Accounting Test #3

Description:	chapters 7-9
Category:	Accounting
Created by:	freisak on 2008-11-17

Question	Answer
zero-base budget	a budget that requires justification of expenditures for every activity, including continuing activities.
participative budgeting	budgets formulated with the active participation of all affected employees.
budgetary slack	overstatement of budgeted cost or understatement of budgeted revenue to create a budget goal that is easier to achieve.
sales forecast	a prediction of sales under a given set of conditions.
sales budget	the result of decisions to create conditions that will generate a desired level of sales.
strategic plan	a plan that sets the overall goals & objectives of the organization.
long-range planning	producing forecasted financial statements for five to ten year periods.
capital budget	a budget that details the planned expenditures for facilities, equipment, new products, and other long-term investments.
master budget	an extensive analysis of the first year of the long range plan.
continuous budget	a common form of master budget that adds a month in the future as the month just ended is dropped.
operating budget	a major part of the master budget that focuses on the income statement and its supporting schedules.
financial budget	the part of a master budget that focuses on the effects that the operating budget and other plans will have on cash.
functional budgeting	budgeting process that focuses on preparing budgets for various functions, such as production, selling, and administrative support.
activity-based budgets	budgets that focus on the budgeted cost of activities required to produce and sell products and services.
financial planning model	a mathematical model of the master budget that can incorporate any set of assumptions about sales, costs, or product mix.
cash budget	a statement of planned cash receipts and disbursements.
favorable profit variance	a variance that occurs when actual profit is greater than budgeted profit.
unfavorable profit variance	a variance that occurs when actual profit is less than budgeted profit.
favorable revenue variance	a variance that occurs when actual revenue is greater than budgeted revenue.
unfavorable revenue variance	a variance that occurs when actual revenue is less than budgeted revenue.
unfavorable cost variance	a variance that occurs when actual costs are greater than budgeted costs.
favorable cost variance	a variance that occurs when actual costs are less than budgeted costs.
static budget	a budget that is based on only one level of activity.
flexible budget	a budget that adjusts to different levels of activity.
static-budget variance	the variance of actual results from the static budget.
flexible-budget variance	the variance of actual results from the flexible budget for the level of output achieved.
activity-based flexible budget	a budget based on budgeted costs for each activity and related cost driver.
activity-level variances	the differences between the static budget amounts and the amounts in the flexible budget.
sales-activity variances	the activity-level variances when sales is used as the cost driver.
effectiveness	the degree to which an organization meets a goal, objective, or target.
efficiency	the degree to which an organization uses appropriate amounts of inputs to achieve a given level of outputs.
standard cost	a carefully determined cost per unit that should be attained.
expected cost	the cost most likely attained.
perfection/ideal standards	expressions of the most efficient performance possible under the best conceivable conditions, using existing specifications and equipment.
currently attainable standards	levels of performance that managers can achieve by realistic levels of effort.
price variance	the difference between actual input prices and standard input prices multiplied by the actual quantity of inputs used.
quantity/efficiency/usage variance	the difference between the actual quantity of inputs used and the standard quantity allowed for the good output achieved multiplied by the standard price of the input.
rate variance	the difference between actual labor rates and the standard labor rates multiplied by the actual quantity of labor used.
variable-overhead efficiency variance	an overhead variance caused by actual cost-driver activity differing from the standard amount allowed for the actual output achieved.
variable-overhead spending variance	the difference between the actual variable overhead and the amount of variable overhead budgeted for the actual level of cost-driver activity.
fixed overhead spending variance	the difference between actual fixed overhead and budgeted fixed overhead.
management control system	a logical integration of techniques for gathering and using information to make planning and control decisions, for motivating employee behavior, and for evaluating performance.
key success factor	characteristics or attributes that managers must achieve in order to drive the organization toward its goals.
responsibility center	a set of activities and resources assigned to a manager, a group of managers, or other employees.
responsibility accounting	identifying what parts of the organization have primary responsibility for each action, developing performance measures and targets, and designing reports of these measures by responsibility center.
cost center	a responsibility center in which managers are responsible for costs only.
profit center	a responsibility center in which managers are responsible for revenues as well as costs, aka profitability.
investment center	a responsibility center whose success depends on both income and invested capital, perhaps measured by a ratio of income to the value of the capital employed.
goal congruence	a condition where employees, working in their own perceived best interests, makes decisions that help meet the overall goals of the organization.
managerial effort	exertion toward a goal or objective, including all conscious actions that result in more efficiency and effectiveness.
motivation	the drive toward some selected goal that creates effort and action toward that goal.
uncontrollable cost	any cost that the management of a responsibility center cannot affect within a given time span.
controllable cost	any cost that a manager's decisions and actions can influence.
segments	responsibility centers for which a company develops separate measures of revenues and costs.
balanced scoreboard (BSC)	a performance measurement and reporting system that strikes a balance between financial and operating measures, links performance to rewards, and gives explicit recognition to the diversity of organizational goals.
key performance indicators	measures that drive the organization to achieve its goals.
quality control	the effort to ensure that products and services perform to customer requirements.
cost of quality report	a report that displays the financial impact of quality.
total quality management (TQM)	an approach to quality that focuses on prevention of defects and on customer satisfaction.
quality-control chart	the statistical plot of measures of various product quality dimensions or attributes.
cycle time (throughput time)	the time taken to complete a product or service, or any of the components of a product or service.
productivity	a measure of outputs divided by inputs.