Silva Fennica Issue 64 includes presentations held in 1947 in the third professional development courses, arranged for foresters working in the public administration. The presentations focus on practical issues in forest management and administration, especially in regional level. The education was arranged by Forest Service. Two of the presentations were published in other publications than Silva Fennica.
This presentation describes budgeting of costs of delivery loggings, which have been at times underestimated in the practical forestry in the state forests.
The investigation studies the whole logging operation from the stump to the consumption. The main purpose is to obtain a maximum profit. Proceeds and costs have been studied from the view point of precalculation. First, basic costs theory concepts are introduced. Second, the role of precalculation is described and finally a survey of the practical calculation problems and its results are described.
The purpose of precalculation is to achieve the best possible total financial result for the whole enterprise. The aim is to maximize the difference between future proceeds and the costs. When an alternative calculation is prepared, as many promising alternatives as possible is sought, and the most advantageous of these are selected after a rough survey. Since contributory factors are changing, precalculation is a continuous operation.
Logging operations can be handled in various alternative ways, of which the most advantageous has to be chosen. If there is a large number of different courses of action, the target must be maximum contribution margin per time unit. With labour, too, the aim is to maximize the differentiation between proceeds and costs of a long-term point of view. A working plan of the alternative selected can be formed into a target calculation with the aid of budgets and standards. When purchasing timber, procurement plans can be drawn up and priced for each consignment, and then combined and scrutinized to give target calculations. If the factors affecting them change, the targets must be altered.
The PDF includes a summary in English.