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The sales budget is usually the first and most crucial of the component budgets in a master budget because all other budgets usually rely on it for planning purposes.

Required

Assume that your company’s sales staff provides information on expected sales and selling prices for items making up the sales budget. Prepare a one-page memorandum to your supervisor outlining concerns with the sales staff’s input in the sales budget when its compensation is at least partly tied to these budgets. More generally, explain the importance of assessing any potential bias in information provided to the budget process.

Short Answer

Expert verified

Setting up lower budgets nullifies the intention of creating budgets.

Step by step solution

01

Meaning of Budget

Budgeting is thepractice of planning for the future. Management uses it as an internal tool. It is prepared for a certain period. This procedure aids managersin planning for the future and maintaining control over the organization's operations

02

 Writing a memo

From:

To Supervisor

Date:

Subject: Outlining concerns with the sales staff's input in the sales budget.

Dear Friend,

I'm writing to express my dissatisfaction with the sales staff's contribution to the budget. As you may be aware, the sales staff of that firm supplies information on predicted sales and selling prices for things included in the sales budget, and the sales team's income is based on these budgets. My issue is evaluating potential bias in the information presented to the budget process by salespeople. Because incentives are awarded when sales surpass anticipated sales, salespeople can underreport achievable sales within budget. When the budgets are set lower than realistic goals, it negatively influences the company. Setting smaller budgets defeats the purpose of making budgets in the first place. Only credible, unbiased, and sensible estimations may be used to create a meaningful budget. I hope you are aware of my worry.

Yours

XYZ

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Most popular questions from this chapter

For each of the following items 1 through 6, indicate yes if it describes a potential benefit of budgeting or no if it describes a potential negative outcome of budgeting.

2. Budgets are useful in assigning blame for unexpected results.

Question: Merline Manufacturing makes its product for \(75 per unit and sells it for \)150 per unit. The sales staff receives a 10% commission on the sale of each unit. Its December income statement follows.

Management expects December’s results to be repeated in January, February, and March of 2018 without any changes in strategy. Management, however, has an alternative plan. It believes that unit sales will increase at a rate of 10% each month for the next three months (beginning with January) if the item’s selling price is reduced to \(125 per unit and advertising expenses are increased by 15% and remain at that level for all three months. The cost of its product will remain at \)75 per unit, the sales staff will continue to earn a 10% commission, and the remaining expenses will stay the same.

Required

  1. Prepare budgeted income statements for each of the months of January, February, and March that show the expected results from implementing the proposed changes. Use a three-column format, with one column for each month.

Analysis Component

  1. Use the budgeted income statements from part 1 to recommend whether management should implement the proposed changes. Explain.

Hockey Pro budgets production of 3,900 hockey pucks during May. The company assigns variable overhead at the rate of \(1.50 per unit. Fixed overhead equals \)46,000 per month. Prepare a factory overhead budget for May.

Electro Company manufactures an innovative automobile transmission for electric cars. Management predicts that ending finished goods inventory for the first quarter will be 90,000 units. The following unit sales of the transmissions are expected during the rest of the year: second quarter, 450,000 units; third quarter, 525,000 units; and fourth quarter, 475,000 units. Company policy calls for the ending finished goods inventory of a quarter to equal 20% of the next quarter’s budgeted sales. Prepare a production budget for both the second and third quarters that shows the number of transmissions to manufacture.

Participatory budgeting can sometimes lead to negative consequences. From the following list of outcomes that can arise from participatory budgeting, identify those with potentially negative consequences.

  1. Budgetary slack will not be available to meet budgeted results.
  2. Employees might understate expense budgets.
  3. Employees might commit unethical or fraudulent acts to meet budgeted results.
  4. Employees set sales targets too high.
  5. Employees always spend budgeted amounts, even if on unnecessary items.
  6. Employees might understate sales budgets and overstate expense budgets.
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