Accounting

A static budget is defined as a budget that is "planned ahead of time based on the owner's best guess about future actual activity." This type of budget is therefore put together for the upcoming time period, and is often based on the data from past time periods, plus or minus different adjustments that management thinks will be necessary. In contrast, a flexible budget is one where the business management can make changes in the midst of an accounting period. Flexible budgeting allows for management to make better decisions on the fly, because the information used in those decisions is kept more up-to-date. Static budgeting relies only on the ability of management to analyze the numbers after the period in order to determine the magnitude and direction of variance, along with the causes of variance. For a flexible budget, management can identify issues with the budget right away, and...
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