Budget Management and Variance Analysis Essay Example for Free

Budget Management and Variance Analysis Essay A budget is a tool that helps managers to ensure that the required resources are obtained and used effectively and efficiently as the organization moves towards achievement of its objectives. The budgets are determined yearly and are based upon the previous year’s budget and variances. This paper will discuss a development of operating budget, comparison expense results with budget expectations, description of possible reasons for variances and strategies to keep results aligned with expectations, recommendation some benchmarking techniques that might improve budget accuracy. The operating budget is a plan for the organization’s revenues and expenses that generally covers a period of one year (Finkler, Kovner, Jones, 2007). In healthcare organization the nurse manager of each cost center involves in the preparation and control of the operating budgets (Finkler, Kovner, Jones, 2007). The finance office of the organization provides support throughout the budget process development. The budgets for the costs centers are combined, and the executive management of the organization makes final decisions on a budget to be submitted to the board for approval. The nurse managers need a variety of information to begin the process of preparing operating budgets for their cost centers, such as the information generated by the organization’s environmental review and by its development of general goals, objectives, policies, organization wide assumptions, program priorities, and specific measurable objectives (Finkler, Kovner, Jones, 2007). For example, the environmental review and the general goals, objectives, and policies allow the manager to understand what the organization wants to accomplish and what it believes it will be able to accomplish. For another instance, the organization-wide assumptions and specific measurable objectives then provide the manager with information needed to start preparing the specific details of the budget. In addition, within nursing administration, additional back-ground information is needed before nurse managers can commence cost center budget preparation (Finkler, Kovner, Jones, 2007). Especially the organization’s approach to delivering nursing care must be clearly understood by all nurse managers. For example, responsibilities of LPNs as opposed to RNs, role of nursing assistants, or proportion of staff works on each shift. According to Finkler, Kovner, Jones (2007), the primary steps of the operating budget development include the calculation of expense budget for personnel, the expense budget for costs other than personnel services, and the revenue budget, budget submission, and budget implementation. To prepare the revenue or expense portions of the operating budget, the first step is to ascertain the volume of work for the coming year (Finkler, Kovner, Jones, 2007). The amount of work performed by a unit is referred to as its workload (Finkler, Kovner, Jones, 2007). Workload budget is budget that indicates the amount of work performed by a unit or department, measured in terms of units of service. Workload may be measured in a variety of ways, such as the number of patients, patient days, deliveries, visits, treatments, or procedures. Each cost center must determine the measure that is most appropriate for its unit of service. Once a cost center defines its key unit or units of service, it must predict the number of units of service that will be provided in the coming year. This will allow development of the operating budget. Expense budget for personnel is budget for all personnel under the manager’s direction, generally within a cost center such as RNs, LPNs, aides, and clerical staff (Finkler, Kovner, Jones, 2007). Expense budget for other-than-personnel services is budget for all expenses for other-than personnel services such as supplies, minor equipment, including both direct unit or department expenses and indirect overhead expenses (Finkler, Kovner, Jones, 2007). Budget submission is another step in budget development, when revenue and expense portions of the budget must be summarized and submitted for review together with detailed supporting calculations and narrative justification (Finkler, Kovner, Jones, 2007). Budget revisions may be required as the result of a series of negotiations over the submitted budget (Finkler, Kovner, Jones, 2007). Budget implementation is a final step of budget development, when managers must address a number of issues in implementing an approved budget, including development of a staffing plan that provides coverage for staff weekends, olidays, vacations, and sick leave as well as busy and slow periods (Finkler, Kovner, Jones, 2007). A budget variance occurs when the actual results of financial activity differ from your budgeted projections (Finkler, Kovner, Jones, 2007). The expense reports show the difference between the budget and the actual amount spent and the result is called the variance. Variances may be within the budget, which is favorable, or over the budget, which is unfavorable (Finkler, Kovner, Jones, 2007). The variance is used to predict the budget for upcoming years, help with spending during the current year, and help with evaluating the managers and their departments. To determine the cause of variances the managers must investigate and justify to upper management why the variance occurred. There are a variety reasons for variances, which must be identified and controlled if possible. While analyzing the nursing expense results from various units for a pay period, there were some favorable and unfavorable variances. While reviewing the expense record the paid productive hour’s variance was within the budget and the paid nonproductive hour’s variance was 60 hours over the budgeted hours. The unfavorable variance of paid nonproductive hours may have occurred due to some staff being on modified duty, sick leave, meeting time, or education time, which means they are getting paid with no patient care involved. The overtime percentage of hour’s variance was 7. 5% over the budget and the registry percentage of hour’s variance was 8. % over the budget, both are unfavorable. The overtime may have been caused by bad time management, late arrival of the next shift, or working past shift hours due to not enough staff. The increase in the registry hours may have been due to not enough regular staff due to hiring freeze or staff being off for personal or illness reasons. The hours per patient day (HPPD) licensed productive hours was . 13 over budget, the direct product hours was within budget, and the total productive hours was within budget. The hours per patient day over budget may have been caused by the unit being over staffed or also due to the overtime and registry hours. The average daily census (ADC) per unit varied from being within budget to 7. 50 over the budget. The daily census is very unpredictable and depends on the time of year, the admissions from ER or the clinic, and transfers from other hospitals or facilities. Strategies to keep the results aligned with expectations may be done by performance budgeting, which will analyze key reas such as staffing, cost control, increased productivity, and indirect and direct patient care. The activities affected by analyzing these performance areas would be daily staffing calculations, reduced cost to the unit, working more efficiently and better time management, patient care planning, and time spent on patient charting. Offering incentives could also be a good way to involve the staff by informing them of the budget goals. Benchmarking helps to identify performance gaps and identify where improvement is needed. â€Å"Benchmarking is used by large health systems and smaller practices alike as a tool to identify targets and set goals enabling staff to compare the operation’s service, process, and outcomes with those already attaining best practice† goals† (Borglum, 2008, para 12). There are many benchmarking techniques; for the purpose of this paper three will be discussed, financial, performance, and operational. Financial benchmarking is performing a financial analysis and comparing the results in an effort to assess your overall competitiveness and productivity† (Cimasi, 2006, para 10). â€Å"Financial benchmarking is among the more effective techniques for extracting information from a health care enterprise’s historical operating performance and presenting it in a form that facilitates informed judgments that help predict the subject entity’s future operating performance and financial condition† (Cimasi, 2006, para 16). Performance benchmarking involves comparing the performance levels of organizations for a specific process, this information can then be used for identifying opportunities for improvement and/or setting performance targets† (Business Performance Improvement Resources, 2011, para 26). â€Å"Performance levels of other organizations are normally called benchmarks and the ideal benchmark is one that originates from an organization recognized as being a leader in the related area† (Business Performance Improvement Resources, 2011, para 27). Performance benchmarking may involve the comparison of financial measures (such as expenditure, cost of labor, cost of buildings/equipment, cost of energy, adherence to budget, cash flow, revenue collected) or non-financial measures (such as absenteeism, staff turnover, the percentage of administrative staff to front-line staff, budget processing time, complaints, environmental impact or call center performance)† (Business Performance Improvement Resources, 2011, para 28). In conclusion, the operating budget is a plan for the organization’s revenues and expenses that generally covers a period of one year and developed by the nurse manager with support of the finance office of the organization (Finkler, Kovner, Jones, 2007). Variances may occur at any time, may be internal or external, and in most cases are correctable once investigated by the mangers. Benchmarking is used in strategic management and compares processes and performance to help improve organizations. The use of financial ratios and benchmarking is critical to understanding an entity’s overall historical performance and to the forecasting function of valuation analysis† (Cimasi, 2006, para 28). This paper has discussed specific strategies to manage budgets within forecast, compared five to seven expense results with budget expectations, described possible reasons for variances, gave strategies to keep results aligned with expectations, recommended three benchmarking te chniques, and identified what might improve budget accuracy, and justified the choices made.

Organic and Whole Food Essay -- Health, Nutrition

From the now popular recyclable cloth grocery bags, to the organic garden at the White House, food, and the food industry is changing. The popularity of organic and whole foods is on the rise. Processed foods are increasingly advertising that they are additive and preservative free, and all sorts of products now offer a â€Å"gluten-free† variety. The popularity of what is now being called the sustainable food movement, leads many to wonder why are some people willing to pay more, sometimes double, for organic produce, meat, eggs, and milk. Will this prove to be just another trendy American fad, or are there real health benefits from eating organic and whole foods? While the organic market only represents approximately 3% of the total food market, some believe that it’s a sector that we should be supporting more (Kluger 31). The ideal in America today, seems to be to go organic. All of the day-time talk shows, such as The Doctors, and Doctor OZ, are preaching the same message, shop on the perimeter of the store, avoid the processed food, and eat more fresh fruits and vegetables. Part of this movement seems to be to support farmers markets, rather than the larger corporate chains. A recent study conducted by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that there is little nutritional difference between organic produce and the produce produced by conventional means (Kluger 31). While many consumers draw a sharp line between the two, at least from a nutritional standpoint, science does not draw the same distinction. However, supporters of the sustainable food movement state that the nutritional content is not their primary concern. The issue of feeding the world’s poor no longer finds itself center-stage in American culture. Toda... ... hormone is also believed to play a role in early onset puberty. Currently, it is against the law for dairy farmers to label their products as â€Å"rBGH-free†, because of the potential adverse impact on milk sales. This sustainable food movement, like many interesting topics, is complicated. Like most issues worth debating, it has many intelligent people, with many compelling arguments on both sides of the fence. Ultimately, it will most likely be the consumers, voting with their credit cards, who will dictate the directions of the food industry. Americans are concerned with animal rights, the environment, and their health. They are also concerned with world hunger, convenience, availability, and perhaps above all, cost. An extreme in any direction would likely prove to be detrimental. Hopefully the market, and consumers, will be able to find a â€Å"healthy† balance. Organic and Whole Food Essay -- Health, Nutrition From the now popular recyclable cloth grocery bags, to the organic garden at the White House, food, and the food industry is changing. The popularity of organic and whole foods is on the rise. Processed foods are increasingly advertising that they are additive and preservative free, and all sorts of products now offer a â€Å"gluten-free† variety. The popularity of what is now being called the sustainable food movement, leads many to wonder why are some people willing to pay more, sometimes double, for organic produce, meat, eggs, and milk. Will this prove to be just another trendy American fad, or are there real health benefits from eating organic and whole foods? While the organic market only represents approximately 3% of the total food market, some believe that it’s a sector that we should be supporting more (Kluger 31). The ideal in America today, seems to be to go organic. All of the day-time talk shows, such as The Doctors, and Doctor OZ, are preaching the same message, shop on the perimeter of the store, avoid the processed food, and eat more fresh fruits and vegetables. Part of this movement seems to be to support farmers markets, rather than the larger corporate chains. A recent study conducted by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that there is little nutritional difference between organic produce and the produce produced by conventional means (Kluger 31). While many consumers draw a sharp line between the two, at least from a nutritional standpoint, science does not draw the same distinction. However, supporters of the sustainable food movement state that the nutritional content is not their primary concern. The issue of feeding the world’s poor no longer finds itself center-stage in American culture. Toda... ... hormone is also believed to play a role in early onset puberty. Currently, it is against the law for dairy farmers to label their products as â€Å"rBGH-free†, because of the potential adverse impact on milk sales. This sustainable food movement, like many interesting topics, is complicated. Like most issues worth debating, it has many intelligent people, with many compelling arguments on both sides of the fence. Ultimately, it will most likely be the consumers, voting with their credit cards, who will dictate the directions of the food industry. Americans are concerned with animal rights, the environment, and their health. They are also concerned with world hunger, convenience, availability, and perhaps above all, cost. An extreme in any direction would likely prove to be detrimental. Hopefully the market, and consumers, will be able to find a â€Å"healthy† balance.

Managing Hybrid Marketing Systems

Managing Hybrid Marketing Systems In the article we read that companies create hybrid marketing systems by adding channels and communications methods. A company generally must reach new customers or segments to sustain growth. It usually supplements existing channels and methods with new ones designed to attract and develop new customers. This addition of new channels and methods create a hybrid marketing system. Hybrid systems are hard to manage.It is an important way to increase sales and decrease costs. For example, IBM and Apple started adding new channels and communications methods and by these IBM and Apple created hybrid marketing systems. Smart managers recognize the high risks of operating hybrid systems. A hybrid can be hard to manage. The result is the same whether the migration is from direct to indirect channels (such as IBM) or from indirect to direct channels (such as Apple).Hybrid Marketing Systems can offer substantial rewards. For example, if a company captures bene fits of a hybrid system with increased coverage, lower costs and customized approaches then that company will enjoy significant competitive advantage over rivals that cling to traditional ways. The need to contain costs is another powerful force behind the spread of hybrid systems when companies look for ways to reach customers that are more efficient than direct selling.At the heart of the problem of designing and managing hybrid systems is the fundamental question of what mix of channels and communication methods can be best to accomplish the assortment of tasks required to identify, sell and manage customers. The trick to designing and managing hybrid systems is to disaggregate demand-generation tasks both within and across marketing system. It recognizes that channels are not the basic building blocks of a marketing system but marketing tasks are. This analysis of tasks and channels will identify the hybrid’s basic components and permit managers to design and manage the s ystem effectively.A map of tasks and channels is called a hybrid grid. It can help managers make sense of their hybrid system. For example a hybrid grid can be used to illustrate graphically what happened at Write Line and what have happened differently. In seeking to build and manage hybrid system the companies must recognize and communicate the existence of conflict as the first and most important step. Maintaining order in a hybrid marketing system is a complex administrative challenge. An MSP system acts as the central nervous system that coordinates the channels and tasks of a hybrid system.

Jazz in five points - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 2 Words: 670 Downloads: 4 Date added: 2019/07/30 Category Music Essay Level High school Tags: Jazz Essay Did you like this example? As a Jazz lover and a Coloradan, Ive always wondered about the history of Jazz music in Colorado and particularly in Denver. And so I thought that this was a great opportunity to focus my ethnographic fieldwork project on one of the most famous neighborhoods in Denver, known as the Jazz Mecca of the West, Five Points. To understand the history of Jazz in Five Points one must understand the history of black people in Five Points because thats how it all started. It begun just like almost everywhere in the U.S, in the early 1920s and throughout the 1950s and 1960s as a result of what is commonly known as white flight. The migration of white people from the urban city neighborhoods to the suburban areas due to large influx of black people into those neighborhoods during the Civil Rights Movements until Segregation finally ended in 1965. Black people started to move to Five Points because of Jim Crow laws that prohibited them to live in the same neighborhoods as white people. The neighborhood quickly thrived, like a small city within Denver; with their own schools, restaurants and nightclubs, churches and post office. But above all it became a bastion of musician of all sorts but especially Jazz. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Jazz in five points" essay for you Create order During segregation, Five Points was like a city within a city. It was the only place Blacks were allowed to move. Famous singer like Nat King Cole would perform in Denver but could not stay at any downtown hotels. Although they were no Whites Only signs but it was understood that black people would not be served. Despite the rough times of the era with racism and segregation, Five Points became the center of black business and entertainment in the American West. It quickly attracted some of the giants of Jazz music, from Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Duke Ellington to Ella Fitzgerald and Miles Davis. All, performed countless times there with local musicians. On weekends, Welton street was the place to be. It was like the Jazz epicenter of the Rockies, if not the West. It was the place of reference to go, anywhere between Saint Louis and California. It was like what Harlem was to New York, what the French Quarter was to New Orleans. In fact, Five Points was known as the Harlem of th e West. Native famous bands like the Joe Keels Trio, who played for seven U.S. Presidents, saw lights in Five Points. The neighborhood also attracted musicians like Charlie Burrell who was the first black musician to perform at a symphony Orchestra. He is often referred to as the Jackie Robinson of classical music. Hattie McDaniel, the first black woman to win an Academy awards for her role in Gone with the Wind. Classically trained violinist, George Morrison who was considered the Godfather of Jazz in Colorado, performed in front of the King and Queen of England. Morrison owned two night clubs in Five Points, The Casino on Points and The Rock Rest. The people of Five Points were happy and made it what it was back then, a reference in Jazz Music and black success in the West. Five Points is clearly no longer what it was then. With modernization, a more open and accepting society, and rampant gentrification pushing out lifelong residents. I started to wonder what has become of the Denver Jazz scene. Has the Jazz Mecca of the West completely disappeared? Where did all the musicians go? I decided to visit a few Jazz clubs downtown Denver in hopes of finding a local Jazz musician that would give me his perspective on how things were then and how they are now. After seeing him perform a couple of times with his band Le Jazz Machine, I met with Purnell Steen, a Denver native related to Charlie Burrell who made it his mission to preserve the sounds of Five Points. Steen in his seventies, often performs at Dazzle Jazz and is a frequent headliner at the annual Five Points Jazz festival.