Your assignment is to prepare and submit a paper on applying mathematical concepts to business administration. Despite this, many students still fail to realize just how important mathematics can be in their chosen profession. Other students mistakenly believe that the extent to which mathematics will play a role in their profession will be a minor role. In truth, mathematics is used daily in a variety of professional fields including business administration, and can often play a role in problem resolution. Some business related problems that can be solved with mathematics are payroll discrepancies and funding needs. Business Administration entails a multitude of tasks and responsibilities. Many of these components can become problematic if proper mathematics is not applied. For example, a business owner or manager may, at times, be held responsible for pay roll, accounts payables, accounts receivables, determining advertising or marketing needs, and writing various proposals. Although business owners can and often do hire help to perform these many functions, understanding the concepts will ensure that the business owner can accurately monitor the progress and effectiveness of his or her employees or contracted associates.

Owning a business can present a variety of problems, including conflict resolution, competition, and establishing a loyal customer base. Some of these problems cannot be solved by the use of mathematics. However, several other problems can arise that will require a solid knowledge of mathematics and an understanding of how to apply mathematical skills:

Having [at least] an introduction to these topics will provide you with the basics needed for initial analysis of financial situations in your business. This information is critical to successfully managing the financial aspects of your business (Jones International University 1).

Although it may appear trite to first reference financial aspects of an organization as a source of potential problems faced by business administrators and owners, the problems that can stem out of a business’s financial matters can be immense. If these problems are handled improperly, they could prove to be fatal for the business. One such problem is with proper payroll accounting. Payroll embodies the life-blood of a company’s employees, contracted employees, and management staff. Put simply, payroll is the monetary compensation such employees receive in exchange for their work and services provided to the company or on the behalf of the company.

The most common problem that can occur with payroll is inadequate tracking of hourly employees (Corpus Christi Caller 1). Hourly employees, or those employees who receive compensation based on the number of hours they work during a specific amount of time, can make mistakes regarding their time tracking. Additionally, managers can make mistakes when calculating the wage amount for an employee for one specific pay-period. When a mistake is found, several mathematics concepts will come into play to find the mistake and work to resolve the issue.

First, to find the exact mistake, the manager’s first step will be to recalculate the wages based on the employees hourly pay-rate and the number of hours that employee has reported working. Doing this will require a basic mathematical concept. simply multiply the number of hours worked by the employee’s hourly wage amount and round the product up or down to the nearest 100th. Should this answer not match the amount shown on the check, then the problem can be resolved by issuing a new check for the amount of the difference.