ACC 202: Final Project Part II Budget Analysis Submission
Christi Greene
Southern New Hampshire University
Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to describe the budget process, variances and the major reasons of the variance to make all the financial decisions of the firm properly. This paper would also be helpful to explain that “make” or “Buy” decisions also play a significant role to improve the efficiency of the firm. In addition, the paper would also be useful to clarify that non-financial performance measure may be unsafe for the image of the firm.
Part: A Budget Process and Variances
Initial Budget Process, the Variances, and Potential Reasons for the Variances
The initial budget process is helpful to show the difference
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The main reason behind it is that the variance analysis of materials, labor, and overhead indicates the difference between original budget and actual sales/amount. It explains that the management should make changes in the budgets in order to diminish the chances of failure (Epstein & Jermakowicz, 2010). Moreover, the company should make changes in its all budgets like production budget, sales budget, manufacturing budget, selling budget and general & administrative. These changes would be helpful to reduce the difference between the actual and projected sales of the firm.
Ethical Considerations of the Changes The company should consider ethical aspects of the changes in original budget and actual sales/amount. The main reason behind it is the variances in materials, labor, and overhead. In addition to this, the firm should evaluate the actual variance in the materials, labor, and overhead and after that change in budgets in order to maintain business ethics and to reduce improper changes in budget that is unethical aspect of the business (Delaney & Whittington, 2012).
Part: B “Make” or “Buy” Decision
Factors that Consider in Such a “Make” Or “Buy”
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For case, the main ethical consideration of the decision is that it will be beneficial for all the people and will not spoil anyone. In addition, it will be helpful to maintain sustainability and to accomplish the goals of the organization. Moreover, the major implication that this decision could have is the make or buy decision of house would not hurt the environment as well as nature of the state (Delaney & Whittington, 2012). For case, make or buy house decision without considering the environment aspects means it will spoil the nature, environment and people those are related with the decision and that will be unethical aspect of the decision making.
Make” Or To “Buy” Will Impact the Efficiencies of Operation “Make” or to “Buy” will influence the efficiencies of operation in a positive manner. The main reason behind it is that, the make or buy decisions are helpful to sustain business practices, and to improve efficiency in operations in an effective manner.
Part: C Nonfinancial Performance
Use of the flexible budget shows the budgeted operating income given the actual sales. When you compare the flexible budget to the actual budget you are able to compare the total sales and cost incurred given the same units sold. The sales price variance, which is the actual sales less the flexible budgeted sales, was $14,700 favorable. This means that actual sales were higher than budgeted sales at that usage. This is attributable to the increase in service price from $25 to $26.40. Price variance for material usage was $2,100 over the flexible budget projection. This could be attributed to overuse or waste of materials. As expected, the direct labor price variance was $3,375 lower than the flexible budget amount. This is attributed to the manager’s effective use of labor. Operating expenses were also higher than the flexible budget
With the increasing ramification of economic changes and complex business functioning, each and every company has to implement budget variance analysis to identify the fluctuation in projected amount. In this report, Peyton Approved Company has been taken into consideration to evaluate the effectiveness of business functioning and plant’s operation in determined approach. It reviews the efficiencies and effectiveness of their plant’s operations. With the help of budget variance, it could be easily determined whether Peyton Approved Company has been performing its business throughout the time. Budget variance is the technique which is used by Peyton Approved Company to identify the fluctuation and variability in the set budget and implemented project. Budget variance is defined as differences between the actual amounts of expense incurred by Peyton Approved Company. It is evaluated that when Peyton Approved Company has positive cash flow in its planned budget. For instance, if amount of expenses incurred by company is less than its planned or estimated budget expenses then company has positive budget variance and vice-versa. This could be defined with the estimation of cost budget variance. The formula for the same has been given as below (Steffan, 2008).
The budget analysis shows that the labor hours of the firm are higher than the budgeted amount. As such, the firm needs to evaluate the cost benefit analysis of making or buying their products. To make this decision, various factors need to be considered. Before making the decision, Peyton needs to evaluate the marginal costs and revenue of making versus buying the products. The firm should take the option which provides the highest marginal profit which is the
Another concern identified, is the utilities expense budget for utilities in Year 9 which is $150,000. This amount is identified as a fixed amount and is unrelated to actually production activities and manufacturing efficiency. Considering that production levels and activity fluctuates throughout the year, the budget for utilities should be a variable item. An example; from Year 7 to Year 8, the utilities expenses increase by $15,000 and with this detection, ways to reduce this expense should be investigate. Another concern is a duplicated line item under the Selling, General, and Administrative Budget for Utilities and Utilities and Services. Another issue for concern, Total Variable Cost was reported to be lower; however was not enough for the lack of sales combined with an increase in advertising and transportation which resulted in an overall negative result. The low Net Sales directly impacted the Contribution Margin which decreased by $49,397. Overall, these concerns indicate the need for a flexible budget with variance analysis.
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,
The Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) that our team chose to analyze is for the State of Ohio. The CAFR is for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2006. The information that was reviewed for the CAFR budget analysis was: the population, the State of Ohio’s governmental structure, the size of the budget and its interrelationship with the CAFR, major industries located in the entity, and other pertinent demographic information.
Customers come to this restaurant because of the good Italian food at a low price – you can get a meal for $7, including drinks. Customers also eat at Papa Geo’s due to the cleanliness of the facility, the speed of getting their seat and food, and the vending machines which keep the children busy while adults enjoy their meal.
One of the most important parts of a business is the financial management. Each and every other company always strives to have the best management when it comes to its finances. Most organizations have come up with plans and marketing strategies. This is due to the fact tat when companies finances are poorly managed then definitely the whole company is likely to be in trouble or even come down. The financial techniques and principles in most cases comprise of quite a number of aspect for instance those that we intend to look at in this paper-the financial reporting. This will basically comprise of the quality of data and information that the company produced to some of the various stakeholders. Other than that, the paper will also analyze the financial position and performance of the organization using accounting ratios. Another important aspect of financial principles is costing. This basically entails the cost of producing goods and services in the company and how it generally affects the overall performance of the company. The paper will also delve into how important costs in the pricing strategy of the business are. It will further come up with a costing and pricing system that can help the company improve. Last but not least, we focus on the company's budgets and budgetary control. Here there are very important areas that have to be looked into, for
In making my decision I would consider choosing the decision that is ethical, in addition, I would come up with alternatives that can help save employees’ jobs.
Companies will have set guidelines to trigger the need for a variance report such as variances over a specific percentage or dollar amount. (Cleverly, Song, & Cleverly, 2011, Pg. 381) In an analysis of revenues, a negative variation is unfavorable; in an analysis of costs, a negative variation is favorable. (Dove & Forthman, 1995) Variation is calculated by subtracting the expected or budgeted figure from the actual figure for each variable. The variable figure is then divided by the expected figure in order to establish a percentage of the variance. Wages that are over the budgeted amount would be an unfavorable variance and would be an indication that there is a need for a variance report. (Dove & Forthman, 1995) Supply costs being less than the budgeted amount would be a favorable variance, however it could result in the supplies budget being reduced if there is not a reasonable explanation as to the cause for the variance. Therefore, a variable department manager would ask for a variance report detailing the reason for the variance to be completed, otherwise it appears as if the budget is overstated and needs to be reduced.
Ethics involve an individual's moral judgments concerning what is right and/or wrong. Individuals or groups of people are responsible for making decisions in an organization (shaw, 2008). Decisions within the organization are always emanate from the company's culture. However, the decision to act ethically and morally requires an individual judgment. Thus, members of staff are obligated to make decisions that reflect their right course of action (shaw, 2008). This involves rejecting the option that could lead to the greatest short-term gain. The leadership of most organizations stresses the need to adopt ethical behaviors and corporate social responsibility. Ethical dealings can earn the organization various benefits. For instance, it may attract more clients to the business thus boosting sales; employees could be motivated to stay longer in the organization thereby reducing recruitment expenditures. Ethical behaviors could also earn the business a favorable reputation that could attract investors. Categorically, a lack of social responsibility or unethical behavior may hurt the firm's reputation and scare away investors. Sales and profits could fall in the process.
Some employ the variance analysis in monitoring an operating budget, this studies the variance between actual and budgeted cost; comparing one cost at one organization to another. Variance analysis points out areas that require performance improvement.
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.
Running a company often requires carefully planning and review of finances. Various studies reveal that most companies use other forms of accounting mainly for measuring, identifying, analyzing, and reporting their financial information. In spite of making tremendous success, proper financial budget planning is still important for the development and success of Acer Company. In this way, accounting tools may include financial statements, forecasts, and other may be employed. Proper budget planning is important to the business in the following ways. Firstly, through the budget, detailed information on the analysis of how the company anticipates spending its finances, in future times can be revealed. Proper budget planning limits
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.