Sales Budget

Definition of Sales Budget

A sales budget (SB) can be defined as the budget which is prepared to forecast or estimate the future sales revenue taking into consideration the units of sales in the future and the selling price of the product or service according to the demand for specific goods in the market and other market conditions like competition, availability, etc. using better utilization of business resources, lesser expenses, lesser wastage of material, employee performances, etc.

Explanation

Just like the other budgets the company prepares, the SB is prepared to forecast and estimate the company’s future sales revenue. The salespeople and the marketing team take a crucial part in preparing the sales budget. The SB gives the company’s employees a better understanding of their targets and thus stay motivated to achieve the same.

Purpose of Sales Budget

The SB’s most important purpose is to forecast the company’s future sales. The company gets the idea of how many sales units it has to produce and how many expenses it has to incur. With the help of the SB, the other budgets of the company are prepared, like the production budget, expenses budget, etc.

Sales Budget Process

• Generally, the bottom-up planning method is used to determine the SB.
• The collated budget, which is prepared by a collection of the budgets from every salesperson, is deposited with the manager, and again the manager’s budget is sent to the regional in charge, which goes on to every senior level until the single final SB is prepared.
• The company’s top management makes the necessary changes in the SB which are sent to the different departments, called the top-bottom process.

Example of Sales Budget

Let’s Consider the company ABC Ltd. It is in the business of manufacturing boxes. It has made its budget for the next year ended on December 2002.It has forecasted its sales for the next year for the Q1, Q2, Q3 & Q4 are $10,000, $8,000, $6,000 & $9,000 respectively. The selling price for Q1, Q2, Q3& Q4 would be $7, $7, $8 & $8, respectively.

The company allowed the sales discount at the rate of 5% on gross sales for the entire year quarter-wise.

Its SB will be prepared as follows:

Sales Budget of ABC LTD

For the year ended December 2001.

Sr. No.	Particulars	Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4
A)	Sales Unit	$10,000	$8,000	$6,000	$9,000
B)	Sales price per unit	$7	$7	$8	$8
C)	Total sales (A*B)	$70,000	$56,000	$48,000	$72,000
D)	Sales Discount @5% on gross sales	$3,500	$2,800	$2,400	$3,600
E)	Total Net Sales(C-D)	$66,500	$53,200	$45,600	$68,400

Factors Affecting Sales Budget

The following factors affect the SB:

• Internal Factors: The internal factors are those factors that are present within the organization like the number of employees, the ability and the performance of employees, the price of the sales, the volume of the sales, availability of the product, the price of the product, management strategies, etc.
• External Factors: External factors are those outside the organization, like competition in the market, The types of customers, the Customer’s purchasing power, Seasonal factors, legal environment, Economy, etc.

Need for Sales Budget

There is a need to prepare the SB to answer the organization’s questions like how many units of the product should be produced, how many expenses should be incurred, how many employees should be allocated, and how many resources should be given for the particular processes.

Importance of Sales Budget

It is essential in the following area:

• Budgeting of the other Departments: Generally, the budget required to be prepared by the other departments depends on the Sales budget. Once it is ready, different budgets like production budgets, expenses budgets, etc. can be prepared.
• Growth & Expansion: The SB gives the sales targets to be achieved by the company’s employees. Hence, the employees stay motivated and work in a complex, inefficient, and effective manner to achieve the targets.
• Performance Evaluation: The sales budget is used to evaluate the organization’s performance. As the target sales are already known at the beginning of the year, the company can determine its performance at the end of the year by referring to the actual sales it has achieved at the year-end.

Advantages

• It gives the idea of the target sales for the organization’s employees. Due to this, the employees of the company stay motivated and work hard to achieve the desired sales target.
• It also gives the idea to the employees of the company about the expenditure they can incur. They can provide the priorities to the different expenses and ignore those irrelevant to them. Hence, there can be efficient and effective control of business expenses.
• It gives the performance measurement of the organization’s business. Hence the organization can view its growth and the area where it needs improvement.
• With the help of the sales budget, the business’s resources can be allocated efficiently and optimally utilized.

Disadvantages

• A lot of time and the management’s efforts are required to prepare the sales budget. Hence, it proved to be a time-consuming activity.
• The preparation of the sales budget is based on the management’s judgment, which is subjective and can differ from person to person. Hence, it does not give a realistic view of future sales and related expenses.
• Generally, it is prepared considering the past trends of the organization. The newly formed company did not have sales in the past, so scheduling a sales budget became difficult for the newly formed company.

Conclusion

It is prepared by every organization irrespective of the size of the organization and age, whether small, large, old, or new. This budget is prepared to estimate the sales revenue and the expenses after considering the sales discount of the business. It helps the company employees achieve the desired sales at the minimum costs. There are various strategies by which the sales budget of the business is prepared using the past trends and the nature of the company. The nature of the business, market conditions, market competition, etc., are some of the factors considered when preparing the sales budget.

Recommended Articles

This is a guide to Sales Budget. Here we discuss the introduction and factors affecting sales budget along with advantages and disadvantages. You may also have a look at the following articles to learn more –

1. Gross Sales
2. Price to Sales Ratio
3. Asset to Sales Ratio
4. Gross sales vs Net sales