A company produces trays of pre-prepared meals that are sold to restaurants and food retailers. Three varieties of meals are sold: economy, premium and deluxe.


Discuss the benefits of flexible budgeting for planning and control purposes.
Select all the true statements.

• A. If sales volumes were well above budget, adverse variable cost variances will probably be reported, against the fixed budget, since more variable costs have to be incurred to support the higher level of activity.
• B. A fixed budget will provide meaningful control information when actual activity differs from budget and variable costs are significant.
• C. If a flexible budget is prepared then the budget variances calculated will provide a better indication of performance since actual results will be compared against an appropriate benchmark.
• D. If actual sales revenue is compared to a fixed budget it is possible to tell whether a favourable sales variance is due to an increase in units sold or an increase in sales price.
• E. Reporting against a fixed budget tells management nothing about the efficiency of operations.
• F. The fixed budget however provides more insight into actual performance.

'A zero-based budgeting system involves establishing decision packages that are then ranked in order of their relative importance in meeting the organization's objectives'.
Which of the following is true regarding he difficulties that a not-for-profit organization may experience when trying to rank decision packages.
Select ALL true statements.

• A. Some of these packages will be mutually inclusive and will require management to select the best solution to the issue involved.
• B. In a public sector body, for example, decision packages will relate to very disparate activities.
• C. Management may decide to reject packages even though the activity was done last year. In this way the organization is said to be starting from a zero base with each package given due consideration.
• D. Some of these packages will be inclusive and will require operations to select the best solution to the issue involved.
• E. The activities that are being proposed in a budget are described in variable packages. There will often be more less than one decision package proposed for an activity.
• F. Each decision package is evaluated. Its costs are compared to its benefits and net present values or other measures calculated.
• G. In a public sector body, for example, decision packages will relate profit making activities.
• H. The activities that are being proposed in a budget are described in decision packages. There will often be more than one decision package proposed for an activity.
• I. Management may decide to accept packages even though the activity was done last year. In this way the organization is said to be starting from a 100% cost base with each package given due consideration.

GH manufactures a product using skilled labour and high quality materials. The company operates a standard costing system and a just-in-time (JIT) purchasing and production system. The standard selling price and variable costs for one unit of the product are as follows:

Prepare a statement that reconciles the budgeted contribution with the actual contribution for October. Your statement should show the variances in as much detail as possible.
What was the actual contribution for October?

• A. $ 1,414,000
• B. $ 1,494,000
• C. $ 1,324,000
• D. $ 1,198,000
• E. $ 1,594,000

A decision maker that makes decisions using the minimax regret criterion would be classified as:

• A. Risk neutral
• B. Risk seeking
• C. Risk spreading
• D. Risk averse

XY can choose from four mutually exclusive projects. The projects will each last for one year and their net cash inflows will be determined by market conditions. The forecast net cash inflows for each of the possible outcomes are shown below.

If the company applies the maximax criterion the project chosen would be:

• A. Project A
• B. Project B
• C. Project C
• D. Project D