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Highlights some of the issues around the role of an endowment fund and the impact of SFAS 117 and 124 on it. Provides a good vehicle for discussing the issue of revenue recognition with respect to endowments, and identifying the role of restricted versus unrestricted income.

Requires students to assess the nature of cost behavior in the context of preparing a budget for a public school. Also has costs classified by programs, so students can see how a program budget can be used in setting priorities and making tradeoffs. The nature of the interactions among the various elements makes the case a good one to use with a spreadsheet package. The case circumstances are such that there is virtually no way to achieve a balanced budget.

A process rather than a numbers case that focuses on the relationships within a state government, and their impact on the way the budget is developed. One issue is the role of the Director of the Office of Fiscal Affairs and his relationship with the Secretaries and the budget bureau. A related issue is that the governor does not see the budget as high priority, has delegated considerable budget responsibility to his staff assistant and doesn't deal with his Secretaries directly, doesn't consult his fiscal staff about the effect of new programs, and hasn't met with the Director of the budget bureau since he has been in office.

Permits a deep discussion of the problems of arriving at sound pricing policies in a municipality. The focus is on equity (arriving at prices that are fair to those who pay them) and motivation (for example, providing incentives to conserve water). Two types of equity are involved: generational equity and consumer equity. The case also can be used to explain how a growing community can address its need for new infrastructure.

A relatively simple case on the subject of flexible budgeting for a snow-removal program, but raises enough issues concerning the use of the reports that it can easily be used for an entire class session. Provides a nice lead-in to somewhat more complex variance analysis cases.

Combines a somewhat tricky quantitative analysis (including the computation of present value) with a more strategic assessment of outsourcing risk. Can be paired with Cittá di Forenna (TCG207) to contrast low risk outsourcing (which this case is) with high risk outsourcing.

Requires students to identify several reasons for a variance between budget and actual, and to make the appropriate calculations. There are several related issues that must be considered (such as pricing, staffing, and supply costs) that serve to complicate the analysis. Takes variance analysis to a more sophisticated level than the Town of Bellington (TCG225) case.

Raises a variety of issues associated with a program evaluation: conflicting data, the role of upfront targets, the importance of models of causality, and the appropriate time frame. It also has a political dimension. The available data are somewhat conflicting. Some performance measures suggest that considerable improvements took place since the introduction of the program, but it is not clear that the program is the cause of these changes. There also is the question of whether the resources devoted to the program could be used better elsewhere.

Addresses the use of a balanced scorecard (BSC) in a public school setting. Raises questions of who the customer is, what BSC elements are most appropriate, and how success can be measured for the different elements. Also addresses the issue of cooperation among the affected parties, such as teachers and parents.

Concerns a budgeting system that is unresponsive to senior management's needs. Several changes are needed to align the system with the organization's new strategy. The case can be taught on either a technical or a conceptual level (or both), depending on the instructor's interests and his or her goals for the course.

A complex case with many issues. Students must prepare a managerially oriented flow chart that will show key decision points, which students can then be analyzed, using data in the case, to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of the program.

A chief of medicine is attempting to determine the cost of the diagnoses of patients who are treated in her department. Three different cost systems are being evaluated.

This case provides students with an opportunity to think about a management control system that focuses on cost drivers and that has established clinical departments as profit centers.

This case describes a "bundled pricing" approach to managed care contracting. Bundled pricing is a contracting strategy whereby a hospital and its physicians share the risk of a fixed price contract. The case raises questions about managed care pricing strategies and hospital-physician relationships. Students must analyze the financial implications of the hospital's contracting strategy and propose an approach that provides appropriate incentives for physicians while minimizing the hospital's risk.

An introductory breakeven case designed for students with no prior experience with breakeven analysis. The purposes of the case are: (1) to teach the concept and techniques or breakeven analysis, (2) to clarify the difference among fixed, variable, and step-function costs, and (3) to demonstrate the relationship of costs and revenue to volume.

A very comprehensive case that requires students to define the organization's strategy, understand its structure, and then determine how a responsibility center network has been overlaid on it. There is a poor programming process at work, which has led the organization in some unusual directions, a budgeting process that emphasizes revenues and ignores expense, and a reporting process that does not fit well with the organizational structure or the network of responsibility centers. In short, a mess.

A rather complex case that calls for a report that gives providers a breakdown of why they are (or are not) achieving their budgeted levels of performance. Students knowledge of variance analysis is tested here by requiring them to understand and then restructure a confusing variance analysis prepared by the business manager.

A case on capital budgeting as a component of an organization's strategic planning. The case is designed for students to use their financial skills in calculating net present values, internal rates of return and in deriving appropriate discount rates. The fundamental objective, however, is not mechanical, but to assess the various components and characteristics of capital budgeting systems as to how well they fit with the specific needs of an organization.

This case requires a differential cost analysis that introduces students to several important matters. It demonstrates the difference between various types of direct and indirect costs. The cost center report for the Dialysis Unit contains fixed, variable and step-function costs, and students must identify which is which. Overhead costs are presented in the stepdown analysis and their relationship to direct costs and a breakeven analysis must be resolved.

This case is focused principally on a chief of pathology's attempt to justify an additional technician for the pathology lab. The question of how he justifies this, however, is somewhat of a red herring, since by looking at the process he follows in attempting to prepare the data necessary for such a justification, students will become aware of the control structure, both of the hospital and in the Department of Pathology, as well as the budgetary process used by the hospital. They thus have the opportunity to put the management control structure into its broader organizational context.