Capital Budgeting: Process and Product

Many introductory finance texts present information on the capital budgeting process, including estimation of project cash flows. Typically, estimation of project cash flows begins with a calculation of net income. Getting from net income to cash flows requires accounting for non-cash items such as depreciation. Also important is the effect of changes in net operating working capital on cash flow. While students readily understand how to account for depreciation when calculating cash flow, they typically have much more difficulty understanding how and why changes in working capital affect cash flows. This paper develops a teaching example to show exactly how and why changes in net operating working capital affect cash flows. The example shows how to derive operating cash flows for a proposed project using the accrual accounting method and then shows a cash budget for the same project. Finally, the example shows that the discrepancy between the cash flows shown in the cash budget and the operating cash flows can be resolved by accounting for changes in working capital. A survey of students in an MBA managerial finance course indicates student satisfaction with the teaching example and gives evidence that students prefer the teaching example to explanations of the effect of working capital on project cash flows given in the assigned text.

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Performance assessment and capital budgeting based on performance

Benchmarking An International Journal ◽

10.1108/bij-07-2016-0116 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 25 (6) ◽

pp. 1729-1745

Author(s):

Mojtaba Ghiyasi

Keyword(s):

Linear Programming ◽

Vocational Training ◽

Capital Budgeting ◽

Fiscal Year ◽

Programming Technique ◽

Content Type ◽

Decision Making Unit ◽

Training Schools ◽

Budgeting Process ◽

Semnan Province

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to propose two performance-based capital budgeting (PBCB) approaches. The proposed approaches aim to assign limited capital within different firms based on their performance. These approaches have been applied to capital budgeting process of the technical and vocational training schools of Semnan Province, Iran for the fiscal year 2014–2016. Although the current capital of each decision-making unit (DMU) is secured in the first approach, the second approach provides possibility of sharing the capital between DMUs. Design/methodology/approach Data envelopment analysis which is a broadly used mathematical programming technique for assessing performance of DMUs is utilized for the first phase of both approaches. The proposed models are based on linear programming. Different scenarios are presented and their pros and cons for the capital budgeting process are discussed. Findings The proposed approaches are applied to capital budgeting process for a fiscal year of technical and vocational training schools of Semnan Province, Iran. The budget allocation of the previous year has been found to be non-optimal in terms of budget consuming. This emphasizes reconsideration of budget allotment within schools. The results show a high potential for producing more outputs. The second approach that provides the possibility of sharing and realloting of budget between schools based on their performance may be crucial for those schools that are not performing efficiently because there is possibility of losing budget in each given year in contrast with the previous years. Originality/value This paper proposes two linear programming-based approaches for the PBCB. The author not only deals with static framework but also proposes dynamic structured models. Using performance-based budgeting in organizations has been emphasized by authorities in Iran for many years. Using the proposed approaches, different suggestion and policy recommendation for decision makers in process of capital budgeting process within period of study are provided for technical and vocational training schools of Semnan Province, Iran.

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