Solution manual Cost Accounting 14th Carter-3 PDF

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Chapter 1

1-3

EXERCISES E1-1 The exercise requires two examples of the inseparability of planning and control. Three are listed here, and the third one gives two illustrations: The most obvious example of the inseparability of planning and control is found in the definition of control: management’s systematic effort to achieve objectives by comparing performance to plans and taking appropriate action to correct important differences. The definition shows that the specific results of planning are an essential input to the control phenomenon; there cannot be any such thing as a control effort without reference to some set of plans. A second example of the inseparability of planning and control results from the fact that they are simultaneous. In practice, the implementation of the first steps of a plan, and any control action needed in those steps, are begun before all parts of planning are complete. Early results and the early findings of control activity can then be used in finalizing later parts of the same plan. An example is that a single annual budget is usually not completely finalized before customer orders begin to be received for that year, and consideration of the number of these actual customer orders may point to trends that need to be considered in finalizing the budget. Even actual financial results of the early weeks and months of the year can provide a basis for better establishing the budget for the later portion of the year. The most elegant example of the inseparability of planning and control results from the fact that both planning and control are complex human activities, and almost all complex human activities are planned activities and also controlled activities. In other words, planning can be so complex that the planning effort is itself controlled (and planned), and control can be so complex that control activities are themselves planned (and controlled). Two illustrations of this are provided as follows: (1) A case in which planning is itself planned and controlled is when a complicated budget (plan) is to be prepared. To facilitate the creation of the budget, a detailed weekly schedule (another plan) is first agreed upon, showing which steps in the preparation of the budget are to be carried out during each week. Because it is desired that the creation of the budget not be allowed to fall far behind schedule, the responsible manager will exercise control by making comparisons between (a) the actual progress made on the budget each week and (b) the schedule. The manager will also take some corrective action if the difference between the schedule and the actual progress is considered important. (2) A case in which control is itself planned is when a manager decides what kinds of control reports will be used to compare actual results with plans in each future period of business operations. That decision, any efforts made to acquire a supply of preprinted report forms to be filled in each period, and any changes in the design of the cost accounting system to capture and compile the needed information about actual results represent evidence that the future control activity is being planned....