Introduction
Budgeting is indeed a key component in managing short and long term planning. To define a broad objective such as wealth maximization is clearly not sufficient to achieve the goal. It is very important for an entity to get into more details over how to work towards the objective. Businesses typically do this by crafting a long-term plan and short-term plan which I will be explaining in details.
Budgeting
Before I proceed, it is very important for us to understand what is budget and how it works. A budget is a formal written summary (or statement of management’s plan for a specified future time period, expressed in financial terms. A budget becomes an important basis for controlling operations and evaluating performance. Thus, it promotes efficiency and serves as a deterrent to waste and inefficiency (Carlon, et al., 2009, p. 882)
Types of budget
There are several types of budget namely trade receivables budget, sales budget, finished inventories budget, trade payables budget, production budget, direct labour budget and many more. The list continues and varies from industry to industry.
Budget usefulness
Budgets are generally regarded as having four area of usefulness. * Budgeting promotes forward thinking and the possible identification of short-term problem. * They can also be used to help co-ordinate various sections of the business. * They play an integral role into motivating managers to perform better. * Providing basis for a system control, and lastly
The Term Paper on BUDGETS AND BUDGETORY CONTROL
... categories. Short Term Budget: Any budget that is prepared for a period up to one year is known as Short Term Budget. Functional budgets are ... rectify the same. Thus budgeting helps immensely in controlling function. 4. BENEFITS OF BUDGETING: Budgeting plays an important role in planning and ... ensure that the work is progressing as per the plan. Budgets provide the basis for such controlling in the ...
* Budgets can provide a system of authorization for managers to spend within the limit. (Merchant, Hawkins, & Anthony, 2006, p. 560) The Planning process
Figure 1 the planning process
Source: (Banham, 2000, p. N.A)
The above shows the relationship between budgets, long-term planning and short-term planning. The budgeting process
The development of the budget for the coming year generally starts several months before the end of the current year. The budgeting process usually begins with the collection of data from each of the subunits of the entity. Past performance is often the starting point in budgeting, from which future budget goals are formulated. The budget is developed within a framework of a sales forecast that shows potential sales for the industry and the entities expected share of such sales. Sales forecasting involves a consideration of such factors as: I. General economic conditions.
II. Industry trends
III. Market research studies development
IV. Anticipated advertising and promotion
V. Previous market share
VI. Changes in prices
VII. New products
VIII. Technology
Short-term planning
Short-term planning or budgeting is a process that focuses on short term, commonly one year, and results in the production of budgets that set the financial framework for that period. It is likely to be expressed mainly in financial terms and is designed to convert the long-term plan into an actionable blueprint for the future. The short-term planning is mainly carried out by Tactical managers and Operational managers.
The budget will define precise targets for sales revenues and expenses, cash flows, short-term credit to be given or taken, inventory requirements, personnel requirements, increase profits, control costs, and invest for the future.
Long-term Planning
“Exercise aimed at formulating a long-term plan, to meet future needs estimated usually by extrapolation of present or known needs. It begins with the current status and charts out a path to the projected status, and generally includes short-term (operational or tactical plans) for achieving interim goals.” (Business Dictionary, n.d.)
The Term Paper on McDonald marketing planning
... possible benefits of strategic planning, they cut marketing budgets and isolate the department. Managers can confuse the short-term plans with the long-term plans. Short-term plans are often prepared ... should develop the strategic long-term plan first and then create the short-term operational plans. The marketing planning process should be structured and planned extensively, with objectives ...
The above is a definition of Long-term planning or Strategic planning is usually carried out by senior management. The long-term plan covers a period of at least three years (some go up to five years) on a quarterly basis, forcing the organization into that discipline of thinking further out than one year. These plans should be updated when the short-range plan is prepared.
Long-term strategies defines its overall effort in building market share, increasing revenues, decreasing costs, issues such as business take overs, expansion plans, deletion of business segments and radical product/service segment. (Budgeting, 2010)
The way in which planning process is conducted depends on the industry and culture of the entity. Nevertheless, the entity outlines its long-term goals and specifies its short-range plans in quantifiable terms which detail how it expects to accomplish its goals (Hillstrom, 2013, p. 4)
Long term planning Vs. Short-term planning
Now that I put the definition and the functions of long term and short term planning before you. We will now see the advantages of long term and short term planning. * The main difference is the time period involved. The maximum length of a budget (or short term) is usually one year, and these budgets are prepared often for shorter period of time. In contrast, long-range planning usually encompasses a period of 3-5 years. * A second significant difference is the emphasis. Budgeting is concerned with the achievement of specific short-term goals. Long-range planning, on the other hand, is a formalized process of selecting strategies to achieve long-term goals and developing policies and plan to implement the strategies. Management is also responsible to respond to opportunities and challenges with strategic response that arise from anticipated trends in the economic and political environment.
* Thirdly, there is difference between the details in the planning. Short term planning can be very detailed, this is to provide a basis for control. While long-rang plans contain considerably less details, because the data are intended for a review of progress towards long-term goals rather than for an evaluation of specific results to be achieved. The main objective of long-range planning is to develop the best strategy to maximize the entity’s performance over an extended future period. * Lastly, many entities today use a continuous 12-month budget by dropping the month just ended and adding a future month. One advantage of continuous short-term budgeting is that it keeps management planning a full year ahead, compared to just one-time planning for long term.
The Term Paper on Short-Term Profit Planning in an International Setting
... process is important to understand in developing a short-term profit-planning model for SEWMEX. If the assembly workers in ... planning horizon associated with the construction of the CVP model you’ve been asked to develop. 2 BUDGETED PRODUCTION/SALES MIX Information about planned ... in the short run (given the present mix of garments produced) and what strategies might be pursued longer term to improve ...
Conclusion
The preparation of budget is a valuable exercise as it forces management to look ahead and plan long term goal rather than to look back at the past. Once the long term goal has been set, a detailed short term planning can then be created. It is hence vital that budgeting is created as accurately as possible, as an error in data collection could affect the whole of the company’s operational and financial activities. The full benefits of budgeting can only be gained when the actual results are compared with the budgeted results then corrective actions are in place. Thus budgeting is a key component in managing short and long term planning.
References
Banham, R. (2000).
Better Budgets. Journal of Accountancy, N.A. Budgeting. (2010).
Retrieved from Entrepreneur: http://www.entrepreneur.com/encyclopedia/term/82266.html Business Dictionary. (n.d.).
Retrieved from Defination of Long-term Planning: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/long-term-planning.html Carlon, S., Mladenovic-Mcalpine, R., Loftus, J., Palm, C., Kimmel, P. D., Kieso, D. E., & Weygandt, J. J. (2009).
Accounting building business skills. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Hillstrom, E. K. (2013, Jan 27).
“Budgets and Budgeting.”. Retrieved from Encyclopedia of Small Business.Vol. 1. Gale Cengage: <http://www.enotes.com/budgeting-reference/> Merchant, K. A.,
The Term Paper on Budgeting Importance
Abstract Beyond Budgeting has been proposed as an influential idea that will reinvigorate management accounting contribution in business operation and performance. It is claimed that the traditional system has lost relevance with the modern business environment and is no longer satisfying the needs of managers. Budgets have been ingrained in the culture of business since their inception in the ...
Hawkins, D., & Anthony, R. (2006).
Accounting Text & Cases. Australia: McGraw-Hill Education.
