Flexible Budgets Essay

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Flexible Budgets September 12, 2011 Fred Johnston Flexible Budgets Organizations rely on budgets as tools to plan for upcoming revenues and expenses. Budgets are valuable when planning for a successful future, but different circumstances can arise that may change the direction of the organization’s financial data. One budgeting technique that helps plan for uncertainties and fluctuations is flexible budgeting. The next several paragraphs analyze flexible budgets through a discussion of fixed and variable costs, the major differences between static and flexible budgets, and how flexible budgets assist in a cost-volume-profit (CVP) analysis. Static and Flexible Budgets A static budget is based upon a set level of activity, and is generally prepared prior to the start of the accounting period: in other words, it is the original budget. Static budgets do not consider data for varied levels of activities, and as such these budgets do not change. The results of static budgets are compared against standard actual financial figures. Static budgets are also known as ‘master’ budgets, serving as control budgets that do not vary even if the actual volume of activity differs from the planned volume. A flexible budget is an extension of the master budget. The flexible budget is a tool to evaluate performance: activity statistics may be reviewed, and then forecasted budgeted numbers may be adjusted accordingly. This type of budget is basically composed of a series of static budgets at different levels of activity, and can change each time the budget is prepared. The major difference in a flexible budget, as compared to a static budget, is the data that is incorporated: flexible budgets display revenues and costs over different volume levels, rather than one constant level. For reference, see Appendix A, which represents a sample static and flexible

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