Vocational scenario
Organisation
A large accountancy firm that undertakes extensive business consultancy work for their client base. They have a central London head office and regional offices in t he UK in Birmingham and Southamptonn. Last year, the group turnover was £200 m with 25 per cent deriving from non-UK markets,, principally in Southeast Asia. They have a smmall regional office in Singapore. The firm also has a policy of taking on smaller niche clients, where they feel there is potential for fast growth.
Role
You have recently joined the firrm as a Graduate Trainee attached to their UKK SME (Small and Medium Enterprises) Unit, offering accountancy and financial services to businesses that typically have a turnover ranging from £0.5 m to £15 m. As part of your ongoing training, you have been asked to undertake some activities.
Empire College London
Assignment Brief – BTEC (RQF)
HNC in Business & HND in BUSINESS (Business Management)
Assignment activity and guiddance Your supervisor, one of the firmm’s Key Account Managers, has asked you to prepare a blog that will be used to market andd promote its accounting services to new and existing clients. The working title you haave been given for the blog is ‘The role of accounting in an organisation’. The blog must bee presented as an online blog in an engaging and practical way, covering relevant academic theory, making use of, for example, headings, images and illustrations. Your blog should include the following, but is not limited to:
• the purpose and scope of accounting in complex operating environments
• a critical evaluation of the acccounting function in informing decision makinng and meeting stakeholder and societal needss and expectations
• the main branches of accountting and job skillsets and competencies
• accounting systems and the role of technology in modern-day accounting
• issues of ethics, regulation an d compliance and the extent to which they arreconstraints or threats to the organisation.
Having completed the first activity, you have now been asked to work with a hospitality and catering start-up business that your firm has just taken on as a client.
The business is particularly in need of support and guidance with budgetingg and how it can be used to inform efficient resource allocation and support effective conntrol and decision making.
The founder of the business is investing £100,000 of their own capital and has also secured a business loan of £50,000.
You have been provided with raaw budget data below which you can manipulate and model appropriately.
The cash/bank balance on 1 Jannuary is £150,000. Purchases of supplies are estimated to be £3000 paid per month. £25, 000 of equipment is to be paid for in Januaryy. Rental costs will be £2000 per month for 9 months and then this will rise to £3000 per month thereafter.
£1000 per month of interest is payable on the secured business loan.
Marketing costs are estimated to be £1000 per month, sales salaries will be £2000 per month and administrative salaries will be £3000 per month.
Cash receipts from customers of £13000 will begin in March and will remain at this level for the rest of the year.
A cash dividend of £4000 will be paid in December.
You have been asked to preparre a memorandum that includes the followingg:
Empire College London
Assignment Brief – BTEC (RQF)
HNC in Business & HND in BUSINESS (Business Management)
analysis to show the impact of the different individual scenarios below:
1. discounting prices by 20 per cent, which in turn increases sales volume peer month by 10 per cent
2. increasing the marketing buddget by 10 per cent per month, which in turn generates an additional 20 per cent in sales revenue
3. offering suppliers one-month’s trade credit
4. reducing rental/property relaated costs by 15 per cent per month.
• An evaluation of the role that budgets play in the effective planning and coontrol of resources in an organisation suuch as your client’s. This will include both benefits and any limitations of using budgets and the extent to which they can help identify problems and corrective actions.
• An outline of a range of budgetary control solutions, with justification, to support organisation decision making and ensure efficient and effective deploymentt of resources.
Empire College London
Assignment Brief – BTEC (RQF)
HNC in Business & HND in BUSINESS (Business Management)
Recommended Resources
Please note that the resources listed are examples for you to use as a starting point
– the list is not definitive. Textbooks
Atrill, P. and McLaney, E. (2018) Acccounting and Finance for Non-Specialists. 11th Edd. Harlow:
Pearson
Weetman, P. (2019). Financial and Management Accounting: An Introduction. Harlow: Pearson.
Weblinks
Accounting Coach courses. Availabble at:
https://www.accountingcoach.comm/accounting-basics/explanation
The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants ACCA). Available at:
https://www.accaglobal.com/gb/en.html
Chartered Institute of Managemennt Accountants. Available at:
https://www.cimaglobal.com/
Indeed Career Guide to Memo Writing. Available at: https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/memo-writing-guide HubSpot. How to write a memo: Templates & examples. Available at: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketiing/how-write-memo
HN Global
HN Global (2021) Reading Lists. Available at:
https://hnglobal.highernationalls.com/learningzone/reading-lists
HN Global (2021) Student Resoource Library. Available at:
https://hnglobal.highernationalls.com/subjects/resource-libraries
HN Global (2021) Textbooks. Available at:
https://hnglobal.highernationalls.com/textbooks
Empire College London
Assignment Brief – BTEC (RQF)
HNC in Business & HND in BUSINESS (Business Management)
Learning Outcomes and Asssessment Criteria
Pass Merit
LO1 Examine the context andd purpose of accounting.
Distinction
LO1
D1Crritically evaluate the
P1Examine the purpose of the accounting function within an organisation.
P2 Assess the accounting functtion within the organisation in the context of regulatory and ethical constraints.
M1Evaluate the context and purpose of the accounting function in meeting organisational, stakeholder and societal needs and expectations.
role of accounting in informing decision-making to meet organnisational, stakeeholder and societal needds within complex operating environments.
LO4Prepare budgets for planning, control and decision-making using spreadsheets.
LO4
D3
P6Prepare a cash budget from given data for an organisation using a spreadsheet.
P7 Discuss the benefits and limitations of budgets and budgetary planning, and controol for an organisation.
