Costing and Budgeting Case Study

Costing and Budgeting Case Study Accounting is a key success of a business, but the word accounting is more sophisticated. Almost every business, before dealing any project or any other important function, should design an appropriate budget. To make the budget first we should think about the cost because the cost of the production is always variable. A well-planned budget will bring success for a project. In my academic case study, I have to make a budget for Rayners plc. Company, which is a renowned company in the UK. Cost classification: P1 In the managerial accounting the word cost is using various ways. The main reason is that there are many types of costs, and these costs are classified differently according to the certain management process. For example, managers may want cost data to prepare external financial reports, to prepare planning budgets, or to make decisions. There are some relevant costing methods according to the task: Direct/Indirect cost: Direct cost is a cost where everything counting easily and conveniently traced to the particular cost object. But it is not incurred due to the product or activity countless. On the other hand indirect cost is fully reverse of the direct cost where counting process is more sophisticated and inconvenience and it incurred even productivity or activity change. Prime cost: The cost normally counting for labour and material to make product. This cost depend on ability and capacity of the labour that how much performed they are to make production and which way is the best way to use material. Fixed cost: A cost which is not only related to production is called fixed costs. In other words, it is a cost that remains constant even with variations circumstances and situations. VARIABLE COST: Variable costistotally opposite word of fixed cost. When a cost which is varies exactly in proportion to the change in activity (production or sale) would be term as variable cost. This is sometime called engineering cost or a formula cost and can be calculated in advance. Full Absorption cost: A managerialaccounting cost method of expensing all costs associated with manufacturing a particular product. Absorption costinguses the total direct costs and overhead costs associated with manufacturing a product as the cost base. Generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) require absorption costing for external reporting. Costing methods: (P2) According to the marginal cost, another name of fixed cost is period cost that means one need to deduct the total cost from contributions where under absorption costing, fixed cost is part of unit cost/production cost. Therefore deduct the total FC from contributions. Fixed cost does not change at any level of activity. F.O.A.R = Budget O/H Budget Activity (Note that if budget is equal to Actual production, then the absorption will be same). Now, if we will analyse the information and data as a case study of Rayners plc. Year 1 Marginal Costing method: 108,000 Sales: 90,000 X 12 Less cost of production Opening Inventory 0 Add productions (100,000 X 5) 500,000 500,000 Less closing Inventory (10,000X5) 50000 450,000 Contribution 630,000 Less Total FC: Production (270,000) Admin Costing (20,000) Net Profit 340,000 Year1Absorption costing method:  £  £ 108,000 Sales (90,000X12) Less cost of production Opening Inventory 0 Add production (100,000X5) 800,000 800,000 Less closing Inventory (10000X8) (80,000) Cost of production (720,000) Gross profit 360,000 Over absorbed (10,000X3) 30,000 Less admin cost (20,000) Net profit 370,000 Reconciliation statements:  £  £ Absorption profit 370,000 Les increase in Inventory (Closing inventory opening inventory) Multiply by F.O.A.R (10,000 0) X 3 (30,000) Marginal profit 340,000 Year2 Marginal costing statement:  £  £ Sales (110,000X 12) 132,000 Less cost of production Opening Inventory (10,000X5) 50,000 Add production (110,000X5) 550,000 600,000 Less Closing Inventory (10000X5) (50,000) 550,000 Contribution 770,000 Less total FC: Production (270,000) Admin (20,000) Net Profit 480,000 Year 2 Absorption costing statement:  £  £ Sales 132,000 Less cost of production Opening inventory (10000X8) 80,000 Add production (110,000X5) 800,000 900,000 Less closing Inventory (10,000X8) 80,000 (880,000) 440,000 Over absorption (20,000X3) 60,000 Less admin cost (20,000) Net profit 480,000 Year 3 Marginal costing statement:  £  £ Sales (750,000X12) 1140,000 Less cost of production Opening inventory (10,000X5) 50,000 Production (90,000X5) 450,000 500,000 Less closing inventory (5000X5) 25,000 (475,000) Contribution 665,000 Less total fixed cost: Production (270,000) Less total fixed cost: Admin 120,000 Net Profit 375,000 Year 3 Absorption costing statement:  £ Sales 140,000 Less cost of production Opening Inventory (10,000X8) 80000 Add production (90,000X8) 720,000 800,000 Less closing inventory (5000X5) 40,000 (760,000) Gross Profit 380,000 Less Admin (20,000) Net profit 360,000 Reconciliation Statement: Absorption profit 360,000 Add decrease in inventory (5000-10000) X 3 15,000 Marginal profit 375,000 Unit cost: (P3) According to the data of the Rayners plc and using the marginal costing method the unit cost is: Direct material 2 Direct labour1 Prime Cost 3 VC/Unit 2 Marginal cost 5 So according to the marginal cost the value of each unit will be  £5. F.O.A.A (unit) 3 Absorption cost 8 Full cost/Total cost 8 F O A R Budgeted F/C Budgeted Of Level Activity= X/90000 = £3 X= £270000 (Budgeted Of Overhead Collect analyse and present data using appropriate techniques. (P4) In the management accounting there are different ways to collect data for the business. The basic role is the participants a taste of the various tools and techniques available for collecting monitoring and evaluation data. Participants focus on what makes a good questionnaire and discuss tips on how to conduct interviews and focus groups. Participants also have the opportunity to explore more visual, participatory tools so that they can choose which methods are most appropriate for collecting information from their particular stakeholders. Moreover, the source of information that means the entire item for particular enquiry. E.g. invoices, customers and to show these customers feedback those are will be taken into consideration for further used of data collected. Another important technique to analyse and collect data is various sampling such as: Random sampling: This is the purest form of probability sampling. Because due to the large group of population it is really difficult and not possible to identify every member of the population, so the pool of available subjects becomes biased. Systematic sampling: It is often used as a random sampling. Another name of the sampling is selection technique. Its only advantage over the random sampling technique is simplicity. Systematic sampling is frequently used to select a specified number of records from a computer file. Convenience sampling: It is used in exploratory research where the researcher is interested in getting an inexpensive approximation of the truth. As the name implies, the sample is selected because they are convenient. Judgment sampling: One common non probability method isJudgment sampling. The researcher selects the sample based on judgment. This is usually and extension of convenience sampling. Quota sample: This is a sample method where items, usually people, are selected in a given quantities and according to pre-defined characteristics. These different methods are used for different purpose where user must identify a sampling method in order to review the presentation at the intention. These methods can also be used in a wide range of area and activity where there is lots of member with different types of users. Routine cost report: (P5) The report generally include the financial performance for the end of the year .E.g. Profit, Debit, share, price and dividends. It will also advice about transfers to reserves, assets that have been acquired or disposed of the names and shareholding of directors active in the last year, and other business activates that will be interested to stakeholders. Even, sometimes the report also cover the business polices on employment, training, welfare, creditor, creditor payment and corporate responsibility as well. There are some different ways to finding cost report: Monitoring Cost: Cost monitoring means supervising the economic progress in the management system in the business. This is the main reason of cost or expense monitoring is collecting information to check performance against an expectation. Controlling: Cost controlling is process where the common goal of the management is improving business cost-efficiency by reducing costs, or at least restricting their rate of growth. Businesses use cost control methods to monitor, evaluate, and ultimately enhance the efficiency of specific areas, such as departments, divisions, or product lines, within their operations. Planning: It is called a plan make supreme success. In term of business it is invincible part to make appropriate costing plan.It comprises iterative quantification and costing, derived from benchmarking and market exploration exercises, and is aimed at establishing a realistic and acceptable cost limit. This information is critical for obtaining project financing and for determining whether a project can be profitable or not. Without cost planning, property owners would enter blindly into construction projects and possibly into insolvency. Evaluation: Evaluating the cost of the overall business management is really sophisticated task. According to the business activity there are three types of evaluation specification: Background: Background means description, context, scope and objective of the business. The Selection Process: Analyse briefly the selection process, starting with the advertising the establishment of the shortlist, expressions of interest, and withdrawals of firms before proposal submissions. Technical evaluation: Describe briefly the meetings and actions taken by the evaluation committee formation of a technical evaluation team, outside assistance, evaluation guidelines, justification of sub criteria and associated weightings as indicated in the Standard Request for Proposals; relevant correspondence and compliance. Profitability Ratio: (p6) 1)Gross profit margin =gross profit/sale*100 = xf 2)Net profit margin = PBIT/sales*100 = xf 3) Retained on capital employed = PBIT/capital employed*100 = xf 4) Assets= sales/capital employed = x times Efficiency ratio: Lido ltd New ltd. Assets = 640/350+75 Assets=1600/1600+20 =1.5 times =.987 Productivity Unit produce for employees 20000/34 =588 unit 5000/78=64.1 Operating profit margin 128/640*100=20 256/1600*100 =16 Cost productivity Operating profit per employee 128/34 =3.77 256/78=3.28 Principles of quality: (P7) The basic principle of Total quality management is that costs of prevention are less than the costs of correction. There are various types of roles are involved in term of quality: Assurance: Quality assurance focuses on preventing faulty occurring, instead of fixing them afterwards (which is the quality control approach). Describe everything to find out the causes of defects are identified and ways to fix the system to make sure the problem doesnt happen again are agreed. Reliability: The most important and valuable principles of quality are consistency and reliability. Each link in the quality chain must deliver to the next link on time, in the quantity ordered, to the right specification and at the agreed price, time after time after time. Customer-driven: customer driven quality means many things to many people, in the end it is the customers opinion that counts. In these cases the customers quality ideals must be met every step of the way from the farm to the marketplace. Continuous Improvement: This is an essential part of any good quality system. The market environment for popular product is always changing and highly competitive, so the popular programme must constantly evolve to ensure the industry stays ahead of the completion. Principles of value: Implementing the Principle of Value requires leadership and management with particular, conscious focus and intent.It is always to develop and sustain durable, value-driven, win-win relationships. Everything can be evaluating by relative activity such as Products for payment Salary for performance Investment for profits. Everywhere we look, we see win-win relationships as the core of durable success. If we lose those relationships, we eventually lose everything. Another important principle is core value which is completely design by roles of fairy, ethos, human morality, dignity, and customer service. If an organization does not cause its members to understand and focus on these important elements, it will soon find participants becoming solely profit-centric. This behaviour inevitably leads to a short-term focus and potentially illegal practices that provide the seeds of self-destruction. Remember that management is to build business value by making the right decisions; and, decisio ns about core values are essential. Purpose and nature of Budget: (P8) Budgeting is a basic and essential process in a business which allows businesses to gain many goals in one course of action.The budgeting process may be carried out by individuals or by companies to estimate whether the person/company can continue to operate with its projected income and expenses. There are several purposes to create and implement a budget include control and evaluation, planning, communication, and motivation. Control and Evaluation This is most important matter after finalized a budget is providing sufficient control and evaluating its performance.If performance does not meet the budget, action can be taken immediately to adjust activities. Budgeting allows a company to have a certain range of control over costs, such as reducing many types of unnecessary expenses or assigning responsibility for these expenses. A budget also gives a company a benchmark by which to evaluate business units, departments, and even individual managers. Unfortunately this purpose of budgeting may be effect on employees to have negative thinking about the budgeting process because their compensation and, in certain situation, even their jobs may be operating on meeting certain budgeting target. Planning Planning is initial purpose of budgeting. It is also design by decisions, and many questions must be answered. Besides that, budgeting allows a business to take stock of revenue and expenses from the previous period, and judge where the business will be in future periods. It also allows the organization to add and remove products and services from its plan for the future period. Communication and Motivation: Other goals that an organization may use its budget to achieve that are less obvious include communication and motivation. It is important that make correlation according to the chain of command like from management level to supervisor level, this is only to gain mentally satisfaction of the staff. When an employee is involved in creating his or her departments budget, that person will be more likely to strive to achieve that budget. Budgets also allow a company to motivate its employees by involving them in the budget. Budgeting method: (p9) A budget is an individual and written estimate of how an organization or a particular project, or business unit willperform financially. If we can accurately predict our companys performance than we will be certain that resources such as money, people, equipment, manufacturing plants, and the like are deployed appropriately. There is various kind of budgeting are available for a business such as: Cash budget: An important estimate of a companys cash position for a particular period of time. . Labor budget: The total cost for labor to be expended for a set period of time calculated by taking every persons position in an organization, department, or project and multiplying the number of hours they are expected to work by their wage rates. Sales budget: An estimate of the quantity of goods and services that will be sold during a specific period of time. Production budget: A forecast thatstarts with the sales budgets estimates of the total number of units projected to be sold, then translates this information into estimates of the cost of labor, material, and other expenses required to produce them. Expense budget: An estimate prepared for travel, utilities, office supplies, telephone, and many other common business expenses for a given period. Incremental Budget: These types of budget are normally starts with previous periods budget or actual results and add an incremental amount to cover for inflation and other known changes. Advantages of incremental budgeting The budget is stable and change is gradual. Managers can operate their departments on a consistent basis. The system is relatively simple to operate and easy to understand. The impact of change can be seen quickly. Disadvantages of incremental budgeting Assumes activities and methods of working will continue in the same way. No incentive for developing new ideas. No incentives to reduce costs. Encourages spending up to the budget so that the budget is maintained next year. The budget may become out of date and no longer relate to the level of activity or type of work being carried out. Zero-based budget: This is a traditional technique of planning and decision-making which reverses the working process. By contrast with incremental budgeting, in zero-based budgeting, every department function is reviewed comprehensively and all expenditures must be approved, rather than only increases. Advantages Drives managers to find cost effective ways to improve operations. Detects inflated budgets. Useful for service departments where the output is difficult to identify. Increases communication and coordination within the organization. Identifies and eliminates wasteful and obsolete operations. Identifies opportunities for outsourcing. It responds to changes in the business environment. Disadvantages It emphasize short-term benefits to the detriment of long term goals The budgeting process may become too rigid and the organisation may not be able to react to unforeseen opportunities or threats Difficult to define decision units and decision packages, as it is time-consuming and exhaustive. Forced to justify every detail related to expenditure. The RD department is threatened whereas the production department benefits. According to the previous discussion it is clear that Zero-based budgeting is must be clearly understood by managers at various levels to be successfully implemented. But every organisation should provide Necessary training to manager. According to the case study there are four types of budgets will be explaining.

Proposal for Improved Raw Material Tracking Program :: Business Manufacturing

Business requirements Tracking Raw Material and Work in Process: To maintain a maximum, efficient level of raw material as well as lowest costs for production is essential for the production department. o A system which can estimate and track the optimum level of raw material reduces the cost for production procedure, o It must be able to monitor the storage level of raw material and communicate with the public demand for drugs as well. o The system should also provide a shared database between ECOLI and its suppliers, to shorten the time of ordering and delivery raw material. o Since some of the raw materials are intermediate goods buy from suppliers, the system must have a capacity which can monitor the production procedures and materials suppliers use, to avoid suppliers to charge a higher price. o The system should have a historical disease database. Since lots of important chemical materials are extracted from fossil fuel, the company needs to store extra fuel in order to handle disastrous diseases (SARS, bird flu, etc.) base on past historical trends. This storage strategy can also get rid of the risk of price increasing. o Chemical raw material has very strict requirements on surrounding environment. Thus, the system must be able to sort chemical raw material by their characters (temperature, smell, chemical property), to reduce the probability of chemical inter-pollution since they have very strict requirements on surrounding environment. o The system should records all information of raw material, including the name, purchase date, opened date and expire date, to lower the turn over rate and the unnecessary waste of raw material. o The system should have a function to monitor water quality. Drugs produced with non-sterile water is defective, and must be destroyed because they may already been polluted. Suppliers Selection Suppliers should be carefully selected based on the qualities and prices of the raw material as well as their reputation. o An information system should list all contracted suppliers and their business scopes. If one of supplier couldn ¡Ã‚ ¦t deliver the raw material on time due to unexpected reasons, the company can contact alternative supplier quickly, and the whole production process won ¡Ã‚ ¦t be delayed. o The system should records all business transactions between ECOLI and its suppliers. Suppliers who had unethical records (using expensive materials to earn profit) cannot be used again. Quality Control o In order to shorten the inspection time on outputs, the system should be able to instantly summarize the inspection results of the testing sample and keep the quality controllers informed of the most updated quality of outputs.

Internal Control Requirements for Publicly Traded Companies

In a meeting last week, the president of LJB expressed interest of going public in the near future and asked us about the internal control requirements for such action. To become publicly listed, LJB must follow the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX), which requires all US publicly traded companies to maintain an adequate system of internal control. Under SOX Section 404, a company must report on internal controls over financial reporting in its annual report. Four key elements must be included in this report (Smith, Ledyard;): 1. Statement of responsibility by the company management (CEO and CFO) for establishing and maintaining an adequate internal control structure and procedure for financial reporting. 2. Statement identifying the framework used by management to evaluate the effectiveness of the company’s internal control over financial reporting. 3. Management’s assessment of the effectiveness of internal controls over financial reporting. 4. Attestation by the company’s external auditor on management’s assessment of the effectiveness of the company’s internal controls and procedures for financial reporting. As the president of LJB, he and other executives and board of directors must ensure that the internal controls are reliable and effective. In addition, he must hire independent outside auditors to attest to the adequacy of the internal control system. LJB’s Proper Internal Controls To beco me publicly listed, LJB must ensure and maintain an adequate and effective internal control system. After evaluating LJB’s current internal controls, I have found several positive acts. First, the accountant of LJB has recently started to use prenumbered invoices, which I believe to be a right decision because all companies, including LJB, should establish proper documentation procedures. LJB should document transactions and events when they occur. The use of prenumbered invoices can help to prevent a transaction from being recorded more than once, or conversely, from not being recorded at all (Kimmel, Weygandt, & Kieso, 2011, p. 341). In addition, an effective internal control system should require that all source documents be promptly forwarded to the accounting department for accounting entries; this helps to ensure timely recording of the transactions and contributes directly to the accuracy and reliability of the accounting records (Kimmel, Weygandt, & Kieso, 2011, p. 341). So when the accountant has asked for buying an indelible ink machine to print checks, I believe it will be a wise and necessary purchase. Second, the accountant does a good job of moving all checks into a safe in his office during weekends. This is in compliance with physical controls, which relate to the safeguarding of assets and enhance the accuracy and reliability of the accounting records (Kimmel, Weygandt, & Kieso, 2011, p. 342). By moving the checks into the safe, they are secured during nonbusiness hours and not accessible to no one, this prevents potential fraud and theft. LJB’s Improper Internal Controls On the other hand, there are several other controls which LJB is not doing properly. First, the accountant is now serving two roles as both treasurer and controller. This is a violation of segregation of duties. Different individuals should be responsible for related activities, however, the accountant is responsible for both supply purchases and payments for these purchases, and this increases the potential for errors and irregularities (Kimmel, Weygandt, & Kieso, 2011, p. 339). Since the accountant can make orders of supplies without supervisory approval, he may be tempted to receive kickbacks from suppliers (not saying he will); he may authorize payments for fictitious invoices since he also has payment authorization. Moreover, the accountant should not be responsible for both receiving checks and completing monthly bank reconciliations, because since he is the person who handles record keeping for LJB, he should be neither responsible for physical custody of the received checks (which are basically cash) nor have access to them (Kimmel, Weygandt, & Kieso, 2011, p. 340). Both vacancies of segregation of related activities and segregation of record-keeping from physical custody controls leave a great potential of fraud for LJB, not mentioning there is a lack of independent internal verification (Kimmel, Weygandt, & Kieso, 2011, p. 343). Second, LJB is missing control over its petty cash. If all employees have access to petty cash, it is a violation of establishment of responsibility (Kimmel, Weygandt, & Kieso, 2011, pp. 338-339). In addition, not only no one is responsible for the petty cash, employees who use the money are only asked to leave a note, this violates the documentation procedures controls. Third, the firing incident indicates LJB is doing poorly on three controls: human resource controls (Kimmel, Weygandt, & Kieso, 2011, p. 344), physical controls, and establishment of responsibility. LJB did not conduct a thorough background check on the convicted employee. If a thorough background check was performed LJB should had found out that this person was convicted guilty and served time for molesting children. Also, since LJB does not assign individual passwords to employees, it was no surprise that it had difficulty getting the convicted employee’s confession of viewing pornography on company computer. Last, the accountant should not be engaged in interviewing and approving new hires, since he is already responsible for other tasks. Instead, the human resources department should be involved in the hiring process, along with the president. Recommendations for Improvement These poor internal controls indicate LJB’s vulnerability to frauds, which not only serve as threats to LJB but also hinder the company’s capability of going public. Nevertheless, actions can be taken to fix such flaws. First of all, LJB should assign different individuals to handle supply purchase and payment tasks. If the accountant is responsible for making orders of supplies, he should receive approvals for these purchases, and should not be granted payment authorization. If he authorizes payments, he should not be made responsible for purchasing supplies. Also, since he prepares bank reconciliations, he should not have custody of the received checks; a different individual should be assigned for such task. In addition, for enhanced security, LJB can assign another employee who is independent of the personnel responsible for the activities to conduct independent internal verification. He/she can compare the payment checks to invoices; he/she can also compare total receipts to bank deposits on a monthly basis to see if there is reconciliation between the cash balance per books and the cash balance per bank. If there is any discrepancy, he/she can report to the management immediately for corrective action (Kimmel, Weygandt, & Kieso, 2011, pp. 343-344). Secondary, LJB needs to set up a petty cash fund (not sure one is existed currently) and appoint a custodian who is responsible for such fund. Size of the petty cash fund should be determined, expenditures from the fund should be limited and certain types of transactions should not be permitted from the fund. The custodian of the und should have authority to make payments from petty cash that conform to these prescribed policies (Kimmel, Weygandt, & Kieso, 2011, p. 367). Also, for documentation purpose, instead of a note from users of the petty cash, each payment from the fund must be documented on a prenumbered petty cash receipt, signatures of both the custodian and the individual who receiving payment must be on the receipt. If other supporting documents such as an invoice are available, they should be attached to the receipt (Kimmel, W eygandt, & Kieso, 2011, p. 367). Furthermore, internal control over petty cash fund can be strengthened by (1) having a supervisor make surprise counts of the fund to ascertain whether the paid petty cash receipts and fund cash equal the designated amount, and (2) canceling or mutilating the paid petty cash receipts so they cannot be resubmitted for reimbursement (Kimmel, Weygandt, & Kieso, 2011, p. 369). Lastly, from now on, LJB must conduct thorough background checks on all new hires. Two things can be verified to support the checks: (1) Check to see whether job applicants actually graduated from the schools they list. 2) Never use the telephone numbers for previous employers given on the reference sheet; always look them up (Kimmel, Weygandt, & Kieso, 2011, p. 344). The human resources department should be held responsible for all background checks. In addition, all employees should be assigned individual passwords for signing into company computers, and these passwords should only be known to the individuals who m they are assigned to. LJB may also consider installing an advanced firewall program on computers which prohibits users from logging in external indecent websites.

The Eternal Quest for Inner Peace - 1012 Words

â€Å"Inner peace is the greatest success; it makes your world a Paradise.† Inner peace can be defined as state of being mentally and spiritually at peace, with a sense of understanding which keeps oneself strong against stress. It is always associated with happiness, bliss, satisfaction and contentment. People are searching for numerous reasons as to how they can be finding their inner peace, but here I will shortlist the three most important reasons leading to the creation of inner peace which includes creating equality amongst the people and putting an end to conflicts and violence, making a distance from wrongful deeds and being kind to everyone, and most importantly, the power of meditation and yoga. Source – (www.qoutespictures.com) A major lot of inner peace can be obtained if outer world is at peace, where there is equality amongst the people of this world and conflicts, wars, battles etc are prevented. 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