...Budget Management Analysis HCS/571 Financial Resource Management June 27, 2011 Dr. Lena Watson Budget Management Analysis Budget management analysis is used by mangers as a tool and helps determine that all resources available are being used efficiently. The budgets are determined yearly and are based upon the previous year’s budget and variances. This paper will discuss specific strategies to manage budgets within forecast, compare five to seven expense results with budget expectations, describe possible reasons for variances, give strategies to keep results aligned with expectations, recommend three benchmarking techniques, and identify those that might improve budget accuracy, and justify the choices made. Strategies to Manage Budgets Many strategies may be used to control budgets; managers and the chief financial officer of most healthcare organizations have the tools needed to manage the budget. By managing the budget the organization will be better prepared for the financial forecasts, which are the company’s future expenses. Some strategies and tools that will assist with managing the budget are zero based, activity based, performance based, cost variances and benchmarking. Zero based budgeting analyzes every expense within an organization and justifies the need and cost of each. Activity based costing is the gathering of the operating cost data, which is assigned to specific activities such as engineering. The performance dashboard uses the metrics of performance...
Words: 1406 - Pages: 6
...Budget Management Analysis Budget management is an important concern for organizations, especially today with the economic strain on businesses. The strategies to manage budgets and possible variances will be addressed within the context of this paper. A comparison of five expense results with the budgetary expectations and reasons for possible variances will be presented. Benchmarking techniques that may improve budget accuracy in future forecasts will also be concentrated on within the body of information presented Managing a Budget within the Forecasts According to Finkler, Kovner, and Jones, (2007), organizations exercise control over operations through the use of a management control system. The determination of whether a business is able to appropriately budget for future expenses, economic downturns, and risks is critical in today’s economic crisis. The methods by which a budget is created are specific and take into consideration several factors that provide target, actual, and variance results. The strategies used to create a budget vary among industry, organization, department, and/or manager just to name a few. Budget variances, strategies, and benchmarking techniques are critical to the final budget formulated for a business. A budget is a way to assist managers to follow a set strategic plan to ensure resources are used to efficiently to achieve the goals and follow the mission of the organization. A budget provides estimates of revenue, expenditures...
Words: 1281 - Pages: 6
...Budget management analysis is commonly used by mangers as a tool helping to make sure that all resources in existence get put to use correctly. The budgets are determined annually because they are determined by the preceding year’s budget and differences. Budgets can be controlled by specific techniques to control budgets within prediction, consider five to seven expense results with budget anticipations, explain possible factors that cause fluctuations, present ways to keep results associated with goals, share three benchmarking strategies, and consider the ones that could increase budget accuracy, and give good reason for the choices made. (Finkler, 2007) Several techniques are often used to regulate budgets; managers as well as the chief financial officer of nearly all health related agencies provide the techniques necessary to manage the budget. By balancing the budget the institution will likely be better organized for the financial guidelines, which are the company’s upcoming expenses. A few techniques that can improve balancing the budget are zero based, activity based, performance based, cost fluctuations and benchmarking. Zero based budgeting examines each individual expense within a business and justifies the necessity and expense of each. Activity based pricing is the accumulation of the operating cost records, which is also assigned to individual programs which include engineering. The performance dashboard applies the metrics of functioning and examines the reason...
Words: 1455 - Pages: 6
...References: Clark ANA Art & Science Kelly Paubel Nur 531 May 21, 2012 Holly Stenerson PLACE PHOTO HERE, OTHERWISE DELETE BOX Subhead. Subhead. left screen page 1 Summary “INSERT PULL QUOTE HERE. DELETE BOX IF NOT IN USE.” Mandatory Nurse-to-Patient Ratio right screen page 2 Negative Influences Positive Influence of Mandated Ratios Is mandating ratios the answer. currently in California the mandated ratios are: !:2 for ICU, Critical Care, NICU, PACU, Labor & Delivery, and with ED patients requiring intensive care 1:3 for Stepdown Units 1:4 for Ante & Post partum, Pediatrics, ED, Telemetry, and other specialty units 1:5 for Medical Surgical units 1:6 for Psychiatric units. Has these ratios changed patient care and nurse satisfaction? Hospitals and nursing organizations are divided on how this change has effected patients and nurses. The California Nurses Association states that nurse retention, burnout, and morale have improved (Clark, 2010). Advocates also say that medical errors have reduced and patient satisfaction has improved. Although several states have attempted to pass laws mandating nurse-to-patient ratios, only California has successfully passed one. California Assembly Bill 394, mandating minimum, specific, and numerical nurse-to-patient ratios in hospitals, passed in 1999. left screen page 2 Nursing has seen many changes with the increase in medical treatments available. This...
Words: 363 - Pages: 2
...Immigration and Healthcare Cost Angela Mporampora Metropolitan State College of Denver Healthcare Finance HCM 4030 Professor kelvin D. Zeller March 25, 2012 Immigration and healthcare cost Abstract. The rise in healthcare cost has been one of the most troubling economic events in recent years. Healthcare cost rises about 7.5 percent every year. The United States is known to be the nation with the highest amount spent on healthcare. Some research links immigrants to the fast paste in healthcare cost increase. Immigration became a top issue after the event of September 11th. Many believes immigration is the root cause of most of the economic problems taking place in the country today, they linked immigration to increase in healthcare cost, increase in crime rate, reason for low productivity, reason for loss of job opportunity for native- born and many more. But on the other hand, are these groups of individuals who believe immigrants are being used as “scapegoats” just because they don’t have a voice or stand in the society. They stressed the believe that even before immigration became a hot topic, the economy already had this problem in place, they denoted most research findings stating data were manipulated to support their mission; for immigrant do not visit medical establishment as often as indigenes and wonder how researchers came to the conclusion that immigrants spiked up healthcare cost. This subject is distinctly two sides and it’s difficult to find...
Words: 2760 - Pages: 12
...Historical Perspective Essay Rebecca Firmin NUR/518 May 21,2012 Vta Massey Historical Perspective Essay One significant event in nursing research which created greater awareness for the need of utilizing research in clinical practice was the establishment in 1986 of the National Center for Nursing Research by congressional mandate. A primary function of the Center for Nursing Research was promotion of research projects that related to patient care. In this period nurses began formal projects to help with research utilization in clinical practice to enhance patient outcomes. During this time factors outside of nursing helped shape nursing research also. A clinical learning strategy designed by McMaster Medical School in Canada called evidence-based medicine had a major effect on all health care professions and how physicians and nurses made clinical decisions. This learning strategy paved the way for nursing research to incorporate evidence-based practice into the daily clinical practices and enhance patient outcomes. Nursing research focused on improved patient-nurse relationships and improved patient outcomes, strategies that nurses could utilize at the bedside to enhance patient care. With use of this learning strategy nursing developed nursing strategies that were centered around nursing diagnosis and not on medical diagnosis to effect patient outcomes. Interventions that nursing could use that were nursing related and did not require a physician’s order to...
Words: 332 - Pages: 2
...paper on how budgeting and variance analysis helps managers to make decisions. Budgeting and Variance Analysis The major responsibility of a manager is to plan for future. An organization to be successful, it has to make short-term and long-term plans. These plans sets the organizations objectives and ways to accomplish the goals of the organization. A budget is a formal written plan at an organizational level for the outgoing expenses and incoming revenues for a specific period. The purpose of the budget is to ensure that the funds are available to accomplish the objectives of the organization according to plan, justify the use of funds, and help plan future funding accurately. Budgeting plays a great deal in the helping with management decisions. Knowing and understanding the budget can help ease the decision making. For example, in the retail industry every store has a certain budget that strive to meet. Budgets are created from previous year’s sales and can be adjusted for various reasons. The budget numbers allocate a specific amount of labor. When these budgets are not being met, management is required to cut back on labor. Understanding how to read and forecast budgets can help the decision making process easier. Running sales to labor every day helps the management staff in understanding and budgeting correctly. For any company a budget can provide a plan for future planning and decisions. By setting up a budget it allows management to have a set amount of spending...
Words: 743 - Pages: 3
...Flexible Budget ACC 543 June 20, 2011 Flexible Budget In today’s business, a flexible budget helps plan for the future. This tool compiles expense, revenue, production, and cost data. The data produced from the flexible budget provides an organization with a tool for performance evaluation. This can assist management in determining the most profitable sales and production levels, in addition to determining fixed and variable costs. Examining how the flexible budget relates to fixed and variable costs as well as analyzing the correlation between the static and flexible budget leads to cost-volume-profit analysis. Static and Flexible Budgets Fixed cost, such as manufacturing, is those cost that remain unchanged and stay constant no matter what the volume of activity may be. The variable cost, labor and materials, will vary and is most often determined based on the activity and the market prices for various labor and materials. The flexible budgets provides the what if situations for the company. The budget is also commonly used to determine how effectively a company is planning and performing. Unlike the static budget, the flexible budget provides customers with the actual number rather than the planned activity for the company. In the budget, the fixed cost will remain constant but may change for a couple of reasons. One of the reasons the numbers may be change is because the planned volume may be higher than the actual volume, which would...
Words: 1125 - Pages: 5
...Flexible Budgets TEAM C ACC 543 March 10, 2014 Flexible Budgets When planning for the future, a flexible budget is a forecasting tool that brings revenues, expenses, costing and production information. Flexible budgets provide the company with reliable performance evaluation to select the best direction for achieving the most profit at various sales or production levels under consideration. The information gleaned from a flexible budget expedites making choices and decisions to guide the company ventures while assisting in defining the fixed and variable costs of the overall operation. In brief, we will investigate the relationship between the flexible budget and those fixed and variable costs as well as explore the differences between static and flexible budgets. We will also investigate how they are suitable for cost-volume-profit analysis. Relationships between Fixed and Variable Costs Used in a Flexible Budget There are two main costs that need to be managed to budget which are fixed costs and variable cost. No matter how much merchandise is sold or how many services are offered fixed costs do not change. These costs are things such as rent, insurance and salaries. Regardless if the business is not making enough profit these costs have to be paid. Variable cost can change according to how many products are made. Variable costs change according to output. Fixed costs behave much differently than variable costs. Remember that a relevant range of activity...
Words: 902 - Pages: 4
...company’s financial management. Planning and budgeting is an issue that should be solved in a complex. Therefore, this final English research paper highlights three main approaches absorbed: theoretical, practical, and analytical. Theoretical knowledge cannot be applied to practice without clear understanding of business, a feeling about the actual circumstances. Practical knowledge cannot be applied to professional tasks without analytical approach. This skills and approaches are presented and proven in this research. Having faced planning and budgeting process of middle-sized company, it has been noted that some issues of this important activity absence clarity, confidence, and flexibility. In order to optimize planning and budgeting process a thorough examination has been prepared in this research paper. The Company where experience has taken place is Levi’s XX that stands for Levi’s Vintage Clothing. Therefore, the industry examined is apparel, and as a market is taken the whole Globe. Table of Contents Abstract 2 Introduction 4 • The purpose of the study 4 • The main conceptual problem 5 Methodology 6 1. Essence and role of financial planning and budgeting 7 1.1 Planning and budgeting role in company’s structure 7 1.2 Purpose of budgeting 7 2. Company profile, industry and market description 10 2.1 Levi’s XX story 10 2.2 Company’s structure 10 3. Principles and objectives to improve the budget process 11 3.1 CFR effective management and budgeting continuity...
Words: 4331 - Pages: 18
...nagementpm4dev, 2007 –management for development series © The Project Management Processes PROJECT MANAGEMENT FOR DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATIONS The Project Management Processes PROJECT MANAGEMENT FOR DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATIONS A methodology to manage development projects for international humanitarian assistance and relief organizations © IMPACTO4DEV 2007 Our eBook is provided free of charge on the condition that it is not copied, modified, published, sold, re-branded, hired out or otherwise distributed for commercial purposes. Please give appropriate citation credit to the authors and to PM4DEV. Feel free to distribute this eBook to any one you like, including peers, managers and organizations to assist their project management activities. www.pm4dev.com The Project Management Processes PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROCESSES Project management is a process of leading a team of capable people in planning and implementing a series of related activities that need to be accomplished on a specific date with a limited budget. Because of its nature, coordinating all these activities requires a process approach. Because many times development project take on unexplored territory, assumptions about the project must be listed, evaluated, its risks assessed and contingency plans developed. It also requires a close monitoring of the budget, scope and schedule to deliver the project objectives under the expected quality. Each one of these elements needs to be managed in a systematic...
Words: 4870 - Pages: 20
...Budget Management Analysis John Thorpe HCS/571 April 13, 2014 Professor: Amy Reed Budget Management and Variance Analysis Healthcare organizations are faced with severe financial pressures resulting in extreme budget cuts. Consequently, nurse managers and financial managers are tasked with the responsibility of doing more with less while maintaining the high quality of care offered to its consumers. To accomplish the aforementioned tasks, managers use budgetary tools to help them focus on controlling cost while running an efficient operation. Budgeting gives managers the tools necessary to ensure the availability of required resources to meet the organization’s goals and objectives, communicate strategies and monitor results (Cleverly, Song & Cleverly, 2007). Finkler, Kovner & Jones (2007) offer that budgeting should be used to make the organization become more effective and efficient. It is not a tool for maintaining the status quo. Organizations use different approaches to introducing the budgetary process. Some organizations take the current year's budget update it for inflation and projected revenue growth. Others take a clean slate approach; compel managers to justify their expenses and staffing needs on an annual basis. Still other organizations forecast revenue and profit and assign expense rates to departments. However, the most effective budget is one that reflects the true financial position of the organization, provides flexibility and monitored...
Words: 2124 - Pages: 9
...Variance Analysis Report Western Governor’s University Competition Bikes Budgeting and Variance Analysis Report Competition Bikes, Incorporated (Inc.) makes bicycles for professional and other highly accomplished riders who compete in bike races, biathlons, and triathlons. Approximately sixty percent of all race winners have been victorious using bicycles designed by Competitions Bikes, Inc. This extraordinary success rate is a topic of conversation among racers and has led to exponential success for founder Larry Ferguson who formed the company in 2001 in his garage. Competition Bikes is known for quality products and is leader in the market with the CarbonLite products they provide. These results are transparent in the budgets from the last few years; however, the most recent budget contained several unfavorable variances that may be an indication that some changes are needed. Budget planning, identifying unfavorable variance, and correcting those variances can make or break the financial position of a company. The following is a summary report that discussed budgetary areas that raise concern in budget planning; evaluates the flexible budget and its variance; recommends corrections actions for areas of concern based on the variance analysis; and discusses how the concept of management by exception could be applied to the variances. Budget Planning, Allocation of Resources, and Management Control A master budget provides a...
Words: 2352 - Pages: 10
...Business owners often use management accounting to track, record and report financial information for managerial review. Management accounting does not usually follow any national accounting standards. Business owners can design management accounting systems according to their company’s business operations or management’s need for business information. Management accounting has several advantages. These advantages usually coincide with the ability for companies to improve operations and overall profitability. Business owners can also create a competitive advantage by developing cost allocation processes in their management accounting function. Reduce Expenses Management accounting can help companies lower their operational expenses. Business owners often use management accounting information to review the cost of economic resources and other business operations. This information allows owners to better understand how much money it costs to run the business. Business owners can also use management accounting to conduct an analysis on the quality of economic resources used to produce goods or services. If overall product quality would not suffer by using a cheaper raw material, business owners can make this change to reduce production costs. Improve Cash Flow Budgets are a major part of management accounting. Business owners often use budgets so they have a financial road map for future business expenditures. Many budgets are based on a company's...
Words: 449 - Pages: 2
...WGU JET2 Financial Analysis Task 2 By Kat-Johnson | March 2014 * Zoom In * Zoom Out Page of 9 Competition Bikes Inc. Storyline Operational Analysis 03/10/2014 WGU JET2 Financial Analysis Task 2 Introduction In this task, the budget schedule and proformas as well as the flexible budget were reviewed. Below you will find my analysis and recommended corrective actions as well as how management by exception applies. Budget Planning Concerns Competition Bikes has a good starting point for a budget but is overall weak and has several budgetary concerns. A few of those items are mentioned for budget planning below. Advertising & Research Development. Competition Bikes is expecting an increase in sales in year 9 yet they are not investing in any more in advertising or research and development. In year 7 when sales were the highest, Competition Bikes spent $32,760 in advertising. In year 8 when the advertising budget fell to $27,428, so did the sales. Although management is predicting an increase in the market for year 9 and the advertising expense is 2% of projected gross margin, this may be unrealistic. Annual Budget. Quarterly budgets are more efficient for planning, coordinating, evaluating, and controlling costs. The budget for Competition Bikes only shows annually. Sales differ by season with the company so their budget should reflect a similar breakdown. Quarterly budget would be closer to the seasons than just an annual one. Further breakdown...
Words: 2699 - Pages: 11
