Finance – Budgeting
You were recently hired as Management Director of the new I Can Business Incorporated (ICBI). You have been asked to establish policies and systems for the business. The first one you choose to work on is a financial reporting system.
For this assignment, you must develop a 4–5-page memo that you will deliver to the ICBI Board of Directors. You will describe what a financial reporting system is and explain how the management team at ICBI should use an activity-based budget instead of an operating budget. Be sure to explain the similarities and the differences of the two. Finally, give examples of budget guidelines for ICBI. You must answer the following:
- Describe the meaning and the components of a financial reporting system.
- Explain the budget process.
- Describe a budget contingency plan.
- Give an example of financial guidelines that ICBI should follow to successfully plan for finance management.
Identify and describe at least 5 basic financial guidelines.
Running head: SHORTENED TITLE 1
SHORTENED TITLE 2
Paper Title
Author
Name of the University
Abstract
The abstract is written in block format, meaning that the start of the paragraph is not indented. It begins on the next line following the Abstract heading and should not be more than 250 words. As an undergraduate, it is suggested that you verify the length of the abstract with your instructor (it is usually a FULL paragraph), but a graduate student must adhere to the 120 to 250 word abstract. The Abstract heading should NOT be in bold. All numbers in an abstract should be typed as digits and not as words unless they are at the beginning of a sentence. The abstract is a one-paragraph summary of the most important elements of the paper. This is an example of what an abstract looks like in a paper. Remember, it usually takes a minimum of 5 sentences to make a paragraph. If your paper is too short to warrant an abstract, delete this page and omit the title on the next page.
Title of Paper
The title of the paper is centered on the first line of the third page and is in uppercase and lowercase letters. Do not italicize the title, bold it, or put it in quotes. The introductory paragraph begins on the line following the title of the paper. The entire paper, including the title page, abstract, body, and references, should be double-spaced. The before/after paragraphs spacing should be set on zero and the margins should be one inch.
In order to give proper credit to the ideas and words of others, any outside sources used in the body of the paper must be documented by citing the author(s) and copyright date of the source(s). This is called a citation. Each citation must have a corresponding full source reference on the references page that follows the body of the paper. As noted by Stevens (2008), a signal phrase “signals to the reader that either a direct quote or a paraphrase is about to follow” (p.43). This is an in-text citation. As in this example, when the name of the author is part of the sentence, the year of the publication appears in parentheses directly following the author’s name, e.g., Stevens (2008). When the author of a source is not mentioned in the sentence, both the author and year of publication appear in parentheses (Stevens, 2008). This is a parenthetical in-text citation. If a work has two authors, both authors are cited in each citation of that source. For a citation of a source with two authors, use the last names of both authors separated by an ampersand (&). When no author is listed, use the title. If the title is extremely long, one may shorten it to the first 4 words of the title and place them in quotation marks. If the headings are too long to use in your in-text citation use a shortened version in quotation marks like this: (Lorraine, 2009, “Stock market trends,” para. 56). When no publication date is listed, use the abbreviation n.d., which stands for no date. When a direct quote is taken from a source with page numbers, such as a book, magazine, or newspaper, include the page number as part of the citation. If the quote is fewer than 40 words, it should be enclosed in double quotation marks and should be incorporated into the formal structure of the sentence.
If the quotation that you are using is more than 40 words long, you must use a block quotation. This is a block paragraph. In a block paragraph, you should not use any quotations at all unless they are needed to indicate a quotation within the original text. (“APA Block Quotation,” n.d.) Note: Citations that start with titles are in quotes and the title can be shortened but should also be in quotes to designate that it is a title.
If you have a direct quote but your source does not have page numbers but does give paragraph numbers, then you would give the paragraph number to show where you found your quote. It would look like this: (Franklin, 2009, para. 9). If there are not any page numbers or paragraph numbers but headings are given, then give the heading and the number of the paragraph that follows it. You will need to count the paragraphs yourself since the numbers are not given. That would look like this: (Franklin, 2009, Past Research section, para. 9).
The references section begins on a new page. The heading is centered on the first line of the new page. It is not in bold, not in italics, nor underlined. The references, which are double spaced, have a hanging indent and begin on the line following the references heading. Entries are organized alphabetically by whatever comes first in the reference (author last name or first word of title). Go to the next page to see an example of a reference page.
References
APA block quotation. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.rpi.edu/web/writingcenter /wc_web/school/apa_block_quotation.htm
Cuddy, M. F., & Fisher, E. R. (2010). Investigation of the roles of gas-phase CF2 molecules and F atoms during fluorocarbon plasma processing of Si and ZrO2 substrates. Journal of Applied Physics, 108(3), 033303. doi:10.1063/1.3467776
Stevens, J.R. (2008). The signal phrase. Retrieved from http://www.englishdiscourse.org
/signal.html