er Corporation operates on a calendar-year basis. It begins the annual budgeting process in late August when the president establishes targets for the dollar sales and net income before taxes for the next year. sales target is given first to the marketing department. The marketing manager formulates a sales budget by product line in both units and dollars. m this budget. sales quotas by product line in units and dollars are established for each of the corporation's sales districts. The marketing manager also mates the cost of the marketing activities required to support the target sales volume and prepares a tentative marketing expense budget. executive vice president uses the sales and profit targets, the sales budget by product line, and the tentative marketing expense budget to determine dollar amounts that can be devoted to manufacturing and corporate office expense. The executive vice president prepares the budget for corporate enses. She then forwards to the production department the product-line sales budget in units and the total dollar amount that can be devoted to nufacturing. ep production manager meets with the factory managers to develop a manufacturing plan that will produce the required units when needed within the st constraints set by the executive vice president. The budgeting process usually comes to a hatt at this point because the production departiment does t consider the financial resources allocated to be adequate. hen this standstill occurs, the vice president of finance, the executive vice president, the marketing manager, and the production manaser meet fogether determine the final budgets for each of the areas. This normally results in a modest inciease in the total amount available for manufacturing costs and tts in the marketing expense and corporate office expense budgets. The total sales and net income higures proposed by the president are seldom anged. Although the participants are seldom pleased with the compromise, these budgets are final. Each executive then develops a new detailed budifet of the operations in his or her area. lone of the areas has achieved its budget in recent years. Sales often run below the tarset. When budeeted sales are not achieved, each area is expected b cut costs so that the president's profit target can be met. However, the profit target is seldom met because costs are not cut enough. in fact, conts efter un above the original budget in all functional areas (marketing. production, and corporate officel. The president is disturbed that Paimer has not been able to meet the sales and profit targets. He hires a consultant with considerable everience with camnanies in Palmer's industry. The consultant reviews the budgets for the past 4 years. He condudes that the product fine sules budgets wire masonabin to cut costs so that the president's profit target can be met. However, the profit target is seldom met because costs are not cut enoush. In fact, costs often run above the original budget in all functional areas (marketing production, and corporate officel. The president is disturbed that Palmer has not been able to meet the sales and profit targets. He hires a consultant with considerable experience with companies in Palrver's industry. The consultant reviews the budgets for the past 4 years. He concludes that the product line sales budgets were reasonuble and that the cost and expense budgets were adequate for the budseted sales and production levels. Instructions Discuss how the budgeting process employed by Palmer Corporation contributes to the fallure to achieve the president's sales and protit tareets. Suggest how Palmer Corporation's budgeting process could be revised to correct the problems. Sheuld the functional areas be expected to cut their costs wisen sales volume falls below budget? Explain your answer. There is no right of wrong answer in discusision posts. just your thoughts and having dialogue with your clansmates. This is the onine subititution for a classoom dialogue that we would have durieng a tace-to tace clas meetive
