Final answer:
The cash budget is not an operating budget, unlike the production, sales, and direct labor budgets. It deals with the overall financial planning for cash flows rather than operational aspects.
Step-by-step explanation:
Identifying Non-Operating Budgets
When examining various types of budgets within the context of business and accounting, it is crucial to differentiate between operating and non-operating budgets. An operating budget is concerned with the operations of a business over a certain period. This includes the production budget, which outlines the number of units that need to be produced to meet sales goals; the sales budget, which estimates future sales and is typically the starting point of the budgeting process; and the direct labor budget, which estimates the labor cost required to meet the production budget.
In contrast, the fourth option, cash budget, stands out as it is not an operating budget. The cash budget is a financial budget that estimates the inflow and outflow of cash within a company. Its purpose is to ensure that a company has sufficient cash to meet its obligations and to plan for any surplus or shortage of cash. The cash budget does not tie directly to operations like production or sales but instead provides an overarching view of the company's cash position.
Accordingly, the correct answer to the question of which of the following is not an operating budget is d. cash budget.