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Meaning and Nature of Capital Budgeting

 *Dr.P.Shanmukha Rao  **Dr.N.V.S.Suryanarayana

The term Capital Budgeting refers to long term planning for proposed capital outlay and their financing. It includes raising long-term funds and their utilization. It may be defined as a firm’s formal process of acquisition and investment of capital. Capital Budgeting may also be defined as “The decision making process by which a firm evaluates the purchase of major fixed assets. It involves firm’s decision to invest its current funds for addition, disposition, modification and replacement of fixed assets.

 

It deals exclusively with investment proposals, which an essentially long term projects and is concerned with the allocation of firm’s scarce financial resources among the available market opportunities. Some of the examples of Capital Expenditure are

    (i) Cost of acquisition of permanent assets like land and buildings.

    (ii)           Cost of addition, expansion, improvement or alteration in the fixed assets.

   (iii)           Research and Development cost of projects.

Definitions

  ”Capital budgeting is long term planning for making and financing proposed capital outlays”.

T.Horngreen “Capital budgeting is concerned with allocation of the firm’s scarce financial resources among the available market opportunities. The consideration of investment opportunities involves the comparison of the expected future streams of earnings from a project with immediate and subsequent streams of expenditure for it”.

 

In any growing concern, capital budgeting is more or less a continuous process and it is carried out by different functional areas of management such as production, marketing, engineering, financial management etc. All the relevant functional departments play a crucial role in the capital budgeting decision process of any organization, yet for the time being, only the financial aspects of capital budgeting decision are considered to discuss.

 

The role of a finance manager in the capital budgeting basically lies in the process of critically and in-depth analysis and evaluation of various alternative proposals and then to select one out of these. As already stated, the basic objectives of financial management is to maximize the wealth of the share holders, therefore the objectives of capital budgeting is to select those long term investment projects that are expected to make maximum contribution to the wealth of the shareholders in the long run.

According to Lynch ” Capital budgeting consists of in planning development of available  capital for the purpose of maximizing the long term profitability of the concern”.      

           In the words of Charles T. Horngren  “Capital budgeting is a long term planning for making and financing proposed capital outlays”.

 

Significance of capital budgeting:

The financial management is essentially concerned with the planning and   controlling of the financial resources of a firm. It expresses the procurement of funds along with their efficient use in order to maximize the firm’s benefit. The assets have two broad classification viz.,

          a) Short term or current assets and

          b) Long term or fixed assets.

 

Features of Capital Budgeting

The important features, which distinguish capital budgeting decisions in other Day-to-day decisions, are:

Capital budgeting decisions involve the exchange of current funds for the benefits to be achieved in future.
The future benefits are expected and are to be realized over a series of years.
The funds are invested in non-flexible long-term funds.
They have a long terms and significant effect on the profitability of the concern.
They involve huge funds.
They are irreversible decisions.  They are strategic decisions associated with high degree of risk.
Importance of capital budgeting:

 

The importance of capital budgeting can be understood from the fact that an unsound investment decision may prove to be fatal to the very existence of the organization. The importance of capital budgeting arises mainly due to the following:

Large Investment

Capital budgeting decision, generally involves large investment of funds.  But the funds available with the firm are scarce and the demand for funds are exceeds resources.  Hence, it is very important for a firm to plan and control its capital expenditure.

 

Long Term Commitment of Funds

Capital expenditure involves not only large amount of funds but also funds for long-term or an permanent basis.  The long-term commitment of funds increases the financial risk involved in the investment decision.

 

Irreversible Nature

The Capital expenditure decisions are of irreversible nature.  Once, the decision for acquiring a permanent asset is taken, it becomes very difficult to dispose of these assets without incurring heavy losses.

Long Terms Effect on Profitability

Capital budgeting decision has a long term and significant effect on the profitability of a concern.  Not only the present earnings of the firm are affected by the investments in capital assets but also the future growth and profitability of the firm depends up to the investment decision taken today. Capital budgeting decision has utmost importance to avoid over or under investment in fixed assets.

Difficulties of Investment Decision

The long terms investment decisions are difficult to be taken because uncertainties of future and higher degree of risk.

 

Notional Importance

Investment decision though taken by individual concern is of national importance because it determines employment, economic activities and economic growth.

 

 

EverBank Commercial Finance, Inc. the commercial finance and leasing subsidiary of EverBank Financial Corp, today announced the formation of a new industrial finance group. Based in Hampton, New Hampshire, the new business unit will initially service original equipment manufacturers, dealers and strategic direct customers in the flexible packaging and plastic markets.

Commercial finance is one of the many options available to entrepreneurs seeking capital to start or grow an existing business. This sort of financing is also referred to as asset-based lending, meaning that it is a secured business loan. The borrower guarantees the loan by giving up business assets as collateral for the loan. Another popular phrase for commercial finance is asset-based finance.

Account receivable factoring is one form of commercial finance. This consists of selling open invoices for cash that can be used right away in the business. There are many benefits to this financing option including not giving up equity, being able to take advantage of early payment and volume discounts from your suppliers, you can actually purchase in greater volume from suppliers, and you also accrue no additional debt in your business.

Another popular commercial finance option is purchase order financing because it offers quick cash flow reserves. When any business is growing or expanding their business the cash flow simply isn’t there because of the money it takes to market and produce products. Suppliers also want to be paid with C.O.D. and your customers are on Net-30 terms; so you run into a cash flow problem. Purchase order financing solves this issue by paying for the costs of your goods directly to the supplier, thus giving you more cash to use on more critical business expenditures. To begin with purchase order financing simply obtain a purchase order from your customer, find an approved supplier, place the order through that supplier.

Asset based loans, an additional commercial finance option, provide a short term approach to maximizing cash flow within a business. This form of financing is used as test for a business to show how they would perform with a long term loan. The business who is receiving the asset based loan has a short window to prove that with the proper financing their business model is effective, and that a long term loan would ensure business growth over a long period of time. This form of financing is perfect for the business that can’t afford to wait to establish their business credit. The assets that are accepted as collateral for this type of loan include real property, accounts receivables, and completed inventory.

Other forms of commercial finance include bankruptcy reorganization, expansion financing, import and export financing, inventory loans, secured lines of credit, and merchant account advances. Financing a business is a difficult process, but if you utilize the financing resources available, your business have a much greater chance of success.

It is also good to work on establishing your business credit, ensuring that you separate your personal credit from your business credit. With good business credit scores obtaining large loans and other forms of capital is very simple, and you won’t be one of the 97 percent that actually have a loan application denied. One other strategy that is easy to do and beneficial on your quest for business capital is to use a free business capital search engine.

This real estate and business financing article discusses a concept which is referred to here as “Thinking Outside the Bank”. It is meant to be a variation of the well-known “thinking outside the box”. Despite the prominence of traditional banks, they are not the only viable source which should be considered for a commercial mortgage or commercial loan. There are many reasons why a commercial borrower might not go to a traditional bank for a commercial real estate loan or other business finance circumstances.

Business borrowers have more commercial mortgage and commercial loan alternatives than they realize. As noted above, I refer to these business financing alternatives as “Thinking Outside the Bank” because a typical commercial borrower probably believes that a bank is the best source for a business loan in business investing situations. Non-traditional business lenders are usually viewed as having the competitive edge for many common commercial financing and commercial real estate investment property financing scenarios.

In some cases a traditional bank will offer to provide a business loan but will attach excessively stringent terms and covenants. In other cases a traditional bank will decline the commercial mortgage outright, perhaps because they do not even provide business financing to the commercial borrower’s particular industry. In either case, the commercial borrower is likely to benefit by “Thinking Outside the Bank” for their business investing efforts.

Commercial loan borrowers might feel that a bank is their most likely source for business financing. However, since traditional banks usually focus on a few types of businesses and commercial real estate investing, non-traditional business lenders should be emphasized for any business loan situation. Therefore the recommended business finance and commercial mortgage strategy discussed in this article is to “Think Outside the Bank”.

As I reported in a previous business financing and investing report, in many commercial mortgage situations it is common for a local bank to assess stricter commercial loan conditions than would typically be seen in a competitive business loan scenario. Such banks can often take advantage if there are few business lenders in their market.

A prudent response by business borrowers is to consider non-traditional commercial mortgage options. It is not necessary for borrowers to depend upon traditional banks for business loan strategies. For typical commercial loan scenarios, a non-bank lender can often provide better business financing terms because of the competitive market situation.

There are at least three business financing situations in which business borrowers will typically experience that non-traditional lending sources can provide conditions that are best for the borrower: (1) commercial real estate investment property loan programs; (2) credit card factoring and business cash advance programs; and (3) working capital management programs for credit card processing.

Business Loan Investing Options – Commercial Real Estate Investment Property Loan Programs -

Two of the most common commercial mortgage difficulties experienced by commercial borrowers can be avoided if they “Think Outside the Bank”. The first business financing situation is the prevailing practice of traditional banks to avoid most special purpose investment properties (such as funeral homes and golf courses).

A second business loan possibility is the frequent practice of many commercial banks to add recall and balloon conditions to their commercial loans. The bank can then require early payoff of the commercial real estate loan under stipulated conditions. Both business financing situations can easily be prevented by a non-traditional lending source.

Business Financing Choices – Business Cash Advance Programs -

Most businesses that accept credit cards will qualify for a business cash advance with their credit card receivables. Traditional banks will typically be very poor candidates to consider if a business needs assistance with credit card factoring and business cash advances.

Because successful business owners typically need more working capital than they can obtain from a bank, it is important for a business to “Think Outside the Bank” with non-traditional lenders to help with this working capital management function.

Credit Card Processing Programs – Working Capital Management Choices -

The selection of a credit card processing service can be critical in improving the cash flow of a business with significant credit card activity. Credit card processing providers can be combined with the credit card financing process mentioned earlier.

In coordinating a business cash advance and working capital business loan program, it is usually possible to achieve improvements in the business owner’s credit card processing services. Traditional banks are usually not competitive in providing assistance with a business cash advance using credit card receivables. So it is likely that a non-traditional lender will be the major source of competitive help with credit card processing improvements.

A closing business financing and commercial real estate investment property financing thought: I have written an earlier business loan article about commercial lenders to avoid. It should be noted that there are in fact both traditional and non-traditional (non-bank) lenders which should be avoided.

When business owners are “Thinking Outside the Bank”, they should be ready to avoid troublesome non-traditional business lenders in their investment quest for worthy working capital management dealing with commercial real estate loans, credit card financing and credit card processing.