Week 8 Checkpoint

What is a flexible budget?
A flexible budget is a projection of budget data for various levels of activity. What are the steps to developing a flexible budget?
The steps to developing a flexible budget are first to identify the activity index and the relevant range of activity. The next step would be to identify the variable costs and determine the budgeted variable cost per unit of activity for each cost. The third step is to identify the fixed costs, and determine the budgeted amount for each cost. The fourth and final step is to prepare the budget for selected increments of activity within the relevant range.
What information is found on a flexible budget report?
A flexible budget report is split into two sections. The first section would the production data for a selected activity index, such as direct labor hours. The second section is the cost data for variable fixed costs. A flexible budget contains the direct labor hours, variable costs (indirect materials, indirect labor, and utilities), and fixed costs (depreciation, supervision, and property taxes).
How is that information used to evaluate performance?
The information is used to evaluate a manager’s performance in production and cost control. It is a way to tell if the company was over or under their original prediction for the time period. It is also a way to judge what the future of the company may look like. For a new company that is growing, it could be used to tell how much the company grows with each time