Master Budget-financial plan for coming year(s) of where company strives to be financially.
Three parts: Organizations goals, strategic long range profit plan, tactical short range profit plan.
Organization’s goals-overall goals of organization that employees work to achieve. Those goals can be in the areas of financial, employee learning, innovation, and community involvement.
Strategic long range profit plan- Outline of steps needed to achieve organization’s goals. Year by year steps.
Tactical short range profit plan-planning around current operational areas of an organization. One year or less.
Budgeting- takes into account the goals, plans, decision and employee’s performance. Is long range plan encompassing events expected to happen in the upcoming year(s), with the understanding that things can and often do change.
Budget preparation decisions for the upcoming year(s) takes into account information gathered from managers in other departments (production, purchasing, and accounting, human resources). Organizations also gather information from competitors, customers and suppliers.
Developing the Master Budget
Since Revenue (Sales) drive the organizations budget, it is often the first step and most difficult due to unpredictability. To counter this the preparer gathers information from several sources.
Sales Force- have the knowledge and information about the organizations customers’ needs now an in the future needed to forecast sales revenue.
To check
Organisations with strategic plans have goals that are long term essentially five year plans that guides programs and functions of administration,
A budget plan is the most effective way to keep the business and its finances on track. It gives you the opportunity to review the business’ performance and any factors that are affecting or may affect your business. Also to manage your money more effectively, allocate appropriate resources, monitor performance, meet planned objectives and plan for the future.
This research paper is a brief discussion of budget management analysis. Budgeting is the key to financial management, and is the key to translates an organization goals or plan into money. Budgeting is a rough estimate of how much a company will need to get their work done, and provides the basis for evaluating performance, a source of motivation, coordinating business activities, a tool for management communication and instructions to employees. Without a budget an organization would be like a driver, driving blinded without instructions or any sense of direction, that’s how important a budget is to every organization and individual likewise (Clark, 2005).
Strategic planning within a company is a tool used in companies that help mature areas in total quality management. This type of planning creates a cohesive management system for lower level employees to better adapt in. “Strategic planning determines where an organization is going over the next year or more and how it 's going to get there. Typically, the process is organization-wide, or focused on a major function such as a division, department or other major function”(McNamara, 2008). In order to plan effectively one must first make a clear assessment of the plan and have an analysis on the corporations mission statement and objective.
Budgeting systems turn managers’ perspectives forward and by looking to the future and planning, managers are able to anticipate and correct potential problems before they arise (Horngren, Foster & Datar, 2000). Through budgeting, management can plan ahead and maintain enough cash to pay creditors, to have adequate raw materials to meet production requirements, and to have sufficient finished goods to meet expected sales (Kieso, 2002).
A budget is an instrument used to help managers ensure that the resources used effectively and proficiently toward the goals of an organization. A budget projection can be made on a yearly base depending on previous year or existing one. They can further be broken down quarterly or monthly depending on it use. Generating a budget is complex undertaking, and for a budget to be effective the organization ought to follow it strictly. However, no matter how closely a business follows their guidelines there will always be some form of variances. The organization should expect a few variances and be able to work these discrepancies in any budget
The objective is to complete a written plan that will suggest a practical Strategic Direction for a company.
Strategic planning will show what direction the business is going to achieve its aims. The planning may last for up to 4 years and is drawn
According to Shim, Siegel, Shim 2012, budgets are an efficient method of allocating financial resources to achieve strategic goals. For companies to compete in the global market it is essential to monitor and control spending in order to see progress toward reaching their goals. Budgets help to control spending, estimate cash flow and profits, while striving to meet goals.
A company's budget serves as a guideline in planning and committing costs in order to meet tactical and strategic goals. Tactical goals such as providing budgetary costs for daily operations, and strategic objectives that include R&D, production, marketing, and distribution are all part of the budgeting process. Serving as a guideline rather than being set in stone, the budget is a snapshot of manager's "best thinking at the time it is prepared." (Marshall, 2003, p.496) The budget is a method in which to reign-in discretionary spending, and will likely show variances between what costs have been anticipated and what costs are actually incurred.
Sales centre A, they had achieved great success over the last year and consistently outsells other sales centres. In fact, due to the large number of accounts managed by our sales team and larger staff, Sales centre A is expected to sell as much volume as the other two sales centres put together. That means, the expense budget for Sales centre A must be more than other, at least twice time then the other centre. Because, they need a lot of money to pay for their cost, such as Wages, telephone, office supplies, and commission. That seems not fair for Sale centre A.
So where do we begin? As with most things that come with managing an organisation, budgeting needs to be driven by the vision (what we are trying to accomplish) and the strategic plan (the steps to get there).
The central challenge that budget developers encounter is predicting what the future holds for the internal business and external factors. Reading the future is something that can never be done with perfect precision. The fast pace of technological change, the complexities of global competition and world events make developing effective budgets both more difficult and more important.
Budgeting is crucial in the well-being of a company especially the financial health status of a company. In fact, no professionally managed firm would fail to budget, since the budget establishes what is authorized, how to plan for purchasing contracts and hiring, and indicates how much financing is needed to support planned activity. It is routine for a company to budget for its expenses. Expense budgets act as a guideline of how much revenue a company would require keeping the activities running. It is used to set the company’s targets for a certain period.
Planning is a process of establishing a mission with clear goals as a means to achieve them. Good planning requires special skills and perspectives allowing decision-makers to understand the challenges they are facing and apply the most effective solution to a problem. In order to achieve success, one must plan accordingly. Planning can be short term or long term. Short term plans are done on daily basis and are easier to achieve than long term plans. Long term plans are also known as strategic plans and are used to achieve a long range vision or mission of a company. In both methods of planning, short term and long term, is necessary to achieve top notch results. Like in any other process, there are both benefits and pitfalls to a