Management accounting--budgeting（管理会计之预算）

我们在学习管理会计时，一个重要的部分就是对预算的制定。本篇就为大家梳理一下预算的优缺点和特殊的计量方法。

1.Importance （它的重要性）

A budget is a business plan for the short term (usually one year), expressed often in financial terms and its role is to convert the strategic plans into specific targets.

说到预算的重要性，相信大家就算没有学过也应该有些常识性的理解啦，因为无论是公司还是个人都要为以后的经营和生活做点计划，只不过公司的预算会更加专业和细致，一般是做下一年的财务预算，并且将一些战略计划转换成特定的目标。

2.Main benefit of budget（它的主要优点）

Budgets tend to promote forward thinking and the possible identification of short-term problems. A shortage of production capacity, for example, might be identified during the budgeting process. If this problem is picked up early enough, other ways of overcoming the problem can be identified.

Budgets can provide a system of authorisation for managers to spend up to a set limit.

Budgets can be used to help coordination between various departments in an organisation. For example, the activities of the procurement department should be in line with the raw materials needed by the production department.

Budgets can motivate managers to better performance.

Budgets can provide a basis for systematic control.

综上，通过预算可以提前考虑一些短期内可能遇到的问题，管理者也对日常工作的尺度也有个参照，并有利于各部门协调和系统控制，也给管理者提供了一个目标，激励业绩的成长。

3.Possible limitation of budget（它的缺陷）

Managers may be motivated to spend to the limit of their budget, even though this may be wasteful. This occurs where managers are not allowed to carry over unused funds to the next period or where they believe that the budget for the next period will be reduced because not all funds for the current period were spent;

When a budget is used as a motivational device. Some businesses set the budget targets at a more difficult level than the managers are expected to achieve in an attempt to motivate managers to reach their targets. For control purposes, however, the budget becomes less meaningful as a benchmark against which to compare actual performance.

当然，有利就有弊，例如：

如果预算给的多了，尤其是如果今年的钱没用完明年就会减少预算时，管理者就倾向于多花点钱，于是就会产生浪费。另外，当预算中设定的目标太高以至于超过实际能达到的范围，那就失去了参照价值。

下面是预算中常用的一种计量方法：

4.Standard costing and variance（标准成本法及变量）

Standards can be set for selling prices and the elements of cost (e.g. materials, labour and overheads). Rather than assigning the actual costs of direct material, direct labour and manufacturing overhead to a product, many manufacturers assign the expected or standard cost. This means that a manufacturer's inventories and cost of goods sold will begin with amounts reflecting the standard costs. Manufacturers, of course, have to pay the actual costs which result in variances. It is a valuable management tool. If a variance arises from standard costs, management becomes aware that manufacturing costs have differed from the standard (planned, expected) costs.

预算是管理会计的一个重要环节，希望大家在学习时能充分理解和掌握相关知识点。