Importance Of Management Accounting, Cost Classification, Variance Analysis, And Operational Budgets

Section I: Management Accounting

1. Discuss the importance of management accounting for your selected organisation and differentiate between management accounting and financial
accounting.

2. Evaluate different classifications of costs (types, behaviour, function and relevance) with examples.

3. Explain the meaning of variance analysis and discuss the most commonly derived variances, outlining the problems and limitations.

4. Identify different operational budgets and explain the advantages of preparing different operational budgets.

Management Accounting is all about giving the right information to the right person at the right time thereby helping the managers in an organisation to make informed business decisions. This better equips the decision makers in their day to day management and control of the functions. The purpose of this report is to throw light on how Management Accounting can help M/s ABC Inc., operating in the manufacturing sector, to improve its operating efficiency by controlling costs and improving profitability. Section I discusses the concept of Management Accounting, its importance and also distinguishes it with Financial Accounting. Section II evaluates the various types of costs, their behaviour, functions & relevance. Section III explains the meaning of variance analysis, its relevance & limitations. Section IV identifies different operational budgets and the advantages of preparing them.

Importance & Relevance

Management Accounting can be described as a system of partnering in management decision making by relying on the financial accounting data and presenting it in a manner and format relevant to the requirement of the decision maker. Depending on the need, management accounting reports are generated on a periodic basis viz. weekly/ fortnightly/ monthly etc.

For eg. a weekly fund status report can help the treasury function to devise the cash generation plan for the following week. A fortnightly inventory ageing report to the store’s manager can help in the procurement planning for the next fortnight.

Following are the advantages:

Better use of financial data

Data shared in a mutually acceptable format gets more acceptance within the organisation

Facilitates informed decisions

Improves the confidence level of the decision makers

There will be more group consensus for every decision taken

Difference between both the methods is illustrated in a tabular form below

Sl. No.	Particulars	Management Accounting	Financial Accounting
1.	User	People inside the organization eg. Managers, Employees	People outside the organization such as shareholders, Government etc.
2.	Purpose	Helps in decision making	Discloses the end result of the business
3.	Is it Optional?	Yes	No
4.	Format	No prescribed format	There are specific formats for presenting data
5.	Periodicity	As per need	End of every accounting period
6.	Reports	Detailed reports customised according to need	As prescribed by standards such as GAAP or IFRS
7.	Rules	No legal requirement or rule	As prescribed by standards such as GAAP or IFRS
8.	Priority focus	Current issues and future forecast	Past data upto the reporting date
9.	Departmental focus	Focuses on each department or individual	Pertains to the entire organization
10.	Flexibility	Reporting is flexible according to changing need	Reporting requirement is rigid

Types of costs

Costs are classified into various categories based on

Behaviour

Function

Relevance

Each of these are elaborated below

Fixed Cost – Fixed cost is that cost that does not vary with level of production output. This is independent of any business activity or volume of production. Example, Rent, Depreciation

Section II: Costs

Variable Cost – Variable cost is that cost that varies with the level of production output. Example Direct Material, Direct Labor

Mixed Cost – Costs which have both fixed and variable components. For example Electricity charges wherein the minimum demand remains fixed based on the connected load and any power drawn beyond a certain limit will vary in proportion to the level of output.

All the three above costs can be graphically represented as follows

Product cost

Product Costs are all those costs incurred towards manufacturing a particular product. Product cost is further classified into the following:

Direct Materials – All the costs incurred to bring the raw materials into the manufacturing location

Direct Labour – The cost of labour time spent in manufacturing

Manufacturing Overheads – All the costs incurred for production of the final product excluding the direct material & labour.

Period Cost

Period cost are all the costs other that the Product cost. Example marketing costs, administrative costs etc. It is the cost of running the business. As these are not necessarily part of manufacturing cost, these cannot be assigned to the products.

The above costs can be diagramatically explained as follows

Sunk Cost

Sunk cost is also called as historic cost. This is the cost which has already been incurred and cannot be recovered. This cost is not relevant for decision making. Example fund invested on a project. In practical scenario, an organisation cannot go and restart production of a product which is not profitable only for the sake of justifying the sunk cost incurred in purchasing the equipment which has now become obsolete.

Opportunity Cost

Opportunity Cost is the cost of the foregone alternative. This helps in really evaluating the various investment opportunities and thereby helps in effective decision making. Though the cost is not incurred in this case, by not selecting an option, the benefit that the company has forgone becomes the opportunity cost. Example, a company has certain spare space in the factory where it can either put up a new manufacturing facility or it can rent it out to outsiders. If it decides to put up a manufacturing facility, then it has to forgo the rent that it would have earned had the space been rented. The foregone rent is the opportunity cost

Differential Cost

Differential cost refers to the difference between the two available alternatives courses of action. It is the total of all the incremental costs that would be incurred if one alternative is chosen against the other. Differential cost helps in choosing better alternative over the others. In the above example, if a particular fixed cost, say depreciation has to be incurred irrespective of the option selected, then it is not a differential cost. However, consequent to setting up the new manufacturing facility, if the company has to incur Selling & Administrative cost or Marketing costs, then such costs are classified as Differential costs.

Section III: Variance Analysis

Meaning

Variance Analysis is the systematic quantitative assessment of the deviations arising in actual performance from the planned performance. This is a very effective controlling tool in any business. Variance Analysis gives clear insights with respect to the deviation of actual performance from plan with specific reasons which led to the deviation. This helps in identifying the root causes, and taking corrective action thereby preventing it from repeating.

The main types of variances are explained in the diagram below

These broad variances and the further subdivisions are explained below.

Sales Variance

Sales variance measures change in profit due to a variance in sales. The Sales Volume can be on account of Sales Volume variance & Sales Price variance.

Sales Volume variance = (Actual Unit Sold – Budgeted Units Sold) x Standard Profit

Favourable Sales Volume indicates a higher actual profit than the budgeted profit due to more than expected demand for the product in the market

Sales Price variance = (Actual price – Standard price) x Actual Units sold.

A favourable Sales price variance indicates the product has been able to fetch a better price in the market against competition.

Material Variance

This is the difference between the actual material cost versus the standard material cost. This can be a result of a Material Price variance or a Material Usage variance.

Material Price Variance = (Actual Price – Standard Price) x Actual Quantity

A favourable material price variance indicates a better negotiation done on the material price. It may also indicate an overall fall in material prices due to the effect of market forces.

Material Usage Variance = (Actual quantity – Standard Quantity) x Standard price.

This can be further divided into Material Mix variance & Material Yield variance. Material mix variance occurs when there are different type of materials required in the entire production process. In such circumstances, if the costlier material is used less in comparison to the cheaper material due to a change in mix, then it can result in a favourable material mix variance. A positive Material yield variance can be due to lesser usage of material vis a vis the standard design. This may be due to better and efficient usage of machines or due to economies of large scale operation.

• Labour Variance

This is the difference between the Actual Labour cost versus the Standard Labour cost. This can be a result of a Labour Rate variance or a Labour Efficiency variance.

Section IV: Operational Budgets

Labour Rate Variance = (Actual Rate – Standard Rate) x Actual Hours

A favourable Labour rate variance indicates an overall fall in the labour rates in the market

Labour Efficiency Variance = (Actual hours – Standard hours) x Standard Rate

A favourable labour efficiency variance indicates an overall improvement in efficiency of the labour employed. This may be due to better supervision and better working environment.

1. Overhead variance

This is the measure of variance between the standard overhead expenses versus the actual overhead expense. This may be a result of a wrong estimation of standard overhead or due to real efforts put in by the management team and incurred lesser overheads through operational efficiency and cost saving initiatives.

Though variance analysis is a good tool to identify inefficiencies in the system, the method has certain inherent limitations which are as follows

Not practical in non-standard production process/batches

Not applicable in industries where there are more overheads than production expenses. Eg. Service sector

Analysis can be misleading if standards are not set properly

If analysis is not done on a regular basis and learning not applied immediately, the system will not serve its purpose

Employees/managers will be more tempted to incorporate budget slack thereby making the whole process ineffective.

Possibility of buying substandard quality material resulting in excess consumption/wastage.

Operational budget is projection of the financial plan of a business for a specified period of time. Operational budget requires planning of all the phases of operations.

The most common types of operational budgets are explained below

1. Revenue (Sales) Budget

This is a budget of the future sales. It identifies the revenues require by the organisation for the budget period. This involves a detailed market study and potential for penetration and expansion in order to maximise the sales for the period.

1. Production Budget

Any manufacturing organisation needs to estimate the volume and timing of production. There needs to be fine balance between excess stock and stock outs as both these extremes will adversely affect the performance.

1. Purchase Budget

There needs to be a clear plan with regard to the timing and frequency of purchase of raw materials. Here again a proper balance is required to be maintained in order to avoid extreme situations such as stock out and excessive inventory.

1. Direct Labour Budget

The strategy of employing the right quality of labour should be in line with the labour hours required to fulfil the production budget keeping in mind the labour rates and availability. 

1. Expense Budget

This budget defines the operating expenses required to be incurred during the budget period. The expenses are evaluated broadly based on three criteria namely – Fixed, Variable & Discretionary

1. Profit Budget

Here both the revenue & expense budgets are combined to arrive at gross and net profits. In this process the adequacy of revenue vis a vis the expense in evaluated. This helps in allocating managers with their share of organisations performance.

Helps in identifying controllable and discretionary expenses by regular tracking and monitoring

A regular review of the actual versus budget helps in projecting future expenses with reasonable level of accuracy.

Helps organisations to face the uncertainties and also recover from the unexpected setbacks

Operational budgets which get constantly monitored ensure accountability from the managers due to their ongoing involvement.

The key success factors for ABC Ltd. are

Improving operating efficiency,

Controlling costs and

Improving Profitability.

Management accounting through its process of timely reporting, periodic variance analysis and budgeting perfectly complements towards achieving all three of these factors and beyond. The data is also mostly derived and can be cross checked with the Financial Accounting data. It is hence recommended that a robust Management Accounting system be implemented in ABC Ltd.

Section VI: Conclusion

ABC Inc., which is in the manufacturing sector has various complexities in the process. Product Quality, On time delivery, Operational efficiency, Timely cash collection, Working capital management, adequacy of raw material, Lean inventory level and focus on Profits are of top most priority. Multiple parameters to monitor and control calls for a team to handle each of the activities which is well informed and is capable of taking objective decision on a day to day basis. A well-defined Operational budget and a regular and ongoing Management Accounting system coupled with Cost focus and regular Variance Analysis can help ABC Inc. in its constant endeavour to improve operating efficiency by controlling cost and improving profitability.

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