Ferguson & Son Manufacturing
Justin Girouard
Managerial Accounting
10/3/12
Module 6 Assignment 2
Ferguson & Son Manufacturing company is attempting to increase efficiency and reduce cost by introducing monthly performance reports for each department. Robert Ferguson Jr is trying to introduce this new type of accounting system and when you try something like this you will always run into some problems, but Robert is creating a culture of resentment.
Robert Ferguson is using a static planning budget to analyze the performance of each department. Garrison, Noreen & Brewer (2012) define a planning budget as a budget “prepared before the period begins and is valid for only the planned level of activity (p.385)” Robert is using a budgeted level of activity and comparing it to the actual level of activity as the basis for the evaluations. The information that is received from an evaluation done in this manner is going to be misleading. The budgeted level of activity is not always going to be the same as the actual level of activity, so a true comparison is impossible. For example my company manufactures safety belts for motor vehicles and the budget is based on an activity level of 5000 units for the period. The actual level of activity for the period is 4000 units and in result costs and revenue are lower than the budget amount. If our company compared the costs are going to be different simply because the activity level is different then the unchanged planned amount and the results will not provide conclusive data for performance and efficiency because there is no true controlled factor. Garrison, Noreen & Brewer describe this as comparing apples to oranges.
This type of system is going to provide incorrect data for performance, in result the company will not be able to understand their costs and true revenue potential. The planning budget system is going create discrepancies in the spending variance. According to Garrison, Noreen & Brewer (2012) the spending variance is
Managerial Accounting
10/3/12
Module 6 Assignment 2
Ferguson & Son Manufacturing company is attempting to increase efficiency and reduce cost by introducing monthly performance reports for each department. Robert Ferguson Jr is trying to introduce this new type of accounting system and when you try something like this you will always run into some problems, but Robert is creating a culture of resentment.
Robert Ferguson is using a static planning budget to analyze the performance of each department. Garrison, Noreen & Brewer (2012) define a planning budget as a budget “prepared before the period begins and is valid for only the planned level of activity (p.385)” Robert is using a budgeted level of activity and comparing it to the actual level of activity as the basis for the evaluations. The information that is received from an evaluation done in this manner is going to be misleading. The budgeted level of activity is not always going to be the same as the actual level of activity, so a true comparison is impossible. For example my company manufactures safety belts for motor vehicles and the budget is based on an activity level of 5000 units for the period. The actual level of activity for the period is 4000 units and in result costs and revenue are lower than the budget amount. If our company compared the costs are going to be different simply because the activity level is different then the unchanged planned amount and the results will not provide conclusive data for performance and efficiency because there is no true controlled factor. Garrison, Noreen & Brewer describe this as comparing apples to oranges.
This type of system is going to provide incorrect data for performance, in result the company will not be able to understand their costs and true revenue potential. The planning budget system is going create discrepancies in the spending variance. According to Garrison, Noreen & Brewer (2012) the spending variance is
References: | |Garrison, R. H., Noreen, E. W., & Brewer, P. C. (2012). Managerial accounting (14th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. | | | | | | | | |