Gemilang Bumi Bhd. It is in the early stages of planning for next year's annual budget. Alex recently joined the company as a business accountant and is interested in learning as much about the budgeting process of the organisation as possible. Alex introduced the following discussion after the latest meeting with the Sales Manager, who is Rock and Raju as Production Manager. Alex: Since I am new around here and I am going to be involved with the preparation of the annual budget. I’d be interested to learn how the two of you estimate sales and production numbers. Rock: We start out very methodically by looking at recent history, discussing what we know about current accounts, potential customers, and the general state of consumer spending. Then we add the usual dose of intuition to come up with the best forecast we can. Raju: I usually take the sales projections as a basis for my projections. Of course we have to make estimate of what this year’s ending inventories will be, which is sometimes difficult. Alex: Why does that become a problem? There must have been an estimate of ending inventories in the budget for the current year. Raju: Those numbers are not always reliable because Zack makes some adjustments to the sales numbers before passing them on to me. Alex : What kind of adjustments? Rock: Well, we don’t want to fall short of the sales projections so we generally give ourselves a little breathing room by lowering the initial sales projection anywhere from 5% to 10%. Raju: So you can see why this year’s budget is not a very reliable starting point. We always have to adjust the projections rates as the year progress and, of course, this changes the ending inventory estimates. By the way, we make similar adjustments for expenses by adding at least 10% to the estimates. I think everyone around here does the same thing. Required: Rock and Raju have described the use of what is sometimes called budgetary slack. a. Do you think the behaviour of Rock and Raju is ethical? Why? b. In your opinion, what are the reason for Rock and Raju to behave in that manner? c. Discuss the effects of budgetary slack on the company. d. If you were Alex, what would you do to avoid this kind of behaviour among the budget preparers in that company. Discuss.
Master Budget
A master budget can be defined as an estimation of the revenue earned or expenses incurred over a specified period of time in the future and it is generally prepared on a periodic basis which can be either monthly, quarterly, half-yearly, or annually. It helps a business, an organization, or even an individual to manage the money effectively. A budget also helps in monitoring the performance of the people in the organization and helps in better decision-making.
Sales Budget and Selling
A budget is a financial plan designed by an undertaking for a definite period in future which acts as a major contributor towards enhancing the financial success of the business undertaking. The budget generally takes into account both current and future income and expenses.
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Gemilang Bumi Bhd. It is in the early stages of planning for next year's annual budget. Alex recently joined the company as a business accountant and is interested in learning as much about the budgeting process of the organisation as possible. Alex introduced the following discussion after the latest meeting with the Sales Manager, who is Rock and Raju as Production Manager.
Alex: Since I am new around here and I am going to be involved with the preparation of the annual budget. I’d be interested to learn how the two of you estimate sales and production numbers.
Rock: We start out very methodically by looking at recent history, discussing what we know about current accounts, potential customers, and the general state of consumer spending. Then we add the usual dose of intuition to come up with the best
Raju: I usually take the sales projections as a basis for my projections. Of course we have to make estimate of what this year’s ending inventories will be, which is sometimes difficult.
Alex: Why does that become a problem? There must have been an estimate of ending inventories in the budget for the current year.
Raju: Those numbers are not always reliable because Zack makes some adjustments to the sales numbers before passing them on to me.
Alex : What kind of adjustments?
Rock: Well, we don’t want to fall short of the sales projections so we generally give ourselves a little breathing room by lowering the initial sales projection anywhere from 5% to 10%.
Raju: So you can see why this year’s budget is not a very reliable starting point. We always have to adjust the projections rates as the year progress and, of course, this changes the ending inventory estimates. By the way, we make similar adjustments for expenses by adding at least 10% to the estimates. I think everyone around here does the same thing.
Required:
Rock and Raju have described the use of what is sometimes called budgetary slack.
a. Do you think the behaviour of Rock and Raju is ethical? Why?
b. In your opinion, what are the reason for Rock and Raju to behave in that manner?
c. Discuss the effects of budgetary slack on the company.
d. If you were Alex, what would you do to avoid this kind of behaviour among the budget preparers in that company. Discuss.
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