The financial plan provides the short-term basis for budgeting control and prevent the most common problem for new ventures—lack of cash.

Goals that are overly ambitious can discourage employees and decrease motivation, yet the idea of stretch goals is proposed as a way to get people fired up and motivated. as a manager, how might you decide where to draw the line between a “good” stretch goal and a “bad” one that is unrealistic?

Paar corporation bought 100 percent of kimmel, inc., on january 1, 2012. on that date, paar’s equipment (10-year life) has a book value of $420,000 but a fair value of $520,000. kimmel has equipment (10-year life) with a book value of $272,000 but a fair value of $400,000. paar uses the equity method to record its investment in kimmel. on december 31, 2014, paar has equipment with a book value of $294,000 but a fair value of $445,200. kimmel has equipment with a book value of $190,400 but a fair value of $357,000. the consolidated balance for the equipment account as of december 31, 2014 is $574,000. what would be the impact on consolidated balance for the equipment account as of december 31, 2014 if the parent had applied the initial value method rather than the equity method? the balance in the consolidated equipment account cannot be determined for the initial value method using the information given. the consolidated equipment account would have a higher reported balance. the consolidated equipment account would have a lower reported balance. no effect: the method the parent uses is for internal reporting purposes only and has no impact on consolidated totals.

Lavage rapide is a canadian company that owns and operates a large automatic car wash facility near montreal. the following table provides data concerning the company’s costs: fixed cost per month cost per car washed cleaning supplies $ 0.70 electricity $ 1,400 $ 0.07 maintenance $ 0.15 wages and salaries $ 4,900 $ 0.30 depreciation $ 8,300 rent $ 1,900 administrative expenses $ 1,400 $ 0.03 for example, electricity costs are $1,400 per month plus $0.07 per car washed. the company expects to wash 8,000 cars in august and to collect an average of $6.50 per car washed. the actual operating results for august appear below. lavage rapide income statement for the month ended august 31 actual cars washed 8,100 revenue $ 54,100 expenses: cleaning supplies 6,100 electricity 1,930 maintenance 1,440 wages and salaries 7,660 depreciation 8,300 rent 2,100 administrative expenses 1,540 total expense 29,070 net operating income $ 25,030 required: calculate the company's revenue and spending variances for august.