Master Budget Definition
The master budget is the aggregation of all lower-level budgets produced by a company's various functional areas, and also includes budgeted financial statements, a cash forecast, and a financing plan. The master budget is typically presented in either a monthly or quarterly format, and usually covers a company's entire fiscal year. An explanatory text may be included with the master budget, which explains the company's strategic direction, how the master budget will assist in accomplishing specific goals, and the management actions needed to achieve the budget.
A master budget is the central planning tool that a management team uses to direct the activities of a corporation, as well as to judge the performance of its various responsibility centers. It is customary for the senior management team to review a number of iterations of the master budget and incorporate modifications until it arrives at a budget that allocates funds to achieve the desired results. Hopefully, a company uses participative budgeting to arrive at this final budget, but it may also be imposed on the organization by senior management, with little input from other employees.
Definition and Explanation:
The master budget is a summary of company's plans that sets specific targets for sales, production, distribution and financing activities. It generally culminates in a cash budget, a budgeted income statement, and a budgeted balance sheet. In short, this budget represents a comprehensive expression of management's plans for future and how these plans are to be accomplished.
It usually consists of a number of separate but interdependent budgets. One budget may be necessary before the other can be initiated. More one budget estimate effects other budget estimates because the figures of one budget is usually used in the preparation of other budget. This is the reason why these budgets are called interdependent budgets.
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