Controller's Guide to Planning and Controlling Operations

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PLANNING AND CONTROL OF SALES

INTRODUCTION

Primary responsibility for the planning and control of sales, of course, rests with the chief sales or marketing executive of the company or the business segment. However, the chief accounting officer, with the knowledge of costs and cost behavior as well as the familiarity with sales accounting and analysis, is in a position to use these skills to assist the various marketing executives. Some of the areas where the controller might be helpful include:

• Selection and application of mathematical/statistical methods to develop or verify sales level trends and relationships
• Analysis of internal sales data to reveal trends and relationships
• Analysis and assembling of the proposed sales plan/budget
• Development and application of sales standards for use by the marketing executive, if applicable
• Application of the relevant costs as a factor in setting product sales prices

While the controller has a supporting role to the chief sales executive with respect to sales planning and control, there are also some basic independent responsibilities, as a member of the financial staff, to see that adequate procedures are followed and that the sales planning and control is sound from a financial or economic viewpoint.

These subjects and others are discussed in this chapter. First, however, to provide background for the controller or for other readers, a brief review is made of the sales management function and some of its concerns.

SALES MANAGEMENT CONCERNS ...