7.4 Prepare Flexible Budgets

Budget with Varying Levels of Production

Companies develop a budget based on their expectations for their most likely level of sales and expenses. Often, a company can expect that their production and sales volume will vary from budget period to budget period. They can use their various expected levels of production to create a flexible budget that includes these different levels of production. Then, they can modify the flexible budget when they have their actual production volume and compare it to the flexible budget for the same production volume. A flexible budget is more complicated, requires a solid understanding of a company’s fixed and variable expenses, and allows for greater control over changes that occur throughout the year. For example, suppose a proposed sale of items does not occur because the expected client opted to go with another supplier. In a static budget situation, this would result in large variances in many accounts due to the static budget being set based on sales that included the potential large client. A flexible budget on the other hand would allow management to adjust their expectations in the budget for both changes in costs and revenue that would occur from the loss of the potential client. The changes made in the flexible budget would then be compared to what actually occurs to result in more realistic and representative variance. This ability to change the budget also makes it easier to pinpoint who is responsible if a revenue or cost target is missed.

Big Bad Bikes used the flexible budget concept to develop a budget based on its expectation that production levels will vary by quarter. By the fourth quarter, sales are expected to be strong enough to pay back the financing from earlier in the year. The budget shown in Figure 7.25 illustrates the payment of interest and contains information helpful to management when determining which items should be produced if production capacity is limited.

BIG BAD BIKES
Varying Production Budget
Flexible Budget


Quarter 1 Quarter 2 Quarter 3 Quarter 4
Units Sold
1,000 1,000 1,500 2,500
Sales Price
$70 $70 $75 $75
Sales
$70,000 $70,000 $112,500 $187,500

Per-unit cost                




Cost of Goods Sold




Direct Material 4 4,000 4,000 6,000 10,000
Direct Labor 15 15,000 15,000 22,500 37,500
Variable Manufacturing Overhead 3 3,000 3,000 4,500 7,500
Fixed Manufacturing Overhead
29,000 29,000 29,000 29,000
Total Cost of Goods Sold
51,000 51,000 62,000 84,000
Gross Profit
19,000 19,000 50,500 103,500
Variable Sales and Admin 2.50 2,500 2,500 3,750 6,250
Fixed Sales and Admin
18,000 18,000 18,000 18,000
Interest Expense



1,653
Income Taxes
1000 1000 1000 1000
Total Other Expenses
21,500 21,500 22,750 26,903
Net Income (Loss)
$(2,500) $(2,500) $27,750 $76,597

Figure 7.25 Varying Production Levels for Big Bad Bikes.


CONCEPTS IN PRACTICE

Flexible Budgets and Sustainability

The ability to provide flexible budgets can be critical in new or changing businesses where the accuracy of estimating sales or usage my not be strong. For example, organizations are often reporting their sustainability efforts and may have some products that require more electricity than other products. The reporting of the energy per unit of output has sometimes been in error and can mislead management into making changes that may or may not help the company. For example, based on the energy per unit reported, management may decide to change the product mix, the amount that is outsourced, and/or the amount that is produced. If the energy output isn’t correct, the decisions may be wrong and create an adverse impact on the budget.