Preparing Budgets and Environmental Cost Report

Question: Discuss about thePreparing Budgets and Environmental Cost Report. Answer: Introduction Purpose The purpose of the report is to see if the new product will be able to generate enough cash balance at the end of each month to enable the company to pay for the following months expenses. Scope The cash budget is prepared for two companies, one of which is the manufacturer and the other distributor. Milbourn Manufacturing is the manufacturer and various budgets including production budget, labour budget, material budget, and cash budget has been prepared for the company for four months from December to March. VGL Ltd is the distributor and a cash budget has been prepared for the company for four months from January to April. Limitations The above mentioned budgets have been prepared on the basis of the sales forecast and the expected sale price by VGL Ltd. If there is any change in the forecasted sale, the planned budgets could go for a toss and the profits of both the companies may be affected. Hence, the companies should be prepared for any variation. Cash Budget VGL Ltd. Jan Feb Mar Apr Beginning Cash balance $19,00,000.0 -$1,24,10,000.0 $4,96,90,000.0 $10,96,12,500.0 Add receipts Cash sales $2,24,40,000.0 $1,63,20,000.0 $1,16,02,500.0 $1,01,35,944.0 Credit sales $7,29,30,000.0 $5,30,40,000.0 $3,77,08,125.0 Credit sales $1,68,30,000.0 $1,22,40,000.0 Total cash available $2,43,40,000.0 $7,68,40,000.0 $13,11,62,500.0 $16,96,96,569.0 Less: cash disbursements Purchases $3,52,00,000.0 $2,56,00,000.0 $2,00,00,000.0 $1,92,00,000.0 Expenses $15,50,000.0 $15,50,000.0 $15,50,000.0 $15,50,000.0 Total disbursements $3,67,50,000.0 $2,71,50,000.0 $2,15,50,000.0 $2,07,50,000.0 Ending cash balance -$1,24,10,000.0 $4,96,90,000.0 $10,96,12,500.0 $14,89,46,569.0 Melbourne Manufacturers Budgets Production Budget Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr Sales 2,20,000 1,60,000 1,25,000 1,20,000 Production units 2,20,000 1,60,000 1,25,000 1,20,000 Material Budget Dec Jan Feb Mar Material A kgs 6,60,000 4,80,000 3,75,000 3,60,000 Cost per kg $3.5 $3.5 $3.5 $3.5 Material A cost $23,10,000.0 $16,80,000.0 $13,12,500.0 $12,60,000.0 Material B kgs 13,20,000 9,60,000 7,50,000 7,20,000 Cost per kg $4.5 $4.5 $4.5 $4.5 Material B cost $59,40,000.0 $43,20,000.0 $33,75,000.0 $32,40,000.0 Material C kgs 4,40,000 3,20,000 2,50,000 2,40,000 Cost per kg $10.0 $10.0 $10.0 $10.0 Material C cost $44,00,000.0 $32,00,000.0 $25,00,000.0 $24,00,000.0 Total material cost $1,26,50,000.0 $92,00,000.0 $71,87,500.0 $69,00,000.0 Labour Budget Dec Jan Feb Mar Hours required 1,10,000 80,000 62,500 60,000 Cost per hour $36 $36 $36 $36 Labour cost $39,60,000.0 $28,80,000.0 $22,50,000.0 $21,60,000.0 Cash Budget Dec Jan Feb Mar Beginning cash balance $15,50,000.0 -$33,42,500.0 $1,87,30,000.0 $3,19,90,625.0 Receipts $3,52,00,000.0 $2,56,00,000.0 $2,00,00,000.0 Total cash available $15,50,000.0 $3,18,57,500.0 $4,43,30,000.0 $5,19,90,625.0 Disbursements Material cost $6,32,500.0 $4,60,000.0 $3,59,375.0 $3,45,000.0 Material cost $94,87,500.0 $69,00,000.0 $53,90,625.0 Material cost $25,30,000.0 $18,40,000.0 Labour cost $39,60,000.0 $28,80,000.0 $22,50,000.0 $21,60,000.0 Overheads $3,00,000.0 $3,00,000.0 $3,00,000.0 $3,00,000.0 Total disbursement $48,92,500.0 $1,31,27,500.0 $1,23,39,375.0 $1,00,35,625.0 Ending cash balance -$33,42,500.0 $1,87,30,000.0 $3,19,90,625.0 $4,19,55,000.0 Behavioural Aspects of Budget Budgetary Slack Budgetary slack is the underestimation of revenues and overestimation of expenses. When the performance of the managers is linked to the budgets, the managers may distort the information in order to appear in the favourable light. Like if the managers gets rewards for higher sales than budgeted, the manager would most certainly underestimate the sales forecasts and prepare a budget with lower sales forecast so that when the actual sales exceeds the budgeted, the manager could be rewarded. This leads to budgetary slack. Due to this, the budgets prepared may become inaccurate and the planning process of the company may go for a toss. (Hilton, 1994) Participative Budgeting If the budgets are prepared in consultation with the people who are responsible for its execution, it is called participative budgeting. Participative budgeting is more effective as the people executing it feel more committed and responsible. The various advantages of participative budgeting are: a) The budget quality is better as it has the expertise of the managers along with the top management. b) There is improved communication of the budget, improved acceptability, and a better commitment from the managers c) The managers have a better understanding of the factors involved in the making of the budget, hence this improves the understand ability of the factors. d) Ensures efficient allocation of resources e) Acts as a tool of motivation f) There is greater work clarity which leads to better performance Even though this type of budgeting proves advantageous, however there are also certain disadvantages which are: a) It is difficult to have an effective two way communication between superiors and subordinates b) The managers may try to distort the budgets and get resource allocation in their favour c) The process is expensive and time consuming d) The participation increases a responsibility for the managers which may increase their stress. (Tanase, 2013) Cash Management Strategies to Avoid Cash Shortage A temporary cash shortage may arise if the expenses are incurred before the payments are received. In such cases, the company can employ some strategies to overcome such shortage. a) Take a loan the loan can be taken from bank or any individual b) Delay payment to vendors the delay in payment would make cash available for other business expenses which need to be paid for immediately. However, the vendors should be informed and convinced beforehand. c) Sell off investments to increase liquidity d) Collect receivables at a faster rate. (NASAA, 2007) Consequences of Cash Shortage If the cash shortage is not looked upon immediately, it can lead to dire consequences which may even lead to liquidation of the business. The profits of a business may be impacted as due to cash shortage, necessary items required for operation of business would not be purchased which will hinder the production schedule and thus the company will not be able to meet sales demand on time, thus impacting the profitability. Apart from the above costs, there are also pressures that a business may face with respect to its reputation. It may lose cash discounts, may be difficult to obtain further loan, forced to pay higher prices to suppliers etc. (Shodhganga.inflibnet, NA) Consequences of too Much Cash A company should have adequate amount of cash to carry out its operations effectively. Too much of cash also poses negative consequences which is the opportunity cost. The company loses profits which it might earn from investment of such excess cash. Also there is inflation effect which means if the inflation increases, the value of money goes down and hence the value of available cash decreases which is a loss for the company. (Picard, 2011) Environmental Performance Table Operating Cost Category Amount % in relation to total cost % in relation to total sales Initial evaluation of environmental standing of new suppliers Detection costs $2,100 Testing for contamination Detection costs $28,000 Training employees (environmental) Detection costs $1,400 Inefficient material usage Detection costs $70,000 Total Detection costs $1,01,500 2.5% 1.9% Cleaning up chemically contaminated soil External Failures $2,60,000 Total External Failures $2,60,000 6.3% 4.9% Treating and disposing of toxic waste internal Failures $2,15,000 Operating pollution equipment Internal failures $19,000 Total Internal Failures $2,34,000 5.7% 4.4% Maintaining pollution equipment Prevention costs $39,000 Performing environmental studies Prevention costs $7,500 Revising evaluation of some existing suppliers Prevention costs $700 Total Prevention Costs $47,200 1.2% 0.9% Total cost $41,00,000 Total Sales $53,00,000 (Kaplan, 2012) Strategy From the above table we see that external failures amounts to the highest cost in total operating cost even though there is only one item of cost, followed by internal failures. Hence, the company should focus on reducing these costs. This can be done by preventing environmental waste production as no waste would mean no external failure costs and hence the total environmental costs would be low. Prevention costs are the lowest and if the company spends more on prevention costs, there would be less of both internal and external failures. References Hilton, R., (1994), Managerial Accounting, 2nd Edition, New York, McGraw Hill Book Company Tanase, G.L., (2013), An Overall Analysis of Participatory Budgeting Advantages and Essential Factors for an Effective Implementation in Economic Entities, Journal of Eastern Europe Research in Business and Economics, Vol. 13 NASAA, (2007), what is Cash Flow and How Should We Manage It? NASAA Training , Reading 2 Shodhganga.inflibnet, (NA), Analysis of Cash Management, accessed online on 27th September, 2016, available at https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/723/12/12_chapter%207.pdf Picard, R., (2011), Too Much Cash Becomes a Really Serious Business Problem, accessed online on 27th September, 2016, available at, https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertpicard/2011/08/08/liguidity-is-creating-short-term-investment-challenges-for-many-companies/#46f81d302ce7 Kaplan, (2012), Environmental Costing, accessed online on 27th September, 2016, available at, https://kfknowledgebank.kaplan.co.uk/KFKB/Wiki%20Pages/Environmental%20Costing.aspx