Every organization needs to calculate future revenues in order to help the managers carry out their operations effectively. Cost volume is the approach used for this purpose. Cost Volume Profit analysis or CVP analysis helps in identifying the operating activity levels with a purpose to avoid any kind of losses and achieve profits. Moreover, it also helps the companies to plan their future operations and see whether their organizational performance is going on the right track or not. While conducting a business, the companies also have to face various risks and in order to counter those risks, CVP analysis is an effective tool.
Cost volume profit analysis can also help the organizations in calculating the breakeven point which is the point at which the profits become equal to zero. This can be done by finding the break even volume and then using it to make graphical representations. The break even volume can either be expressed in dollars or in units depending upon the nature and type of the organization. For instance: if the organization makes a large amounts of products, then the company must prefer to calculate the breakeven volume in the form of sales dollars while in case of one product company, the unit method might be a more effective calculation of sales volume. The calculation method and the graphical representation in both cases:
- Break even volume in unit method = Â Fixed costs/Unit contribution margin
- Break even volume in sales dollar method = Â Fixed costs/Contribution margin ratio
At the breakeven point, the profits of the company become zero and below this point, the company begins to incur losses. So, it is a beneficial tool for the organizations which help them to analyze what should be the target ad how this target can be achieved by managing the fixed as well as variable costs and also by preparing a plan for the future operations.
Benefits of Cost Volume Profit Analysis
Cost Volume Profit analysis helps organizations to examine their profits, costs and prices with respect to any changed that occur in sales volume. CVP is an effective tool that helps accountants to engage in decision making regarding future operations (Breakeven analysis). Moreover, it also helps in making the following decisions for the company:
- It helps to analyze which products and services are beneficial and how can company use these products and services to generate the maximum amount of revenue.
- It also explains what sales volume will be needed by the company in order to achieve a fixed level of profits.
- Moreover, it tells how much revenue should the company target so as to make sure that no losses occur.
- It also highlights what would be expected budget of the company.
- It also helps to calculate company’s fixed costs and measure the amount of risk associated with any investment.
Operating Leverage
Another benefit that companies gain by using the CVP approach is the operating leverage benefit which explains how the cost structure of an organization is made up of fixed cost processes. This is a huge benefit because the cost structure is directly related to the level of growth and profit a company has.
Operating leverage can vary greatly from one company to another. In the firms that have a high ratio of fixed costs as compared to the variable costs, the operating leverage is good because it produces a high contribution margin. Similarly, higher fixed sales also mean that the company has a higher breakeven point. A higher breakeven point is directly related to the financial success of the company because at this point, the company can claim high profits at a much higher rate.
Income Tax Benefits
Similarly, the simple CVP model can be extended to other issues such as the calculation of incorporate taxes of multiple products within a company. This is done by modifying the profit equation of the chart to include taxes as well. This analysis can also be extended to those firms that offer more than one product or service rather than a simple product. This can be calculated as follows: After tax profit = [(P-V) X — F] x (1 — t)
Future Forecasting
By using the above mentioned models, approaches and graphs, managers can analyze the direction in which their company is moving and this analysis might help them to better understand the different operations and activities within the organizations. By getting beforehand knowledge of profits and costs, the company can manage them in a more efficient way to increase productivity.
Preparation of Budgets
Since the cost profit volume analysis helps in determining the level of sales and thus helps organizations to achieve their desired targets. This approach would help the managers to prepare their budgets which consist of the costs as well as the revenues at any level of production within the organization.
Cost Control
The biggest benefit of CVP analysis is to evaluate the cost volume changes within an organization and the impact of these changes on revenue generation. For instance: there is a dental hospital that wants to purchase a new dental machine so that the patient’s level of satisfaction can be increased by reducing the time required for dental treatment. The purchase of this new machine will tend to increase fixed costs of an organization. So, at such complex situations, the cost volume analysis can be the most effective tool to help in simplifying the company’s decision. If this dental hospital uses CVP analysis, it can manage to decrease its variable costs by maintain the profit at the same desired level.
Price Determination
It is another benefit of using this approach. For example: If any competitor within the dental industry has set the price at Rs.50,000 for a single dental operation and the business cannot provide this operation at any cost lower than Rs.20,000, then the company can use cost profit volume analysis to compare the competitor’s price with the fixed and variable costs of its own operations and thus it can manage to come up with a price that is in the best interest of the company.
Profit Planning
The aim of any business is to create value for the customers and to get profits for the company. However, managing all operations and costs in such a way that can maximize profits is not an easy task. Therefore, organizations have to consider a lot of things in order to engage in proper profit planning techniques. The CVP analysis can help the companies to create the best and most profitable combination of cost, price and sales volume. Thus, it can help managers to calculate and estimate their profit at different levels and for different range of products.
Risk Assessment
The business world is changing and due to several internal s well as external threats associated with any industry, businesses have to face too many risks. Although the calculation of risk and return through measuring a constant (beta) is a method in finance but managerial accounting is also concerned with this. Managing risk is too significant for any business because it tends to define all the procedures and practices involved within an organization.
Therefore, CVP is a tool which helps to calculate risk particularly in terms of costs and volumes. After analyzing this risk, the companies can come up with efficient solutions to reduce this risk.
Decision Making
All the above mentioned benefits of Cost Volume Profit Analysis directly or indirectly related to the decision making processes of a company. Any business organization has to make a lot of decisions regarding their price, their costs, and products, fixed and variable unit costs and so on. The CVP approach simplifies this process by providing the companies with a breakeven point and by helping them to engage in better decision making and planning for the future.