The Role of Budgeting

in Management Planning
and Control
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:
Describe how budgeting relates to the planning and controlling functions of management.
Explain the relationship between budgeting
and strategic planning.
Define chart of accounts, responsibility reporting, and flexible budgets.
List and describe the phases of budgeting.
Describe budgetary slack.

Effective budgeting systems can help managers perform their major management functions. Improperly conceived budgeting procedures, however, can
be very frustrating. Consider the frustration of individuals who have been
subjected to experiences like the following:
After downsizing, a department has far more work than before, but budgeted expenses are left unchanged.
Despite constructive efforts at efficient management, a manager is ordered
to effect a 10 percent across-the-board cut in budgeted expenses with the
condition that quality not be impaired.
In spite of a straightforward request for clarification of cost variations
from budget, a manager continues to receive performance reports that
pinpoint neither the causes of the variations nor the persons responsible
for controlling them.
Although sales are increased by innovations, substantial increases in allocated corporate overhead expenses wipe out any prospect of profit gains.

How to Plan and Manage Your Company Budget

Although an executive asks for information on the financial impact of

alternative planning assumptions, her staff merely reshuffles myriads of
historical cost averages.
These examples are representative, and they are rooted in a common cause:
the lack of effective systematic budgeting. A budgeting process based on
sound concepts of planning and control can help companies create value.

BUDGETING AND THE MANAGEMENT

PROCESS
A budget is defined as management's quantitative expression of plans for a
forthcoming period. Budgets are prepared at various levels of an organization. The master budget is defined as the overall financial plan for the period,
which reflects the organization's goals and objectives. The master budget
includes operating and financial budgets. Operating budgets show the company's planned sales and operating expenses. Financial budgets reflect financing plans such as borrowing, leasing, and cash management.
Budgeting, when done properly, can serve as a planning and controlling
system. The company's goals and performance objectives are documented in
financial terms. Once formulated, these plans are used throughout the year.
Monthly performance reports compare budgeted results with actual results.
To control operations, management can examine the performance reports
and take necessary corrective actions.
The role that effective budgeting plays in the management of a business
is best understood when it is related to the fundamentals of management.
The many existing definitions of business management can be expressed in
terms of five major functions: planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and
controlling. Management must first plan. The plan is executed by organizing, staffing, and directing operations. To control operations, management
must institute appropriate techniques of observation and reporting to determine how actual results compare to plans. Budgeting is concerned primarily
with the planning and controlling functions of management.
Planning
Planning is future-oriented. A plan specifies in some form what management
wants to do. Management has certain variables that it can control. Some of
these variables are financial resources, plant and equipment, products, production methods, and human resources. Planning involves making forecasts
and assumptions about the organization's external environment, which is
uncontrollable. Examples of uncontrollable factors in the external environment are government actions, consumer spending, interest rates, and actions
of competitors. Because management cannot manipulate external environmental variables, it must confine its plans to controllable factors. Thus a plan
consists of what management is going to do with the variables it can control.

How to Plan and Manage Your Company Budget

Some companies develop strategic and long-run plans covering five or more
years. Others confine the formalized planning horizon to one year.
Goals
The annual planning process begins with the establishment of goals. These
goals may be stated in terms of profit, return on investment, product leadership, market share, product diversification, or simply survival. In practice,
there are different levels of goals. General goals, which are directional in
nature, usually are set first. Examples of general goals are growth of the company, quality leadership, being the lowest-cost producer, and maintenance of
the current level of service to customers.
Larger organizations usually develop a hierarchy of goals. Corporate
goals are set by top management. The degree of participation in this process
varies by company. Goals then are set at successively lower levels in the organization. These subgoals are set in harmony with upper-level goals. They
help lower-level managers visualize how their efforts contribute to the
accomplishment of corporate goals. Exhibit 1-1 illustrates the hierarchy of
goals concept.

How to Plan and Manage Your Company Budget

Performance Objectives
Performance objectives, or targets, are an excellent means of implementing
subgoals. While subgoals are still general in nature and measurable in broad
terms, performance objectives are specific and action-oriented. That is, performance objectives can be measured in specific terms. They have a time
dimension. At a rather broad level, a performance objective might be to earn
$300,000 in the first quarter of next year. At a lower level, the objective might
be to have a maximum labor cost per unit of $2 during the first quarter. At an
even lower level, the performance objective might be to have a maximum of
three defective units produced per thousand. In practice, performance objectives can be associated with managers at different levels in the organization,
which should help the organization attain its overall goals.
Management can use a budget to state formally its goals and performance objectives in financial terms for a specific time period. A budget
requires management to state its plans in a common denominator, dollars.
For instance, the plans of the marketing department will be reduced to a sales
budget and a marketing expense budget, which are developed simultaneously.
Similarly, all departments within the organization must state their plans in
financial terms.
Integration and Coordination
Preparing the master budget requires the coordination of all organizational
activities. It integrates revenue plans, planned expenditures, asset requirements, and financing needs. It integrates the planned activities of all managers within the organization. This coordination function is one of the major
benefits of a budget. If coordination is done effectively, it can bring the plans
of managers into congruence with the organization's objectives.
The integration and coordination needed in budget preparation are
illustrated in the flowchart shown in Exhibit 1-2. A strategic or long-range
plan will be translated into a long-range sales forecast covering five or more
years. The sales budget is the first component of the master budget, and it is
integrated with the marketing expense budget. The production budget,
which sets targets for units to be produced, depends on the levels of sales
activity and inventory. It determines the budgeted expenses in the manufacturing cost centers and administrative departments.
Format
The master budget takes the form of pro forma financial statements, which
show budgeted amounts. The profit plan is shown in a budgeted income
statement. This operational budget incorporates planned sales and expenses.
Supporting detailed expense budget schedules show budgeted expenses by
department. The master budget shows budgeted income statements on a
monthly basis, as illustrated in Exhibit 1-3. Budgeted sales and expenses will
fluctuate for various reasons, including seasonal factors.
While the primary focus of the master budget is the profit plan, financial
budgets also are critical. The budgeted balance sheet shows the planned
assets and related financing (liabilities and equity) at the end of each month

How to Plan and Manage Your Company Budget

in the budget period. In Exhibit 1-3, the budgeted balance sheet amounts
fluctuate with the budgeted income statement. For example, as budgeted
sales increase from January to June, budgeted accounts receivable increase.
This makes sense because credit sales result in accounts receivable. Budgeted
inventory also increases from January to June because higher inventory is
needed to support higher sales. Financing plans are reflected in the liabilities
and equity sections, where planned short-term debt and accounts payable
increase from January to June to finance the planned increase in accounts

How to Plan and Manage Your Company Budget

How to Plan and Manage Your Company Budget

How to Plan and Manage Your Company Budget

receivable and inventory. Long-term debt is scheduled to increase in October. The cash budget reflects the planned net income effects on cash flow and
the cash requirements of the capital expenditures budget.
Documentation
The assumptions and specific plans reflected in the master budget should be
documented, a key element of the budgeting process. A major benefit of systematic budgeting is that it forces systematic planning. Without this documentation requirement, managers can shortcut the planning process. For
example, a manager could budget next year's expenses by simply increasing
last year's budget by some percentage that seems fair. A documentation
requirement forces the manager to provide a reason why the budget should
be increased.
Controlling
Controlling involves monitoring the implementation of the plan and taking
corrective action as needed. The control process is continuous because it is
impossible to predict the timing and impact of external environmental factors or the effects of planned actions. Control is based on the use of feedback
about the activity being controlled. All control systems must have some kind
of feedback mechanism. In the case of a heating system, for example, the
thermostat is the control device that obtains feedback from temperature
readings. In a similar manner, managers control operations by getting feedback from many sources. To some extent, managers directly observe what is
happening. In addition, they rely on verbal and written reports, which they
receive daily, weekly, monthly, annually, irregularly, or on demand. Using
this feedback, corrective action can be taken when necessary.
Because budgets are a financial statement of plans, they are linked to the
control system. After the budget is set, the accounting system provides information for managers to monitor actual financial performance. The actual
performance is compared with the budget plan to identify any deviations.
Following the concept of management by exception, the manager responsible for the activity in question will be notified of significant deviations. The
deviations may signal a need for corrective action if, indeed, any factors
under the manager's control can be modified to achieve the desired result.
Budgeting Is Not Forecasting
Contrary to some views, budgeting is not a financial function performed by
the staff of budget departments or by accountants. Such people merely
record and report plans and comparisons of operation results with those
plans. They help management analyze, interpret, and react. Budgeting is not
forecasting. Forecasting involves predicting the outcome of events rather
than planning for a result and controlling to maximize the chances of achieving that result. Many executives complain about the lack of effectiveness of
budgets; but their "budgets" are little more than forecasts, all too often prepared by the finance department rather than by operating management. The

How to Plan and Manage Your Company Budget

result is a superficial set of figures that does not help the organization to
achieve its goal.
The forecasting approach to budgeting can be illustrated by the following example. During the month of October, the president of a small company
calls the controller and suggests that it is time to begin to think about the
budget for the coming year. The controller generally agrees but bemoans the
fact that she has many other pressing problems. Eventually, she gets around
to thinking about and working on the new budget. One day she finds herself
in the president's office with summary financial statements showing what the
results for the current year will be in relation to the budget adopted about a
year ago and with some ideas as to how this trend will continue into the coming year. The president has some definite ideas about the state of the economy and, in particular, how the business is doing. In addition to having an
opinion about sales volume, the president and others in the business have an
idea of the trend in costs as a result of major union negotiations, price level
changes, and so on. The president concludes the meeting after determining
what percentages are to be used to adjust the current year's figures. Out of
this process evolves a forecast of the results for the coming year's operations.
This procedure is forecasting, not budgeting. All levels of management
must participate in an effective budgeting system. Only then can the potential benefits of coordinating and controlling operations be realized. The
nature of the organization's business should determine how tight the budget
is viewed and used. Very tight budgets can be used for mature companies and
mature business processes. New companies and new processes are less understood and predictable, and tight budgets are not practical.

LONG-AND SHORT-RANGE PLANNING

The planning phase of budgeting consists of work that, generally, must be done
in the last half of the year preceding the budget year in order to provide the
framework for budget preparation. In this period, an analysis is made of previous experience, the state of the economy, and company objectives. This analysis
leads to the development of ground rules set by the president for the preparation of the budget for the next fiscal year.
The chief executive officer (CEO) usually is a key participant in the budget
process. Ordinarily, the success or failure of the budget plan depends on the
CEO's degree of involvement. Too many people believe that a competent bud
get director is the only requirement for success. They are wrong. All chief executives have plans for the operation of their businesses. The budget system is the
means by which they can formalize and publish such plans and observe the performance of their line managers in carrying them out.
Managers constantly concern themselves with trends of the economy and
of the industry. The financial pages of most publications contain forecasts of
economists, polls of business opinions, and surveys of past performance that
help set the mood for the next year's budgeting. In addition, a host of reports
and publications put out by Standard & Poor's, the Bureau of the Census, the

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How to Plan and Manage Your Company Budget

Federal Reserve, and many others are a great aid in assessing the economic
environment. All kinds of databases are available on CD-ROM and by telecommunications. The number of databases that can be accessed on the Internet is
expanding every month. A listing of some databases is given in the appendix.
The long-range plan identifies problems, opportunities, turning points as
they relate to operations, capital expenditures, and long-term financing. Typically, the long-range plan is documented in the corporate financial plan and
related reports. Most managements have found that it is not sufficient to face
the problems of a business on a day-to-day basis or even on a year-to-year basis;
accordingly, they try to plan at least five years in advance. Generally, such planning involves a projection of the total market for the company's products. An
assessment of the company's share of the market typically is based on historical
performance and management objectives.
Many areas can be explored with long-range planning. Some planning
group activities might include the following:
Develop the company's mission, grand strategy, goals, and performance
objectives.
Research diverse opportunities for growth.
Develop sound planning throughout the organization.
Evaluate operating results and compare them with the rest of the industry.
Encourage coordination and cooperation throughout the organization.
Force the consideration of alternatives (for example, reengineering business processes).
Develop methods for evaluating planning performance.
Develop ways to shorten decision times.
Force the consideration of capital requirements.
Evaluate means for adopting new information technologies.
Organization
A variety of approaches can be used to perform long- and short-range planning. Depending on the size and complexity of the business, the planning can
be done by the CEO, the CEO's staff, committees, or separate departments.
In any event, for long-range planning to be meaningful and effective, top
management's dedication and support are absolutely essential.
The committee approach is used by many companies. One of the difficulties with this approach is the selection of committee members. Members
should be employees who are intimately familiar with the details of the business, such as line and staff managers who are involved in the actual operation
of the business. It is difficult to obtain the time of these people for long-range
planning, however, unless they can be freed temporarily from day-to-day
operations. It is here that top management must apply its full support and
dedication to the long-range planning concept. Examples of three possible
committee approaches are as follows:
The CEO appoints a senior vice president as chairperson, who in turn
selects six members from the subordinates of the other vice presidents. An
outside consultant also is selected as a committee member.

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How to Plan and Manage Your Company Budget

The CEO appoints the highest-ranked vice president as chairperson. The

vice president forms a twelve-person committee, all of vice presidential
rank. Subcommittees are formed, and the twelve-member board becomes
a review committee evaluating the reports from the subcommittees.
In a company that is organized by strategic business units, the CEO
appoints each division manager as the chairperson of the long-range planning board for his or her division. The division manager in turn sets up his
or her own committee, but the responsibility for the long-range planning
lies with the division manager.
Regardless of the approach used, the CEO is the key figure in the final
analysis. He or she must review the long-range plans and decide whether or
not they are adequate.
Establishing Goals
The success or failure of planning is determined by the policies adopted by
the top executives-generally, the CEO or board of directors. Company goals
must be established in a number of important areas, such as the following:
Products. To change product mix produced, such as the change from a
wide range of product lines to a core of fewer products that reflect the
company's core competencies.
Production. To change the character of production means by redesigning
methods and activities.
Marketing. To change marketing policy by determining the share of
market desired, identifying new market areas (such as overseas markets),
and changing distribution methods.
Advertising. To determine what media will be used and what resources
will be allocated to each.
Research and development. To determine the amount to be spent on
research and development for a new or improved product.
Company size. To determine the size and rate of expansion of the business. The extent to which expansion will be financed from internally generated funds, equity, or debt also should be determined. Conversely,
downsizing may be best.
Profit. To determine the profit level and return on investment level
desired.
Shareholder value. To create shareholder value over the long run.
The company also might develop a hierarchy of goals.
Goal Establishment in Practice
The sales forecast of a component manufacturer shows that the market will
continue to grow at a fast rate. The production plan indicates that the sales
increase can be handled easily. The decision is made to engage in a major new
product development, which will involve an extensive market research effort
and the acquisition of new technical capabilities.

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How to Plan and Manage Your Company Budget

A manufacturer of military equipment foresees a decline in the demand

for military products and decides to increase the commercial side of its business to more than 50 percent. Projections indicate an expanding market for
consumer and industrial electronics. A financial projection shows large capital
requirements, and labor force projections indicate that considerable new
expertise will be required. The decision is made to acquire a company that
produces consumer products and to operate it as a separate division.
A personal computer manufacturer projects a very encouraging marketing plan. Growth is limited only by capital. The company stock was very well
received in an initial public offering and carried a high price-to-earnings ratio.
The decision is made to have another common stock issue in a future year.
Strategic Planning
A discussion of long-range planning would be incomplete without considering strategic planning, even though some management experts believe that
strategic planning is not very common. Strategic planning is defined in this
course as the process of actively planning the future direction of the organization by adopting realistic goals and programs for the corporation and its
strategic business units in relation to its environment. It involves short-,
intermediate-, and long-range questions. It integrates short- and long-range
planning. Strategic actions taken today will affect the organization's competitive position in the future.
The strategic plan states the company's mission, or basic purpose. Fundamental strategies aimed at attaining the mission are stated. Strategic thinking typically is directed at achieving a competitive advantage. A company
does not need a strategic plan to have a long-range plan.

PERFORMANCE MEASURES
As stated earlier, the desired profit level and return on investment level are
commonly established planning goals. The basic economic mission is to earn
an acceptable return on investment over the long run. The profit earned
must provide a sufficient return on the capital employed to satisfy shareholders. If the company's strategy is growth, profits must provide a sound and
continuing basis for growth. Some widely accepted measures of performance
are the following:
Profitability: percent return on net sales, percent return on owners' equity,
percent return on total assets employed
Growth: percent increase in sales, percent increase in earnings per share,
percent increase in market share
Value creation: percent increase in common stock value per share
If the company's strategy were to be the lowest-cost producer, an alternative
set of measurements would be required.

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How to Plan and Manage Your Company Budget

THE PLANNING PROCESS

The degree of accuracy of the projections and plans varies with the period
covered. In view of the many uncertainties involved in projecting activities
over a five-year period, the usual procedure is to prepare plans for the first
year in considerable detail. In contrast, summary projections are used for the
remaining four years. As each year passes, new plans are made on the basis of
recent experience and data, and a new fifth year is added. Whether or not
operational and financial planning is done over a five-year period, it is necessary to follow this planning procedure on at least a one-year basis in order to
lay a sound foundation for running the business and preparing the budget for
the next year.
Commencing with this planning activity, Exhibit 1-4 diagrams the flow
of activity through all phases of the budget function. Although Exhibit 1-4
assumes the existence of a planning staff and budget director, these positions
may not be present in a given company, where the actual functions are performed, however informally, by some other individual or group. In this example, detailed planning for the coming year starts with a general discussion
between the CEO and the planning staff, usually in early September. The
planning staff has prepared economic evaluations of national, geographic, and
industry trends in consumer demand. Keeping abreast of these types of data is
the continuing function of the company's planning staff, which has access to a
great abundance of statistics from government sources, trade associations, and
market surveys by the company's own sales force or market research organization. Of course, cold statistics on past activities do not contain the answer to
the future development of a company. In some companies, especially those in
mature markets, planning lacks effectiveness because it does not make full use
of all the information available for studying the past.
Paralleling the planning staffs accumulation of data relating to economic
trends is the sales vice president's accumulation and analysis of the company's
past performance data in various areas. He or she will make an assessment of
the company's competitive position and future potential based on the trends
developed by the planning staff.
The planning phase culminates in a broad operating plan. This plan
includes a statement of goals, subgoals, and broad performance objectives. It
is sent to the operating departments for the development of department plans
that are aimed at accomplishing company goals and objectives. Department
plans are formulated to include specific, measurable performance objectives.
These objectives might, for instance, include scheduled production, a target
output per labor hour, and a target for defective units. These objectives must
then be translated into financial terms in the form of a budget.

BUDGETING FUNDAMENTALS
Looking at how a budget is fabricated in a medium-size business organization will give you some insight into the fundamental aspects of budgeting.

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How to Plan and Manage Your Company Budget

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How to Plan and Manage Your Company Budget

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How to Plan and Manage Your Company Budget

Initially, the controller receives the operating plans of the line managers and
other department heads and translates these plans into a comprehensive projection of financial condition and operating results. Final judgment should
not be made until the effect of the plans can be estimated by the CEO in
terms of their impact on company resources and profits.
Chart of Accounts
The chart of accounts represents a standardized classification of all accounting data, including accounts for every component of assets, liabilities, and
stockholders' equity. The focus in this discussion is on accounts related to
expenditures. Accounting classifications for expenditures such as salaries,
fringe benefits, rents, and taxes are very familiar. When businesses are relatively small and simple, a one-dimensional description of expenditures is adequate. For more complex businesses, additional coding is needed to
implement responsibility reporting.
Responsibility Reporting
Responsibility reporting requires that all expenditures be traceable to some
manager within the organization. In other words, some manager must be
able to authorize or veto each expenditure. Responsibility reporting parallels the requirement that all performance objectives be traceable to some
manager in the organization. Accordingly, the expenditures incurred by a
manager and the organizational unit under his or her control in pursuing a
performance objective need to be recorded. The addition of responsibility
accounting arose from the need for budgeting in terms that could be related
to the managers responsible for the expenditures. This dimension, then,
largely reflects the organizational structure of the company.
Controllability is a matter of degree. In practice, judgment is used. The
question can be asked, "Does this manager have significant influence over
this cost?" If the answer is no, he or she should not be charged. Instead,
someone at the same level or at a higher level should be charged.
Reporting transactions in two dimensions-first by the nature of the
expenditure and second by the organizational unit responsible for the
action-permits management to pinpoint responsibilities for the dollar
consequences of planning, execution, and control. Dollar budgets and actual
performance against the budgets can be reflected in separate statements for
each block on the organizational chart, thus permitting businesspeople to
make budgeting an integral part of the management function.
Coding can be added to enable management to gain additional insight
into how the business works. For example, coding revenue and expense data
on customers allows an analysis of customer profitability. Computerized sales
order processing systems generally have the capability to provide reports on
sales by customer. However, a more important question is which customers
are sources of high profits and which customers may be generating losses.
This requires data on expenses by customer. Today's information technology
enables management to perform expense analyses at a reasonable cost.

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How to Plan and Manage Your Company Budget

Flexible Budgeting
Flexibility is an essential component of an effective budget program. A flexible budget is defined as a budget whose amount depends on the, actual activity level achieved. In months with high planned activity, the master budget
amount is higher than in months with low activity. Flexible budgets make
sense because most companies have costs that fluctuate with activity. Some
costs, such as advertising expense costs, are budgeted as a fixed amount based
on management's decisions. These are discretionary fixed expenses, and the
flexible budget amount is a fixed amount.
To gain a clearer understanding of the flexible budget concept, consider
a distribution warehouse that fills and ships sales orders. The master budget
for January shows the following selected amounts:
Sales
Supervisory salaries
Shipping supplies

$800,000
9,000
4,000

The actual amounts for January were as follows:

Sales
Supervisory salaries
Shipping supplies

$600,000
9,000
3,600

While supervisory salaries equaled the master budget amount, shipping

supplies were lower. Was performance favorable? With a flexible budget,
supervisory salaries are an indirect fixed expense and are not expected to fluctuate directly with sales volume. They can change if a supervisory position is
added or dropped or if a salary is raised or cut.
Conversely, shipping supplies is a variable expense driven by sales volume. As sales decrease, shipments decrease and fewer supplies are used.
Because actual sales were only 75 percent of the master budget amount
($600,000 / $800,000), the flexible budget amount is adjusted downward to
$3,000 (75% x $4,000), creating a $600 unfavorable variance from budget
($3,000 - $3,600).

EFFECTIVE BUDGETING
Because of the growing complexity of business and business problems and
because of the movement toward decentralization in large enterprises,
increased attention is being given to better planning and control techniques.
Consequently, the use of sound budgeting techniques is becoming more
prevalent. In addition, corporate restructuring has resulted in a trend toward
placing the responsibility for budgeting at higher levels in the organization.
In earlier days it was customary to find the budget function buried deeply in
the accounting operation; today it is not uncommon to have the budget function report to levels of management above the controller. Although it is still

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How to Plan and Manage Your Company Budget

useful for the budget director to report to the corporate controller, the trend
toward reporting to a higher level is a recognition of the need to have the
budget function broadly based in all operating areas of the business.
Many companies use budget committees. The budget committee typically is composed of representatives from most operating areas. This composition promotes coordination. If properly administered, the budget committee
can perform the very useful role of encompassing and reconciling the many
diverse interests that make up a modern business.
An effective budgeting system facilitates control. The budgeting system
must fit the company's operational control needs.
Effective Budgeting Systems in Practice
Two examples of companies with effective budgeting systems are the AIM
company and ZEX Inc.
AIM Company controls operations through its budgeting and responsibility reporting system. It is a growing multiproduct company in the metalconverting field. Annual sales are approximately $60 million. The company
employs about 800 people and has a fairly typical organization. Top executives are able to control every area of the organization through a system of
budgetary planning and control reporting by responsibility area. Yardsticks
of performance are provided for all productive and service areas, and results
of operations are accumulated and reported in terms of these yardsticks at all
supervisory levels.
Sales and profit contribution are compared with previous plans; thus
lower- or higher-than-planned results are readily determined. Selling
expenses are controlled by the budgeting, accounting, and reporting personnel responsible for the expenses. Measurements of sales and selling expenses
result in the effective control of income.
Production costs are measured by appropriate controls over materials
costs, labor costs, and manufacturing overhead expenses. Costs incurred for
materials are controlled through standards; price variations are segregated;
and materials utilization is measured by charging excess issues of productive
materials to the departments responsible for spoilage and comparing the
charges with variable budget allowances. Productive labor costs are measured
against standards, and variances are reported in terms of the department
foreperson responsible for the variances. Manufacturing overhead expenses
are controlled by reporting actual expenditures compared with variable or
fixed budgets in terms of the individual who participated in planning the
budgets and who had responsibility for the expenditures made. Control over
services of auxiliary departments-that is, over general overhead expensesis effected by comparing such costs (in terms of departments and of individuals incurring the costs) with expenditures previously planned and approved
for levels of required service or for programs adopted.
Responsibility in budget preparation and in cost control is a major feature of AIM's control system. The system pinpoints responsibility for all controllable costs by individual and integrates standard cost reporting with the

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How to Plan and Manage Your Company Budget

company's budgetary controls. Reports are prepared for all levels of management, from the operating foreperson and service department supervisors to
the CEO. The reporting system is designed as a tool for all levels of supervision to control their operations and their costs. It emphasizes information
that is useful to the individual manager.
The company's reports are tailored to the company and to the executives
who use them. This tailoring is carried down to the individual report rendered to each supervisor. The supervisor of each department determines,
within a general framework, the extent of the detailed information he or she
requires to control operations for which he or she is held accountable. Information technology has been applied when cost-effective opportunities have
been identified. The result is a database on the company's operations that is
available for special studies. Accounting allocations over which the individual
has no control are not included in these reports.
ZEX is a manufacturer of defense products. Not surprisingly, the
defense industry is subject to rather sudden and drastic changes in volume as a
result of changes in government procurement programs. Accordingly, profit
ability depends on the ability to react quickly to changes in volume. A drop in
sales volume evokes a fairly quick reduction of such variable expenses as production labor and materials. If government orders for a product are cut to $50,000 a
month for ten months, from $100,000 a month for twelve months, fewer people
on the production line and less material to make the product will be needed.
Conversely, new orders signal the need for more workers and materials.
Many defense businesses run into trouble when they fail to react quickly
to decreases in sales volume by reducing direct discretionary fixed expenses.
With fewer people on the production line, the need for supervisory and support personnel is reduced. If less material is used, fewer purchasing department personnel, materials handlers, and so forth are required. With
reductions in all of these service activities come opportunities for reductions
in general support activities, such as production control, accounting, and
general office activities.
Unfortunately, ZEX Inc. had several unhappy experiences in which substantial losses were realized as a result of canceled orders and subsequent delays
in taking the necessary retrenchment steps. Out of hard experience, the president of ZEX developed rather effective monitoring techniques. The ZEX system principally involved charts showing the relationship between indirect
personnel and direct personnel. These charts were printed weekly by the president's administrative assistant, whose personal computer was networked into
the company's databases. Changes in personnel were recorded in the personnel
database and were reflected automatically on the next printout of the charts. A
graphics package and color printer were used to show trends in direct and indirect personnel activity in relation to various other measures of activity. The
president prominently displayed these charts in his office because they played
such an important role in the new control system. The charts were the principal means of focusing on current problems at the periodic staff meetings.
Out of this approach evolved a quick-response system of adjusting indirect activities when direct activities contracted. When the charted ratio of

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How to Plan and Manage Your Company Budget

indirect to direct personnel exceeded the control limit, the president issued
orders to the controller to set the example by eliminating a specified number
of people from her department and by publishing guidelines for similar
reductions in the other overhead departments. Although the use of charts in
this way may appear to be a somewhat arbitrary procedure, it was the heart of
a planning and control system that brought the company from an unsuccessful to a successful basis of operation in the volatile field of defense products.
As can be appreciated from the ZEX example, good budgeting requires
substantive planning and control standards. Although informal systems at
times can be successful, they are not as successful as formal systems implemented by companies using good budgeting techniques. The most successful
systems are those that achieve the right balance between technique and form,
on the one hand, and substantive planning and control standards, on the
other.
Standards must be related to a company's situation and objectives, but
the performance of similarly situated businesses is an important supplement
to conclusions reached by analyzing one's own past performance. More
information on competitors' experience is available to the public than most
people realize.

THE PHASES OF BUDGETING

The receipt of the budget planning report from the CEO by the various line
managers initiates the budget preparation phase. Each of these managers
prepares an operating plan for the next year and submits it to the budget
director. It may be helpful to refer again to Exhibit 1-4 for the sequence of
events in budgeting.
Preparation of Operating Programs
As illustrated in Exhibit 1-4, the vice president of engineering prepares a
recommended program of research and development, indicating priorities
for the projects recommended. This step is important because the decisions
as to how much can be spent on research must await the financial budget
review procedure. Usually, the research budget contains more proposed
projects than are expected to be funded, which permits the CEO to select
projects that best meet the company's operating and profit objectives. Like all
other line managers, the vice president of engineering must also prepare a
program for operating the engineering and the research and development
departments, a program that will become the basis for those departments'
operating cost and expense budgets.
The sales vice president prepares the sales projections and the operating
plans for the various sales activities and advertising campaigns. The manufacturing vice president prepares the inventory and manufacturing plans. The
treasurer and controller also complete programs for the operations of their
departments.

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How to Plan and Manage Your Company Budget

Preparation of Financial Programs

In addition to the operating plans of the various department heads, the budget director must be furnished with details of the financial programs for the
year. The treasurer must prepare projections of cash requirements, preferably in the form of cash flow statements, and indicate sources of additional
financing if required. The capital investment programs required by the various line managers to accomplish their operating programs also must be furnished to the budget director for the capital expenditures budget.
Translation into Budgets
With all of the basic data in hand, the task of assigning dollar values to the
operating and financial programs is the next step in the budgeting process.
Generally, this step is accomplished by translating the programs into dollars
and by using the same account codes used in responsibility reports, which
usually are issued to each line manager. Two basic steps make up this process:
(1) the effect of the programs on the budget lines (i.e., accounts) of each
department must be determined, and (2) costs must be adjusted for trends in
prices being paid.
For example, suppose planned expanded output for a company has
resulted in greater activity for the assembly department. In applying the first
step, it is determined that the usage of electricity for this department will
increase by 15 percent, from $30,000 to $34,500. However, this increase is
based on last year's rates. If electricity rates are expected to increase by 10
percent, the budgeted amount would be 10 percent higher than $34,500, or
$37,950.
In many companies, the budget director acts as a coordinator in this
translation process. Because the budget director typically has only a financial
background, he or she cannot make all of the budget estimates required. In
cases such as the electricity example, technical expertise is required. The
budget director must give adequate instructions to the various departments
so that their operating programs contain sufficient data for the budget preparation phase. These instructions generally should be documented in a budget
manual.
Budget translation may occur entirely at lower levels in the organization
depending on whether the expertise is available. In larger companies, this
translation usually takes place at the divisional level, where divisional controllers have the needed financial expertise.
Consolidation
Having completed the preparation of the individual department budgets, the
budget director consolidates them into operating and financial budget summaries in a form identical to that normally used when reporting operating
and financial results to management. In other words, when the budget
department has completed its work, it has a product that looks exactly like
the monthly operating and financial reports of the business, except that the

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How to Plan and Manage Your Company Budget

figures represent budgets for the next year instead of actual results for a completed period. These budget summaries usually show operating results for
each month of the budget year. Normally, cash flow statements are also presented for each month of the year, but other balance sheet items may be
shown on only a quarterly or semiannual projected basis.
Management Review
At this point, the budget director submits the budget summaries to the CEO
with comments and recommendations. As a result of the work involved in the
preparation of these summaries, the budget director has had an opportunity
to gain a real insight into the operating plans of the various managers and has
determined the consequences in financial terms, which the CEO may now
review in a comprehensive way. The effective budget director helps the CEO
analyze the plan and develop possible alternatives if the projected results
appear unsatisfactory. The budget director acts as an analyst and a catalyst
but does not make operating decisions or plans. A good budget director has
the ability to point out why the projected result is or is not satisfactory and
what the CEO can do to change the situation if he or she so desires.
Adjustments
When the financial consequences of the initial plans are not satisfactory, the
CEO or budget director asks the line managers and department heads to
adjust their programs in specified ways to accomplish the desired profit and
return on investment goals. In effect, the operating and financial programs
included in the budget requests are returned to the originating line managers
with specific suggestions for change. After the line managers have made the
suggested changes, the programs are resubmitted to the budget director who
then makes the corresponding financial adjustments and resubmits consolidated operating and financial budget summaries to the CEO for final
approval and publication.
Approval and Publication
Final approval and publication may not be immediately forthcoming. Realizing the importance of the budget, the CEO again performs the management
review process. Further adjustments of programs and corresponding budget
summaries may be required before the CEO feels that the company's operating plan has been stated adequately in the form of a master budget. This process is sometimes called cycle-up, cycle-down. The resulting master budget will
be used in planning and controlling the company.

BUDGETARY SLACK
Because performance objectives are set during the budgeting process, conflicts between personal and organizational goals can arise. Managers have

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How to Plan and Manage Your Company Budget

personal goals with regard to personal income, status, and career path. In
some companies, management bonus or incentive systems are linked in some
way to the attainment of the budget. Managers tend to formulate budgets
that can be achieved readily and that meet top management's expectations.
Because failure to achieve budget can be viewed very negatively, managers
are tempted to build in slack, or a cushion.
Budgetary slack provides for some margin of error. It typically involves
some discretionary fixed expenses that can be cut back quickly if business
conditions or performance is worse than planned. A good example is maintenance. When performance is better than budget, the division manager may
overspend on maintenance, making some repairs and replacements that
could have been postponed for a few years-new roofing on all buildings, for
example. Because division profits are overbudget, much attention probably
will not be paid to overbudget maintenance expenses. In bad times, the maintenance would be deferred. Instead of having the roofs replaced, managers
would have them patched.
Slack within the company tends to grow in good years. In bad times, it is
to some extent voluntarily reduced. Some division managers, however, are
never inclined to reduce slack. For the managers, top management might
embark on a cost-cutting campaign to encourage slack reduction. Too much
pressure to cut slack, however, can result in conflict and can damage the budgetary process for years.

SUMMARY
Effective budgeting systems facilitate the value creation process. They are an
invaluable component of a company's planning and control efforts. The system
forces managers to plan and promotes coordination. The system supports
responsibility accounting and reporting. The master budget, accompanied by
detailed plans, documents the company's goals and objectives. Linking the
master budget to the company's long-range and strategic planning enhances
the overall planning effort.

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How to Plan and Manage Your Company Budget

1. Which of the following is true about a hierarchy of goals?

(a) They should be set by corporate-level managers.
(b) Goals at the functional level should be the same as at the corporate level.
(c) Subgoals are set in harmony with goals at upper levels.
(d) Al1 of the above are true.

1. (c)

2. Performance objectives can be measured in

have a
dimension.
(a) detailed; management
(b) specific; time
(c) detailed; flexible
(d) specific; financial

2. (b)

terms and

3. The
budget is the first component of the master budexpense budget.
get, and it is integrated with the
(a) president's; marketing
(b) president's; sales
(c) sales; marketing
(d) production; sales

3. (c)

4. The requirement of systematic budgeting that prevents managers

from shortcutting the planning process is:
(a) die budget format.
(b) die profit budget.
(c) the control phase.
(d) documentation of assumptions and specific plans.

4. (d)

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How to Plan and Manage Your Company Budget

5. The long-range plan typically is documented by the:

(a) corporate financial plan and related reports.
(b) strategic plan.
(c) strategic thinking.
(d) master budget.

5. (a)

6. The planning phase culminates in a broad operating plan that

includes:
(a) a statement of goals.
(b) a statement of subgoals.
(c) a statement of broad performance objectives.
(d) all of the above.

6. (d)

7. Business expenditures or transactions generally are coded and

reported by the nature of the expenditure and the:
(a) responsible unit.
(b) customer.
(c) budget line.
(d) budget process.

7. (a)

8. Electricity is classified as a variable expense in a flexible budget.

The master budget amount for electricity at the master budget
volume of activity is $10,000. If actual volume is 20 percent higher
than the master budget volume, the flexible budget amount would
be:
(a) $10,000.
(b) $20,000.
(c) $10,200.
(d) $12,000.

8. (d)

9. Supplies expense was $40,000 last year. Current plans budget an 8

percent increase in activity, but the cost of supplies is expected to
increase by 10 percent. Translating this information, next year's
budget should be:
(a) $43,200.
(b) $44,000.
(c) $47,520.
(d) $48,400.

9. (c)

10. Budgetary slack within the company tends to:

(a) be tolerated by growth companies.
(b) be unethical.
(c) be the budget director's responsibility.
(d) grow in good years.

10. (d)