M3.27 Working with Costs and Budgets

Companies need to control expenditure to help them make a profit and reinvest for the future. Business organisations must be competitive to survive, so keeping expenditure under control is an essential activity. Other organisations need to control expenditure to make better use of resources. The objectives of this workbook are to make you better able to

• identify different costs and how they behave
• appreciate how important it is to control costs
• understand how standard costing techniques help to control costs
• use different methods for controlling and reducing costs
• understand what a budget is and how they are used
• help to draw up workable budgets
• use some budgetary control techniques