Management, Control and Accountability for Financial Resources. 3 June Examination Paper. Time: 2 hours

Transcription

1 Management, Control and Accountability for 3 June 2014 Examination Paper Answer any THREE (3) questions Clearly cross out surplus answers. Failure to do this will result in only the first THREE (3) answers being marked Time: 2 hours Any reference material brought into the examination room must be handed to the invigilator before the start of the examination.

2 ANSWER ANY THREE (3) QUESTIONS QUESTION 1 a) Briefly explain the main purposes of management and financial accounting. 5 b) With reference to examples drawn from both areas of accounting, discuss how far you agree with the following statement: 14 Management accounting is internally focused and forward looking while financial accounting is backward looking and externally focused. c) Describe what accounting related information could be used to support the following business decisions: i) Setting the price of a product. 4 ii) Deciding whether to invest in a new piece of machinery by using a range of investment appraisal techniques. iii) Deciding whether to produce or buy in from outside a quantity of a product for 4 sale to final consumers. Total 33

3 QUESTION 2 a) Briefly explain the following accounting concepts: 7 i) prudence ii) going concern iii) consistency b) Explain the following forms of ownership and outline their main advantages and disadvantages: 18 i) sale proprietor ii) partnership iii) public limited company c) i) Explain the terms debt and equity in the context of a company raising long term finance. ii) From the perspective of a UK company raising funds, discuss the main advantages and disadvantages of debt and equity. 2 Total 33

4 QUESTION 3 a) In the context of a trading company s profit and loss account (or statement of comprehensive income) explain what is meant by the following terms: i) gross profit ii) net profit b) Using examples as appropriate, distinguish between the terms revenue expenditure and capital expenditure. 4 c) From the following information, produce a trading account for the year ended 31 st December Opening inventory 9,750 Closing inventory 8,230 Purchases 5,300 Sales 97,410 8 d) Using examples as appropriate, define the different categories of asset and liability that may appear in an organisation s balance sheet (or statement of financial position). 12 e) State THREE (3) ways in which an organisation s cash flow can be improved. 3 Total 33

5 QUESTION 4 a) Examine the extracts below from the final accounts for ABC company for year ended December 31 st 2013 Turnover 23,589 Cost of goods sold 15,82 Gross profit 7,73 Business expenses 2,50 Net profit 5,113 Average capital employed 42,350 9 Based upon the extracted information above, calculate ABC company s: i) Return on capital employed ii) Gross profit margin iii) Net profit margin b) Discuss in broad terms how the financial information requirements of senior management will typically differ from the requirements of junior, operational managers. 3 c) Identify the main steps which might be involved in the budget-setting process in a large company. 8 d) Briefly discuss the benefits that an effective process of budgeting can generate for a large organisation. 5 e) Explain the main features of the following types of budget i) incremental budget ii) zero based budget iii) flexed budget f) What are the main problems associated with a zero-based budget? 2 Total 33

6 QUESTION 5 a) Using examples as appropriate, define the following cost classifications: 14 i) Fixed costs ii) Variable costs iii) Stepped costs iv) Semi-variable costs b) Set out the main steps involved in using Activity Based Costing to generate the full cost of a product produced by a multi-product business. c) Discuss: 8 i) The main advantages of Activity Based Costing, compared with traditional absorption costing. ii) The difficulties associated with Activity Based Costing. d) Briefly define the payback method of investment appraisal and discuss its main 5 strengths and weaknesses. Total 33 End of Examination