Budgeting Principles of Managerial Accounting

Fixed manufacturing overhead costs are the same in total regardless of the quantity produced. Zero-based budgeting begins with zero dollars and then adds to the budget only revenues and expenses that can be supported or justified. Figure 10.2 illustrates the difference between traditional budget preparation and zero-based budgeting in a bottom-up budgeting scenario. The advantage to zero-based budgeting is that unnecessary expenses are eliminated because managers cannot justify them. The drawback is that every expense needs to be justified, including obvious ones, so it takes a lot of time to complete. A compromise tactic is to use a zero-based budgeting approach for certain expenses, like travel, that can be easily justified and linked to the company goals.

Those killer interest rates on your credit cards aren’t fixed in stone, for example. Call the card company and ask for a reduction in the annual percentage rates (APR). This won’t lower your outstanding balance, but it will keep it from mushrooming as fast. Stashing 10% of your income into your savings account is daunting when you’re living paycheck to paycheck. It doesn’t make sense to have $100 in a savings plan if you are fending off debt collectors.

How do you start a budget?

If you feel like you’re the only one in your group who is on a budget, search and find some like-minded folks. It could be an online forum, a monthly meeting, or even just a couple of friends traveling the same budgetary road. You need to know you’re not the only person setting sane financial limits for yourself.

• You’ll need to calculate every type of income you receive each month.
• There are various strategies companies use in adjusting the budget amounts and planning for the future.
• For example, if the lease payment is $2,000 per month it is easy to project in the upcoming budget that yearly rent expense will be $24,000.
• For example, managers running the company’s supermarkets would be competing for resources against managers operating its department stores and specialty stores.
• For the upcoming year, she expects to sell 20,000 units in the first quarter, 24,000 units in the second quarter, 33,000 units in the third quarter, and 40,000 units in the fourth quarter.

People often cut too deep and end up making a budget that they can’t keep because it feels like they are giving up everything. Substitution, in contrast, keeps the basics while cutting down costs. Harold Averkamp (CPA, MBA) has worked as a university accounting instructor, accountant, and consultant for more than 25 years.

Budget Development Process

Adding to your debt load, on the other hand, will mean that your future could be even tighter. You’ve accomplished all of the above, even putting together a nice spreadsheet that lays out your budget for the next 15 years. The only problem is that sticking to that budget isn’t as easy as you thought.

A prime use of the budget is as a performance baseline for the measurement of actual results. It can be misleading to do so, since budgets typically become increasingly inaccurate over time, resulting in large variances that have no basis in actual results. To reduce this problem, some companies periodically revise their budgets to keep them closer to reality, or only budget for a few periods into the future, which gives the same result. Another option is to use a flexible budget, in which variable costs within the budget are modified based on the actual sales levels experienced during a reporting period.

Practice Video Problem 2 Part 1: Budgets to determine product costs and cost of goods sold

The excess inventory serves as a buffer in case sales demand is more than expected, production issues occur, or the organization needs additional inventory for another reason. Maintaining a small amount of excess inventory is preferable to running out of inventory. Often budgets are developed so they can adjust for changes in the volume or activity and help management make decisions. Changes and challenges can affect the budget and have an impact on a company’s plans. A flexible budget adjusts the cost of goods produced for varying levels of production and is more useful than a static budget, which remains at one amount regardless of the production level. A flexible budget is created at the end of the accounting period, whereas the static budget is created before the fiscal year begins.

• In the top-down approach, management must devote attention to efficiently allocating resources to ensure that expenses are not padded to create budgetary slack.
• The aim of budgeting is to make sure you’re able to save a little each month, ideally at least 10% of your income, or at the very least, to make sure that you aren’t spending more than you earn.
• The bottom-up approach (sometimes also named a self-imposed or participative budget) begins at the lowest level of the company.
• This information is communicated to the supervisor, who then passes it on to upper levels of management.
• Estimating sales is an important part of the process as this number is used to project everything else such as sales revenue collected, production needs, and organizational expenditures.
• Therefore, through the process of budgeting, management specifies the events that must take place to ensure that target profit and other objectives will be achieved.

Most organizations will create a master budget—whether that organization is large or small, public or private, or a merchandising, manufacturing, or service company. A master budget is one that includes two areas, operational and financial, each of which has its own sub-budgets. The operating budget spans several areas that help plan and manage day-to-day business. Each of the sub-budgets is made up of separate but interrelated budgets, and the number and type of separate budgets will differ depending on the type and size of the organization. For example, the sales budget predicts the sales expected for each quarter.

Figure 10.5 shows how operating budgets and financial budgets are related within a master budget. The word budget often conjures up images of complicated financial documents. But it’s a tool that can be used by various entities, including governments, businesses, and individuals/households of every income level. Once you have these key points under your belt, you’ll be better prepared at securing your financial future. Just like budgets help people, corporate budgeting help keep businesses stay on track.

Budgeting 101: How to Budget Money

If you are young, however, the rewards of investing in higher-risk, high-return vehicles like stocks can outweigh most low-interest debt over time. Let’s say you and your partner live in New York City in a small one-bedroom apartment and things are going fine for the both of you until your family dynamic changes. For instance, you may have a child or an in-law who comes to stay with you indefinitely, which means you’ll probably need (and want) more room to accommodate the new addition. If you don’t save up for anything big, you may not be able to afford this change in your living situation later on down the road.

Another benefit of passing the amount of allowed expenses downward is that the final anticipated costs are reduced by the vetting (fact checking and information gathering) process. The sales budget is often the first to be developed, as subsequent expense budgets cannot be established without knowing future cash flows. Budgets are developed for all the different subsidiaries, divisions, and departments within an organization. For a manufacturer, a separate budget is often developed for direct materials, labor, and overhead. Budgets help management decide which activities it will undertake and how the company’s resources will be used. If the budgeted income statement and balance sheet coming out of the master budget are not acceptable, management can make the needed changes before the year actually begins.

The advantages of this approach are that managers feel their work is valued and that knowledgeable individuals develop the budget with realistic numbers. The drawback is that managers may not fully understand or may misunderstand the strategic plan. The budget is created prior to the time period covered by the budget. The completed budget is then used by management to help plan operations including activities like scheduling production, purchasing materials, and making capital investments.

For example, to plan pricing structures and the number of ticket sales, the sales manager for Virgin Blue or Qantas airlines must know the flight schedules developed by the airline’s route manager. Also, budgets should contain enough information presented in an orderly manner so that its purpose is communicated to the user. Too much information or too little information clouds the accuracy of the budget.

Operating Without a Budget

Tracking your expenses does not change the amount of money you have available to spend every month; it just tells you where that money is going. Without knowing your cash flow, you could be putting yourself into a bad financial situation and not even know it. You can only get by without knowing your cash flow for so long before you get into financial trouble, so make the time you know the flow of your cash. Budgeting should be something that everyone does, regardless of their financial situation.

As part of the budgeting process, standard costs are often developed for major production inputs (e.g., direct materials used in production) or activities. All budgets are quantitative plans for the future and will be constructed based on the needs of the organization for which the budget is being created. Depending on the complexity, some budgets can take months or even years to develop. The most common time period covered by a budget is one year, although the time period may vary from strategic, long-term budgets to very detailed, short-term budgets. Generally, the closer the company is to the start of the budget’s time period, the more detailed the budget becomes.

Your piggy bank will have to starve until you can find financial stability. If you can, though, keep your receipts and average out how much you spend each month when you build your monthly budget. This can help you determine how much to budget for any expenses that may change from month to month. Now that you have a buffer between you and high-interest debt, it is time to start the process of downsizing.