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Chapter 9 choosing an activity based costing system
Chapter 9 choosing an activity based costing system
The application of balanced scorecard
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Introduction
Budgeting is a process in which every firm has to be involved with not only the board of director (Principle) who authorize the budget but also management team (Agent) who use it as well. In other words, budgeting need communication with every level of employee in the company in order to construct the goal or strategy of the company. Moreover, budgets are an instrument of power as well as being a reflection of power (Ashton et. al., 1995, p.289). Budgets that are not based on well-understood activities and costs are poor indicators of performance (Drury, 2005). Nowadays, at the time of information and technology the conventional budgeting is not good enough for withstand the rivalry in the global market. As Hope and Fraser, 2000 cited from Young, 2006 say the traditional performance management model cannot reflect today’s discontinuous change economy, which is why they point that annual budget model may be seen as having a number of intrinsic weaknesses and acting as a barrier to the effective implementation of alternative models for utilize in the success of strategic change. Therefore, I separate my essay into two parts. First, indicate and criticize on five inbred weaknesses of annual budget model. Second, explain ways in which the conventional budgeting process may be seen as an obstacle to accomplishment of the aims of Benchmarking, Balanced scorecard, and Activity-based models for the fulfillment of strategic change.
Discuss on inherent weakness of annual budget model
There are many weaknesses of traditional budgeting model and it has been the matter of considerable caviling. From recently research by Libby and Linsay, 2010 cited from Hansen et. al., 2003 encapsulated several discussions of budgets an...
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...vities are prepared on an incremental basis or called incremental budgeting. This means that running operations and the current budgeted allowance for existing activities are taken as the starting point for preparing the next annual budget. The base is then adjusting for changes such as changes in product mix, volumes, and price that are expected to occur during the new budget period. For example, the allowance for budgeted expenses may be based on the previous budgeted allowance plus an increase to cover higher prices caused by inflation
The major disadvantage of incremental approach is that the majority of expenditure, which is associated with the ‘base level’ of activity, remains unchanged. Therefore, the costs of non-unit level activities become fixed and past inefficiencies and waste inherent in the current way of doing things is perpetuated (Drury, 2005).
The country needs to start monitoring how the government is spending the federal budget and they need to start splitting it fairly to benefit our country. 83% of the federal budget is spent on the Big Five which are the main expenses in the budget. We have to stop spending it all on the Big Five. Our government should really pay attention to what we need most of in this country and focus on the needs. The government needs to take away 20% of the Big Five and split it to categories that need it.
On January 14, 2015 the Local Finance Board (LFB), which is part of the Division of the Local Government Services in the State of New Jersey adopted Rule: N.J.A.C. 5:30-3.8, which requires municipalities in the State to complete on an annual basis a User-Friendly Budget document. As a result of this new requirement, for fiscal year 2015 beginning with calendar year municipalities (January 1 to December 31), New Jersey municipalities must submit as part of their annual budget package to the State, a User-Friendly Budget document. Additionally, the State of New Jersey is requiring that municipalities incorporate the User-Friendly Budget into the introduced municipal budget, as well as the final adopted municipal budget. Therefore with this requirement
Budgetary planning may differ between organizations. Single-period budgets and rolling budgets have methodologies that provide advantages and disadvantages that may make one budget time frame better than another. A single-period may require less time in planning during a fiscal year, but is less accurate than a rolling budget that is continuously planned on a repetitive basis. In either case, budgets are planned in advance in order for a company to operate profitably, and less so to have "actual results equal budgeted results." (p. 496)
Budgets has been widely used by a lot of organizations since it was first introduced, because it can helps managers to properly plan and control the business’s resources. Successful control mechanisms as Schick believes are the essential to budgetary development (Gray, Jenkins, and Segsworth, 2002, p.11). However, recently the use of budgets to control organizations has been the subject to criticise and debate (Hansen et al., 2003 cited in Libby and Lindsay, 2010). In this era that full of unpredictable environments has make it even harder for a business to achieve the targets set in the budgets. In fact, European surveys also reported that there has been a growing dissatisfaction among organizations about their budgeting system (Neely et al.,
...n a mix of fixed and variable costs as well as other influences such as learning curves, the manufacturer will experience reduced incremental costs for each additional unit purchased above each tier’s minimum purchase quantity. The main goal of the below methodology is to capture the inefficiencies of minimum purchase quantities and purchase based on true costs.
Participative Budgeting is the situation in which budgets are designed and set after input from subordinate managers, instead of merely being imposed. The idea behind this sort of budgeting is to assign responsibility to subordinate managers and place a form of personal ownership on the final budget. Nearly two decades of management accounting research has resulted in equivocal findings on the consequences and effects of participative budgeting (Lindquist 1995). Participative budgeting certainly has various advantages, these include the transferral of information from subordinate to superior increased job satisfaction for the subordinate, budgetary responsibility and goal congruence. Its disadvantages include budgetary slack and negative motivation, however it is the conditions in which participative budgeting takes place determines whether the budgeting process is successful. The conditions are dependent on various factors such as the level of participation, level of subordinate influence, the extent to which budgetary slack takes place, volatility, job related information, and the complexity of the budget.
Quantitative plans are called budgets. Budgets are prepared to impose cost controls on the activities of an organization (Chenhall, 1986).Budgets are then used to evaluate the performance of the management and budget itself is considered as a standard to evaluate the performance Solomon, 1956). The purpose of the budget is also to implement the strategy of the organization and communicate it to the employees of the organization Rickards (2006). The change in the external environment has led to the change in the budgeting approaches from the initial cash based budgets to the zerio based budgets (Bovaird, 2007).
Budgetary incrementalism is the traditional budget process in Canada, referred to as line-item budgeting. In this approach, the budget lists a line-by-line list of expenditures to be paid by a department or agency in a given year. This system is decentralized, and develops from the bottom-up. This system is about maintaining establishes responsibilities and keeping with existing policies and goals.
The reliably adjusted budget shortage is in year 1 and year 2. Several financial specialists confine the utilize of money related approach, tolerating that monetary approach is more fruitful, or that the economy is satisfactory self-correcting. Financial Approach is impartial when the charge livelihoods break indeed with government utilizations after changing the diminish in income from a withdraw. Another title for the reliably adjusted budget is the full-employment budget. Most money related masters back the utilize of budgetary approach to help “push the economy” inside the needed heading, and the utilize of cash related approach for more “fine tuning” Financial analysts agree that the potential impacts of money related course of action on long-term efficiency improvement need to be assessed and considered inside the decision-making get ready, at the side the short-run repetitive effects.
Introduction Budgeting correctly and intelligently is what constitutes how successful financial management within a nonprofit organization is. Implementing a budget allows organizations for their financials to be strictly internal, budgets can always be revised due to their openness, there are conventional standards, rules are self-imposed, there are no legal requirements, no outside oversight, and lastly they can predict future decisions. The above characteristics of budgeting within an organization show how budgets can be used as planning, management, and communication tools.
In management accounting, cost management has a crucial role and finds its foundations in understanding “cost behaviour”. “Cost behaviour analysis” can be defined as “the study of how cost changes when there is a change in an organisation’s level of activity”. (Definition https://www.accountingcoach.com/blog/what-is-cost-behavior).
As time goes on, you will find that your original budget has some slaws. Some areas of budget planning might be overestimated, and some areas might be underestimated. Some of the flaws in budget making, for instance, are unemployment because if a person gets unemployed he has to have a strict budget to follow. For example making home food and not going out because that will result him in debt. Some of the other flaws are increase in rent, increase in car insurance because of accidents occurring, credit card payments, groceries, and eating out with friends. All of these flaws can cause a person to be more in debt and cau...
It requires an adequate and sound organizational structure, that is, there must be a definite assignment of responsibility for each function of the enterprise. Budgeting compels all the members of management, from the top to bottom to participate in the establishment of goals and plans. Budgeting compels departmental managers to make plans in harmony with the other departments and of the entire enterprise. Budgeting helps the management to put down in figures what is necessary for a satisfactory performance. Budgeting helps the management to plan for the most economical use of labor, material and capital. Budgeting tends to remove the cloud of uncertainty that exists in many organizations, especially among lower levels of management, relative to basic policies and objectives. Budgeting promotes an understanding among members of management of their co-workers' problems. Budgeting force management to give adequate attention to the effects of general business conditions. Budgeting aids in obtaining bank credit as banks commonly require a projection of future operations and cash flows to support
Incremental costs are narrowly related to the notion of marginal cost but the concept bears a relatively broader connotation. Marginal costs refer to the change in the total cost emanating from producing an extra unit of output, whereas incremental cost denotes to the total extra costs linked with the decision to add new variety of product or to expand output. It signifies the difference between two substitutes. So both concepts are concerned with the variance in the total cost where marginal costs denotes to the decrease or increase in that results from distributing or producing an extra unit of output and, increment cost means to the variance in the overall output that rises from change in the ways and means of distribution and production, e.g. addition of a territory or product, technological improvement or addition of a sales channel.
Line item budgeting categorizes various expenses and places them in list format on a document for budgetary purposes. This type of budgeting is considered the heartbeat of budgeting due to the systematic method by which it controls revenue and expenses, this is made evident when Tyer and Willand (1992), pointed out “Statutory or administrative controls could be imposed on the transfer of funds from one-line item to another, or between broad categories of expenditure.” According to Schick (1971), “line item budgets were attractive to legislative officials because they did not focus explicit attention on substantive policy issues or choices.”