Cost accounting, planning and budgeting

Abstract

In the literature of managerial economics several definitions of the notions of plan.and budget and also divergent opinions of the relations between these notions are found. A plan can be conceived as a decision or a set of connected decisions about a line of conduct to be followed, taking into account the alternatives from which to choose, the objectives, and the restrictions under which the activities must be performed. A plan can be set up according to several methods and techniques. There are simple methods in which desired value (s) of one or more endogenous variables (e.g., sales) and/or desired situations (e.g., the financial structure) are fixed normatively, the remaining activities (e.g., the volume of production and the level of stocks and investments) being adapted to them consistently or not. There are mathematically complex methods by which the solution of the planning problem can be formalized. Especially if, as in an organization, the implementation of a plan requires the cooperation of several individuals or groups of individuals, the plan must be so specified that every person concerned can read from it what he is expected to do in order that the total activities shall be executed co-ordinatedly.