Houzit Case Summary

For example interest rates, the cost of raw materials including fuel, the number of sales or orders that we make and in turn all of these rely on other factors. The best therefore that can be done when developing a budget is to look at all the factors that are likely to affect the budget and decide how to take account of each one. If there is a previous budget (last year or last month) then it is sensible to look at how this has been achieved or not as the case may be, and what factors affected the outcome. If we are looking at monthly budgets it might be a better comparison to look at the same month twelve months ago as well as the previous months. The more factors we take into consideration when estimating a budget, the more accurate our budget will be.

While it is true that Ms. Forthright had always exceeded her budgeted sales, the extent to which she diverts away from the managers projections does not necessarily means that she is violating honesty and integrity. Her decision on what her budgeted sales for the year is highly relevant to the data available to her. Her projections tends to lie between the field manager and the marketing manager’s predictions, which can be reasonable because in the past years, the field manager’s projections tend to be over what the actual sales of the year will be.

3. Explain two methods that can be used in order to identify realistic estimations when developing a budget. [2.2]

As indicated by the scenario it seems that the decision problem is a matter if the accounting systems annual conference that is previously scheduled to occur on September 13-16,2005 should be canceled, due to the fact Hurricane Katrina has occurred and demolished building and homes leaving them in ruin in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. The primary issue thus becomes does the board or committee moves the conference to a future date or have conference at another location that would thus incur higher costs for hotel for patrons of the conference in addition to it would be a price increase for flights that were already scheduled to New

* Our company’s sales forecast has been based on performance from previous years along with market circumstances. We are looking at the future of the business objectively which we then can evaluate past to

As a first step in the budget process, sales forecasting allows for other budgets to be planned on sales activities. Purchases and production, for example, depend on the forecasted sales and subsequent inventory levels to be managed. The operating expenses are then budgeted as a result of the sales budget and expected costs of purchasing and production (materials, labor, manufacturing) as a measure of Cost of Good's Sold.

The central challenge that budget developers encounter is predicting what the future holds for the internal business and external factors. Reading the future is something that can never be done with perfect precision. The fast pace of technological change, the complexities of global competition and world events make developing effective budgets both more difficult and more important.

The company’s debt ratios are 54.5% in 1988, 58.69% in 1989, 62.7% in 1990, and 67.37% in 1991. What this means is that the company is increasing its financial risk by taking on more leverage. The company has been taking an extensive amount of purchasing over the past couple of years, which could be the reason as to why net income has not grown much beyond several thousands of dollars. One could argue that the company is trying to expand its inventory to help accumulate future sales. But another problem is that the company’s

Also, according to its leverage ratios, the company’s debts are not only very high, but are also increasing. Its decreasing TIE ratio indicates that its capability to pay interests is decreasing. The company’s efficiency ratios indicate that despite the fact that its fixed assets are increasingly being utilized to generate sales during the years 1990-1991 as indicated by its increasing fixed asset turnover ratio, the decreasing total assets turnover indicate that overall the company’s total assets are not efficiently being put to use. Thus, as a whole its asset management is becoming less efficient. Last but not the least, based on its profitability ratios, the company’s ability to make profit is decreasing.

The Gross profit margin stays relatively constant at around 36 %. However, there is a slight rise from 2000 to 2004.

For this piece of assignment, a cash budget will be made for Doomy Corporation for the second quarter of the year. For this budget, all the sales figures for the second quarter and some of the expenditure have been given. Hence, to prepare a cash budget, the sales figure given will be used and some calculations will be worked out in order to fully prepare an outstanding budget for Doomy Corporation the following information will be used efficiently.

1. Currently, the collection period of Oracle is at 137 days which is higher than the industry average of 62 days. The company must reduce credit terms implementing tighter credit control activities

Planning system weaknesses: To begin with, fundamental assumptions, such as new plants, inventory carryovers, packaging trends, etc., which are used for initial sales forecast, are entirely made by corporate headquarters. However, the divisional managers assume full responsibility for the estimates they submitted to the corporate head office. As a result, they have to make efforts to increase the overall accuracy of forecast and avoid making changes in subsequent reviews of the budget. Moreover, each product line uses the same forecasting method. It is ineffective for the company to make accurate budget since factors affecting each product line are different, such as industry trends, customer preferences and so on. Lastly, instead of plant managers, the district sale managers raise the sales budgets. However, the plant managers are held accountable for this budgeted profit number, which is connected with their performance and is not controlled by them.

Budget and budgetary control practices are undeniably indispensable as organizations routinely go about their business activities and operations. These organizations are constantly on the alert on how actual levels of performance agree with planned or budgeted performance. A budget expresses a plan in monetary terms. It is prepared and approved prior to a particular budgeted period and explicitly may show the income, expenditure and the capital to be employed by organizations in achieving their goals and objectives.

Many businesses expect employees to achieve budget targets as part of their overall performance. While the specifics requirements of each employee differ with the position and nature of the company, it is common for employees to be expected to sell a certain number of items, control costs versus a budgeted amount or reduce waste compared with a benchmark. A potential downfall of using budget information for performance evaluation is that employees may be so concerned with making budget targets that they may do so at the cost of other parts of the business.