Jet2 Task 2 Essay

The company started off producing 20,000 units of mountain bikes. We did not change the production quantity. Last year our forecast sales were 24,000 when we only sold 19,866; therefore we thought it would be best to leave production at 20,000 bikes. Having excess inventory, we concluded that 20,000 units should be enough considering our quality has not changed and our advertising will not increase the sales dramatically. Although we had the choice to produce as much as 30,000 units, we felt as though we did not have sufficient money to increase production. We were interested in allocating the money towards marketing as opposed to production. We realized that without awareness, no matter how many units we make, sales would be inefficient.

Management should note that the level of activity was above what had been planned for the month. This led to an expected increase in profits of $1,100. However, the individual items on the report should not receive much management attention. The favorable variance for revenue and the unfavorable variances for expenses are entirely caused by the increase in activity.

Another concern identified, is the utilities expense budget for utilities in Year 9 which is $150,000. This amount is identified as a fixed amount and is unrelated to actually production activities and manufacturing efficiency. Considering that production levels and activity fluctuates throughout the year, the budget for utilities should be a variable item. An example; from Year 7 to Year 8, the utilities expenses increase by $15,000 and with this detection, ways to reduce this expense should be investigate. Another concern is a duplicated line item under the Selling, General, and Administrative Budget for Utilities and Utilities and Services. Another issue for concern, Total Variable Cost was reported to be lower; however was not enough for the lack of sales combined with an increase in advertising and transportation which resulted in an overall negative result. The low Net Sales directly impacted the Contribution Margin which decreased by $49,397. Overall, these concerns indicate the need for a flexible budget with variance analysis.

7. Distribution network Contracted Support standard out is $50,830, actual output is $50,460. This is a favorable variance of -$370. This is a selling expense that is lower due to lower sales. 8. Administrative Salaries standard output $170,000, actual output is $171,000. This is an unfavorable variance of $1000. This increase is due to the Competition Bikes efforts to increase sales. Overtime was authorized to work on advertising campaign. 9. Executive Compensation standard output is $220,000, actual output is $218,000. This is a favorable variance of -$2000. This variance is due to an executives not taking a bonus due to lower sales. 10. Employment taxes standard output $29,835, actual output $29758. This is a favorable variance of -$77. This variance is due to an employee furlough because of low sales.

Since the Competition Bike Company projected overly optimistic sales, there are several areas in the budget that will be affected. The areas affected are Sales Commission, Transportation Out, Advertising, Research and Development, Raw Materials, and Labor.

This clearly shows that CBI overestimated their sales goal in light of unfavorable economic conditions. Given these conditions, the fact that they still sold more bikes than in year 8 should be considered a positive result.

Advertising and transportation forecasted costs should have also decreased but instead, increased. Although an increase in advertising was recommended, the additional costs were not accounted for in the flexible budget. Transportation out is covered by a per unit contract so the decrease in sales should have reflected a decrease in transportation out costs. Both of these costs should have decreased with the decrease in sales like direct materials did. These negative variances indicate the company cannot control costs. This could be caused by a number things: fraud, miscommunication, poor forecasting, unexpected economic changes, etc. Competition Bikes needs

Within the budget for Competition Bikes, Inc., there are a few different items of concern. Some items that raise a concern within the budget are the projected number of unit sales and the amounts budgeted for advertising and research and development.

It’s important to note that the manufacturing overhead totals are identical when calculated using both traditional and ABC methods. This is because it’s not a difference in overhead, but instead a change in where the overhead is allocated. In the case of CBI, the allocation is quite different between methods.

The current operations can also be improved by implementing a just-in-time inventory management system. This is where the company only buys the materials that it needs to produce the units that are actually sold. This cuts down on dollars that are tied-up in inventory held in raw materials inventory. This is a considerable amount for Competition Bikes, Inc. and will be lowered enormously as fewer materials are placed in raw materials. This will be billed in the same month in which they are produced creating fewer dollars to be tied up in inventory. This will then be converted to cash to be used as working capital.

To effectively plan overhead costs for a product the management must aim to eliminate activities that do not add any value to the product in question. The process of costing is very important in that it supplies information on evaluation and control to various aspects of a business enterprise. Variance measures price and quantity differences that occur in any budgeted and actual prices and quantities. There exist a difference between fixed overhead spending variance and variable overhead spending variance in that the fixed overhead spending variance does not include estimation error while variable spending variable does.

A budget is a plan which predicts how much a company makes in revenues and how much it is going to pay in expenses and so predicts a profit or loss. A budget is can be prepared whenever a company wants two and for however long a period of time it wants to prepare it for. Companies and people would budget in order to avoid overspending and even if this does happen as it will predict how much money will be needed then the person/ business can arrange for it by getting an overdraft facility or

I understand your frustrations since you have gone out of your way to negotiate the most advantageous prices and hired skilled staff, however the purpose of this memorandum is to explain how these seemingly favourable actions have contributed to the overall unfavourable variances. As to direct labor variance, even though your department showed favourable efficiency variance due to highl skilled staff, the benefit, unfortunately, didn't overveight the cost of paying higher wages to staff. As a production manager you might either hire less expensive laborers and train them to achieve appropriate efficiency levels or find the way to boost the efficiency even higher with current staff without having to pay for the overtime.

Budget is a comprehensive business plan for procuring and appropriating a firm’s financial resources over a specified time period.

A budget is a financial statement which is an estimate of income and expenditure of a set period of time, which may include planned revenues, expenses, assets, liabilities and