1. A cash budget is used to create a projection for the expected inflows and outflows of cash; in other words, it shows in advance where cash would be coming from (cash receipts) and where it would be spent on (cash disbursements) given a period of time. Usually, these cash budgets are based on transactions recorded in the previous accounting cycle, and on other documents related to budgeting that were created for the current cycle.
It is used by managers to evaluate the company's financial position and to determine if it needs to borrow cash or if it is necessary to arrange for cash investments; this includes deciding if it is sensible to do so.
2. First, the contribution margin is used to see if a certain product is, from the term itself, "contributing" well enough to make up for the fixed costs of a company; that is, if the revenue that is available for fixed costs, with variable costs taken into account, is high or low.
As a ratio, a higher contribution margin means that a larger portion of cash being brought in by the product can be used to cover for these fixed costs. For instance, if the contribution margin ratio calculated is 90%, it means that 90% of the sales (minus the variable costs) is available to use for paying back fixed costs. This is why a company with a larger contribution margin ratio can focus on sales promotion, while a company with a small contribution margin ratio cannot. Typically, companies with a small contribution margin ratio may have other issues that they need to address, such as cost of labor, which is a variable cost. They also normally have to remove certain products or product lines that are not beneficial anymore, or adjust the sales price (generally upward) of the products their selling.