Implement financial management approaches

September 9th, 2015

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Implement financial management approaches
Submission details
Candidate’s name       Phone no.
Assessor’s name       Phone no.
Assessment site
Assessment date/s       Time/s
The assessment task is due on the date specified by your assessor. Any variations to this arrangement must be approved in writing by your assessor.
Submit this document with any required evidence attached. See specifications below
for details.
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 a team member (assessor). You will then support the team member to perform their required role with respect to software resources and systems.
Procedure
1.   Consider the scenario provided 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
e.   Set up a time with your team member to have 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
4.   Submit all documents required in the specifications below to your assessor. Ensure you keep a copy of all work submitted for your records.
Specifications
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 record keeping
?   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 contained in organisational policies and procedures
?   requirements for organisational record keeping and auditing with respect to petty cash
?   knowledge principles and techniques involved in budgeting and electronic spreadsheets.
Adjustment for distance-based learners
?   No variation of the task is required.
?   Documentation can be submitted electronically or posted in the mail.

Appendix 1 – Scenario
Big Red Bicycle is a bicycle manufacturer based in Bendigo Victoria. The company produces bicycles which it sells to retailers for on-sale in the domestic Australian market.
The senior management structure of the company appears below:
Person    Position
Michelle Yeo   CEO
Tom Copeland   Managing Director
John Black   CFO
Stuart LaRoux   Operations General Manager
Pat Roberts   Senior Accountant
Sam Gellar   Sales General Manager
Charles Pierce   Production Manager
Holly Burke   HR Manager
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 you control expenses, the spreadsheet will need to provide an ongoing tally of expense by account.
Bill’s skills include basic accounting. Bill needs to be informed of Big Red Bicycle policies and procedures for petty cash. Bill is familiar with Microsoft Excel but does not know how to use formula and functions to sum columns or rows of figures.

Appendix 2 – Financial policies and procedures
Expense Reimbursement
Purpose of the policy
To detail procedures to be followed in relation to expense reimbursement that has been incurred on behalf of the organisation.
The policy
Dolly’s Delight will reimburse staff for reasonable and authorised expenses that have been incurred by them on behalf of the organisation or in the course of conducting Dolly’s Delight business.
Procedure
1.   Will not reimburse staff in the following circumstances:
a.   any late payment penalties, e.g. overdue interest on credit cards
b.   expenses that are usually recovered from a third party
c.   penalties and fines, e.g. parking, traffic
d.   those claims that should have been made using the purchase order system
e.   those expense claims made by staff as a tax deduction
f.   those expenses that were not made for business purposes.
2.   Travel expenses claims:
a.   insurance for trip cancellation will be reimbursed
b.   mileage allowance will be given for the use of a staff member’s vehicle when used for work-related travel
c.   personal stopovers or indirect routes will not be reimbursed
d.   travel reimbursement is provided for the most direct and economical mode of travel available; circumstances will be considered on a ‘case-by-case’ basis.
3.   Accommodation expenses:
a.   reimbursement will cover moderate accommodation expenses; circumstances will be considered on a ‘case-by-case’ basis
b.   items of a personal nature that are charged to a hotel account will not be reimbursed.
4.   Employee’s own meals:
a.   employees on Dolly’s Delight business will be reimbursed for any reasonable and appropriate meal expenses.
5.   All relevant and original source documents must be attached to the Expense Reimbursement Form. A statutory declaration may be required when these original documents are not provided.
6.   Appropriate advance payments may be authorised.
7.   Employees have authority to approve expenses up to the amount detailed in their individual job description. Any expenditure claims above the level prescribed must be forwarded to supervisors for approval.
8.   Employees incurring authorised expenditure must submit their requests on a signed Expense Reimbursement Form.
9.   Source documents (including tickets, receipts, vouchers, invoices) must be kept for all purchases and expenses claims.
10.   The Financial Controller will use discretion to reimburse reasonable but unauthorised expenses.
11.   Those claims that have not been adequately prepared, have not been duly authorised, or are lacking in original documentation, will be returned to the employee with reasons that outline why the claim has not been processed.
Petty Cash
Purpose of the policy
To detail procedures to be followed in relation to tracking petty cash expenditure
The policy
Big Red Bicycle maintains a petty cash system to allow authorised personnel to pay for small expenditures in connection with business activity.
Procedure
1.   One team member is authorised to disburse petty cash with one alternate in case of sickness or emergency.
2.   Petty cash is to be kept secure, locked in safe.
3.   Receipts for cash must be issued.
4.   Receipts must be reconciled nightly.
5.   Amounts over $800 must be banked.
6.   Petty cash expense will be recorded as miscellaneous expense.

Plan financial management approaches
Submission details
Candidate’s name       Phone no.
Assessor’s name       Phone no.
Assessment site
Assessment date/s       Time/s
The assessment task is due on the date specified by your assessor. Any variations to this arrangement must be approved in writing by your assessor.
Submit this document with any required evidence attached. See specifications below
for details.
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.
Procedure
1.   Read through the scenario provided 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.
4.   Submit all documents required in the specifications below to your assessor. Ensure you keep a copy of all work submitted for your records.
Specifications
You must:
?   meet with your assessor to clarify budget and negotiate changes
?   provide a contingency plan.
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.
Adjustment for distance-based learners
?   No variation of the task is required.
?   Documentation can be submitted electronically or posted in the mail.

Appendix 1 – Big Red Bicycle Pty Ltd scenario
Big Red Bicycle is a bicycle manufacturer based in Bendigo Victoria. The company produces bicycles which it sells to retailers in the domestic Australian market.
The senior management structure of the company appears below.
Person    Position
Michelle Yeo   CEO
Tom Copeland   Managing Director
John Black   CFO
Stuart LaRoux   Operations General Manager
Pat Roberts   Senior Accountant
Sam Gellar   Sales General Manager
Charles Pierce   Production Manager
Holly Burke   HR Manager
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 Centre A, based in Adelaide. The centre has achieved great success over the last year and consistently outsells other sales centres. In fact, due to the large number of accounts managed by your sales team and larger staff, your centre is expected to sell as much volume as the other two sales centres put together. Naturally, you expect cost allocations to reflect the both the needs and importance to the business of Cost Centre A.
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 at the budget for your cost centre closely, 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), second quarter (Q2), and the fourth quarter (Q4) are generally 30% less than Q2.
?   Sales in Q2 depend on completion of 90% of repair and maintenance.
?   Commission negotiated with members of the sales team is now at 2.5%.
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 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 sales falling 20%.
As per organisational policy you should use the contingency plan template provided.

Appendix 2 – Budgeting and finance policy
Budget preparations
?   The business plan will set the key parameters for all financial budgeting.
?   Variations to the business plan must be approved by the CEO and senior management strategic committee.
?   Prior period results are to be analysed to identify the profit level of cost centres, identify correlations between financial statistics and to set key performance indicators and benchmarks for future budgets.
?   The budget planning committee will meet prior to budgets being developed and agree on budget parameters. The committee will consist of all department managers plus the CEO and finance manager.
?   A CAPEX budget will be developed from the approved business plan.
?   A detailed sales budget must be completed before completing the profit budget for the year.
?   A cash-flow budget covering the first three months will be prepared after the profit budget is completed.
?   A master budget including profit projections will be completed from which cost centre allocations will be made.
?   Budget notes that contain all the assumptions used in the budgets should accompany the master budget or be made available on a separate document. Where possible, the notes should justify the basis on which the estimates were made.
?   Overheads (non-direct expenses) will be apportioned across the cost centres equally. Exceptions need to be negotiated with relevant authorities.
?   All expenses and income will be spread equally throughout the year unless otherwise required by business needs or business environment.
?   The financial cycle for budgeting purposes will be yearly ending 30 June.
Reporting requirements
Software applications to be used in reporting.
?   environment – Windows
?   accounting Information System – BRB will use MYOB AccountRight plus
?   data analysis – BRB will use Microsoft Excel 2007.
Actual results will be produced monthly by the MYOB accounting system. Actual variances to budget will be performed by Excel with a report prepared for senior management for significant variances.
Financial delegations
?   Each manager is responsible for achieving the revenue budgets agreed to in the budget committee.
?   Each manager is responsible to approve, by signing the necessary paperwork, all expenditures that fall within their area of responsibility.
?   Expenditures must be within the budget guidelines for the individual departments.
Format for budgets and reports
All budgets must include the following details:
?   name of the person who prepared it
?   cost centre (if applicable)
?   name of the budget/report, i.e. sales, expenses, CAPEX, cash flow, budget variation report
?   period of the budget.

Appendix 3 – Budgets and templates
Master budget with profit projections
Big Red Bicycle Pty Ltd
Master Budget FY 2011/2012
FY   Q1   Q2   Q3   Q4
REVENUE
Commissions (2% sales)   60,000   15,000   15,000   15,000   15,000
Direct wages fixed   200,000   50,000   50,000   50,000   50,000
Sales   3,000,000   750,000   750,000   750,000   750,000
Cost of Goods Sold   400,000   100,000   100,000   100,000   100,000
Gross Profit   2,340,000    585,000   585,000   585,000   585,000
EXPENSES
General & Administrative Expenses
Accounting fees   20,000   5,000   5,000   5,000   5,000
Legal fees   5,000   1,250   1,250   1,250   1,250
Bank charges   600   150   150   150   150
Office supplies   5,000   1,250   1,250   1,250   1,250
Postage & printing   400   100   100   100   100
Dues & subscriptions   500   125   125   125   125
Telephone   10,000   2,500   2,500   2,500   2,500
Repairs & maintenance   50,000   12,500   12,500   12,500   12,500
Payroll tax   25,000   6,250   6,250   6,250   6,250
Marketing Expenses
Advertising   200,000   50,000   50,000   50,000   50,000
Employment Expenses
Superannuation   45,000   11,250   11,250   11,250   11,250
Wages & salaries   500,000   125,000   125,000   125,000   125,000
Staff amenities   20,000   5,000   5,000   5,000   5,000
Occupancy Costs
Electricity   40,000   10,000   10,000   10,000   10,000
Insurance   100,000   25,000   25,000   25,000   25,000
Rates   100,000   25,000   25,000   25,000   25,000
Rent   200,000   50,000   50,000   50,000   50,000
Water   30,000   7,500   7,500   7,500   7,500
Waste removal   50,000   12,500   12,500   12,500   12,500
TOTAL EXPENSES   1,401,500    350,375    350,375    350,375    350,375
NET PROFIT (BEFORE INTEREST & TAX)   938,500    234,625    234,625    234,625    234,625
Income Tax Expense (25%Net)   234,625    58,656    58,656    58,656    58,656
NET PROFIT AFTER TAX   703,875    175,969    175,969    175,969    175,969
Sales cost centre expense budget
Sales Centre A   Sales Centre B   Sales Centre C
Commissions   $20,000   $20,000   $20,000
Wages   $100,000   $100,000   $100,000
Telephone   $3,000   $3,000   $3,000
Office supplies   $1,000   $1,000   $1,000