Define the term standard and give two principal uses of standard costing.

Management accounting

The company worked 29,250 direct labor-hours during the year at a cost of $9.75 per
hour. Overhead cost is applied to product s on the basis of direct labor-hours. The
denominator activity level was 22,500 hours. Budgeted fixed
overhead costs as shown on the flexible budget were $157,500, while actual fixed
overhead costs were $156,000. Actual variable overhead costs were $90,000.
Required:
i. Compute the direct materials price and quantity variances for the year.
ii. Compute the direct labor rate and efficiency variances for the year.
iii. Compute the variable overhead spending and efficiency variances for the year.
iv. Compute the fixed overhead budget and volume variances for the year.
b.
i. Define the term standard and give two principal uses of standard costing.
ii. Distinguish between ideal standards and attainable standards

Identify the last two years’ Revenue, Gross Profit, and EBIT for your company. Do all three totals increase from year to year? Decrease? Is there a mix? Explain what the trend is for your company and why.

Chose a publicly-traded company and answered a series of questions on that company each week. The questions given will be related to the topics covered in the classes of that week.

What is your company’s principal business activity?

Who is the CFO? What is his/her accounting background? Give as much detail here as you can find.
Is your company managing any ethical issues presently? If so, how do their actions affect their financial performance going forward?

Identify the last two years’ Revenue, Gross Profit, and EBIT for your company. Do all three totals increase from year to year? Decrease? Is there a mix? Explain what the trend is for your company and why.

Does your company break down the data into geographic regions? If so, identify these regions/divisions. What region is performing the best and how do you know?

What products and/or services does your company provide? Is there a mix of products that complement each other? Explain.

What information do you need to address the issue? Is the information you have obtained relevant and reliable?

Professional judgment framework
Tool to track, organize and evaluate considerations
Overarching considerations
Manage any personal bias and consider the bias of others:
Avoid making preliminary judgments.
Consider all points of view and alternatives.
Understand motivations or incentives for particular outcomes.
Consider the risk of material misstatement:
Evaluate quantitative and qualitative significance relative to the issue and relative to the interests of stakeholders
Consider the involvement of others:
Consider subject-matter specialists, consultation and necessary reviews and approvals.
Maintain professional skepticism, including fraud awareness:
Maintain a questioning mindset and ask probing questions.
Objectively evaluate the facts, address inconsistencies and corroborate evidence.
Assume others are neither honest nor dishonest.
Be alert for indicators of possible misstatement due to error or fraud.

Considerations to define the issue
What is the primary issue?
Considerations to gather the facts
What is the application guidance?
What information do you need to address the issue?
Is the information you have obtained relevant and reliable?
Considerations to perform the analysis
How does the applicable guidance apply to the issue?
Have you identified and evaluated the key assumptions?
What are the reasonable outcomes and possible alternatives?
Considerations to make the judgment
What is your conclusion based on the analysis performed?
Does your conclusion make sense in light of the business purpose and underlying economics of the issue?

Discuss six accounting concepts used in the preparation of financial statements. Use examples to illustrate the application of these accounting concepts.

In the UK, a conceptual and regulatory framework is currently in place for financial reporting as required by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).

Discuss six accounting concepts used in the preparation of financial statements. Use examples to illustrate the application of these accounting concepts.

FORMATTING AND LAYOUT

1. Writing: Written in English in an appropriate business/academic style

2. Focus: Focus only on the tasks set in the assignment.

3. Document format: Essay

4. Ensure a clear title, course, and name or ID number is on a cover sheet and a reference using Harvard referencing throughout is also provided.
5. Research: Research should use reliable and relevant sources of information e.g. academic books and journals that have been peer reviewed. The research should be extensive.

The use of a range of information sources is expected – academic books, peer reviewed journal articles, professional articles, press releases and newspaper articles, reliable statistics, company annual reports and other company information. All referencing should be in Harvard style

Critically review the issues, suggest techniques/solutions, and discuss potential limitations and their effect on the organisation’s financial statements.

Internal audit report for uk company of your choice

During the duration of the trimester, you must scan and read appropriate auditing related issues in the accountancy press and on respected news sites to identify audit related issues and hot topics regarding a company of your choice.

Based on the information you have gathered, prepare an internal audit report, you should critically review the issues, suggest techniques/solutions, and discuss potential limitations and their effect on the organisation’s financial statements.

Evaluate the reasons why the accounting profession would be reluctant to recognise that accounting is a constructed process and maintains an imagery of ‘objectivity’.

Management accounting

In 1,300-1,500 words, provide a considered, written response to the following question:

Evaluate the reasons why the accounting profession would be reluctant to recognise that accounting is a constructed process and maintains an imagery of ‘objectivity’.

Draw on articles, theory and examples to support your argument.

You must provide appropriate referencing and a bibliography.

Deegan, C. Financial Accounting Theory North Ryde: McGraw-Hill Education

Gaffikin, M. Accounting Theory: Research, Regulation and Accounting Practice, Pearson Education, Sydney.

Morgan, G. Accounting as reality construction: towards a new epistemology for accounting practice. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 13, 477-485.

Hines, R. D. Financial accounting: in communicating reality, we construct reality. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 13, 251-261.

Provide a visual illustration of the service blueprint for the service firm that highlights where the critical incident/service failure occurred.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS, MARKETING, AND BRANDING INTEGRATED SERVICES MARKETING

You have been employed as a consultant for your chosen organisation with the following deliverables:
i. Conduct market research to identify a critical incident where a customer is extremely dissatisfied with the service firm, its staff, or the service provided.
The market research can employ qualitative methods , quantitative methods , or a mixed methods approach .
ii. Provide an in-depth analysis of the critical incident/service failure including but not limited to what went wrong, what actions were taken by the customer after the critical incident/service failure, and what actions were taken by the firm after the critical incident/service failure.
iii. Provide a visual illustration of the service blueprint for the service firm that highlights where the critical incident/service failure occurred.
iv. Provide recommendations on appropriate service recovery techniques and how customer satisfaction can be improved upon based on the findings of the research.
How marks are awarded:
1. An executive summary of the selected organisation including but not limited to information about the service provided, industry of operation, number of employees, major competitors, market share, and target customers .
2. Research goals, aims, and objectives highlighting the purpose of the report
3. Methodology that provides information on the following:
i. Methods used in conducting the research .
ii. Survey/interview protocol used
iii. Sample used for the data collection and their demographics iv. Data collection process .

Critically evaluate the current systems of performance measurement, management reporting and budgeting at We Build Ltd. and highlight what you consider to be the problems of the system.

Performance Management and control

Project and operational budgets are developed by the employment of a top-down approach within the company. Little input is received in the budgeting process from employees whose performance is based on adherence to said budgetary constraints. Steve believes that this scheme is necessary considering the nature of the unskilled laborers working for We Build Ltd. and the specialised knowledge that is needed to formulate a budget.
Recently, Steve has been finding the budgeting exercise time-consuming and feeling that he is unable to control the variances despite having the figures to show for them as the variances are beyond his control or the analysis is too outdated for corrective action to be taken. He is also concerned about the quality of the work that is carried out by the project managers. A few clients have requested minute adjustments following job completion, stating that the job specifications were not met. Steve wonders if project managers compromise on quality to meet the budget expectations.
Working on the premise that performance measurement is central to management control, you are required to read the above scenario and, assuming a role of a financial controller, prepare a report for Steve Wilson which deals with the following requirements:
1) Critically evaluate the current systems of performance measurement, management reporting and budgeting at We Build Ltd. and highlight what you consider to be the problems of the system.
2) Using the operational budget given in Exhibit 2 of the case study, create a flexible budget using actual activity levels and analyse the variances.
3) Describe in detail how you consider the systems might be improved considering the challenges the company is facing.

What does Generally Accepted Accounting Principles mean? What represents the results of the accounting process that are summarized in periodic reports?

Why do we call accounting “the language of business”? Hint: Think in terms of the purpose of accounting.

What does Generally Accepted Accounting Principles mean?

What represents the results of the accounting process that are summarized in periodic reports?

If you were a business owner, what would be your choice of business entity?