Zero Based Budgeting Emerged To Overcome The Limitations Of Incremental Budgets Accounting Essay

Zero Based Budgeting Emerged To Overcome The Limitations Of Incremental Budgets Accounting Essay Zero-based budgeting emerged to overcome the limitations of incremental budgets. This approach requires that all activities are justified and prioritized before decisions are taken relating to the amount of resources allocated to each activity. Besides adopting a zero-based approach zero-base budgeting also focuses on programmes or activities instead of functional departments based on line-items which is a feature of traditional budgeting. Programmes normally relate to various activities undertaken by municipal or government organizations. Zero-based budgeting works from the premise that projected expenditure for existing programmes should start from base zero, with each years budgets being compiled as if the programmes were being launched for the first time. The budgetees should present their requirements for appropriations in such a fashion that all funds can be allocated on the basis of cost-benefit or some similar kind of evaluative analysis. The cost-benefit approach is an attempt to ensure value of money, it question long-standing assumptions and serves as a toll for systematically examining and perhaps abandoning any unproductive projects. Thats why more and more non-profit making organizations, including Oxfam Hong Kong, consider using Zero-based budgeting as an approach to judge a best solution of the organizations. Background of Oxfam Hong Kong Oxfam Hong Kong is one of non-profit making organizations. It is an independent international development and humanitarian organization working against poverty and related injustice. It recognized that much poverty is caused by injustice and that poverty alleviation requires economic, social and structural change. It worked with people facing poverty and with partner organizations on development, humanitarian, policy advocacy and public education programmes. How zero-based budgeting could be used at Oxfam Hong Kong Most organizations, including Oxfam Hong Kong, may use incremental budgeting system for their budgetary process. However, this approach has a serious drawback. The budgetary process for coming year usually uses previous budget allocation as a basis of allocation. That may incurred increase or decrease in budget for the coming year based on the budget allocation. It is because the percentage of allocation is without full examination of this allocation basis. Incremental budgeting system assumes that the situation will continue in the same way. Zero-based budgeting could be used to remedy this serious drawback in incremental budgeting system. The best suitable activities in Zero-based budgeting To use zero-based budgeting as an approach, some activities are very suitable to use. For example: Limited resource of labours Oxfam Hong Kong is a non-profit making organization that it is always faced with limited resource of labours because major labours are volunteers that it often has not salaries. To organize an activity such as donation of poverty countries, it is a large project that it needs a lot of human resource. The allocation of resource is very important if the organization is faced with limited resource of labours. Zero-based budgeting can efficiently allocate resource of each department. Zero-based budgeting will define and evaluate decision packages of human resource and appropriate allocation by ranking of decision packages. Judgment of consignment or in-house Oxfam Hong Kong always creates a lot of activities about the donation of poverty countries. To encourage more donations, the organization always produces some souvenirs to donators. The souvenirs are also a part of cost that Oxfam Hong Kong will be considered to produce by consignment or in-house processing. It is because Oxfam Hong Kong would likely choose inexpensive method. It is very suitable to use zero-based budgeting to the identification. Although incremental budgeting system or activity-based budgeting can determine the cost of production by consignment or in-house processing, it only use department as a base which is less accurate than zero-based budgeting. It is because zero-based budgeting is based on activity which is more accurate than incremental budgeting system or activity-based budgeting. The advantages of Zero-based budgeting More and more non-profit organizations choose Zero-based budgeting rather than Incremental budgeting for their decision making because Zero-based budgeting has following advantages which Incremental budgeting is ignored. Inappropriate activities are not undertaken Traditional budgeting trends to extrapolate the past by adding a percentage increase to the current year. Zero-based budgeting avoids the deficiencies of incremental budgeting and represents a move towards the allocation of resources by need or benefit. Thus, unlike traditional budgeting the level of funding is not taken for granted. For example, when Oxfam Hong Kong has limited resource such as labour hour, the allocation of resources is being very important. Then Zero-based budgeting can help Oxfam Hong Kong to select the best solution of the allocation by ranking of decision packages. Finally, inappropriate solutions are not adopted. Enhance motivation The documentation of decision packages also leads to a deeper staff and management knowledge of all the operation and activities of the organization and can enhance communication, participation and therefore motivation. Oxfam Hong Kong can indirectly motivate the staff. It is because all departments especially management department in Oxfam Hong Kong need to communicate with other departments to make a consensus of the decision packages. Concerning value for money Zero-based budgeting focuses attention on outputs in relation to value for money. Through this value for money approach, inefficient and obsolete operations are identified so that wastage can be eliminated and a more efficient allocation of resources to activities and departments can be achieved. Therefore, Oxfam Hong Kong can indirectly reduce the cost of selection of decision because the wastage is reduced and the allocation of resource is being efficient. Problem of Zero-based budgeting Actually, no method is perfect. Zero-based budgeting also exists problems that Oxfam Hong Kong should be faced. More costly and time consuming The preparation of decision packages can generate a great volume of paperwork especially for a large project or activity and will require a considerable management skill. Therefore, Oxfam Hong Kong should be provided more training and education about concepts of application of Zero-based budgeting to the management department because Zero-based budgeting must be clearly understood by managers at various levels to be successfully implemented. The running cost is directly increased. Also, Zero-based budgeting will requires gathering, analysis and evaluation of large amounts of data that the management department faced with much workload and it is very time consuming. Problems of identifying ranking packages Subjective judgment and political pressure are unavoidable in ranking packages and allocation of resources and may create departmental conflicts. Different types and natures of activities across different departments, particularly with qualitative rather than quantitative benefits, may give rise to the problem of ranking. Oxfam Hong Kong is confused of the decision packages because it is difficult to define decision units and decision packages and sometimes subjective judgment is needed. Also, management may be exaggerated skews the results if it is unreliable. Then, the decision packages are became inaccurate. Relationship between management and staff deterioration The questioning attitude of zero-based budgeting is not always acceptable to staff or management because they may view it as a threat to their existing implied rights. For example, management department and accounting department have different ideas of decision packages. Each department does not agree with the other side ideas. The cooperation and motivation among the management and staff may deteriorate. Therefore, it may influence the relationship of each department in Oxfam Hong Kong. http://www.oxbridgewriters.com/essays/accounting/zero-based-budgeting.php http://www.finweb.com/financial-planning/pros-and-cons-of-zero-based-budgeting.html http://www1.cimaglobal.com/Documents/ImportedDocuments/fm_nov07_p48-53.pdf

How Children’s Literature Can Be Both Didactic and Entertaining Essay

Literature talks about significant human experiences which arouses a noble feeling of pleasure. A form of literature should have permanence, artistry, spirituality, suggestiveness and universality like a children’s literature. It may be in the form of novels, poems, stories, and others use only language to convey the subject . Children’s literature speaks of people’s challenges but more imaginary than that of an adult and it awakes the innocent mind of a child to explore to the world of fantasy and reality- the start of his training on distinguishing facts from fallacies and developing his mind to acquire the good out of the context of a children’s literature. Children’s literature connects imagination and life to prepare a child to be a grown-up. C. S. Lewis states that literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become. It helps a child gain knowledge on both what he is experiencing and from his reading. Some forms of literature can be didactic and some can be entertaining. It is didactic in a way that it instructs people on what to do, introduces facts and information, tremendously inclined to teach or moralize and sometimes a disadvantage or it kills a reader’s enjoyment. In layman’s term , we call that being a killjoy. A piece of writing is not didactic even if it is educational when it is more focused on artistic qualities. It is entertaining because it amuses you of things you haven’t seen before, draws your attention of something you want or dreams but in real life you can’t- so it becomes an outlet of your imagination,pleases your entirety and diverts your interest to something exciting. According to Cyril Connolly, â€Å"While thought exists, words are alive and literature becomes an escape, not from, but into living. † Your surname 2 Children’s literature is didactic and entertaining. Here are some that we will discuss on matters regarding the commonalities of giving information and at the same time giving the reader a dose of merriment. We will cite three: Hana’s Suitcase, Paper Bag Princess and Charlotte’s Web. Hana’s Suitcase is about two children in the hand of the Nazi’s basically George and Hana. It sets focus on Hana Brady, an ordinary girl on about 10 years of age,who perished in a concentration camp of the Nazi’s set in Czechoslovakia. An age of annihilation where the Jews were imprisoned and eventually killed. Paper Bag Princess is about a Princess Elizabeth who was about to marry Prince Ronald but the latter was kidnapped by a dragon. Courageously but naked she eventually rescues the prince wearing only a paper bag. She won by flattering the dragon because the dragon does perform all sorts of stunts ending in exhaustion. But after helping the him, the prince insults the princess and she realizes that she was better off without a prince. They did not live happily ever after. Charlotte’s Web is about a spider who helps Wilbur, a pig, from being killed by his owner. She devices a plan on how to divert the attention of the owner in Wilbur’s favor. Fern acts as a liaison between the human world and the animal world . When Charlotte was about to die, Wilbur returns the favor by taking care of her eggs. Hana’s Suitcase is didactic because it conceptualizes on an idea about discrimination on Jews and talks about some history of Czechoslovakia set in the 1900’s. A girl who is the same as her peer suffers an unjust experience. Children received the story with the greatest interest. This serves as instrument that provoked them to understand the evil of intolerance and racism at their young age. Hana’s suitcase is filled with the love and thoughts of thousands of children. It may appear empty, but it is once again, miraculously, packed – with life and joy. It arouses the mind of the children to think positively out of the context of the sad ending of the story. It is entertaining because it shows a historical setting and us, being in a contemporary are being amused by the changes in the course of history. Aside from that, trifles- insignificant yet Your surname 3 significant in this story, traces in the suitcase triggers us surprised and excitement on what will happen next in the story. Paper Bag Princess is didactic in a way that it teaches us to be courageous, willing to sacrifice ourselves for the needy and at the same time teaches us to balance the heart and the mind. If others cannot appreciate the help that you did, let them because good deeds need not to be rewarded by words of mortal but in God’s kingdom. It is entertaining because it shows the comic side of the story by the dragon’s character. It affects our sense of humor by the antics done by a dragon. Usually we think of a dragon as merciless, cannibal and ferocious beings but this time the author serves a different attack on a character supposedly unlike by children. Another thing is the character of Princess Elizabeth, where a princess should be modest, tactful, graceful and educated but in this story a princess is brave like a knight , witty and dirty as needed for the development of the story’s childish side. The characteristic of being didactic in Charlotte’s Web is shown on giving the moral of the story that a friend in need is a friend in indeed. It teaches us that life is easy with friends. Your facade or outside appearance is not a hindrance for doing good. Just like in the story a spider may look tough and scary but she proves that she can also be as nice and beautiful in the way of the heart. The entertainment on Charlotte’s Web lies on giving the character justice by putting animals as lead. A pig is characterized by being foul-smelling, unorganized, filthy and a spider as an organized and self-centered being , but we are entertained by the fact that the story creates a different side of each- a pig being empathic and a spider being friendly. Every farm animal has a character of its own that resembles a human being that is kind, compassionate and helpful to other beings. Hana’s Suitcase, Paper Bag Princess and Charlotte’s Web denotes a higher level of giving a child what he needs to progress in terms of acquisition of ideas expressed by these literature. It is Your surname 4 not only for the kids but for all ages, These three just focus on children especially on characters to establish an easy and clear connection to reality and the contemporary without lessening the value that it has to offer . Hana bears the quality of humility, Elizabeth being courageous and Charlotte being compassionate. Three young individuals that changes a person’s life because of their actions in the story. They have a major role in forming a young mind to be a law-abiding citizen, to be a model to others, just like what they did. They may be fictional but their character’s aren’t. Each of us has a capacity to change the world having the chance to do so. A piece of literature can be didactic and at the same time entertaining and educational depending on how a person relate himself to it. It only requires the awakening of your hidden individuality to perceive what a literature wants you to visualize and eventually take into action whatever good you have acquired from a children’s literature. Children’s literature satisfies a particular human need. It allows the embodiment of ideas to become a concrete one and eventually be applied to the good of humanity in forms of acts and other activities that will promote human welfare. Your surname Works Cited Munsch, R. (1985). Paper Bag Princess. San Diego: Annick Press.

How the Columbian Exchange Changed Our World Forever

Products like potatoes, tomatoes, chocolate and tobacco have become part of our everyday life. However, only since the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus these products had been brought to our regions. After this discovery, the Columbian exchange started: products were transported from the New World to the Old World and vice versa. This exchange had an enormous influence on the world: without the Columbian exchange, the world would not be the same as the one we know today. In his essay, Charles C. Mann (2007) called the exchange the most important event after the death of the dinosaurs. Firstly, the Columbian exchange dramatically transformed the American ecological environment. Charles C. Man (2007) explained that, due to the success of Rolfe’s tobacco plantation in Jamestown, English earthworms had been transported from the Old World to the New World. As the worms were extinct on the American mainland, these invertebrates caused a lot of damage to the ecosystem when they ate the foliage beneath the trees. When it rained, all the nutrients, which had been stored in the litter, were leached away. As a consequence, many trees died because they needed these nutrients. As a result, the landscape became more open than it had been before. However, the worms were not the only ones responsible for the drastic change in the American landscape. Besides the worms, the colonists themselves transformed the original landscape by shipping their domestic animals to the NewShow MoreRelatedImpact Of The Columbian Exchange909 Words   |  4 PagesThe Columbian Exchange was a n event that was very impactful on modern day. The Columbian Exchange was the widespread trade of plants, animals, guns, and diseases. It occured between the Americas, Africa, and Europe. Examples of products that the Americas contributed are turkey, squash, and potatoes. Examples of products that Europe contributed are horses, sugar, and smallpox. Columbian exchange was a huge impact on our modern day world because it changed war and hunting, it introduced new ingredientsRead MoreThe Development Of Exploration And The Industrial Revolution1168 Words   |  5 Pagesâ€Å"Reformation† and â€Å"Enlightenment†. This was a time where nations became established and grew increasingly curious of the world around them. Several technological and intellectual advances occurred during this era. Early modern history began with the â€Å"Exploration† period and ended with the â€Å"Industrial Revolution†. To begin with, exploration began when countries began to ponder the world around them more. In Portugal (1415), Prince Henry wanted to travel to Northern Africa so that Portugal could cut theRead MoreThe Struggle Of The Church969 Words   |  4 PagesRenaissance popes. But a man by the name of Martin Luther was able to escape the unfortunate faith of some of the earlier religious reformers. And because of the strong beliefs that he had, both the religious, and political character of Europe changed forever. Martin Luther was born in Germany in 1483. Here, he attended school, and in this era, it was a fascinating time to learn. People were being taught about the fascinating discoveries of Christopher Columbus, and inventions like the printing pressRead MoreThe Mexican Exchange, Bombing Of Hiroshima, And The Events That Took Place Essay2212 Words   |  9 Pagesdoubt whether or not the Colombian exchange, bombing of Hiroshima, and the events that took place in 1968 impacted our world history forever because everyone agrees these three events were extremely impactful. 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While I do think that fighting back was the right thing for Douglass to do, I don’t think that his choice to fight back was the most meaningful turning point to his emancipation. Learning how to read and write was what set Douglass apart from the other slaves that he was amongst, and what led him to learn about the better opportunities in the North and inspired him to risk everything to escape to where he could live a free life as a freeRead MoreSlaverys Global Impact and Economic Justifications, Yesterday and Today2490 Words   |  10 PagesJustifications, Today and Yesterday Slavery existed in some form in every region of the world. During the earliest civilizations, slave labor built nations and empires in Europe, Egypt, Greece, Asia and Africa. Thousands of years later, the Portuguese, Dutch and English realized the profit value that a market in human capital would provide. Africans were exported from their homeland to the New World under the most miserable conditions imaginable. Prof. Marcus Rediker, author of The Slave Ship

•The Strategy Of Other Companies For Facing The Wal-Mart

†¢ The Strategy of other companies for facing the Wal-Mart Threat. 1-Force Wal-Mart points are explicitly acknowledged widely. With its size and access to capital, Wal-Mart can maintain even low-shop performance over the long term when you move to the area, a luxury not granted many small businesses, based on the family. Distribution and supply chain enables the efficient retailer to offer very low prices, which is difficult for competitors to match. In wide variety products - especially in shops offering both the grocery and general merchandise - generates traffic and supports storage-stop shopping and one of the consumer experiences. And, the culture-oriented companies to control costs, which include reliance on low-cost and part-time,†¦show more content†¦Mimics this approach, described by Porter (1980) Focus - a low-cost strategy. Empirical research supports the effectiveness of this approach among the selected small retailers, especially those that operate in hostile environments and intensely competitive (Maggie and Rubach, 1996/1997). Strategy 2: Focus--Differentiation Wal-Mart simply cannot meet the needs of our customers. - One approach to successfully compete against the big box requires a recognition that costs must be kept under control, but the costs are low (low prices) cannot serve as an effective basis for competition. Retailers and the adoption of concentration - a strategy of differentiation to avoid price competition and competition on the basis of other factors such as quality, choice, convenience, and service. There is increasing evidence that a number of smaller competitors Wal-Mart employ this approach effectively against the big box (McWilliams, 2007a). - It can also be an excellent specialization approach to combating a large box. 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