FINANCIAL FORECASTING AND FINANCIAL PLANNING:Planning Documents, Drawback of Percent of Sales Method

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Financial Management MGT201

Lesson 05

FINANCIAL FORECASTING AND FINANCIAL PLANNING

Learning Objectives:

After going through this lecture, you would be able to have an understanding of the following concepts.

· Financial Forecasting and Financial Planning.

· Methods of forecasting

Before going into the detailed calculation of cash flow, it is important to know the principles behind

financial forecasting and financial planning.

Although, financial planning and forecasting cannot reduce the uncertainty in our lives, the idea is

simply to acknowledge and identify different points in time, where we expect some future occurrences,

and to prepare plans and contingencies in the light of those forecasted happenings. Of course, we cannot

be certain about the future, but we can always plan and arrange for it.

Objectives of Financial Forecasting:

Although, financial planning and forecasting cannot reduce the uncertainty in our lives, the idea is

simply to acknowledge and identify different points in time, where we expect some future occurrences,

and to prepare plans and contingencies in the light of those forecasted happenings. Of course, we cannot

be certain about the future, but we can always plan and arrange for it.

1) Reduce cost of responding to emergencies by anticipating the future occurrences

2) Prepare to take advantage of future opportunities

3) Prepare contingency and emergency plans

4) Prepare to deal with possible outcomes

Planning Documents:

There are three types of documents that are to be prepared while making a financial plan. These are

1) Cash Budget

2) Pro Forma Balance Sheet

3) Pro Forma Income Statement

Here, the term `pro forma' refers to forecasting. These pro forma statements are prepared on the basis of

certain estimates.

Methods of forecasting

In order to prepare pro forma statements, two methods are commonly practiced, which are given

as under

Percentage of Sales: Simple

Cash Budget: Detailed, more complicated

Percentage of sales:

Step 1: Estimate year-by-year Sales Revenue and Expenses

Step 2: Estimate Levels of Investment Needs (in Assets) required meeting estimated sales (using

Financial Ratios). That how the Assets of the company changes with the change in

Step 3: Estimate the Financing Needs (Liabilities)

Explanation:

While employing percentage of sales method, we would estimate the cash flows based on the

sales revenue. The first step is to forecast the changes in the sales revenue in the successive years.

Expenses incurring in successive period would also be estimated. These expenses include cost of goods

sold expense, administrative, expense, marketing expense, depreciation expense, and other expenses.

However, these revenues and expenses would be estimated on cash, rather than accrual basis.

After estimating the revenues and expenses, we need to forecast the anticipated changes in

assets and liabilities as a result of changes in sales. Having forecasted the assets and liabilities as a result

of changes in sale, we would be able to identify how much capital the firm has to invest in assets and

how much the company needs to borrow as a result of any shortfall. Here, we would examine the

various heads of assets and liabilities and their relationship with sales. We can establish these relations

by identifying the changes in assets and liabilities as a result of change in sales, and to do that certain

assumptions need to be considered.

GENERAL ASSUMPTIONS

Current Assets:

Generally grow in proportion to Sales.

Fixed Assets: Do not always grow in proportion to Sales. Ask if you need to expand property, office

or factory space, machinery in order to achieve your Sales target.

Financial Management MGT201

Current Liabilities:

Also called Spontaneous Financing. Generally grow in proportion to Sale

Long Term Liabilities: Also, called Discretionary Financing does not grow in proportion to Sales

Explanation:

Current assets include cash, marketable securities, accounts receivable, inventory, and prepaid

expenses. Out of these current assets, changes in cash, accounts receivable and inventory can be directly

linked to changes in sales. However, marketable securities and prepaid expenses are independent of

sales, i.e., changes in sales may not affect these two heads. It is also important to note that the current

assets do not change exactly in the same proportion as the sales in real life situation, i.e., an increase of

10 percent in sales may not necessarily guarantee that the current assets would also increase by 10

percent. However, for the sake of simplicity we would assume that the current assets change

proportionally as the sales change.

On the other hand, fixed assets do not change directly with a change in sales. For example, if

you plan to increase the sales revenue by 20% then it is not necessary to increase the fixed assets by

20%. But, if a company plans to double its sales in the next three years, the company might have to

increase its fixed assets; however, small year-to-year changes in sales do not affect the fixed assets.

Current liabilities include accounts payable, short term portion of long term liabilities and

accrued expenses. Current liabilities like current assets are assumed to grow proportionally with any

growth in sales. If the sales of a company increase by 30 percent, its current liabilities would also

increase by 30 percent. Current liabilities are also called spontaneous financing since they move in

direct relation with changes in sales.

However, the long term liabilities, also known as discretionary financing, do not directly change

in proportion to the changes in sales revenue.

In order to have a better understanding of the aforementioned concepts, let us take into

consideration a numerical example.

Example:

Assume that you are establishing cafeteria as a new business venture. In order to get your

project funded you would be needing capital. In addition, you would also need to forecast how your

business would generate revenues and incur expenses in the coming years.

Suppose you expect the Sales Revenue from your Café (or Canteen) business to grow from Rs

200,000 to Rs 300,000 and your Expenses to grow from Rs 50,000 to Rs 70,000 after 1 year. These

forecasts can be based on the business environment in which the business operates, competition faced

by the business, marketing efforts and activities of the business and the target market.

The first thing we need to calculate here is the sales growth rate. The increase in the sales in Rupee

terms is 300,000-200,000=Rs.100, 000. The sales revenue has increased up to rupees 100,000 rate of

increase is 50% as present sales were Rs.200, 000.

This means that the Sales Revenue growth rate is:

(300,000-200,000) / 200,000 = 0.5 = 50%

Similarly an increase in expenses of Rs 20,000 shows that the rate of increase in expense is 40%

(i.e., increase of Rs 20,000 in expenses divided by the expenses in year one).

After forecasting the growth rate in revenues and expenses, the next step is to estimate the changes in

investment and financing (i.e., changes in assets and liabilities).

In order to estimate these changes, we would need to calculate a few ratios.

In order to estimate the current assets for the next year, we need to calculate the ratio current

asset to sales for the current year. In order to arrive at the estimate of current assets for the next year we

would simply multiply the estimated sales for the next year with the ratio.

Estimated current assets for the next year

= [Current assets for the current year/Current sales] x Estimated sales for the next year

If we assume the current assets/sales ratio to be 20 percent, putting in the values in the

aforementioned equation, we get

Current assets for the next year = 300,000 x (0.2) = 60,000

This shows that with an increase in sales of Rs 100,000, the current assets of the cafeteria are likely to

increase as 20 percent of the sales.

We will assume here that there is no change in the fixed assets. As mentioned earlier, fixed

assets do not change with year-to-year changes in sales, however, over a period of time, the fixed assets

may be increased as the business requires expansion.

Financial Management MGT201

The next step is to forecast the retained earnings--the amount of profit which would be

reinvested in the business. Retained earning forecasting is important so that any shortfall in cash could

be identified and the amount of external financing necessary for the business could also be assessed.

Retained earnings can be estimated using the following formula

Expected Estimated retained earnings

= estimated sales x profit margin x plowback ratio

Plow back ratio=1-pay out ratio

Pay out ratio=dividend/net income

Profit margin=net income/sales

Here, we assume that the profit margin ratio is 25 percent, whereas payout ratio of the cafeteria is 50

percent

Estimated retained earnings = 300,000 x 0.25 x (1-0.5)

=75,000*(1-0.5) =Rs.37, 500

Rs 37,500/- is predicted retained earnings amount which should appear in the pro forma balance sheet. It

shoes that half of the income will be distributed among the owners & the other half will be reinvested.

Now let's forecast the external or discretionary financing (external financing), since we

have estimated the revenues and expenses of the business, the changes in assets and the part of the net

income that is to be reinvested in the business.

The formula will be used:

Estimated discretionary financing

estimated total assets estimated total liabilities estimated total equity

Estimated total equity can be found out by adding the retained earnings plus initial

investment. The business was started with an initial investment of Rs 100,000 and then after one year of

operations the earnings retained out of the profit, i.e., Rs 37,500 would be added to the equity. Hence

the total equity is Rs 137,500.

Now we can easily solve the above given equation

Estimated discretionary financing

= estimated total assets estimated total liabilities- estimated total equity

=160,000-0-137,500= Rs.22, 500

This is the borrowing that we need to raise in form of loan or the equity, as a result of

growth in sales.

After calculating the estimated revenues, expenses, assets and liabilities, we are in a position to

prepare the pro forma cash flow statement. The owners like to see the company to grow at a steady rate

rather then high growth & slump scenario. The shareholders prefer those companies where growth rate

is steady and consistent & the mangers need to make sure that the growth rate remains steady.

If you want to maintain the forecasted financial ratios that you have calculated and along with this we

do not want additional personal capital to be invested in the business, then at what rate the business is

growing can be calculated by the following formula

G (Desired Growth Rate) = return on equity x (1- pay out ratio)

Pay out ratio as defined above equals, dividends/net income.

Return on equity is net income/ total equity.

Return on equity would be discussed in detail when we would study the rate of return & capital

budgeting.

Drawback of Percent of Sales Method:

Despite the fact that percentage of sales method is widely used method for forecasting, it

has certain disadvantages.

The first and the foremost problem with this method is that it is only a rough approximation and

is not very detailed. The other problem is that if there is a change in fixed assets during the forecasted

period the percentage of sales method would not yield a very accurate answer. The third problem is that

the lumpy assets are not taken into account while using the percentage of sales method. Here, lumpy

assets refer to those assets which can only be acquired in large discrete units.

Summarizing the above discussion, we can say that in percentage of sales method of

forecasting pro forma cash flow statement most of the heads in the balance sheet are linked to the sales

growth of the business. First of all, we need to know the ratios of assets and liabilities to sales for the

Financial Management MGT201

current period. These ratios are then applied to the estimated sales for the next period to get a forecast of

assets and liabilities for the next period.

After understanding the dynamics of percentage of sales method, and having prepared the pro

forma income statement and pro forma balance sheet, we are in a position to discuss the forecasted or

pro forma cash flow statement. A pro forma cash flow statement is just like an ordinary cash flow

statement; the only difference is that the figures in a pro forma cash flow statement are estimated figures

rather than actual ones. The estimated statement is later compared to the real after-effect cash flow

statement to assess the quality of the estimate.

After calculating the estimated sales revenue, we have already calculated the estimated net

income of the business, multiplying the estimated figure of sales for the next year with the profit margin

ratio. Forecasted net income gives the starting point for an estimated cash flow statement. If the assets

are 20% of sales and depreciation is10% of the assets then the depreciation is 10% multiply 20% which

is equal to 2% of sales. After calculating depreciation at 2%, you can calculate the forecasted

depreciation this will appear in our forecasted cash flow statement. Afterwards we would see the

increases and decreases in current assets and current liabilities. An increases in current assets and

increase in current liabilities can be calculated using constant percentage of sales approach. We can

compare the forecasted cash flow with the actual cash flow statement to know how much accurate our

estimates are. If we use indirect cash flow then the first thing is our net income plus depreciation, minus

increase in current assets, plus decrease in current liabilities, would provide us with cash flows from

operations.

PRO FORMA CASH FLOW STATEMENT

(`000 Rs)

Net Income

400

Add Depreciation Expense

100

Subtract Increase in Current Assets:

Increase in Cash

(400)

Increase in Inventory

(700)

(1100)

Add Increase in Current Liabilities:

Increase in A/c Payable

500

Cash Flow from Operations

(100)

Cash Flow from Investments

Cash Flow from Financing

500

Net Cash Flow from All Activities

400

Note 1:

Indirect Cash Flow Approach using Income Statement and two consecutive Balance

Sheets

Note 2:

Final Net Cash Flow from All Activities should match the difference in the difference in

the closing balances in the Balance Sheets from June 30th 2001 and June 30th 2002

Note 3:

Investments include all cash sale and purchases of non-current assets and marketable

securities

Note 4:

Financing includes all cash changes in loans, leasing, and equity etc.

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