Many people believe that the budgeting process is wasteful and ineffective. They maintain that managers spend too much time focusing on the mechanics of budgeting and not enough time on strategic issues. They believe that this emphasis on the budgeting process causes managers to neglect more important matters, such as eliminating nonvalue-adding activities that waste resources. Critics of the budgeting process also maintain that the information and formats that managers use in budgets fail to communicate the short-term business activities needed to achieve long-term goals. Place yourself in the role of a company’s controller and search the Internet for articles on budgeting. Based on your research, prepare a memorandum to your company’s owner that

(1) Justifies the use of budgeting and

(2) Suggests ways of making the budgeting process, the budget information, and the budgets themselves efficient, effective, and meaningful.

After you complete this part of the assignment, your instructor will divide the class into groups. Group members will compare their memorandums and prepare a summary statement, which one member of the group will present to the rest of the class.