...| | |Assignment Cover Sheet | |Lecturer’s Comments Form | |SECTION A: TO BE COMPLETED BY STUDENT | |This assignment cover sheet needs to be included with each assignment. Please complete all details clearly. | |If you are submitting your assignment on paper, please staple this sheet to the front of each assignment. | |If you are submitting your assignment online, please ensure this cover sheet is included in front your assignment. | |Please check your course information booklet for assignment submission deadline and information. | |Family Name |Lim |Given Names |Glenda | |Program/Intake |AFM7 ...
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...ACC 4291 INTEGRATED CASE STUDY TERM PAPER CASE: CITY OF YORBA LINDA, CALIFORNIA PREPARED BY Wafa’ Bt Zaharudin (1025250 ) PREPARED FOR Lecturer : Assoc. Professor Dr. Nik Nazli Binti Nik Ahmad NO. | CONTENT | PAGE NUMBER | 1. | EXECUTIVE SUMMARY | 3 | 2. | PROBLEM STATEMENT | 5 | 3. | FORMULATE THE ALTERNATIVES | 5 | 4. | ANALYTICAL TOOLS | 6 | 5. | EVALUATION OF ALTERNATIVES | 12 | 6. | FINAL DECISION & RECOMMENDATION | 13 | 7. | QUESTIONS & ANSWERS | 15 | 8. | REFERENCE | 17 | TABLE OF CONTENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The city of Yorba Linda which is located in northern Orange County, California was incorporated in 1967 as a general law city. This city had been growing at a rate of about 3,000 people per year, as in 1991, it had 53,000 residents living there. Yorba Linda city used a city manager form of government. Mr. Simonian has been appointed by the City Council to be the city manager, where he will be managing all the city departments except for the Legal Services. The city’s budget included 68 full-time employee for general city operations and 17 for library operations. The city council comprised of five city residents which was elected on an at large basis for a four-year, part-time term. Their responsible is to set the city policies. Yorba Linda city is a contract city where this city contracted with public and privates agencies to provide services in the city. As in Yorba Linda the agencies are the City of Brea, County...
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...three years of cutting budgets, reducing and eliminating services, and transforming government, Washington faces yet another major challenge. The September revenue forecast has forced another major overhaul of the state operating budget, this time to accommodate a drop of nearly $1.4 billion. Given signs that the November forecast is likely to bring additional bad news, I have prepared a list of alternatives that represent total expenditure reductions of more than $2 billion for the 2011–13 biennium. We will need at least that much to balance the budget and maintain a reserve. After earlier rounds of tough budget cutting, it is clear to me that across-the-board reductions — the only tool available under law to a governor — are untenable. Nonetheless, given the magnitude of the shortfall, it is necessary that we look to each state agency, program, board and commission for additional savings. While my staff and I are preparing the formal supplemental operating budget for submission next month, today I offer a starting point to the conversation we must engage in to resolve our budget problem. Attached is a summary of alternatives I am considering to reach savings of approximately $2 billion. To compile this list, I worked with agency directors to identify expenditure reductions in addition to the 5 percent and 10 percent reduction options submitted last month to the Office of Financial Management. As you will see, I have identified alternatives, most of which will likely...
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...Rhonda Moore According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, a budget can be defined as “the amount of money that is available for, required for, or assigned to a particular purpose”. Many people think of budgeting as something to do when they're short on cash. College students might turn to a budget to figure out how to make due with their high expenses and limited incomes. Two purposes for budgets are planning and control. Planning is a way of constructing the budget to meet the pre determined goal and, it also controls the feedback system to ensure proper execution of the plan. The advantages of budgeting are communication of management plan in the organization, provides guidelines for managers to think and plan for future, allocate resources, uncover bottle necks, co-ordinate activities for entire organization and provide benchmark for evaluation of future performance. Typically budgets can be prepared annually, and they can represent a company’s plan in specific, quantitative terms. A budget can help companies plan for the future. So companies can also take advantage of a budget by shaping the well-organized line for making money and increasing assets. “A budget may span any period of time. It may be short-term (one year or less, which is usually the case), intermediate (two to three years), or long-term (three years or more). Short-term budgets provide greater detail and specifics. Intermediate budgets examine the projects the company currently is undertaking and...
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...Manage budgets and financial plans Assessment activity 1 1. Accurate records management is the first important task in the process of sound financial management or any small business operator. Accurate and regular financial information allows you to monitor the success or failure of a business and provides them with information to evaluate the consequences of their financial decisions. To be successful it is essential that you know the precise financial condition of your business. Accurate and regular financial information allows you to monitor the success or failure of your business and provides you with information to evaluate the consequences of your financial decisions. Regularly monitoring your business activities will help you operate more efficiently control your cash flow and increase your profitability. Solid information about your business depends completely accurate and timely record keeping practices. Accurate financial records will allow you to •identify your income and expenses to create a profit and loss statement •identify your business assets and liabilities to create a balance sheet •identify the timing of income and expenses to create a cash flow forecast •compare your business operations with industry benchmarks * prepare accurate business activity statements and tax returns so you don’t over or underpay your taxes 3. * identify the data that needs to be collected * identify the appropriate source of data * ensure currency, reliability...
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...and budgetary control. Analyzing this topic will help to find the benefits and problems of traditional budgeting in two different business, where they are operating at different business environment. It will also discuss some of the alternative methods of budgeting and how it can suit, where traditional methods are inappropriate. The beyond budgeting concept, by Hope and Fraser (2003) will be discussed to find critical and deep evaluation on the budgeting process. Table of contents Pages Introduction. 01 Traditional budgeting. 02 2.1 Multiple Functions. 02 2.2 Benefits. 03 2.3 Problems. 03 Alternative approaches. 04 1. Activity based budgeting 04 2. Zero...
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...covered in detail in chapters one and two. Budgetary control is defined by the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants (CIMA) as: "The establishment of budgets relating the responsibilities of executives to the requirements of a policy, and the continuous comparison of actual with budgeted results, either to secure by individual action the objective of that policy, or to provide a basis for its revision". Chapter objectives This chapter is intended to provide: marketing as a key marketing control technique An overview of the advantages and disadvantages of budgeting Structure of the chapter Of all business activities, budgeting is one of the most important and, therefore, requires detailed attention. The chapter looks at the concept of responsibility centres, and the advantages and disadvantages of budgetary control. It then goes on to look at the detail of budget construction and the use to which budgets can be put. Like all management tools, the chapter highlights the need for detailed information, if the technique is to be used to its fullest advantage. Budgetary control methods a) Budget: activities in a given period of time. -ordinate the activities of the organisation. An example would be an advertising budget or sales force budget. b) Budgetary control: can either exercise control action or revise the original budgets. Budgetary control and responsibility centres; These enable managers to monitor organisational functions. A responsibility centre can be defined as...
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...describe the various stages of the budget process. Prepare functional and master budgets. Describe the differences between incremental and zero–based budgeting. Reminder Management Accounting = “The process of measuring and communicating economic information to permit informed judgements and decisions by users of the information” American Accounting Association. The decision making process 1. identify objectives 2. search for alternative courses of action 3. gather data about alternatives 4. select alternative courses of action 5. implement the decisions 6. compare actual and planned outcomes 7. respond to divergences from plan What does a budget do? Six main functions of a budget Planning annual operations Co-ordinating the work of different parts of the business Communicating the plans to all relevant managers Motivating managers to achieve the organisations goals Controlling activities Evaluating the performance of managers What does a budget look like? Annual budgets or rolling budgets. How do you plan a budget? 1. Determine the limiting factor (what restricts output?) 2. Prepare the sales budget 3. Prepare the supporting budgets. Examples of supporting budgets. Production budget Direct materials...
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...Managerial Accounting Notes Comparison of Financial and Managerial Accounting Managerial accounting is concerned with providing information to managers—that is, the people inside an organization who direct and control its operations. In contrast, financial accounting is concerned with providing information to stockholders, creditors, and others who are outside the organization. Accounting Recording, Estimating, Organizing, Summarizing (Financial and Operational Data) Financial Accounting -Reports to those outside the organization: Owners, Creditors, Tax authorities Regulators -Emphasizes financial consequences of past activities -Emphasizes objectivity and verifiability -Emphasizes precision -Emphasizes summary data concerning the entire organization -Must follow GAAP -Mandatory for external reports Managerial Accounting - Reports to those inside the organization for Planning, Directing and motivating, Controlling, Performance evaluation -Emphasizes decisions affecting the future -Emphasizes relevance -Emphasizes timeliness -Emphasizes detailed segment reports about departments, products, and customers -Need not follow GAAP -Not mandatory Roles of MA -Advise management of financial implications of a project -Explain financial consequences of business decisions -Formulate business strategies -Monitor spending and financial controls -Conduct internal business audit -Explain the impact of business competitive landscape FA vs. MA: Similarities ...
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...Question 2 A budget is defined as a plan of operations based on a given estimate of expected income and expense in the future. As such, it is thought of as an action plan, outlining an organization's financial and operational goals. The budget expresses the quantitative arrangement of the entity's management, in terms of allocating the business resources, performance evaluation, and formulating prospective plans. Businesses alike hold this as an annual undertaking, putting into account the company's past year's budget and subsequently previewing projections for the next couple of years (however often occurring short-term, in about a year or less.) Budgets provide control over the instantaneous environment, help to master the financial aspects of the job and department, while at the same time administering solutions to problems before they occur. They focus on the importance of assessing alternative actions before decisions are actually implemented. Budgeting serves as a means of systematically planning and control. This will require a realistic financial documentation of the company's goals and performance objectives. Upon formulation, the analysis provides adequate development throughout the fiscal year. Consequently, monthly performance reports compare budgeted results against actual stats. The management then examine these and set out to take necessary corrective actions against significant variances. This is known in the accounting world as budgetary control. Also, allowing...
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...Discuss the sequence in which the major components of the master budget are prepared. Why is it necessary to prepare the components in such a sequence? The Sequence for a master budget is as follows: A production budget, purchases budget, personnel budget, direct labor budget, overhead budget, selling and administrative budget, capital budget, and budgeted financial statements. Using this sequence to create a master budget a manager has assistance to align activities and resources allocations with organizational goals; it’s a vehicle to promote employee participation, cooperation, and department coordination. It's also a tool to enhance conduct of the managerial functions of planning, controlling, problems solving; basis on which to sharpen management's responsiveness to changes in both internal and external factors; and model that provides a rigorous view of future performance of a business in time to consider alternative measures. 7. Why is a firm’s production budget influenced by the finished goods inventory policy? The production budget follows from the sales budget and is based on information about the type, quantity, and timing of units to be sold. (A retail or service company would not prepare a production budget.) Sales information is combines with beginning and ending Finished Goods (FG) Inventory information so that managers can schedule necessary production. 8. Assume that in preparing the cash budget, the accountant discovers that a cash shortage will likely occur...
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...Health Care Budget HCS/577 When it comes to the creation as well as monitoring of a budget, the use of effective financial management practices cannot be overemphasized. To begin with, the budget construction form must identify all relevant data. An operating budget is best presented as a profit and loss statement projection. With that in mind, estimates of expenses and revenues (future) must be prepared. To ease monitoring, Finkler et al. (2006) notes that an operating budget should be presented together with the appropriate schedules as well as statements which act as supportive documentation? This paper will discuss the most effective and least effective budget management practices. According to Gapenski (2008), an effective operating budget must be created on an annual basis. However, for purposes of effective monitoring of an operating budget, it is important to note that an entity can come up with a number of quarterly or monthly budgets for utilization as the year progresses. An operating budget must also include all the important information including inventory and operating expenses, costs associated with manufacturing as well as sales forecasts. The inclusion of all this information as well as the categorization of the various items according to Boyd et al. (2010, May) is vital as this is what avails the financial outlays necessary for sales generation as well as other activities. Based on the size of the company or entity, Campbell et al. (1998) note that it...
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...BUDGETING Introduction and main points A comprehensive (master) budget is a formal statement of management’s expectations regarding sales, expenses, volume, and other financial transactions of the organization for the coming period. Simply put, a budget is a set of pro forma (projected or planned) financial statements. It consists of a pro forma income statement, pro forma balance sheet, and cash budget. A budget is a tool for both planning and control. At the beginning of the period, the budget is the plan or standard; at the end of the period it serves as a control device to help management measure its performance against the plan so that the future performance may be improved. International Paper, a large forest-products company, uses key budgets, including sales and expense projections, as the starting point for the developing business strategies. Prior to development of the budget, certain questions must be asked and certain assumptions must be made. What will be the inflation rate be? Where is the competition headed? Will suppliers increase prices? Will costumer tastes change? You also must explore the financial alternatives available for you. For instance, what will occur if you raise your selling price? What will be the effect if one variable (e.g., advertising) is changed? It is important to realize that with the aid of computer technology, budgeting can be used as an effective device for evaluation of “what-if”...
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...Introduction and Background of Budget The Capital Budget of the public sector or sometimes also known as Public Budget concerns how the government plans its revenues and expenditures at the Federal level, State level, and Local government level, to carter for the needs of its development programs and projects. In a democratic society, the division of resources between the public and private sectors is roughly determined by the desires of the electorate. But because it’s such a complex and time-consuming task to acquire adequate political information, the electorate is chronically ignorant. Since the Revolutionary War, democratic system of governance has forever been looking for better ways to inform the public and to design more sophisticated techniques for deciding how best to allocate scarce public resources. Despite the good sense it makes to “budget to a plan”, public expenditures are frequently approved based on who supports what, rather than on a clear understanding of what exactly the expenditures will accomplish. Public Budgeting is not about numbers; it is about making Democratic governance work. During the debates leading to the creation of the American Constitution, taxation and public expenditures were one of the driving forces leading to the creation of our peculiar and complex system of separation of powers and checks and balances. Our various state and local democratic constitutions give the executive branch the power to propose a budget and collect taxes, but...
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...national budget indicates, in terms of manpower, money, machines and materials, the country’s total resources to be utilized for various activities during a specified period. It is scrutinized by the country’s legislature; it becomes a piece of legislation when the legislature approves its adoption. The annual budget of an educational institution is approved by the institution’s governing board. The approved budget becomes the legal authority by virtue of which executives, agency heads or administrators can initiate or carry out activities designed to achieve organizational objectives. What is Budgeting? Budgeting is the process of systematically relating expenditure to achieve planned goals and objectives. It follows five phases and has three major functions. The phases of budgeting are as follows: Phase I – identification of programs/projects/activities to be accomplished during the budget period; Phase II – identification of resources in terms of manpower, money, machines and materials; Phase III – costing of resources, which is the most important activity in budgeting since the budget is fundamentally a financial statement; Phase IV – presentation of the budget in accordance with guidelines periodically issued by the proper authority, e.g., the Department of Budget and Management in the case of the Philippines; and Phase V – obtaining the approval of the appropriate authority, this involves piloting of the budget through a series of budget hearings...
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