Assignment 1
Yes. I have a budget for personal income and expenses. Managing a budget depends on the goals of the budget and the financial resources available. According to Chapter 15: Budgeting and Managing Fiscal Resources (n.d), a budget is a critical tool that helps track expenditure. Since it considers future expenses and income, budgeting helps keep expenditure in check and track the savings for the future. The budgeting process starts by planning, forecasting, monitoring, and controlling the financial resources. The process begins by assigning the financial resources by calculating the amount of money at hand. Also, the person should determine their expenses depending on the financial records. It is imperative to set goals, create the pan and evaluate the process. Some of the budgets in the chapter include incremental budget, zero-based budget expense budget, salary budget, among others. All these budgets help track the financial expenditure.
Assignment 2
The organization focuses on monitoring financial resources. Through the different budgets, the organization ensures that there are resources it needs to achieve the goals at the appropriate time. Therefore, the organization has increased its awareness of cost and understands the existing relationship between financial goals, revenue, and costs of operations (Chapter 15: Budgeting and Managing Fiscal Resources n.d). For example, the operations department in the organization formulates policies to achieve in the operations process. As a result, it creates a plan through a budget on how much to spend in the operations. In so doing, the organization can coordinate its activities by getting feedback from department members on how to assign resources to various activities. In most cases, the operations department sends the budget proposal to the finance team. After scrutinizing the budget, the finance department approves the budget and releases the requisite funds to fulfill the operations department’s objectives.
Assignment 3
An incremental budget is a line-by-line budget that considers the actual financial performance based on the new budget having additional funds. In this budget, the current year’s financial budget becomes the starting point. Therefore, the budget consists of several columns for the amount that the current year requires. Some expenses lines divide into salary and non-salary lines.
A zero-based budget justifies all programs and activities to project the following year’s budget. The budget has all expenses captured for the upcoming period, even whether the previous budget was higher or lower.
An operating budget is an annual tool that features the statement of expected revenue and expenses for the upcoming year (Chapter 15: Budgeting and Managing Fiscal Resources n.d). The budget specifies the twelve-month period where the organization measures the operational and financial performance.
The expense budget consists of non-salary and salary items. The expense column reflects the objectives for the budget and the activity for the department. As a result, this budget is comprehensive since it accounts for all available information regarding the financial expectation for the following year.
Assignment 4
The advantage of Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) when designing a working budget focuses on one person to fill the human resource position for the entire fiscal year. Therefore, FTE can equate to forty hours of work per week for the 52 weeks. After the budget determines the number of required FTE, it indicates the personnel for benefit time to determine the average paid holidays and sick days of das off that the organization can provide to its employees (Chapter 15: Budgeting and Managing Fiscal Resources n.d). Thus, FTE is important in making a working budget because it determines the hours of replacement time per individual.
Assignment 5
Coronavirus disrupted the financial goals and operations methods in hospitals. Most hospitals canceled several appointments with their clients. Therefore, such appointments included surgical appointments. Therefore, the Coronavirus pandemic led several hospitals to shift their business models, including suspending some programs that would increase the revenue stream for hospitals (Kliff 2020). The financial performance reduced with hospitals unable to meet their budget objectives and fiscal goals. While patients lacked the options in the shifting business models, the primary causality was hospitals. They suffered challenges in meeting their debt obligations. Also, their cash flow reduced because of the unstable income statement. Thus, the selling, billing, and provisions in most of the operational activities could not yield sufficient revenue to help sustain the hospitals’ financial needs.
Assignment 6
Most managers in financially performing hospitals received millions of payments at the expense of frontline workers. The pay structure for most hospitals at the height of the corona virus did not reflect the current financial performance of many hospitals. Since HCA Healthcare earned more than $7 billion in profits, the chief executive got $21 million (Greenberg, Drucker, and Ehrlich 2020). However, at the height of the corona virus, employees at HCA could not get essential protective gear to combat the virus. The pay that ordinary employees got could not reflect the financial stability of the hospitals as thousands furloughed. The basis of this financial and fiscal approach was to address the shareholders’ needs while forgetting the operational cost of the hospital.
References
Chapter 15: Budgeting and Managing Fiscal Resources.
Greenberg, J, Drucker, J and Ehrlich, D. (June 8, 2020) “Hospitals Got Bailouts and Furloughed Thousands While Paying CEO’s Millions” New York Times Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/08/business/hospitals-bailouts-ceo-pay.html
Kliff, S (May 15, 2020.) “Hospitals Knew How to Make Money, and then the Coronavirus Happened” New York Times, Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/15/us/hospitals-revenue-coronavirus.html