Full List of Management Accounting for Decision Makers_8 doc

It is perhaps too early to predict whether or not the trickle of businesses that are now seeking an alternative to budgets will turn into a flood. However, it is clear that in today’s highly competitive environment a business must be flexible and responsive to changing conditions. Management systems that in any way hinder these attributes will not survive. It is worth remembering that, despite the criticisms, budgeting remains a very widely used technique. Real World 6.3 provides evidence for this. Furthermore, a glance through the annual report of virtually any well-known business will reveal that budget- ing is used and is not, therefore, regarded as an impediment to success. Real World 6.9 is an account of a round table discussion at a Better Budgeting forum held in 2004. Long live budgets! It could be argued that Toyota’s ‘Original Business Plan’ (see Real World 6.8) is really a budget by another name. The definition of a budget is a business plan, as we saw earlier in the chapter. Real World 6.10 provides survey evidence of senior finance staff that reveals consider- able support for budgets. Nevertheless, many recognised that budgeting is not always well managed and acknowledged some of the criticisms of budgets that were mentioned earlier. LONG LIVE BUDGETS! 207 REAL WORLD 6.9 Alive and kicking A round table discussion at a Better Budgeting Forum held in London in March 2004 was attended by representatives of 32 large organisations, including BAA (the airport operator), the BBC, Ford Motors, Sainsbury (the supermarket business) and Unilever (the household goods group). The report of the forum discussions said: If you were to believe all that has been written in recent years, you’d be forgiven for thinking that budgeting is on its way to becoming extinct. Various research reports allude to the widespread dissatisfaction with the bureaucratic exercise in cost cutting that budgeting is accused of having become. Budgets are pilloried as being out of touch with the needs of modern business and accused of taking too long, costing too much and encouraging all sorts of perverse behaviour. Yet if there was one conclusion to emerge from the day’s discussions it was that budgets are in fact alive and well. Not only did all the organisations present operate a formal budget but all bar two had no interest in getting rid of it. Quite the opposite – although aware of the problems it can cause, the participants by and large regarded the budgeting system and the accompanying processes as indispensable. and later, in what could have been a reference to the use of ‘rolling forecasts’ among businesses that claim to have abandoned budgeting, it said: It quickly became obvious that, as one participant put it, ‘one man’s budget is another man’s rolling forecast’. What people refer to when they talk about budgeting could in reality be very different things. This presumably meant that businesses that abandon ‘budgets’ reintroduce them under another name. Source: The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and The Faculty of Finance and Management of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, Better Budgeting, March 2004. M06_ATRI3622_06_SE_C06.QXD 5/29/09 10:37 AM Page 207 In the next chapter we shall look in some detail at how budgets can be adapted for use as devices for exercising management control. CHAPTER 6 BUDGETING 208 REAL WORLD 6.10 Problems with budgets The survey of the opinions of senior finance staff at 340 businesses of various sizes and operating in a wide range of industries in North America that was mentioned earlier showed that 86 per cent of those surveyed regarded the budget process as either ‘essential’ or ‘very important’. However, l 66 per cent thought that budgeting in their business was not agile or flexible enough. l 59 per cent were not very confident that budget targets would be met in 2008. l 67 per cent felt that their business devoted inappropriate amounts of time to budgeting (51 per cent felt it was too much and 16 per cent too little). l 76 per cent felt that their businesses used inappropriate software in the budgeting process (generally using a spreadsheet rather than custom-designed software). Source: ‘Perfect how you project’, BPM Forum, 2008. The main points of this chapter may be summarised as follows: A budget is a short-term business plan, mainly expressed in financial terms. l Budgets are the short-term means of working towards the business’s objectives. l They are usually prepared for a one-year period with sub-periods of a month. l There is usually a separate budget for each key area. Uses of budgets l Promote forward thinking. l Help co-ordinate the various aspects of the business. l Motivate performance. l Provide the basis of a system of control. l Provide a system of authorisation. The budget-setting process l Establish who will take responsibility. l Communicate guidelines. l Identify key factor. l Prepare budget for key factor area. l Prepare draft budgets for all other areas. l Review and co-ordinate. l Prepare master budgets (income statement and statement of financial position (balance sheet)). l Communicate the budgets to interested parties. l Monitor performance relative to budget. SUMMARY M06_ATRI3622_06_SE_C06.QXD 5/29/09 10:37 AM Page 208 Preparing budgets l There is no standard style – practicality and usefulness are the key issues. l They are usually prepared in columnar form, with a column for each month (or other period). l Each budget must link (co-ordinate) with others. Criticisms of budgets l Cannot deal with rapid change. l Focus on short-term financial targets, rather than on value creation. l Encourage a ‘top-down’ management style. l Time-consuming. l Based around traditional business functions and do not cross boundaries. l Encourage incremental thinking (last year’s figure, plus x per cent). l Protect rather than lower costs. l Promote ‘sharp’ practice among managers. Budgeting is very widely regarded as useful and is extensively practised despite the criticisms. 1 BPM Forum, ‘Perfect how you project’, BPM Forum, 2008. 2 ‘Beyond budgeting’, www.beyondbudgeting.plus.com. If you would like to explore the topics covered in this chapter in more depth, we recommend the following books: Atkinson, A., Banker, R., Kaplan, R. and Young, S. M., Management Accounting, 5th edn, Prentice Hall, 2007, chapter 11. Drury, C., Management and Cost Accounting, 7th edn, Cengage Learning, 2007, chapter 15. Hilton, R., Managerial Accounting, 6th edn, McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2005, chapter 9. Horngren, C., Foster, G., Datar, S., Rajan, M. and Ittner, C., Cost Accounting: A Managerial Emphasis, 13th edn, Prentice Hall International, 2008, chapter 6. Further reading References 209 Budget p. 176 Control p. 177 Limiting factor p. 179 Forecast p. 179 Periodic budget p. 180 Continual budget p. 180 Rolling budget p. 180 Master budget p. 181 Management by exception p. 184 Budget committee p. 186 Budget officer p. 186 Incremental budgeting p. 192 Budget holder p. 192 Discretionary budget p. 192 Zero-base budgeting (ZBB) p. 193 Activity-based budgeting (ABB) p. 201 Key terms ‘ FURTHER READING M06_ATRI3622_06_SE_C06.QXD 5/29/09 10:37 AM Page 209 Answers to these questions can be found in Appendix C at the back of the book. Define a budget. How is a budget different from a forecast? What were the five uses of budgets that were identified in the chapter? What do budgets have to do with control? What is a budget committee? What purpose does it serve? 6.4 6.3 6.2 6.1 Exercises 6.5 to 6.8 are more advanced than 6.1 to 6.4. Those with coloured numbers have answers in Appendix D at the back of the book. If you wish to try more exercises, visit the students’ side of the Companion Website at www.pearsoned.co.uk/atrillmclaney. Daniel Chu Ltd, a new business, will start production on 1 April, but sales will not start until 1 May. Planned sales for the next nine months are as follows: Sales units May 500 June 600 July 700 August 800 September 900 October 900 November 900 December 800 January 700 The selling price of a unit will be a consistent £100 and all sales will be made on one month’s credit. It is planned that sufficient finished goods inventories for each month’s sales should be available at the end of the previous month. Raw materials purchases will be such that there will be sufficient raw materials invent- ories available at the end of each month precisely to meet the following month’s planned pro- duction. This planned policy will operate from the end of April. Purchases of raw materials will be on one month’s credit. The cost of raw material is £40 a unit of finished product. The direct labour cost, which is variable with the level of production, is planned to be £20 a unit of finished production. Production overheads are planned to be £20,000 each month, including £3,000 for depreciation. Non-production overheads are planned to be £11,000 a month, of which £1,000 will be depreciation. Various non-current (fixed) assets costing £250,000 will be bought and paid for during April. Except where specified, assume that all payments take place in the same month as the cost is incurred. The business will raise £300,000 in cash from a share issue in April. 6.1 CHAPTER 6 BUDGETING 210 REVIEW QUESTIONS EXERCISES M06_ATRI3622_06_SE_C06.QXD 5/29/09 10:37 AM Page 210 Required: Draw up the following for the six months ending 30 September: (a) A finished inventories budget, showing just physical quantities. (b) A raw materials inventories budget showing both physical quantities and financial values. (c) A trade payables budget. (d) A trade receivables budget. (e) A cash budget. You have overheard the following statements: (a) ‘A budget is a forecast of what is expected to happen in a business during the next year.’ (b) ‘Monthly budgets must be prepared with a column for each month so that you can see the whole year at a glance, month by month.’ (c) ‘Budgets are OK but they stifle all initiative. No manager worth employing would work for a business that seeks to control through budgets.’ (d) ‘Activity-based budgeting is an approach that takes account of the planned volume of activity in order to deduce the figures to go into the budget.’ (e) ‘Any sensible person would start with the sales budget and build up the other budgets from there.’ Required: Critically discuss these statements, explaining any technical terms. A nursing home, which is linked to a large hospital, has been examining its budgetary control procedures, with particular reference to overhead costs. The level of activity in the facility is measured by the number of patients treated in the budget period. For the current year, the budget stands at 6,000 patients and this is expected to be met. For months 1 to 6 of this year (assume 12 months of equal length), 2,700 patients were treated. The actual variable overhead costs incurred during this six-month period are as follows: Expense £ Staffing 59,400 Power 27,000 Supplies 54,000 Other 8,100 Total 148,500 The hospital accountant believes that the variable overhead costs will be incurred at the same rate during months 7 to 12 of the year. Fixed overheads are budgeted for the whole year as follows: Expense £ Supervision 120,000 Depreciation/financing 187,200 Other 64,800 Total 372,000 Required: (a) Present an overheads budget for months 7 to 12 of the year. You should show each expense, but should not separate individual months. What is the total overheads cost for each patient that would be incorporated into any statistics? (b) The home actually treated 3,800 patients during months 7 to 12, the actual variable over- heads were £203,300, and the fixed overheads were £190,000. In summary form, examine how well the home exercised control over its overheads. (c) Interpret your analysis and point out any limitations or assumptions. 6.3 6.2 EXERCISES 211 M06_ATRI3622_06_SE_C06.QXD 5/29/09 10:37 AM Page 211 Linpet Ltd is to be incorporated on 1 June. The opening statement of financial position (balance sheet) of the business will then be as follows: Assets £ Cash at bank 60,000 Share capital £1 ordinary shares 60,000 During June, the business intends to make payments of £40,000 for a leasehold property, £10,000 for equipment and £6,000 for a motor vehicle. The business will also purchase initial trading inventories costing £22,000 on credit. The business has produced the following estimates: 1 Sales revenue for June will be £8,000 and will increase at the rate of £3,000 a month until September. In October, sales revenue will rise to £22,000 and in subsequent months will be maintained at this figure. 2 The gross profit percentage on goods sold will be 25 per cent. 3 There is a risk that supplies of trading inventories will be interrupted towards the end of the accounting year. The business therefore intends to build up its initial level of inventories (£22,000) by purchasing £1,000 of inventories each month in addition to the monthly purchases necessary to satisfy monthly sales requirements. All purchases of inventories (including the initial inventories) will be on one month’s credit. 4 Sales revenue will be divided equally between cash and credit sales. Credit customers are expected to pay two months after the sale is agreed. 5 Wages and salaries will be £900 a month. Other overheads will be £500 a month for the first four months and £650 thereafter. Both types of expense will be payable when incurred. 6 80 per cent of sales revenue will be generated by salespeople who will receive 5 per cent commission on sales revenue. The commission is payable one month after the sale is agreed. 7 The business intends to purchase further equipment in November for £7,000 cash. 8 Depreciation will be provided at the rate of 5 per cent a year on property and 20 per cent a year on equipment. (Depreciation has not been included in the overheads mentioned in 5 above.) Required: (a) State why a cash budget is required for a business. (b) Prepare a cash budget for Linpet Ltd for the six-month period to 30 November. Lewisham Ltd manufactures one product line – the Zenith. Sales of Zeniths over the next few months are planned to be as follows: 1 Demand Units July 180,000 August 240,000 September 200,000 October 180,000 Each Zenith sells for £3. 2 Receipts from sales. Credit customers are expected to pay as follows: l 70 per cent during the month of sale l 28 per cent during the following month. The remaining trade receivables are expected to go bad (that is, to be uncollectable). Credit customers who pay in the month of sale are entitled to deduct a 2 per cent discount from the invoice price. 6.5 6.4 CHAPTER 6 BUDGETING 212 M06_ATRI3622_06_SE_C06.QXD 5/29/09 10:37 AM Page 212 3 Finished goods inventories. Inventories of finished goods are expected to be 40,000 units at 1 July. The business’s policy is that, in future, the inventories at the end of each month should equal 20 per cent of the following month’s planned sales requirements. 4 Raw materials inventories. Inventories of raw materials are expected to be 40,000 kg on 1 July. The business’s policy is that, in future, the inventories at the end of each month should equal 50 per cent of the following month’s planned production requirements. Each Zenith requires 0.5 kg of the raw material, which costs £1.50/kg. Raw materials purchases are paid in the month after purchase. 5 Labour and overheads. The direct labour cost of each Zenith is £0.50. The variable overhead element of each Zenith is £0.30. Fixed overheads, including depreciation of £25,000, total £47,000 a month. All labour and overheads are paid during the month in which they arise. 6 Cash in hand. At 1 August the business plans to have a bank balance (in funds) of £20,000. Required: Prepare the following budgets: (a) Finished inventories budget (expressed in units of Zenith) for each of the three months July, August and September. (b) Raw materials inventories budget (expressed in kilograms of the raw material) for the two months July and August. (c) Cash budget for August and September. Newtake Records Ltd owns a chain of 14 shops selling compact discs. At the beginning of June the business had an overdraft of £35,000 and the bank had asked for this to be eliminated by the end of November. As a result, the directors have recently decided to review their plans for the next six months. The following plans were prepared for the business some months earlier: May June July August Sept Oct Nov £000 £000 £000 £000 £000 £000 £000 Sales revenue 180 230 320 250 140 120 110 Purchases 135 180 142 94 75 66 57 Administration expenses 52 55 56 53 48 46 45 Selling expenses 22 24 28 26 21 19 18 Taxation payment 22 Finance payments 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 Shop refurbishment – – 14 18 6 – – Notes: 1 The inventories level at 1 June was £112,000. The business believes it is preferable to main- tain a minimum inventories level of £40,000 of goods over the period to 30 November. 2 Suppliers allow one month’s credit. The first three months’ purchases are subject to a con- tractual agreement, which must be honoured. 3 The gross profit margin is 40 per cent. 4 Cash from all sales is received in the month of sale. However, 50 per cent of customers pay with a credit card. The charge made by the credit card business to Newtake Records Ltd is 3 per cent of the sales revenue value. These charges are in addition to the selling expenses identified above. The credit card business pays Newtake Records Ltd in the month of sale. 5 The business has a bank loan, which it is paying off in monthly instalments of £5,000. The interest element represents 20 per cent of each instalment. 6 Administration expenses are paid when incurred. This item includes a charge of £15,000 each month in respect of depreciation. 7 Selling expenses are payable in the following month. 6.6 EXERCISES 213 M06_ATRI3622_06_SE_C06.QXD 5/29/09 10:37 AM Page 213 Required (working to the nearest £1,000): (a) Prepare a cash budget for the six months ending 30 November which shows the cash balance at the end of each month. (b) Compute the inventories levels at the end of each month for the six months to 30 November. (c) Prepare a budgeted income statement for the whole of the six-month period ending 30 November. (A monthly breakdown of profit is not required.) (d) What problems is Newtake Records Ltd likely to face in the next six months? Can you suggest how the business might deal with these problems? Prolog Ltd is a small wholesaler of high-specification personal computers. It has in recent months been selling 50 machines a month at a price of £2,000 each. These machines cost £1,600 each. A new model has just been launched and this is expected to offer greatly enhanced perform- ance. Its selling price and cost will be the same as for the old model. From the beginning of January, sales are planned to increase at a rate of 20 machines each month until the end of June, when sales will amount to 170 units a month. They are planned to continue at that level thereafter. Operating costs including depreciation of £2,000 a month are planned as follows: January February March April May June Operating costs (£000) 6 8 10 12 12 12 Prolog expects to receive no credit for operating costs. Additional shelving for storage will be bought, installed and paid for in April, costing £12,000. Corporation tax of £25,000 is due at the end of March. Prolog anticipates that trade receivables will amount to two months’ sales rev- enue. To give its customers a good level of service, Prolog plans to hold enough inventories at the end of each month to fulfil anticipated demand from customers in the following month. The computer manufacturer, however, grants one month’s credit to Prolog. Prolog Ltd’s statement of financial position (balance sheet) appears below. Statement of financial position (balance sheet) at 31 December £000 Non-current assets 80 Current assets Inventories 112 Trade receivables 200 Cash – 312 Total assets 392 Equity Share capital (25p ordinary shares) 10 Retained profit 177 187 Current liabilities Trade payables 112 Taxation 25 Overdraft 68 205 Total equity and liabilities 392 Required: (a) Prepare a cash budget for Prolog Ltd showing the cash balance or required overdraft for the six months ending 30 June. (b) State briefly what further information a banker would require from Prolog Ltd before granting additional overdraft facilities for the anticipated expansion of sales. 6.7 CHAPTER 6 BUDGETING 214 M06_ATRI3622_06_SE_C06.QXD 5/29/09 10:37 AM Page 214 Brown and Jeffreys, a West Midlands business, makes one standard product for use in the motor trade. The product, known as the Fuel Miser, for which the business holds the patent, when fitted to the fuel system of production model cars has the effect of reducing petrol consumption. Part of the production is sold direct to a local car manufacturer, which fits the Fuel Miser as an optional extra to several of its models, and the rest of the production is sold through various retail outlets, garages, and so on. Brown and Jeffreys assemble the Fuel Miser, but all three components are manufactured by local engineering businesses. The three components are codenamed A, B and C. One Fuel Miser consists of one of each component. The planned sales for the first seven months of the forthcoming accounting period, by channels of distribution and in terms of Fuel Miser units, are as follows: Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Manufacturers 4,000 4,000 4,500 4,500 4,500 4,500 4,500 Retail, and so on 2,000 2,700 3,200 3,000 2,700 2,500 2,400 6,000 6,700 7,700 7,500 7,200 7,000 6,900 The following further information is available: 1 There will be inventories of finished units at 1 January of 7,000 Fuel Misers. 2 The inventories of raw materials at 1 January will be: A 10,000 units B 16,500 units C 7,200 units 3 The selling price of Fuel Misers is to be £10 each to the motor manufacturer and £12 each to retail outlets. 4 The maximum production capacity of the business is 7,000 units a month. There is no possibility of increasing this output. 5 Assembly of each Fuel Miser will take 10 minutes of direct labour. Direct labour is paid at the rate of £7.20 an hour during the month of production. 6 The components are each expected to cost the following: A £2.50 B £1.30 C £0.80 7 Indirect costs are to be paid at a regular rate of £32,000 each month. 8 The cash at the bank at 1 January will be £2,620. The planned sales volumes must be met and the business intends to pursue the following policies for as many months as possible, consistent with meeting the sales targets: l Finished inventories at the end of each month are to equal the following month’s total sales to retail outlets, and half the total of the following month’s sales to the motor manufacturer. l Raw materials at the end of each month are to be sufficient to cover production requirements for the following month. The production for July will be 6,800 units. l Suppliers of raw materials are to be paid during the month following purchase. The payment for January will be £21,250. l Customers will pay in the month of sale, in the case of sales to the motor manufacturer, and the month after sale, in the case of retail sales. Retail sales during December were 2,000 units at £12 each. Required: Prepare the following budgets in monthly columnar form, both in terms of money and units (where relevant), for the six months of January to June inclusive: 6.8 EXERCISES 215 M06_ATRI3622_06_SE_C06.QXD 5/29/09 10:37 AM Page 215 (a) Sales budget.* (b) Finished inventories budget (valued at direct cost). † (c) Raw materials inventories budget (one budget for each component). † (d) Production budget (direct costs only).* (e) Trade receivables budget. † (f) Trade payables budget. † (g) Cash budget. † * The sales and production budgets should merely state each month’s sales or production in units and in money terms. † The other budgets should all seek to reconcile the opening balance of inventories, trade receivables, trade payables or cash with the closing balance through movements of the relevant factors over the month. CHAPTER 6 BUDGETING 216 M06_ATRI3622_06_SE_C06.QXD 5/29/09 10:37 AM Page 216 [...]... balanced against the cost of obtaining that knowledge The issue of balancing the benefit of having information against its cost was discussed in Chapter 1, on p 18 Unfortunately, however, both the cost of investigation and the value of the benefit are often difficult to assess in advance of the investigation Knowing the reason for a variance is valuable only in so far as it helps management to bring things... know the reason for the problem The budget and actual figures for Baxter Ltd for June are given in Activity 7.4 and will be used as the basis for a series of Activities that provide an opportunity to calculate and assess the variances We shall continue to use the May figures for explaining the variances Note that the business had budgeted for a higher level of output for June than it did for May Activity... therefore, is the loss of profit arising from the loss of sales of 100 units of the product Activity 7.2 What will be the loss of profit arising from the sales volume shortfall, assuming that everything except sales volume was as planned? The answer is simply the difference between the original and flexed budget profit figures The only difference between these two profit figures is the volume of sales;... ACCOUNTING FOR CONTROL Activity 7.6 Using the figures in Activity 7.4, what was the direct material usage variance for June? The direct material usage variance for June was £300 (adverse) (that is, (46,300 metres − 46,000 metres) × £1) It is adverse because more material was used than was budgeted, for an output of 1,150 units Excess usage of material will tend to reduce profit ‘ The other aspect of. .. 10:38 AM Page 232 ACCOUNTING FOR CONTROL REAL WORLD 7.3 Flexing the budgets A recent study of the UK food and drinks industry by Abdel-Kader and Luther provides us with some insight as to the importance attached by management accountants to flexible budgeting The study asked those in charge of the management accounting function to rate the importance of flexible budgeting by selecting one of three possible... Page 233 REASONS FOR ADVERSE VARIANCES 233 We can see that, whilst flexible budgeting is regarded as important by a significant proportion of management accountants and is being used in practice, not all businesses use it Source: Taken from information appearing in Abdel-Kader, M and Luther, R., ‘An empirical investigation of the evolution of management accounting practices’, University of Essex Working... revised to deal with it We can see that feedforward controls try to anticipate future problems, whereas feedback controls react to problems that have already occurred Budgeting embraces both forms of control Preparing a budget is a form of feedforward control while comparing the budget with actual results is a form of feedback control Generally speaking, feedforward controls are preferable: things are... investigated because the continuation of the fault that they represent could be very costly Management must decide what ‘significant’ means A certain amount of science, in the form of statistical models, can be used in making this decision Ultimately, however, it must be a matter of managerial judgement as to what is significant Perhaps variances above a threshold of around 5 per cent of the budgeted figure would... revenue, raw materials and so on) for the budget with the actual performance of Baxter Ltd in an attempt to draw conclusions as to which aspects were out of control? The problem is that the actual level of output was not as budgeted The actual level of output was 10 per cent less than budget This means that we cannot, for example, say that there was a labour cost saving of £2,500 (that is, £20,000 − £17,500)...M07_ATRI3622_06_SE_C07.QXD 5/29/09 10:38 AM Page 217 7 Accounting for control INTRODUCTION This chapter deals with the role of budgets in management control We therefore continue some of the themes that we discussed in Chapter 6 We shall consider how a budget can be used to help control a business, and we shall see that, by collecting information on actual performance and comparing it with a revised budget, . 179 Periodic budget p. 180 Continual budget p. 180 Rolling budget p. 180 Master budget p. 181 Management by exception p. 184 Budget committee p. 186 Budget officer p. 186 Incremental budgeting. must pick up, therefore, is the loss of profit arising from the loss of sales of 100 units of the product. CHAPTER 7 ACCOUNTING FOR CONTROL 222 ‘ What will be the loss of profit arising from the. embraces both forms of control. Preparing a budget is a form of feedforward control while com- paring the budget with actual results is a form of feedback control. Generally speaking, feedforward controls