Essay about Variance Analysis

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.

A budget variance occurs when the actual results of your financial activity differ from your budgeted projections. Since your expectations were based on knowledge from your financial history, micro- and macroeconomic factors, and new information, if there is a variance, it is because your estimate was inaccurate or because one or more of those factors changed unexpectedly. If your estimate was inaccurate—perhaps you had overlooked or ignored a factor—knowing that can help you improve. If one or more of those factors has changed unexpectedly, then identifying the cause of the variance creates new information with which to better assess your situation. At the very least, variances will alert you to the need for adjustments to your budget and to the appropriate choices.

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

Open communication between all the staff to help the finance and management come up with correct budget for the company

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).

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,

20. An overhead cost variance is the difference between the actual overhead incurred for the period and the standard overhead applied.

According to Henry (2016), resource management consists of budgeting and allocating resources. Which also includes human, financial and material resources. Based on the data provided, during January and February, the variance was over budget. During March and April, the variance was under budget. To help keep the budget under, I would address the concerns of the operating budget during a staff meeting. According to Marquis and Huston (2017), Managers should do what they can to see that employees feel they have some control over events that happen, including policies. A staff meeting, will keep all the members of the unit aware and informed of the concerns as well as allow them opportunities to suggest strategies that could help with the issue.

VARK stands for visual, auditory, reading and writing and kinesthetic learners. When using VARK a person must understand that the questionnaire alerts people to the variety of different approaches to learning. It supports those who have been having difficulties with their learning and has particular applications in business, sport, training and education. This model focuses on the best way for a student to learn and retain new information based on sensory modality. (Fleming, 2011) When a student knows his/her learning style preferences, he/she is able to learn more effectively and store and

Overhead costs include rent, office staff, depreciation, and other. Once the flexible budget was complete, variances between the actual and flexible budget could be calculated (Exhibit B). The variance for frame assembly was favorable with actual costs being $82,663 less than in the flexible budget. The variances for wheel and final assembly however were both unfavorable. Wheel assembly had an unfavorable variance of $50,650, while final assembly variance was the highest at an unfavorable variance of $231,200. Taking into account these three aspects of direct cost, direct cost has an unfavorable variance $199,187. Although most overhead costs are fixed, 2/3 of other costs are variable and increase with the increased production. As shown in Exhibit B, overhead variance is unfavorable at $60,000. The direct cost variance and overhead variable together lead to a total unfavorable variance of $259,187.

Budgets serve five main purposes; planning, facilitating communication and coordination, allocating resources, controlling profits and operations and evaluating performance and providing incentives. The budgeting process requires both technical and interpersonal leadership skills to achieve each of these purposes effectively. The director’s memo demonstrates several short comings in the budgeting process. The director instituted the “responsibility accounting system” as a means of evaluating performance. However, the DPW director has not consulted Sam in the budget process. Sam understands that his total expenditures are impacted by relatively unpredictable events that contribute to an uncontrollable element of his cost. The

What is your evaluation of each of the three businesses? What is your evaluation of the managers who run them?

It is not necessary to track and analyze all of the variances. Put most of the variance analysis effort into those variances that make the most difference to the company if the underlying issues can be rectified. Set guidelines/policy for identifying what is relevant for pursuing research on variances. An example would be finance might

Many businesses expect employees to achieve budget targets as part of their overall performance. While the specifics requirements of each employee differ with the position and nature of the company, it is common for employees to be expected to sell a certain number of items, control costs versus a budgeted amount or reduce waste compared with a benchmark. A potential downfall of using budget information for performance evaluation is that employees may be so concerned with making budget targets that they may do so at the cost of other parts of the business.