Introduction
AT&T, Inc is among the leading mobile phone companies in the United States of America (USA) and a multinational corporation (present in 11 Latin American countries) thus worth spending the energy to work for. The Company has its headquarters in Whitacre Tower in Dallas, Texas. The current Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is Mr. Stephenson Randall, who together with the rest of the company, work on a mission of providing a mobile connectivity that is fast and highly secure and a vision of achieving the world where everyone and everything are kept connected regardless of distance. With the strongest LTE signal and a similar 4G network, the company recorded its highest revenue of $132.4 billion in 2014. This enabled the company to
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With the budgeting tool, the corporate can thus make informed financial decisions.
For AT&T, Inc., the capital budget is vital in putting to use the available resources. The act of prioritizing mainly ensures that critical segments of the company are first to be factored in the budgeting process and that they are adequately funded at all times (Wyatt, 2013). In that process, it is easy for the company to identify deficits and adequately plan for loans or stock financing.
Since a budget is a component of sound and responsible financial management, tracking its formulation and implementation can go a long way to ensuring its objectives are adequately met. Sound budget management strategies include keeping a proper record of all the expenses v. allocations. Also, consistently review the implementation to be sure of the anticipated outcome. Considering the implementation can also help isolate the possibility of adjustments in line with the budget objectives (Wyatt, 2013).
Effective Budgeting and the Positive Financial Outcome
The fundamental importance of proper budgeting strategies goes beyond corporate investment decision making. It includes positive financial outcomes in as far as the financial goals are concerned. One of the positive outcomes is eliminating a fiscal crisis. Financial forecasting particularly helps analyze the current trends in the business and
Budget preparation is the principal mechanism for achieving items (1) and (2); item (3) typically features as an element of budget preparation only in industrial countries, while item (4) is essentially an issue in budget execution and cash management (see Sections 4 and 5). Moreover, no system of budget execution or cash planning (the subjects of Sections 4 and 5) can do more than mitigate the problems caused by poor quality or unrealistic budget preparation.
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).
Capital planning and budgeting is a very vital piece in the Public Budgeting System process. It is an essential implement in the financial management practice and is effective in both public and private organizations. It is the method which consists of the determination and the evaluation of the investments and the possible expenses by an organization. As explicate by Lee, Johnson, & Joyce (2008), capital budgets help in determining how much of each form of investment is needed, and it supports an organization in assessing the available revenue which includes loans is required to finance those investments (p. 475). Capital budgeting is a central part of the universal
A budget as financial plan aimed to control future operations and results. The general purpose of a budget is to allocate funds in an effort to achieve very specific results, typically a profit. A budget is one of many tools in a toolbox used to aid a business’s decision making in both the long and short term.
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.
However, budget management is a tool which forces the management to look ahead, to set out detailed plans for achieving the target for each department and operations. Therefore, the following techniques should be used to manage the budget that is set good budget in the first place, Monitor expenditure and identify patterns, assess the financial consequences of trends and new actions, identify reduction strategies and keep the foot on the brake to monitor over spending (MW Dirsmith, 2008).
Budgets can aid planning, which gives a business direction. A budget takes the organisational plan (goal and objectives) and quantifies this into something real to aim for. Such forward planning aids anticipating future business
A budget is a financial document that contains a detailed plan in writing (usually in monetary form) expressing the expected financial implications of the various management strategies for attaining the organization’s primary goals and objectives in the coming financial period (Clowes, & Scriven, 2015). A budget is a very important tool for any given organization. By enabling the organization to create a spending plan for its finances, the budget ensures that the company will be able to meet all its important obligations. Given the importance of the budget, significant effort and
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 an essential process within an organization, and budgeting is a plan of action that an organization takes at the time to secure its future. Budgeting provides managers with an overview of where they were, where they are, where they need to be, as well as financial goals for the future.
Today AT&T is a global networking leader focused on delivering IP based solutions to enterprise and government customers. Additionally, as AT&T pivots away from traditional consumer services, the company continues to offer consumers and small businesses a breakthrough alternative to traditional services. The company has progress
Budget formulation and use are tools that guide many decision making strategies in business. The measures that are least effective could create an avalanche of catastrophic events that can negatively impact the decision making strategies. It is in the best interest of the pertinent parties to draft an operating budget based on a collective set of information relating to organizational vision and mission. Ineffective measures can be catastrophic based on the foundation for measures used in creating the budget. Among the many issues organizations face that relates to creating an effective operating budget results from poor
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.
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.