Overhead cost is an ongoing expense of operating a business and is usually used to group expenses that are necessary to the continued functioning of the business, but cannot be immediately associated with the products/services being offered as in the costs do not directly generate profits. Overhead cost includes indirect product cost or indirect cost of responsibility center. Indirect product cost is known as manufacturing overhead whereas indirect cost of responsibility center is known as non-manufacturing cost. Manufacturing overhead is those manufacturing costs that are incurred to a variety of products. It cannot be traced to individual products like depreciation and insurance of manufacturing equipment, cost of occupying, managing and maintaining a production facility. Manufacturing overhead is the cost that could be traced to individual product but it is not worth the trouble to like cost of lubricants and glue used. Manufacturing overhead also include cost that is more appropriately Continue reading
Financial Management Concepts
What is Financial Structure?
Financial structure refers to the way as to how the firm’s assets are financed. It includes both, long-term as well as short-term sources of funds. In other words, it refers to the left hand side of the Balance Sheet as represented by total liabilities. However, a more frequently used term is capital structure which is slightly different from financial structure. If short-term liabilities are removed from firm’s financial structure, what one obtains is its capital structure. So, financial structure is defined as the amount of current liabilities, long-term debt, preferred stock and common stock used to finance a firm. In contrast, capital structure refers to the amount of long-term debt, preferred stock and common stock used to finance a firm’s assets. Thus, capital structure is only a part of the financial structure and it represents the permanent financing of the company. Another term Capitalization refers to total long-term funds required Continue reading
Reserves – Meaning, Objectives and Types
A reserve is a part of the profit set aside to meet future contingencies and losses. Usually, the whole amount of profit earned by the business is not distributed to the owners or shareholders. A part of the profit is retained in the business either for meeting its unexpected future liabilities and losses or for strengthening financial position. It can be created for redeeming liabilities or replacing depreciable assets or declaring uniform rate of dividend over years. It is created out of the profit only. If there is no profit in a particular year, no reserve can be created in that year. It is created by debiting the profit and loss appropriation account. It does not reduce the figure of net profit because it is created after determining profit. The reserve, therefore, reduces only the figure of divisible profit. It belongs to the owners and shareholders. It can be distributed Continue reading
How Interest Rates Can Influence Financial Decisions?
Interest rates exert the following economic influences. Interest rates in a country influence the foreign exchange value of the country’s currency. Interest rates act as a guide to the return that a company’s shareholders might want, and changes in market interest rates will affect share prices. A positive real rate of interest enhances an investor’s real wealth to the income he earns from his investments. However, when interest rates go up or down, perhaps due to a rise or fall in the rate of inflation, there will also be a potential capital loss or gain for the investor. In other words, the market value of interest-bearing securities will alter. Market values will fall when interest rates go up and vice versa. Interest Rates are Important for Financial Decisions by Companies Interest rate is important for financial decisions by companies. The incidence of the interest rates can have the following effects. Continue reading
Use of Return on Investment (ROI) to Assess the Performance of Organizations
Analysis of financial statements has being part of the bed rock of finance itself. For publicly traded companies, the greater level of participation by the general publics and sometimes global stakeholders has meant comprehensive assessments are done on their financial statements. Some of the basic reasons for the assessment of the financial statement of companies include the evaluation of current operations, compare the current performance with past performance, make comparison against other firms and industry standards, study the effectiveness and efficiency of operations and the level of efficiency in the utilization of resources. The rationale behind the assessment of a firm’s financial statement is such that a firm has being given resources; it is supposed to convert those resources into profit through the production of goods and the provision of services. Accounting ratios are meant to measure the relationships between resources and financial flows to show ways in which the Continue reading
Profit Maximization Objective of a Firm
In the conventional theory of the firm, the principle objective of a business firm is to maximize profit. Under the assumptions of given taste and technology, price and output of a given product under competition are determined with the sole objective of maximization of profit. Profit maximization refers to the maximization of dollar income of the firm. Under profit maximization objective, business firms attempt to adopt those investment projects, which yields larger profits, and drop all other unprofitable activities. In maximizing profits, input-output relationship is crucial, either input is minimized to achieve a given amount of profit or the output is maximized with a given amount of input. Thus, this objective of the firm enhances productivity and improves the efficiency of the firm. The conventional theory of the firm defends profit maximization objective on the following grounds: In a competitive market only those firms survive which are able to make Continue reading