Reference no: EM132377992 , Length: 15

Assessment Resource BSBFIM501 - Gen Institute

Assessment 1 -PROJECT

Performance objective

The candidate will demonstrate the ability to plan financial management approaches.

Assessment description
In response to the scenario provided, you will clarify budget plans with your manager and negotiate changes to the budget. You will then identify and analyse a risk to the budget and prepare a contingency plan to prevent or minimise the risk.

Assessment instructions
1. Read the scenario provided in Appendix 1 to this assessment task and tasks A and B.
2. Prepare to meet with your manager (assessor) to clarify budget and negotiate changes:
a. identify areas of the budget that are not achievable, inaccurate or unclear
b. prepare to negotiate necessary changes to the budget
c. set up a time with your manager to meet.
3. Meet with your manager (assessor) to clarify budget and negotiate changes:
a. identify at least two issues for clarification
b. negotiate at least two changes
c. include discussion of basic accounting principles
d. refer to relevant legislation and AT(] requirements
e. refer to principles and techniques of managing budget items
f. take and keep notes of agreed changes.
Your Assessor will use Observation Checklist One to record your performance in this task. Please review Observation Checklist One before your meeting, so you know what is expected of you
4. Use the template provided in Appendix 3 to this assessment task to prepare a contingency plan document for persistent risks after budget changes
5. Submit all documents required in the specifications below to your assessor. Ensure you keep a copy of all work submitted for your records.

Your assessor will be looking for:
• numeracy skills to read and understand a budget and negotiate budget re-allocations
• knowledge of basic accounting principles to identify and use account balances
• knowledge organisational requirements related to financial management such as contained in organisational policies and procedures
• knowledge of principles and techniques involved in budgeting.

Task A
The Sales General Manager, Sam Gellar, has asked you to review the master budget and cost centre budgets prepared by the Senior Accountant. She would like you to meet with her to discuss the whether the budget projections are achievable, accurate, understandable and fair.
She would like you to look closely at the budget for your cost centre, note any changes you think are necessary, develop an argument for the changes and negotiate those changes with her.
Information you are aware of includes:
• Sales in the first quarter (Q1), third quarter (03), and the fourth quarter (Q4) are generally 30% less than the second quarter (Q2).
• Sales in 02 depend on completion of 90% of repair and maintenance.
• Sales for 02 have been estimated to be $1,000,000.
• Commission negotiated with members of the sales team is now at 2.5%.

It has come to the attention of the Managing Director, Tom Copeland, that due to the current economic climate, sales volume may be 20% below target this financial year. Tom is worried that this may severely impact profit projections. The company can accept as much as a 10% variance in profit projections; however, more than this could severely affect the company's ability to pay obligations and invest. Reliable data to determine whether the risk has eventuated should be available by mid Q2, when sales data for the company's product are in.
As a special project, the Managing Director has asked you to perform a risk assessment and develop a contingency plan to manage the risk of sates falling 20%.

ASSESSMENT 2 - STUDENT INFORMATION Instructions for Students:
Whilst researching and writing your project it is important to:
Read the Assessment description carefully.
• Assessment should be in a Word format.
• Assemble and analyze a set of sources that you have determined are relevant to the issues you are investigating.
• Acknowledge clearly when and how you are drawing on the ideas or phrases of others;
• Consult your instructors when you are unsure about how to acknowledge the contributions of others to your thought and writing.
• Read the Plagiarism policy and procedure carefully to understand the consequences that you could face if your work is plagiarized.
• Student can seek clarification regarding the assessment required to be done.
Students can ask for reasonable time from Assessor for preparation of project or Assessment. Students can seek information on additional reading material and reference for completion of the assessments.
Students with special needs can seek assistance from Assessors depending upon the nature of the need.
• Submit this document along with your Assessment work.

Performance objective
The candidate will demonstrate the ability to implement financial management approaches Assessment description
In response to the scenario provided, you will access and communicate details of budget to abeam member (assessor). You will then support the team member to perform their required role with respect to software resources and systems.
Assessment instructions
1. Read the scenario provided in Appendix 1 to this assessment task and tasks A and B.
2. Prepare to meet with your team member (assessor) to communicate budget and then coach and train them in new role:
a, access required budget information from assessor
b. determine organisational needs
c. identify coaching/training needs of team member.
d. plan coaching/training session:
i. outcome: team member produces spreadsheet to meet management requirements
ii. include activities/elements to instruct, practice, test, motivate
iii. keep notes
e. Set up a time with your team member to have a coaching/training session.
3. Meet with your team member (assessor) to coach them in role:
a. Explain budget and relevance to team member's accountabilities
b. Use appropriate coaching techniques or models such as GROW
c. Use appropriate motivational theory
d. Train learner in required spreadsheet techniques, include elements of instruction, practice and testing/feedback
e. include recordkeeping requirements for Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and auditing purposes, for items such as petty cash, and GST.

Your Assessor will use Observation Checklist Two to record your performance in this task. Please review Observation Checklist TWO before your meeting, so you know what is expected of you
4. Submit all documents required in the specifications below to your assessor. Ensure you keep a copy of all work submitted for your records.
Submission should include:
You must:
• meet with your assessor to role-play support of team member
• submit coaching/training plan.
Your assessor will be looking for:
• numeracy skills to read and understand a budget and to communicate a budget
• technology skills to use software associated with financial recordkeeping
• knowledge of basic accounting principles to identify and use account balances in communication and training
• knowledge of organisational requirements related to financial management, such as those contained in organisational policies and procedures
• requirements for organisational recordkeeping and auditing with respect to petty cash
• knowledge of principles and techniques involved in budgeting and electronic spreadsheets.

According to company strategic plans, the company aims to achieve a net profit before tax of $1,000,000. The chief risks to this goal are:
• poor sales due to economic downturn
. increases in expenses such as wage expenses.
In addition to Australian operations, the company is considering manufacturing overseas to take advantage of reduced costs. The company is also considering diversifying its product range to reduce exposure to poor sales of one product.
Role
You are the manager of Sales Team A. You manage a small team of sales team members. Your duties include accessing budget information for your team, explaining relevant aspects of budgets and features of budget documents to your team, and supporting team members to achieve performance goals.

Task A
You have determined that you will need to access budget information from the Senior Accountant to explain to your team. You will explain the overall financial objective of the business, provide an overview of the budget and explain how the budget translates to expense allocations for the team.

Task B
You have determined that one team member, Bill Goodale, will be responsible for tracking expenses and petty cash throughout the financial year. To meet organisational needs, this duty will need to be performed in accordance with policies and procedures.
You have determined that expenses will need to be divided equally and tracked by quarter. Bill will need to develop a spreadsheet to keep track of actual expenditure by account. To help control expenses, the spreadsheet will need to provide an ongoing tally of expense by account.

ASSESSMENT 3 - STUDENT INFORMATION Instructions for Students:

Whilst researching and writing your project it is important to:

Read the Assessment description carefully.
• Assessment should be in a Word format.
• Assemble and analyze a set of sources that you have determined are relevant to the issues you are investigating.
• Acknowledge clearly when and how you are drawing on the ideas or phrases of others;
• Consult your instructors when you are unsure about how to acknowledge the contributions of others to your thought and writing.
m Read the Plagiarism policy and procedure carefully to understand the consequences that you could face if your work is plagiarized.
• Student can seek clarification regarding the assessment required to be done.
• Students can ask for reasonable time from Assessor for preparation of project or Assessment.
• Students can seek information on additional reading material and reference for completion of the assessments.
Students with special needs can seek assistance from Assessors depending upon the nature of the need.
Submit this document along with your Assessment work.

Performance objective
The candidate will demonstrate the ability to monitor and control finances.

Assessment description
In response to the scenario provided, you will create a simple spreadsheet budget to capture monitoring information. Using information provided to you by your assessor, you will then use the budget spreadsheet to produce a report on expenditure in accordance with organisational policies and procedures. You will also modify a contingency plan.

Assessment instructions
1. Read through the scenario provided in Appendix 1 to this assessment task and tasks A and B.
2. Design and develop a spreadsheet to capture budgeted and actual figures to produce a variance report.
3. Access actual budget figures from relevant managers and accounting systems (assessor).
4. Monitor and record actual figures.
5. Consider feedback from team members.
6. Produce a variance report as per organisational requirements.
7. Consider the scenario information and contingency plan provided and analyse the variance report.
8. Modify the contingency and implementation plans provided in the scenario to improve effectiveness.
9. Submit all documents required in the specifications below to your assessor. Ensure you keep a copy of all work submitted for your records

Role
You are the Senior Accountant at Big Red Bicycle. A major component of your role is setting budgets and monitoring budgetary performance for the organisation.

Task A
The Managing Director, Tom Copeland, has asked you to implement a process to monitor expenditure and income. He has asked you to prepare a spreadsheet to capture and compare actual income and expenditure to budgeted figures. Your spreadsheet must contain columns for each of the four quarters of the financial year. You are required to gather data from the relevant managers (your assessor) to complete a budget variance report.
The report should conform to organisational requirements in policies and procedures and contain:
• columns to show actual account values
• absolute variance
• percentage variance.

Task B
It has come to the attention of the Managing Director, Tom Copeland, that due to the current economic climate, sales volume may be 20% below target this financial year. Tom is worried that this may severely impact profit projections. The company can accept as much as a 10% variance in profit projections; however, more than this could severely affect the company's ability to pay obligations and invest. Reliable data to determine whether the risk has eventuated should be available by midway through the second quarter (Q2), when sales data for the company's product are in.
Consider the contingency plan and the implementation plan for the contingency below. You have already implemented a portion of the contingency plan, namely the monitoring of budget performance in the variance report you have prepared. You should now analyse the report to determine the effectiveness of the contingency plan and its implementation.
You have received the following feedback from team members:
• Full-time workers and sales people are resentful of time wasting and distracting contract employees.
• Overtime not used but employees resentful of suggestion it might not be approved if needed.
• Training suited the needs of many sales team members but was not relevant to about half the team members.

 Sales team members were happy with the incentives program and tried hard to make sales in the third quarter (Q3); however, they were also resentful at the threatening tone of emails and soon lost enthusiasm.
 Effect of one-day training wearing off.
 Fifty percent of direct wages costs are attributable to short-term contract employees whose contracts have expired and who are no longer needed.
 Employees concerned about lack of attention paid to wastage: water; electricity: paper; raw materials.
 Employees feel left out of budgetary decision-making in general.

ASSESSMENT 4 - STUDENT INFORMATION Instructions for Students:
Whilst researching and writing your project it is important to:
• Read the Assessment description carefully.
• Assessment should be in a Word format.
• Assemble and analyze a set of sources that you have determined are relevant to the issues you are investigating.
• Acknowledge clearly when and how you are drawing on the ideas or phrases of others;
• Consult your instructors when you are unsure about how to acknowledge the contributions of others
to your thought and writing.
• Read the Plagiarism policy and procedure carefully to understand the consequences that you could face if your work is plagiarized.
• Student can seek clarification regarding the assessment required to be done.
• Students can ask for reasonable time from Assessor for preparation of project or Assessment.
• Students can seek information on additional reading material and reference for completion of the assessments.

Performance objective
The candidate will demonstrate the ability to review and evaluate financial management processes.

Assessment description
Using the scenario information supplied, you will respond to a number of scenario tasks. You will collect and analyse financial data and make recommendations to improve existing processes. You will also create a plan to implement and monitor solutions.

Procedure
1. Consider the scenario, tasks and financial information contained in the appendices of this assessment task.
2. On a separate electronic document, provide written responses to the following five tasks (i.e. tasks A to E).
3. Submit a document containing your responses to your assessor as per the specifications outlined below. Ensure you keep a copy of all work submitted for your records.

Specifications
You must:
• provide responses to the five tasks provided in this assessment task
• submit answers on an electronic document such as Microsoft Word.

Your assessor will be looking for:
• numeracy skills to read and understand a budget and perform cost accounting calculations
• knowledge of basic accounting principles to identify and use account balances
• knowledge of organisational requirements related to financial management
• knowledge of current requirements of the Australian Taxation Office with respect to GST
• knowledge of principles and techniques involved in:
o budgeting
• cash flow
o electronic spreadsheets
o GST
o ledgers and financial statements
o profit and loss statements

Attachment:- financial management approaches.rar