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Variance Budget

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Variance Analysis

HCA-240

Variance Analysis

The many reasons as to why the budget for this month has gone over have many factors involved. For a $5,000 favorable variance on staffing, the department head can state that the company was able to obtain a 25 % discount from a new supplier, which resulted in a savings for the department. Another example would be when you have a $25,000 unfavorable variance in sick time for many employees, the department head would state there was an outbreak earlier in the season and this was not expected, resulting in hourly and sick time expenses that were not anticipated. What we can do, would be to analyze variances by the month, quarter or year. Having budget variances in place can allow at least two sources the things that can be controlled and things that cannot. This time I know that the reason the salaries were higher, we because of the recent storm we had and it cause some staff not to show up for work and other to do overtime. Going forward what we can implement would be an emergency team for weather related issues or natural disaster to ensure that we don’t go over our budget and if we see that we are approaching that then we can implement another plan or process, to help balance it back out like giving comp time or early leave. When uncontrollable factors occur many are often external which then result from occurrences outside of the company such as a natural disasters, which can then throw the budget into a downward spiral.

When we have a favorable variance which will happen, the actual results can sometimes exceed the current budget. When unfavorable variances happen, the actual results can and sometimes fall below what was budgeted. When you are working with a static budget which is designed for only one level of a specific type of activity; the differences between actual results and the static budget for level of output achieved will create static-budget variances. When you have a flexible budget in place it then will allow you to have adjustments for the different levels of activities.

Isolating the causes of variances can help identify the issues or errors when budgeting previously. Identifying and recognizing the errors to the degree to which a goal, objective, or target is met or close to being met will help. Many times performance may be by staff and the company on a whole can have a major effect on the whole budget. When trade-offs among variances are in place this will allow you a little more flexibility when the budget starts to change. Identifying improvements in one area can result in having improvements in other areas that were not considered. However, having substandard performance in one area may be can be balanced off in a least recognized area. We can implement like other companies have developed a rule of thumb as “review all variances exceeding $5,000 or 25% of expected cost, whichever is lower.”

A good reporting system should only report on exceptions. We should explore other options and other processes. At this time, I have attached a series of processes that we could possibly implemented going forward, to ensure that we stay on target for budget for the remainder of the year. We can also hold a series of re-evaluating staff on these previous process and new processes. This will ensure accountability and also create a checks and balances for the department leads as well as the individuals themselves. Communication will be a key; going forward, so perhaps bi-weekly and monthly meeting to ensure we stay on target and also catch any issues before they snowball. In the event issues do arise we can have the proper teams and processes in place to help resolved the issue quickly as to not exceed the budget while doing so by having too many persons and too many resolutions and time at hand.
Here are a few of the levels in one company's budget hierarchy: [pic]

A Hierarchy of Variances

[pic]

At the conclusion we can provide a lessons learned as we work on the new budget for the next year or perhaps the next 2-5 years going forward and keep training and communicating any new processes that come about and also perhaps involve the staff in ways they can contribute to adhering to the budget and perhaps also offer incentives to each department.

References:

Financial Management Development: http://www.financialmanagementdevelopment.com/Slides/handouts/213.pdf Accounting Coach: http://www.accountingcoach.com/online-accounting-course/30Xpg06.html Investopedia: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/budget-variance.asp Variance Analysis Cost Management http://www.doublegist.com/application-variance-analysis-tool-cost-control-service-industries/ The Meaning of Budget and Budgeting Terms
http://www.business-case-analysis.com/budget.html

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