Assignment: Budget Planning and Control

Before approaching this assignment, be sure that you have watched the following video.

• Budgetary Planning featuring Babycakes *FULL VIDEO*. (2016). YouTube.

Babycakes, a specialty bakery, is the
company that will be considered for all parts of your budget planning
and control report. For this assignment, you will develop a four to five (4-5) page paper in which you address the following.

1. Briefly discuss the ways a realistic budget will benefit the owner of Babycakes versus having no budget at all. Be sure to use Babycakes as the company and any specific product details in your explanation.
2. Prepare a sales budget for the LA Babycakes store for the 4th quarter of 2016. Present
   the number of units, sales price, and total sales for each month;
   include October, November, and December, and a total for the quarter.
   Use one-half of the Valentine’s Day sales as the basis for a usual day
   in the new quarter. Use 30 days for each month. Calculate the total
   sales for each month for October, November, and December.
3. Create three (3) new products, one (1) for each of the three (3)
   holiday seasons in the 4th quarter. Estimate the sales units, sales
   price, and total sales for each month. Describe the assumptions used to
   make these estimates. Include an overview of the budget in the report,
   presenting the actual budget as an appendix with all data and
   calculations. Add these amounts to your sales budget.
4. The owner of Babycakes is interested in
   preparing a flexible budget rather than the static budget she currently
   uses. She does not understand why, when sales increase, her static
   budget often shows an unfavorable variance. Explain how a flexible
   budget will overcome this problem. Use the details of your newly
   prepared budget for the 4th quarter of 2016 to address her concern.
5. Imagine that Babycakes is facing a
   financial challenge that is causing the actual amount of money that it
   spends to become significantly more than its budgeted amount. Include a
   discussion of your own unique cause of the overspending. Explain the
   corrective actions needed to address these challenges.
6. Integrate relevant information from at least four (4) quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Please do not use your textbook as an academic resource. Also, Wikipedia and other Websites that are unreliable do not qualify as academic resources.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements.

• Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with
  one-inch margins on all sides; references must follow APA or
  school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional
  instructions.
• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the
  student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date.
  The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required
  page length.
• An abstract is not required.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Evaluate management control systems and examine their relationship with accounting and planning, including feedback and non-financial performance measurements.
• Evaluate decision-making tools for capital investments, budgeting, and budgeting controls.
• Analyze financial accounting tools and techniques that convert financial accounting data into information for decision making.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in financial accounting for managers.
• Write clearly and concisely about financial accounting using proper writing mechanics.

Grading for this assignment will be based on the quality of your
responses, logic and organization of the paper, and language and writing
skills. Please review the Rubric for the Assignment: Budget Planning and Control.