BUSN 278 Week 1 Discussion Question 1 – Budgeting and Planning

Week 1 DQ 1: Budgeting & Planning Discuss the relationship between budgeting & planning. How are they related? What differences exist between the two? Business planning is the process of setting goals for an enterprise & learning about the obstacles that the company might face. Business planning is important because it provides managers with an objective, well-informed vision of the future. In addition, a business plan is useful for investors & partners, who are usually interested in the company's potential to deliver growth. Budgeting is the process of translating plans, informed by forecasts, into daily business operations. Managers budget by using forecast expectations to set limits for costs & make decisions about investments. Budgets are extremely important to guide decisions, communicate expectations to employees, & to control costs. The business' budget may have to be adjusted to account for any failures in accurately forecasting performance. However, most businesses will only realize success when they are able to deliver goods, services or products within the constraints of their budget. budgeting is about making responsible investment decisions & containing costs. A budget is driver-based to the extent that it makes use of multiplication & therefore incorporates automated calculations that assume certain factors are multiplied together. Driver-based budgeting is important since it can be used to “simplify, expedite, & improve the budgeting process” as noted earlier. So, if done properly, a driver-based budget will streamline & improve the budget process; however, keep in mind, we’re still talking about budgeting here. I am taking it as a given that the budgeting process does not improve your organization’s bottom line. Therefore, the success of driver-based budgeting is measured by time saved not better business decisions. Week 1: Budgeting Process & Types of Budgets - Discussion Budgeting & Planning (graded) Discuss the relationship between budgeting & planning. How are they related? What differences exist between the two? Responses Response Author Date/Time Welcome class. Can you share their personal experiences with budgeting, either on a personal or professional level? RE: First Question Marga Hodge 9/7/2012 5:35:25 AM Personal - I do all of our family budgeting. My husband & I have created a spreadsheet that allows us to keep track of all of our spending habits, bills, & passwords to bill accounts. At the beginning of each month I set a budget after bills are paid, & we stick to the budget. We do this to be able to have a reasonable savings, & be able to have money saved for our children college. Professional - When I was active duty I served with the Army on a tour to Iraq. When I was attached to 25th & 3rd ID I did budgeting for them. Our budget was much larger than my personal budget has ever been, but it was the same concept. Our units were able to stay within our year budget with a 97% accuracy! At my former job as an event manager we organized a big annual consumer trade fair/exhibition similar to the OC fair. We always started planning that event at least one year ahead. One important part of planning that fair was the budget. My boss, the project manager of that event had to create a budget, similar to the event budget I attached in this discussion thread. When organizing events you have to think about a lot of things. There are costs for staff, venue, food, decoration, publicity, security, police & ambulance, mailing, payments for artists, speakers, musicians, their accommodation, etc. It’s a never ending list & it is different every year. My boss had to discuss her budget with the CEO of the company, the boss of the marketing department & the boss of the technical department. Together they all decided what to do & what was possible within the budget. By the end of the trade fair they met up again to compare the actual numbers with the numbers of the budget. This way they could see if the trade fair was a success. RE: First Question Ddungu Wasswa 9/8/2012 12:42:55 AM Budgeting is required at every level of personal & professional life. For one's personal life, it is very essential to plan your income for things you spend on regularly & then prioritize your needs. The case is similar when we move to the start of the month the budgets are always set for paying the bills & then planning the set of the month according to the income earned. One might also relate budgeting as a process of sharing funds in the family or for personal gains. Well, the budgets have to act in concerns of the payable taxes in a month. The budgets are set according to the most essential needs at the first followed by the least & then the needs that we like to fulfil. The professional front is also deeply influenced by the budgeting process where the company or organization sets its budget in certain tenders or projects they process. But, every family has a personal budget as their priority because it has to be maintained in accordance to the monthly age a person earns. Therefore budgeting whether personal or professional has to have a set of obligation that are essential for the yearly, monthly or weekly planning of the concerned bodies. RE: First Question Angela Warner 9/6/2012 7:53:44 PM From a personal experience, I always try to track my monthly bills in a spreadsheet to determine how much money is coming in & how much of it is going out. However, with the recent purchase of an car my budget has went out the window. For most part I'm paycheck to paycheck & it is extremely difficult to decide what needs to be paid & when. I feel so unorganized & out of control because I can't really plan on how to be consistent with my budgeting. I have to be honest I don't follow a budget myself but I have helped many friends with theirs. With being in the accounting/tax field it is easier for me to help others than follow my own suggestions. My budget consists of making sure I know each week what bills have to be paid & what funds are needed from our paychecks to cover them. The rest is put away in a separate account. I have a mental budget I follow just not something I have written down. However, I am planning on sitting down to have a written budget because it is easier to stay on track with it. My method of budgeting is simple yet effective for me. Calculate how much all my bills cost & keep track of how much I make. Once bills are paid then I save the rest of my money. RE: First Question Sarah Preble 9/5/2012 10:34:23 PM Modified:9/5/2012 10:36 PM I am constantly budgeting month to month making sure all our bills our paid & we have money left for whatever comes up. My dad is an accountant so it was beneficial for us growing up to see how he managed money. We always thought out him as being cheap, but now that my sisters & I are adults we get it. I am really strict with our family expenses & what goes out because I don't want to struggle financially. Although I do use the banking app on my phone I still balance my checkbook. I like to keep track of what's out & how much is truly in our bank account. Then every month I like to move a certain amount over to our savings & my sons account. Budgeting is setting a desired goal & planning is how you would get to that goal. RE: First Question Arcinio Arauz 9/8/2012 9:58:01 PM I also wanted to ass that many companies must include both of theses aspects in order to be sucessful. RE: First Question Sarah Preble 9/9/2012 3:54:33 PM Yes, this is important. I worked for a start up company before & it seemed like they were doing things as we went. I had to leave there because they had me going in so many different directions it was ridiculous. & they were constantly changing the way we did things. I offered my clients one thing & then next month the company would change it, but want to keep their money. It was a mess! My cousin also attempted to open her own business & closed after only four months! She had no plan, knew nothing about business, she just went & did it. My family is trying to save up to purchase a home next year, on top of our rental currently being foreclosed on. I have been trying to prepare a budget to figure out what we can afford monthly to rent as well as paying off any items on our credit reports. It seems like a timely process to make sure we add everything including what we pay for gas & any other needed items. I tried planning our budget on a bi-weekly basis & decided to go to a monthly budget because it seemed easier. The budget helps because I know where we now spend our money & can decide if eating out for the 5 of us is a good idea or not. With the budget, we've realized we go to dunkin donuts way too much & have slowed down going there. A budget is a good idea in my opinion because I am able to know what money needs to go where when it needs to. RE: First Question Brandon Rader 9/4/2012 7:42:58 AM I have had some personal experiences with a budget. When I was in the army, just out of high school, I could not believe how much extra money I had each month because I did not have any kind of housing or utility bills, & I could eat for free on post. It amazed me to find that most of my peers were living paycheck to paycheck, & struggling to find money at the end of a month. It was apparent to me that my peers did not have a budget, so I made sure to not repeat that mistake with my own finances. RE: First Question Denise Mate 9/8/2012 8:37:39 PM I agree with you Kayla. If we didn't have the expense of housing, utilities & groceries we could all be set with extra money all the time. The real estate taxes for our house is what really hurts me today. Then when you see how much it cost just to put food on the table it all adds up to a lot. It is harder everyday to put extra money away due to the climbing prices of gas & food. RE: First Question Michelle Jones 9/5/2012 11:26:08 AM Unfortunately I'm not much of a personal budgeter at all something I'm working on:). I have had jobs where really had to watch the budget since I work in Finance especially towards the end of the month we are more concerned about what is coming in versus what is going out. I conduct budgets all the time. Being a food server & bartender for many years I've had to figure out how to save & budget my money in order to meet all of my financial obligations on a monthly basis. To do this I normally write down all of my consistent monthly expenses for the month. The consistent expenses include; my car payment, rent, cable, cell phone, & credit card payments from my dentist, Macy's, etc. Next, I budget for my fluctuating monthly bills like electric & water. Since I have no idea what that may be each month, I use the most expensive bills I have ever received to make sure I have enough money to pay them. the electric bill for this month may only be $40, but I budget for $90 since that is the maximum I may have to pay. I know how many times a week I buy gas, cigarettes, groceries, etc., & I calculate how much I spend o these things monthly. To calculate my income I use the minimum amount of money I hae ever made in a day & multiply that by 5 days a week to determine what I make on a weekly basis. To find out what I make in a month I multiply that total by 4. This total shouldbe more than the total of all my monthly bills. Whatever is left over I make sure I put a porion of that into savings, & the rest can be spent on entertainment, clothing, etc. Whenever I change jobs I always make sure to do a budget, & if I should accrue more financial obligatons I create a new budget to reflect those items as well. My personal experience with budgeting came shortly after I realized how bad of a shopaholic I had become. After I graduated from High School, I immediately started working at a bank to help make car payments. I thought that if I was old enough to make my own money, I was old enough to use credit cards. That did not go as well as I thought. Turns out, I got addicted to shopping & lost sight of monetary responsibility & budgeting myself. Before I knew it, i fund myself in a pile of credit card debt. I knew I had to budget myself well nough to pay off the debt I had caused myself. I set up an account specifically or those credit cards & had part of my direct deposit go into that account. Bydoing this, I knew that each credit card was getting paid & I had less money in my spending account to spend! RE: First Question Wilma Balmonte 9/4/2012 8:48:41 PM I have had experience with budgeting when I create my company's salary budget on a fiscal year period. It has been easy because it is just a formula. The increases range from 3% to 4% depending on the Board of Director's approved budget for the year. I have set up this budget per employee & then added up for a department salary budget. On a personal level, I actually create a budget more often so that I can keep track of my expenses/bills & I can see how much allowance I have to spend for the month. RE: First Question Diundra Satterfield 9/3/2012 4:32:35 PM One personal experience I can share is when we were getting our home built. We definitely had to budget our money because we had a certain amount of money we had to have to get the home. We made plans to have a home built & therefore we knew we had to have a strict budget to go buy. So planning & budget kind of go hand in hand. When one makes a plan to do something especially something that is going to involve money you have to plan accordingly & once you make a plan then you know what type of budget you'll need & how to budget your money. Our Pastor always says one should always plan on having money put aside for a rainy day because you never know when or what might occur. RE: First Question Cynthia Sprinkle 9/3/2012 7:39:12 PM Being that I am an older college student with a family I understand budgeting all too well. We budget for everything bills, what we are eating during the week, when we can afford new shoes, I mean everything. At an early age I learned that you have to have a budget, you can't just go through life buying stuff & swiping your debit card like you are rich, unless you are rich. This principal applies to running a business. You have to budget your expenses smartly or you will be out off business. At work I am in charge of the supplies budget. This can be difficult when you have 15 employees turning in supply request. I have to go over each request & figure out what can be ordered & what needs to be different. For example, just because an employee prefers writing with a pen that cost 7 or 8 dollars, I can get a whole box or dozen for that price, so thats what they will get. Bottom line it costs money to live, but you have to remember to live within your means. RE: First Question Angel Ketchum 9/3/2012 9:43:54 PM I really haven't been to good with budgeting. Everytime I set one I always end up not following it. I kinda have a spending issue. This is why I am excited about this class. I am 40 years & if I don't learn how to stick to one I am going still be in debt when I am 90(not really), but seriously I need to learn discipline. I think that is my major downfall. RE: First Question Chanel Thorpe 9/3/2012 9:45:15 PM Now that I have a place of my own, I've been on a budget. My budget is based off my expected income & expenses on a month to month bases. What I do is take a estimate of the pay from the two times that I get paid in a month & subtract monthly expense from it such as my rent, water, gas, electricity, car insurance, renters insurance, cellular phone bill, internet & cable. From here this tells me how much I have going out & how much I have left to spend on personal items & to save. RE: First Question Diundra Satterfield 9/7/2012 6:27:40 PM Chanel, I think it's wonderful that you live on your on & you're have a good sense of budgeting. My husband is an individual that believes in budgeting & I am the spender. So we kind of go hand in hand & sometimes it works & sometimes it doesn't. I think nevertheless this class is really going to help me especially since I plan on having my own business. RE: First Question Daniel Smith 9/3/2012 11:31:26 PM I have had many experiences through the years with budgeting. Each week, with a limited cash flow, like many people I balance the bills, food needs, property, & many other things. I always try to have a bit extra sitting around n case something doesn't go right, but that's not always possible. recently I had to help a friend who was in trouble get a hotel room for a week. This was way outside my budget, so things will be restricted more than usual for a while, but it will all balance out eventually. If they can pay me back, that extra will be placed into an emergency fund outside of my ongoing weekly budget. RE: First Question Kimberly Stevens 9/3/2012 1:24:58 AM To answer the question, I've only worked with personal budgets. From reading the lecture, I've only used the cash budget, flexible budget, & a continuous budget. The cash budget, on cash flow to minimize idle cash, was focused highly on bills. The flexible budget , used for unpredictable changes to accommodate variability, was for savings, personal spending, or emergencies. & the continuous budget, for extensive revisions, is an important type of budgeting because it prevents over spending. It's very important to know where your money is going, & why you've spent it. RE: First Question Professor Foor 9/4/2012 12:02:12 AM Correct, budgeting fails because of lack in planning, implementation, funding, & discipline. Think of the housing market. Many homes nearing foreclosure for families & individuals not planning finances properly based on income, interest only loans, & improper budgeting assuming housing values always rise. Can't hide from numbers forever. What can organizations do to conduct proper planning? Got an example? RE: First Question Brittany Whalen 9/8/2012 7:19:47 PM It can be beneficial to run a What-If Analysis to ensure your budget will work out in different scenarios & insure proper planning in your business. What if a similar concept opens near your business, ultimately depleting your customer base? What if a fire occurs & forces you to shut down operations for a period of time? Will your business be able to meet its financial obligations. Sometimes it can be extremely beneficial to plan for the unexpected. Many people need to learn how to do this in their everyday lives as well. What if you are in an accident & are unable o work for a period of time? What if you lose your job, & can't find a job making the same amount of money with the same benefits? All of these factors should be considered when purchasing a home, car, etc. The same concept applies to businesses as well. Developing a SWOT nalysis can be a useful tool as well. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, & Threats, & conducting a SWOT Analysis can help plan for the future. Identifying "SWOT" can allow a usiness to plan their strategy accordingly, allowing them to plan ways they can grow, cut back, improve, etc. Planning is an extremely important aspect of any business & being able to do so effectively can deermine the success or failure of the business in years to come. Here is a web site I found pretty interesting. Enjoy! : RE: First Question Ddungu Wasswa 9/8/2012 9:26:49 PM In an organization budgeting is a key for its course of planning. Will undue loans & bills the payment can crash & the entire budgets can disrupted. In an organization these budgets are comparatively larger, so this enables the company or an organization to have a rightful planning tactics that may be concerned with its course of conduct for proper planning. To enable this planning in the organization it is necessary that it must have the strategic goal that focuses on the main targets. Then t set up annual business goals is necessary. When the business goals are created then revenue projection is required to improve or increase the goals. Other aspects like fixed cost projection, variable cost projections, annual goal expenses, target profit margin, dealing with variances & then reviewing the budget are some essential tactics to meet proper planning in organization budgeting. So, the organizational budgeting is ade up of not one but several other aspects which have to act together in a proper planned manner so that the organization succeeds in their budget planning. RE: First Question Brandon Rader 9/5/2012 7:26:14 AM In order to conduct proper planning, an organization should have a clear goal to reach. Then you can determine what should be done, how it should be done, when it should be done, & who should do it. A proper plan must be thoroughly researched & it should explore alternative courses of action. RE: First Question Ricky Ontiberos 9/5/2012 8:12:00 PM Also, if an organization wants to plan for their future they should start off by bringing everything to the table regardless if its good or bad. Right now my employer is gearing up for its yearly planning sessions that are normally attended by upper management only but this year every employee is required to attend. This will allow us to voice our concerns with our organization's performance as well as letting them know where we believe improvements are needed, both internally & externally. When organizations are looking for ways to improve their success, they have to first look at what is financially possible based on their projected financial performance. An organization's finances & budget projections will set their limits to what they can & cannot do going into the near future. RE: First Question Professor Foor 9/7/2012 1:02:36 AM Correct, budgeting fails because of ack in planning, implementation, funding, & discipline. Think of the housing market. Many homes nearing foreclosure for families & individuals not planning finances properly based on income, interest only loans, & improper budgeting assuming housing values always rise. Can't hide from numbers forever. What can organizations do to conduct proper planning? Got an example? RE: First Question Tamyra Scott 9/7/2012 6:25:21 PM Modified:9/7/2012 6:35 PM The strategic plan is the mission of the company & looks to existing & prospective products & markets. Strategic plans are designed to direct the company's activities, priorities, & goals. They try to position the company so as to accomplish opportunities. Strategic goals are for the long term, considering the internal & external environment, strengths, & weaknesses. The strategic plan is formulated by the chief executive officer (CEO) & his or her staff. It considers acquisitions & divestitures. Financial policies, including debt position, are determined. The plan must consider economic, competitive, & industry factors. It establishes direction, priorities, alternatives, & tasks to be performed. The strategic plan is the guideline for each business segment & the needed activities to accomplish the common goals. Strategic planning is irregular. Further, strategic planning problems are unstructured. If a strategy becomes unworkable, abandon it. Shim, Jae K.. Budgeting Basics & Beyond, 3rd Edition. John Wiley & Sons (P&T). <vbk:6754#outline(2.2)>. I think that organizations can conduct proper planning by looking at their financial position from an omnicient point of view. Nothing can be overlooked. Once all matters are looked at, some can be ignored & the more imprtant matters need to be organized by a time needed basis. Modified:9/6/2012 4:56 PM Conducting proper planning is a necessity for an organization to survive, much less prosper. To conduct proper planning, an organization needs to do several things (White & Castelloe, n.d.), including decide what needs to be done in what departments or areas of the business. This can be done by individuals, through brainstorming, or through other methods. Deciding these goals is usually done according to the different levels going down from the mission goal or statement, which is the fundamental purpose of the company, to the strategic, tactical, & operational goals. These can be worked out in a top down setting where the CEO or upper management decides on all of these, but is usually worked out by the different level of managers. Next, the tasks should be discussed & set set so that the people in the different departments can accomplish the goals by finishing the set tasks. After this, a schedule is a very good idea, so that everyone can know what comes first, last, or what needs to be done so the next task in line can be started & completed. The responsibility of who does what & where the company resources are going to be assigned also has to be worked out, especially since companies don't have unlimited resources & different departments often have to share resources, including people. Organizations can also seek out additional assistance or advice to help work these different issues out. The plan should be sturdy enough to be followed through, but have enough flexibility so that if unexpected events happen, it won't cause everything to crumble or fail. Finally, the plan should be appraised to see if everything is working out & to see if any adjustments need to be made. White, C. & Castelloe, P. (n.d.). Organizational Planning, Running A Non-Profit Organization. Center for Participatory Change. Retrieved from: Planning is determining what is actually going to be done. A budget is a formal plan that cover the planning, goals, & financial aspects for a project. For example I decide to go to the store. That is the plan. Now I sit down write out what I need & what I have to spend on those things, at the end of my list I total my prices to see if they meet my goal of what I can spend. If I go over I need to adjust. If I come in under I can add to the list or put the excess money away. & that would be my shopping budget. Modified:9/3/2012 12:03 AM Planning is one of the five important areas in Budgeting. When someone sets a budget it is the planning of, for example, a project budget for the building of a new CVS building on East Main Street in Columbus, Ohio. A difference between the two is that budgeting is just a part of the planning of an organizations success, while planning is for the organization as a whole. Budgeting is plans, goals, & objectives set by management to cover all aspects of operations for a specific time frame (quarterly, semi-annually, and/or annually). Budgets provide a way to gain control over finances by keeping track of what is being spent & where it is going. It is a financial plan to control future operations & results. Planning is one of the five most important parts of budgeting that determines the activities to be accomplished to achieve objectives & goals. Planning is needed to operate departments & segments successfully. Budgeting & planning lays the foundation for an effective business plan. Budgeting relies on the monetary aspect of the business plan, while planning relies on what actions will be taken. Differences between budgeting & planning Diundra Satterfield 9/3/2012 4:51:17 PM The text states that budgeting is planning for a result & controlling to accomplishing that result. A budget is defined as the formal expression of plans, goals, & objectives of management that covers all aspects of operations for a designated time period. The budget is a tool providing targets, & direction. Budgeting is done for the company as a whole, as well as for its component segments including divisions, department, products, projects, services, manpower, & geographic areas. An article I read says that strategic planning is a plan that lays out the direction & goals of the business & guidelines for actions to achieve these goals. The budget looks at the money needed to support achieving those goals. In other words planning is what you do when you want to carry out a task or when you have an idea & come up with a way to make this idea come to pass but in order to do that you have to know if you're idea can be achieved financially & this is where the budgeting comes in. If you have a project that you would like to complete you begin to write down the goals for this project which is the plan & then you have to see how much it's going to cost to accomplish this & if you don't have a budget you might end up spending more than you need to. This is why the budget is necessary to keep you on track but sometimes people go over their budget which means they didn't have an effective plan. Because with an effective plan you look for what could or might happens & you plan accordingly. Twitter Professor Foor 9/4/2012 12:01:52 AM Class, how many times have you had an Online class at DeVry where you ended just 3-5 points short for that better lettergrade? Well, I have a solution. It's very simple. Follow me on Twitter at Please respond to this thread with your twitter name, that you are following me, & explain how companies & yourself can utilize this valuable resource relevant to this course. Lastly, you can choose not to create a twitter account. It's your choice. It's my responsibility as an instructor to get you to understand the importance of all aspects for job opportunities & career growth. All questions about creating an account can be found in the Q&A post under course home. See you in the threads. Prof. Foor RE: Twitter Diundra Satterfield 9/7/2012 6:38:06 PM Professor, I learned something regarding Twitter & that's the fact that you can use this social media as a device for employment. I've never known Twitter to be used for that purpose I know you can use other social media sites but I didn't know Twitter. So this is something that I will definitely be looking into. I'm trying to get my husband to get a twitter account so we can follow each other. One problem I'm having is I'm receiving these messages from these strangers on my cell phone & some of them are not very nice. Diundra, you should never get bad messages. That means you're following people who are irresponsible. You can turn notifications (text messages) OFF, & use the twitter app for your phone to read them. Bad messages is like bad data in forecasting....not worth anything. :-) My twitter name is @rickyo729 & I am now following you as well. I honestly never really used twitter to network with anybody since I only signed up to follow my favorite celebrities, athletes & interests. But I see how this can really help me & companies get the word out on serious business matters like jobs & sales. One of the most important ways to find & follow relevant trends is by utilizing the hash tag(#) or specific keywords that will bring up tweets containing them. This can lead to links & users that can provide you or your company a whole lot of opportunities to stay on top of the latest trends in your targeted areas or interests. I am going to start using my twitter account on a more professional level & see where it takes me as I get closer to graduating. RE: Twitter Angel Ketchum 9/6/2012 6:20:15 PM I think I need to get Twitter for Dummies. I still haven't mastered the whole concept of twitter. I did go & follow you, at least I think I did. My twitter name is AngelaWarner9 & I am following you. Twitter can be used as a marketing tool, learning tool, & a social tool. It is important to businesses because they can tweet instant feeds about their business themselves or they can use the search tool to find out what others are saying about their business. Twitter is a way to get instant messages out to a wide audience or colleagues, customers, friends, and/or foes. Tweeting for educational purposes can allow followers to become engaged & involved in a particular topic being presented. Questions can be asked & answers can be found. I have a question about this post. I know there is no extra points. But you mean contributing points for current events, correct? & those current events are posted here, & not on Twitter, correct? To answer your question, yes I've missed the goal by a couple points, although it has to do with quizzes. I'm not interested in creating a Twitter account, to tie me down to the computer, even more than I am. [Haha. I get pretty addicted.] Although if creating an account may boost my quiz score I will give Twitter a chance. RE: Twitter Professor Foor 9/4/2012 4:45:28 PM Kimberly, great question! Believe me, there is zero pressure in utilizing twitter. One of the powers that twitter has is finding employment opportunities. I've had five students in the past six months find work this way. Three of them because they started using twitter from my classes. Use the hashtag (#) for certain things such as #jobs, & your current city. Follow employers twitter accounts for work. My job is to instruct & perform skills for careers. This is one that's optional. Then again, isn't learning? Many students are here...but how many learn? Skills? I wish it was all. We know this isn't the case. No pressure. :-) RE: Twitter Kimberly Stevens 9/6/2012 5:25:44 PM Since you said finding jobs, I'm sold! lol :) I'll check it out when I have some internet surfing time. RE: Twitter Diundra Satterfield 9/4/2012 4:35:22 PM My twitter name is Diundra Satterfield@ Beautifully Saved & I'm very eager to get as much information as possible regarding being successful. I'm always trying to find different things to do or ways I can become successful this is what I'm all about. This is what I instill into my girls & this is what motivates me is success. So if following you on twitter is going to help me to become more successful then twitter here I come. @margahodge Twitter & other social networks are great ways for businesses to connect with customers. I often get "specials" from stores on my facebook that are offered only to facebook followers. I have not really explored twitter, but I am sure it is the same idea. I have had a twitter account for some time now, but find myself using facebook much more often! RE: Twitter Marina Benz 9/9/2012 10:43:55 AM I have signed up for several social networks, but don't have a twitter account yet. I guess this is now a subject to change. I did not know that you can use it twitter for job opportunities & career growth. For this purpose I've already joined another social network & surprisingly it worked out very well. I also know that facebook offers the Application BranchOut. I joined that but I have the feeling it is not very useful since Facebook is more for private use in my opinion. Also, my boyfriend recently told me to join twitter. He is in the music industry & uses twitter to tweet about updates of his work & to retweet quotes from other artists. My twitter name is mthebenz RE: Twitter Daniel Smith 9/9/2012 2:15:56 PM My Twitter name is DanQ4855 & I'm following you now. I'm behind the times since I haven't checked out Twitter before. Should be interesting. RE: Twitter Ronald Moore 9/9/2012 9:39:01 PM So we just follow you on twitter & participate in order to potentially earn a few extra points? RE: Twitter Sarah Preble 9/8/2012 9:30:27 PM I probably won't create a twitter account, but I hate being online all the time. Facebook is a little too much for me. Any other resources? RE: Twitter Professor Foor 9/9/2012 12:15:44 AM Sarah, Announcements, Q&A, doc sharing. I've offered more in one week than what most instructors offer in eight. If you don't like being online...why take online classes? :-) RE: Twitter Sarah Preble 9/9/2012 3:50:13 PM I hate being online all the time. I'm online too much already because of classes & I have no choice. The last few classes I've needed are only available online. & yes, I have read all your annoucements & looked through doc sharing. I wish we had iConnect for this class though. Budgeting & Planning Jessica Samhan 9/4/2012 12:55:38 PM In my family, I am known as the budgeter. I can budget my mouth expenses down to the penny. The misconception is that I am good with money. I am actually a great planner. I plan every dollar I spend, wile at the same time making sure that have some extra on the side for things that I can not plan for. Sticking to the plan is just as hard as creating one. Most people that I have poken to says that they do not plan because they have no money plan. My though is anone with income can plan their dollars, even if it seems as though there is never enough of them. In my eyes, budgeting is what you are spending & in what quantity, while plnning is how your going to spend it & in what order. RE: Budgeting & Planning Sarah Preble 9/8/2012 9:32:14 PM I am the same. Money burns a hole in my husband's pocket. I'm the one that has to say, "no, not right now" or "we don't need that." We sometimes joke that we need to take his atm card away, but I always know what we have out, what's coming in, & what we have. Budgeting & Planning Jessica Dais 9/4/2012 8:49:37 PM Planning is the process of setting goals, developing strategies, & outlining tasks & schedules to accomplish the goals. Budgeting is an estimation over the revenue & expenses over a specified future period of time. A budget helps turn the plan into reality by providing targets & direction & helping solve problems before they arise. RE: Budgeting & Planning Charles Agnor 9/4/2012 10:59:14 PM Jessica, I think the budget puts the plan into writing so it becomes more formal. I was surprised to read that there are so many types of budgets like a continuous budget that is constantly getting updated. I like the idea of the continuous budget. Where I work I think we have a static budget. If something breaks down, they might cut back on some other area to shore up money to fix the broken part, so overall the department does not go over budget, but the same old budget is back in place every month with no adjustment for the different things being budgeted for. I think a better way would be if we went over on repairs by $10,000 during August, & that is why we did not get some new tools we needed in August, then our repair budget should get cut by $10,000 for September, & we should have $10,000 added to September tools budget to make up for our getting that budgeted money taken away from tools in August. RE: Budgeting & Planning Jessica Dais 9/5/2012 8:37:32 PM On the topic of various types of budgets, I was surprised to realize that a budget had more to it than a financial aspect. When I think of a budget I am always thinking in terms of dollars, but a budget can be measured in terms of hours, employees, etc... RE: Budgeting & Planning Charles Agnor 9/6/2012 4:24:06 PM I was surprised that there was a cash budget, but it makes perfect sense now that I think about it. The cash a business has doesn't always equal its income. All sales won't be paid for with cash because the business might extend credit to its customers, so even though it made the sales, it might not get the cash from its sales until the next month. The business might need that cash to buy more materials from its vendors unless the vendors extended credit to the business. Also, a business has to pay its workers & have cash in the bank for when the workers cash paychecks. If the business did not get paid from its customers, but the week already went by & the workers were expecting a paycheck, in that case the business might have to take out a loan from a bank to have enough cash . A business would have to know how much cash it has to work with to keep operating, which the cash budget would help it predict. Information Professor Foor 9/5/2012 11:54:01 AM What information does the functional manager require from the strategic planner & other departments to begin writing a plan or budget? RE: Information Natasha Field 9/7/2012 12:34:26 PM Since functional managers are responsible for a certain project or division, they require information about what expenses are used in their division, the resources available to him & information about specific projects that are needed to be completed. The manager will get guidelines that they have to adhere to when planning their budget. Strategic planners give functional anagers the company's mission & objective in an organization. RE: Information Brittany Whalen 9/9/2012 9:07:34 PM Strategic planning involves being able to match the strengths of your company to opportunities that may be available. For the functional manager to budget for the business effectively, they need to collect, screen, & analyze information pertaining to the business environment. The functional manager also needs to have a clear understanding of the business they are operating including the strengths & weaknesses. Once a clear company mission has been developed, goals have been set, & objectives have been outlined the functional manager is then able to create a budget capable of reflecting the company's mission accordingly. Strategic planning focuses primarily on the business' ability to manage their interaction with forces taking place within their environment. These forces may include competitors, government regulations, suppliers, customers, & other factors that may have an effect on the overall success of the business & its future prospects. For more information on this topic please visit: RE: Information Denise Mate 9/9/2012 2:37:04 PM Information that is required would be to first set goals to achieve. Company strategies need to be determined. Company policies need to be set for the managers to be able to accomplish their goals. Some of the things needed would be to set standards for what is expected, provide the financial standings of the company, & have a plan of how this will be accomplished. RE: Information Michelle Jones 9/6/2012 2:24:45 PM Strategic planning involves analyzing competitive opportunities & threats, as well as the strengths & weaknesses of the organization, & then determining how to position the organization to compete effectively in their environment. Strategic planning has a long time frame, often three years or more. Strategic planning generally includes the entire organization & includes formulation of objectives. Strategic planning is often based on the organization's mission, which is its fundamental reason for existence. An organization's top management most often conducts strategic planning. Read more: Management Functions - organization, levels, style, manager, school, company, business RE: Information Jessica Dais 9/6/2012 6:08:17 PM _ The company's overall objectives, such as market position, product leadership, & employee development _ The strategies necessary to achieve the objectives, such as engaging in a new promotion plan, enhancing research, product & geographical diversification, & eliminating a division _ The goals to be met under the strategy _ The progress to date of accomplishing the goals; examples of goals are sales, profitability, return on investment, & market price of stock Shim, Jae K.. Budgeting Basics & Beyond, 3rd Edition. John Wiley & Sons (P&T). <vbk:6754#outline(2.2)>. RE: Information Dianna Gilmore 9/6/2012 11:50:28 PM The strategic planner needs to set an objective of course. This would be a long term objective. Then you will need stratagies which may include short term objectives that are necessary to meet the long term objectives. They would have to set goals or deadlines. & depending on the type of plan some preliminary budgeting might be necessary. Then progress reports to track progress of the plan & or budget. RE: Information Latoya Shands 9/5/2012 1:54:52 PM Modified:9/5/2012 1:59 PM The functional manager require an overall outline, or guideline that will layout all the main focus points as well as the important aspects of the budget cost for any expenses each department may have. The most important part of the functional manager requirements is the plan of action each department will take to improve the organization.The functional manager require from the strategic planner & other departments the steps or requirements for handling all situations, & how they will motivate employees to reach any short term goals. The needed information any management wants to know is the strengths & weaknesses of each department, & the actions the anagement team will take to elevate any weakness in the organization. RE: Information Cynthia Sprinkle 9/5/2012 4:43:03 PM The functional manager who has authority over all organizational units or departments would need budget reports from every department as well as the strategic planner in order to write the company budget for any period of time. The process for turning in the necessary paperwork starts with each department. Each department should have a set budget already, necessary expenses, then they should account for any extra expenses they incurred or think they will incur over this set period of time. From the individual departments, we move to the strategic planner. The strategic planner analyzes reports taken by general managers which entail things such as but not limited to allocating resources to implement policies, plans, projects, & programs. The strategic planner would need to complie all the numbers & present them to the functional manager in an organized manner. RE: Information Charles Agnor 9/5/2012 6:06:35 PM I thought there would be lots of functional managers, like one for manufacturing, one for advertising, & one for human resources. The person in charge of the overall budget for the organization would be the president. Page 11 explains that there are two different approaches to budgeting, top down & bottom up. I am not sure which one my employer uses, but I bet it is a combination approach that starts from the top down where a strategic planner in top management considers the economy & market share & makes the sales forecasts by product. Then top management makes allocations to functions, & functions to departments. Once departments know how much they are expected to produce, & how much cost they have to work with, they can participate in the budgeting by allocating the amount they have to work with to categories for staff & materials & equipment repairs. Maybe top management does not even let the departments break down the total amount they are given, but it makes more sense to me to let the departments do the breakdown because like it says on page 11, operating level managers are more familiar with the day to day routine, so they can anticipate what might go wrong. Plus, managers would be more willing to commit to a budget they prepared than one that was handed down to them. I would want some wiggle room in the budget to cover unexpected costs, but I know where I work the departments sometimes take from one category like tools to make up for another category like breakdowns, which is why we have to borrow wrenches from other departments. RE: Information Professor Foor 9/6/2012 12:07:25 AM Given the functional departments of marketing, finance, personnel, & operations management, which of these do you believe is the most important function in a business? Please explain. RE: Information Latoya Shands 9/8/2012 1:18:02 PM The operations management is the most important because this department keeps the business organized on a daily basis. Operations management is the department that make sure that all policies, rules, & regulations are enforced to keep the business running smoothly. Operations management is the support team that process all data entry, payroll, budget management, in charge of the human resource branch, & planning. The operations management is the overseers of all the financial obligations, systems, & controls in the business. They also are responsible for improving the needs of the company & motivating each department level in the upper branch of the organization. RE: Information Esther Hazan 9/8/2012 2:32:11 PM In my opinion, each department is equally important. Each one contribute to the success of a business. For example, in order to have a successful business, you need to have a good advertising of the business whether it is word of mouth or by media. In order to begin & function a business you must have finance & operations managements. These are also key tools towards building & maintaining a successful business. & Lastly, personnel. Every individual makes an impact & difference within the company & to the Clients. RE: Information Latoya Shands /9/2012 2:33:31 M Modified:9/9/2012 2:38 M Esther, the operations management is responsible for the huma resource division because the operations mnagement oversee the department. They are responsible for invoices, ordering shipments, distributing products, & tracking inventory. The operations management plays an enormous key role in the business because they have to take on all the duties & responsibilities of keeping the organization in order. The operation management not only are in charge of the human resource, but in charge of budgeting the sales expenses, planning, & strategizing the financial dispositions in the business. In other words operations management has the most effective impact in a business. I do agree that each department is very important because every one's role plays a main factor to the success in operation a business. RE: Information Marga Hodge 9/9/2012 8:14:30 AM Goodness, this is a tough one because these are all important. Marketing is important to get the companies name out to the public. Operation management is important because they assist with day to day running of a business. Finance is important for the obvious, you can not run a business without any money. I do however feel personnel is most important though. If you do not have great personnel on the floor working with customers, than a business will not have repeat business, which means their will be no money flow, which means there will be no more business with time. Personnel are what gets a business up & running, & assist with continued operations of a business. RE: Information Wilma Balmonte 9/9/2012 10:10:38 PM I think that the most important function in a business is operations management. Inititally, marketing is important to bring in customers. Marketing will attract investors to help fund a portion of the business. Operations is the key to bringing in the finances which will help in marketing & financing for personnel. Without the revenue & cash coming in, the business cannot continue to survive & be successful. RE: Information Cynthia Sprinkle 9/6/2012 3:03:51 PM I don't believe that any one department is more important than another. In order for a company to run smoothly & be successful all departments must work together as one. If it werent for the finance department managing the money & budget there would be no marketing, personnel, or operations. Marketing is important because without the advertising there would be no new customers. Operations makes the company run by producing & distrubing the product. Personnel is the basis for any company. Without employees there would be no company at all. The functional departments are the building blocks & the bottom block would the financing, then the personnel, then operations, then marketing. RE: Information Jessica Samhan 9/6/2012 11:22:49 AM I remember someone telling me that the only thing I do for the relationship is financial. This was odd to me because finances is one of the most important things to manage. In reference to your question, everything that a company wants, will want, or might want will need the consideration of finances to make it possible. Out of the categories given, finances are needed in all the others. You can not plan a marketing strategy without making sure that you determine how much it will cost the company, you can not hire, fire, or even train personnel with out planning a budget, & most importantly, you can not see how well you are managing your operations with know how much you are spending in production & how much you are receiving back in sales. RE: Information Kimberly Stevens 9/6/2012 5:47:29 PM I agree Cynthia & Jessica, I agree that all functional departments are important for business, & financial is one of the first, if not the first, step in doing business. From my own experiences & opinions, no researching involved, finance would most likely be first. Second, third, & last would consist of marketing, management, & personnel. A business cannot succeed without a customer base. Making a business is revolved around the customer base, & what the customer wants. Even if there is no employees there still has to be a manager of the store. This is a large job to keep the company in shape & work around customer ideals. In my opinion, the only way to have a large company is relied on employees. Employees are at different locations at the same time - it's hard for one person to do that. RE: Information Dianna Gilmore 9/6/2012 11:26:30 PM Without marketing it is hard to bring in new clients, without finances you can't operate a company, without personnel business is not getting taken care of, without operations management there is no one to organize the business. With that being said if it ia a small shop of some kind that is only open during business hours a single person may be able to run the place by themselves. If that is the case then I would say finances would be the most important function. If costs are high & there is not enough revenue coming in it would be hard even for a sole proprietor to keep the doors open. In a major company it is hard to chose because it seems you would need all aspects to function at a high level to be able to run a business successfully. RE: Information Professor Foor 9/8/2012 12:06:02 AM Your text lists several advantages & disadvantages of budgets. Which of the advantages do you think are the most important to the success of the company & why. RE: Information Angela Warner 9/8/2012 12:26:20 PM The text gave several advantages & it it very difficult to pinpoint which of them would be the most important, but I chose the following: Links objectives & resources: The objective of the company needs to met & resources are required to meet these objectives. This is important because the company has to have enough to resources in order to operate properly. Points out deviations between budget & actual, resulting in warning signals for changes or alterations: Having a budget will allow the company to determine if they are following closely to their expected financial goal or if they have strayed to far from what they expected to spend or receive. It allows them the opportunity to redistribute funding where necessary. Provides early signals of upcoming threats & opportunities: The company has to chance to predict early signs of financial problems or inconsistency with their financial goal that they wish to reach. RE: Information Daniel Smith 9/8/2012 3:31:45 PM Angela, I have to agree with you on all the ones you chose & for all your reasons, but I would have to add a couple others too. Having a budget causes people to be more likely to think before they make bad decisions. Establishes guidelines in the form of road map to proceed in the right direction & fosters careful study before making decisions: A business always does better when everyone has the same goals & the same "map" or guidelines to follow to get to the desired end result. Otherwise different departments or individuals can start going off track & end up doing the wrong work or tasks that don't need to be done, costing the company resources such as time, people, equipment, & money. RE: Information Ricky Ontiberos 9/8/2012 11:51:26 PM Of course all the advantages of budgeting are very important to the success of a firm but I think having effective coordination between all the different departments to attain efficiency & productivity is crucial because everyone needs to be on the same page in order for the company as a whole to be successful. Having a good relationship between all the departments makes sure that each of their individual budget proposals are appropriately in line each other since the anticipated performance of each department either directly or indirectly effects each other. This is also why effective communication between all of the managers is important so that any problems can be identified & their solutions can be practical. Budgeting & Planning Marina Benz 9/5/2012 12:04:33 PM Planning is what will get done, who will do it & how it will get done, who needs to be involved, who is it done for, etc. The plan lays out goals of the business, leads it in a certain direction & sets guidelines to achieve goals. Budgeting is the financial consequence of those "do's". It looks at the money that is needed to support & achieve those goals. Budgeting is one part of the planning process. Budgeting & Planning Steven Yoon 9/5/2012 2:19:05 PM According to our book, "Budgeting is a planning & control system... Planning is determining the activities to be accomplished to achieve objectives & goals". They are related in that budgeting requires planning. The difference between the two is that budgets are projected actions & a formalization of the planning process. Plans, on the other hand, are actions based on investigation, analysis, & research. Also plans are expressed in quantitative terms. Budgeting & Planning Marga Hodge 9/5/2012 2:28:12 PM According to the book, budgeting is "a quantitative plan of activities & programs expressed in terms of the assets, equities, revenues, & expenses that will be involved in carrying out the plans or in other quantitative terms, such as units of product or service. The budget expresses the organizational goals in terms of specific financial & operating objectives" (Shim, 2009) The book states that planning is "the selection of short- & long-term objectives & the drawing up of tactical & strategic plans to achieve those objectives. After deciding on a set of strategies to be followed, the organization needs more specific plans, such as locations, methods of financing, & hours of operation. As these plans are made, they will be communicated throughout the organization. When implemented, the plans will serve to coordinate the efforts of all parts of the organization toward the company's objectives." (Shim, 2009) From what I have gathered, planning is the first step, & budgetting is the second. During planning everything is laid out with dates times & such, mostly not financial, if financial exist it is not in detail. Once planning is complete, the budget to carry out the plan is made. The budget goes in depth with all financial aspects. Shim, J.K., Siegel, J.G. (2009). Budgeting Basics & Beyond. Third Edition. Retrieved from budgeting planning Wilma Balmonte 9/5/2012 9:08:49 PM Planning is done for long term goals & are more general ideas & goals as a whole. When you plan, you think of the bigger picture rather than specific steps on how to reach a goal. Budgeting is referred to be more specific & detailed with the plans that were created during the planning phase. Budgeting is used for short term goals typically for specific time periods. Budgets can derive from the bigger picture to accomplish the more simple goals to reach the end result of the plan. They are also used for smaller projects. An example would be a department budget. This would include supplies, salaries, anticipated overtime & so on. Budgeting & Planning Tamyra Scott 9/6/2012 8:45:58 AM Budgeting is a form of planning & policy development considering resource constraints. It is a profit planning mechanism & may look at “what-if” scenarios. Budgets are detailed & communicate to subunits what is expected of them. Budgets are quantitative expressions of the yearly profit plan & measure progress during the period. The shorter the budgeting period, the more reliable. Planning is the direction of the company over a period of time to accomplish a desired result. Planning should link short-term, intermediate-term, & long-term goals. The objective is to make the best use of the company's available resources over the long term. Planning is determining what should be done, how it should be done, & when it should be done. The plan should specify the nature of the problems, reasons for them, constraints, contents, characteristics, category, alternative ways of accomplishing objectives, & listing of information required. Planning objectives include quantity & quality of products & services as well as growth opportunities. Budgeting & planning Angel Ketchum 9/6/2012 6:35:45 PM Planning simply means doing what we will do, who will do it, how we will get it done, who needs to be involved, & who are we offering the budget for. Planning needs to come before budgeting otherwise there will be no guideline for the budget to go by. Budgets are monitored in terms of plans to determine performance, normally communicated in regular reporting such as quarterly, semi-annually, or yearly, etc. With this said, you can not have one without the other. They compliment each other. Budgeting & Planning Ddungu Wasswa 9/6/2012 9:50:58 PM Planning is the aim that an organization wants to pursue in some period of time it may not be on financial terms. For instance, a car manufacturer wants to produce 50000 car units within a year. Budgeting is the road map to the planning in simple terms how much expenditure an organization is going to have for manufacturing 50000 units of car. It is always expressed in financial terms. In some way budgeting & planning relate to each other as they both focuses on the future. Planning is the end results to the vision whereas budget is the resources to achieve that. Planning & budgeting give an aim to the organization on where they want to go & how they want to go. Planning & budgeting both are done on the past data keeping in mind about the happening & non happening of the future. Executive Summary Professor Foor 9/7/2012 1:03:24 AM Class, as based on your project for week one, you need to write an executive summary from the business you can choose located under the course project area in course home. So, talk about what an executive summary is, its purpose, & perhaps some examples to help you complete your first weeks assignment. RE: Executive Summary Tamyra Scott 9/8/2012 10:33:14 PM The executive summary provides the reader with an overview of the report’s essential information. It is designed to be read by people who will not have time to read the whole report or are deciding if this is necessary; therefore, in your executive summary you need to say as much as possible in the fewest words. The executive summary should briefly outline the subject matter, the background problem, the scope of the investigation, the method(s) of analysis, the important findings arguments & important issues raised in the discussion, the conclusion & recommendations. The executive summary should not just be an outline of the points to be covered in the report with no detail of the analysis that has taken place or conclusions that have been reached. RE: Executive Summary Natasha Field 9/8/2012 7:20:19 PM An executive summary is made as part of a business plan. The purpose of the summary is to let th