fuel and oil. Other costs such as repairs are unpredictable and may be very high or low - an estimated figure based on past experience. Figure 4.3 Harvesting cost budget
So, overall operating cost of the tractor for the year may be budgeted as shown in figure 4.4. If the tractor is used for more than 1,000 hours then there will be an over-recovery on its operational costs and if used for less than 1,000 hours there will be under-recovery, i.e. in the first instance making an internal 'profit' and in the second a 'loss'. Figure 4.4 Tractor costs
Master budget The master budget for the sugar cane farm may be as shown in figure 4.5. The budget represents an overall objective for the farm for the whole year ahead, expressed in financial terms. Table 4.5 Operating budget for sugar cane farm 19X4
Once the operating budget has been prepared, two further budgets can be done, namely: i. Balance sheet at the end of the year. Reporting back During the year the management accountant will prepare statements, as quickly as possible after each operating period, in our example, each quarter, setting out the actual operating costs against the budgeted costs. This statement will calculate the difference between the 'budgeted' and the 'actual' cost, which is called the 'variance'. There are many ways in which management accounts can be prepared. To continue with our example of harvesting on the sugar cane farm, management accounts at the end of the third quarter can be presented as shown in figure 4.6. Figure 4.6 Management accounts - actual costs against budget costs Management accounts for sugar cane farm 3rd quarter 19X4
Here, actual harvesting costs for the 3rd quarter are $28,265 against a budget of $27,775 indicating an increase of $490 whilst the cumulative figure for the year to date shows an overall saving of $438. It appears that actual costs are less than budgeted costs, so the harvesting operations are proceeding within the budget set and satisfactory. However, a further look may reveal that this may not be the case. The budget was based on a cane tonnage cut of 16,000 tonnes in the 3rd quarter and a cumulative tonnage of 25,000. If these tonnages have been achieved then the statement will be satisfactory. If the actual production was much higher than budgeted then these costs represent a very considerable saving, even though only a marginal saving is shown by the variance. Similarly, if the actual tonnage was significantly less than budgeted, then what is indicated as a marginal saving in the variance may, in fact, be a considerable overspending. Price and quantity variances Just to state that there is a variance on a particular item of expenditure does not really mean a lot. Most costs are composed of two elements - the quantity used and the price per unit. A variance between the actual cost of an item and its budgeted cost may be due to one or both of these factors. Apparent similarity between budgeted and actual costs may hide significant compensating variances between price and usage. For example, say it is budgeted to take 300 man days at $3.00 per man day - giving a total budgeted cost of $900.00. The actual cost on completion was $875.00, showing a saving of $25.00. Further investigations may reveal that the job took 250 man days at a daily rate of $3.50 - a favourable usage variance but a very unfavourable price variance. Management may therefore need to investigate some significant variances revealed by further analysis, which a comparison of the total costs would not have revealed. Price and usage variances for major items of expense are discussed below. Labour The difference between actual labour costs and budgeted or standard labour costs is known as direct wages variance. This variance may arise due to a difference in the amount of labour used or the price per unit of labour, i.e. the wage rate. The direct wages variance can be split into: i) Wage rate variance: the wage rate was higher or lower than budgeted, e.g. using more unskilled labour, or working overtime at a higher rate. Materials The variance for materials cost could also be split into price and usage elements: i) Material price variance: arises when the actual unit price is greater or lower than budgeted. Could be due to inflation, discounts, alternative suppliers etc. Overheads Again, overhead variance can be split into: i) Overhead volume variance: where overheads are taken into the cost centres, a production higher or lower than budgeted will cause an over-or under-absorption of overheads. Calculation of price and usage variances The price and usage variance are calculated as follows: Price variance = (budgeted price - actual price) X actual quantity Now attempt exercise 4.2. Exercise 4.2 Computation of labour variances It was budgeted that it would take 200 man days at $10.00 per day to complete the task costing $2,000.00 when the actual cost was $1,875.00, being 150 man days at $12.50 per day. Calculate: i) Price variance Comment briefly on the results of your calculation. Management action and cost controlProducing information in management accounting form is expensive in terms of the time and effort involved. It will be very wasteful if the information once produced is not put into effective use. There are five parts to an effective cost control system. These are: a) preparation of budgets Action(s) that can be taken when a significant variance has been revealed will depend on the nature of the variance itself. Some variances can be identified to a specific department and it is within that department's control to take corrective action. Other variances might prove to be much more difficult, and sometimes impossible, to control. Variances revealed are historic. They show what happened last month or last quarter and no amount of analysis and discussion can alter that. However, they can be used to influence managerial action in future periods. Zero base budgeting (ZBB)After a budgeting system has been in operation for some time, there is a tendency for next year's budget to be justified by reference to the actual levels being achieved at present. In fact this is part of the financial analysis discussed so far, but the proper analysis process takes into account all the changes which should affect the future activities of the company. Even using such an analytical base, some businesses find that historical comparisons, and particularly the current level of constraints on resources, can inhibit really innovative changes in budgets. This can cause a severe handicap for the business because the budget should be the first year of the long range plan. Thus, if changes are not started in the budget period, it will be difficult for the business to make the progress necessary to achieve longer term objectives. One way of breaking out of this cyclical budgeting problem is to go back to basics and develop the budget from an assumption of no existing resources (that is, a zero base). This means all resources will have to be justified and the chosen way of achieving any specified objectives will have to be compared with the alternatives. For example, in the sales area, the current existing field sales force will be ignored, and the optimum way of achieving the sales objectives in that particular market for the particular goods or services should be developed. This might not include any field sales force, or a different-sized team, and the company then has to plan how to implement this new strategy. The obvious problem of this zero-base budgeting process is the massive amount of managerial time needed to carry out the exercise. Hence, some companies carry out the full process every five years, but in that year the business can almost grind to a halt. Thus, an alternative way is to look in depth at one area of the business each year on a rolling basis, so that each sector does a zero base budget every five years or so. Key termsBudgeting
Which budget is the starting point in preparing financial budgets?All budgets begin with the sales budget. This budget estimates the number of units that need to be manufactured and precedes the production budget. The production budget (refer to Figure 10.5) provides the necessary information for the budgets needed to plan how many units will be produced.
What is the purpose of a budget?A budget helps create financial stability. By tracking expenses and following a plan, a budget makes it easier to pay bills on time, build an emergency fund, and save for major expenses such as a car or home. Overall, a budget puts a person on stronger financial footing for both the day-to-day and the long term.
Which section of the cash budget summarizes all cash payments that are planned for the budget period?The cash receipts section of a cash budget summarizes all cash expected to flow into the business during the budget period.
Is a financial plan that estimates and lists the number of units to be manufactured during a period?Definition: A production budget is a financial plan that lists the number of units to be manufactured during a period. In other words, this is a report that estimates the number of units that a plant will produce from period to period.
|