The preparation of budgets is a lengthy process which requires great care if the ultimate master budget is to be useful for the purposes of manage- ment control within an organization. You are required:

(a) to identify and to explain briefly the stages involved in the preparation of budgets identi- fying separately the roles of managers and the budget committee; (8 marks)

(b) to explain how the use of spreadsheets may improve the efficiency of the budget prepara- tion process. (7 marks) (Total 15 marks)