Overhead Budget

Definition of Overhead Budget

The Overhead Budget can be defined as the budget which is prepared to forecast or show all the future costs that are expected to be incurred during the manufacturing of the goods or services of the company, and it does not include the direct material cost and the direct labour cost along with all other costs which form part of the cost of goods sold, i.e., which generally forms the part of other master budget prepared by the company.

Explanation

The company prepares various budgets to have an idea of future incomes and expenses. For example, the manufacturing companies prepare overhead budgets to estimate the overhead expenses of the company. In Overhead budgets, direct expenses like direct labor and direct material expenses are not taken into account because they already form part of the other master budgets in calculating the cost of goods sold.  Therefore, overhead budgets help the management and employees of the company in the future estimation of profitability and the understanding of their limitations in terms of expenses.

Example of Overhead Budget

Let’s consider Company ABC ltd which is the manufacturing company. It has prepared the list of all the overhead expenses for the upcoming year, December 2021, and is planning to prepare the overhead budget.

According to the company,its expected employee costs for the next year for Q1, Q2, Q3 &Q4 would be $13,000, $11,000, $14,000 & $12,000 respectively. It’s expected utility charges and income tax charges for the next year for Q1, Q2, Q3 & Q4 would be $4,000, $3,000, $6,000 & $5,000 respectively and $10,000, $11,000,$9,000 & $12,000 respectively. It has forecasted some fixed expenses which will remain unchanged during the next year like Depreciation expenses, insurance expenses and the rent expense of the factory. These expenses will remain at $13,000, $12,000 & $15,000 per quarter respectively.

Now, its Overhead budget will be presented as:

Overhead Budget of ABC Ltd
For the year ended Dec 2021
Particulars	Q 1	Q 2	Q 3	Q 4
Variable Overheads
Employee Cost	$13,000	$11,000	$14,000	$12,000
Utility Charges	$  4,000	$  3,000	$  6,000	$  5,000
Income Tax	$10,000	$11,000	$  9,000	$12,000
Total Variable overheads(A)	$27,000	$25,000	$29,000	$29,000
Fixed Overheads
Depreciation Expenses	$13,000	$13,000	$13,000	$13,000
Insurance Expenses	$12,000	$12,000	$12,000	$12,000
Rent Expenses	$15,000	$15,000	$15,000	$15,000
Total Fixed Overheads(B)	$40,000	$40,000	$40,000	$40,000
Total Overhead Expenses(A+B)	$67,000	$65,000	$69,000	$69,000

In the above, we can see, the variable overheads are shown separately, and below that, the fixed overheads are presented. Total overhead expenses are shown as the sum of variable overheads and the fixed overheads.

Overhead Budget Format

In the preparation of the overhead budget, the variable overheads are shown first separately, and they are calculated as the product of total units of production and the rate per unit. Then, below variable overheads, fixed overheads expenses are presented, and at last total variable overhead expenses are shown as the sum of variable and fixed overhead expenses.

The Overhead Budget is presented in the below format:

Company XXX
Particulars	Q 1	Q 2	Q 3	Q 4
Variable Overheads
Units(a)	XXX	XXX	XXX	XXX
Rate(b)	XXX	XXX	XXX	XXX
Total Variable Overheads(A)(a*b)	XXX	XXX	XXX	XXX
Fixed Overheads
Rent [c]	XXX	XXX	XXX	XXX
Depreciation (d)	XXX	XXX	XXX	XXX
Total Factory Overheads (B)(c+d)	XXX	XXX	XXX	XXX
Total Overhead Expenses (A+B)	XXX	XXX	XXX	XXX

Why is Overhead Budget Important?

Overhead budgets are important for the companies because it gives an idea to the company’s management and employees of all the future expenses to be incurred by it. With the help of this, the management and employees of the company understand their limitations and can make the strategies to control those expenses. The company’s management and employees can systematically allocate their business resources according to the priority of the expenses.

Advantages of Overhead Budgets

The following are the advantages of the Overhead Budget:

• First, the Overhead Budget gives the idea to the management and the employees of the company of all the expected future expenses to be incurred by it. Hence, the company’s employees and management can control all those expenses that they find irrelevant and can allocate the funds to some other areas to achieve the desired results.
• With the help of Overhead budgets, the business resources can be allocated to the different areas of the business in an efficient and the effective manner. This improves the future profitability of the business of the company.

Disadvantages of Overhead Budget

The following are the disadvantages of the Overhead Budget:

• First, the preparation of the overhead budget is a time-consuming activity. The company’s management has to invest much of their time and efforts to prepare the same. Hence, they get less time to invest in other activities of the company.
• The preparation of the Overhead budget is based on the estimates of the management and their judgment. However, the management estimate and their judgment are subjective, which can differ from person to person and change because of the unpredicted conditions of the market. Hence, the overhead budget does not give the realistic results of the future expenses; it just estimates the company’s management.

Conclusion

The Overhead budget gives the forecast of all indirect expenses or overhead expenses to be incurred by the company in the future. Hence, the management and the employees of the company get an idea of future expected expenses, and hence it gives them the way to make proper strategies to control those expenses and to increase the profitability in the future. Moreover, all the limitations are well known to the employees in the present for future expenses. Therefore, the company’s management and employees can differentiate which expenses are important and which expenses are not important. Hence, by doing this, the irrelevant future expenses can be avoided by the company’s management and employees. The preparation of the overhead budget is mainly prepared in the manufacturing industries.

Recommended Articles

This is a guide to Overhead Budget. Here we also discuss the definition and why is overhead budget important? along with advantages and disadvantages. You may also have a look at the following articles to learn more –

1. Manufacturing Overhead
2. Predetermined Overhead Rate
3. Activity-Based Costing
4. Asset to Sales Ratio