Management assignment

Semester 1, 2019 Page 1 of 5 CDU College of Business and Law act202_assign_119_case.docx (Version 5/04/2019)

UNIT CODE: ACT202 UNIT NAME: MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

Assignment Information Semester 1 2019

Assessment 40% Submission Requirements.

This assignment may be submitted at or before 11.59pm Monday Study Week 11

Assignments are to be submitted by one of the following means; DO NOT LODGE BY FAX nor EMAIL nor at LECTURER'S OFFICE KEEP A COPY

 The assignment must be lodged on or before the due date indicated in the assignment details.

 Submit your Assignment using PDF file format1 .

 The assignment must conform to the requirements set out in this assignment

 The assignment must be lodged online via the ACT202 Learnline Assignment Lodgement link on the

ACT202 Learnline site . Ensure your f ile is named using a f ile naming convention that allow s the lecturer to

identify to w hom it belongs. Failure to use an acceptable f ile naming convention may result in your assignment

lodgement being rejected.

 DO NOT LODGE VIA EMAILor FAX - assignments lodged by email or fax w ill not be accepted.

 KEEP A COPY - Ensure you have a copy of the assignment lodged. If you have submitted assessment w ork

electronically please make sure you have a backup copy.

 Assignment lodgements w ill be acknow ledged automatically on the Learnline site, on submission.

1 Instructions for creating PDF documents and/or combining documents of different formats are provided on the Learnline site.

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Assignment Checklist An assignment checklist has been provided on the CDU ACT202 Learnline site to assist students who wish to ensure that the various submission requirements have been met. Format The assignment may be completed manually, or with the use of an electronic spreadsheet, word processing software or with the use of accounting software. Marks may be deducted for illegible or partially illegible papers. If completed using multiple file formats or manually, the document must be combined into one document, in PDF format2. Resubmission As a general rule resubmission of assessment items is NOT possible, however the Lecturer may ask for resubmission if it is deemed appropriate. Details for such resubmission will be made available by the Lecturer if and when the situation occurs. Preparation guidelines Assignment preparation guidelines are provided on the CDU ACT202 Learnline site. Students are required to comply with these requirements. Instructions on lodgement of the assignment and the required coversheet and declaration, are all provided with and/or separately to this document and are available on the ACT202 CDU Learnline site. FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH THESE REQUIREMENTS WILL RESULT IN YOUR ASSIGNMENT BEING REJECTED WITH SUBSEQUENT LOSS OF MARKS. University Plagiarism policy Plagiarism is the unacknowledged use of material written or produced by others or a rework of your own material. All sources of information and ideas used in assignments must be referenced. This applies whether the information is from a book, journal article, the internet, or a previous essay you wrote or the assignment of a friend. Students' attention is drawn to the Student Conduct By-Laws of the Charles Darwin University. Plagiarism policy is available at: http://www.cdu.edu.au/governance/doclibrary/pol-001.pdf and Student Breach of Academic Integrity Procedures http://www.cdu.edu.au/governance/doclibrary/pro-092.pdf

2 Instructions for creating PDF documents and/or combining documents of different formats are provided on the Learnline site.

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EXTENSIONS AND LATE LODGEMENTS LATE ASSIGNMENTS WILL GENERALLY NOT BE ACCEPTED UNLESS AN EXTENSION TO THE DUE DATE HAS BEEN GRANTED BY THE HEAD OF SCHOOL. Exceptions will only be made where assignments are late due to special circumstances that are supported by documentary evidence, and may be subject to a penalty of 5% of assignment marks per day. Partially completed assignments will be accepted with appropriate loss of marks for the incomplete portion. Should students foresee potential difficulties with submission of assessment items, they should contact the lecturer immediately the difficulties come to notice, to discuss suitable arrangements etc . for the submission of those assessment times. An Application for Assignment Extension or Special Consideration should be completed and provided to the Head of School, School of Law and Business. This application form, explanation and instructions is available on the ACT202 CDU Learnline course site or direct from http://learnline.cdu.edu.au/units/lb_school_templates/deployed/assignment_extension.docx Please note that it is now College policy that all extension requests must be approved by the Dean of the College. The lecturer is not able to personally approve extension requests. Leaving a request for an extension, special assessment or special consideration until the last moment, based on grounds that students could have reasonably been able to foresee, may result in the application being rejected.

Semester 1, 2019 Page 4 of 5 CDU College of Business and Law act202_assign_119_case.docx (Version 5/04/2019)

REQUIRED Each student will take the role of a management accounting consultant and present a paper outlining your analysis and recommendations/conclusions related to the assignment case. The paper should be written in fluent grammatical English. The paper may take the form of a report, or an essay. However the form is irrelevant provided that the analysis and recommendations/conclusions required are clear and understandable to the assessor and are within the limits given. There is no set length for the report. However a suggested length for the report would be between 1,500 and 2,000 words3. Various data and amounts will be necessary to support the analysis and recommendations/conclusions presented in the paper. Relevant schedules/tables providing the details of these data and calculations should be provided as appendices and appropriately cross-referenced in the paper. Internet resources used should be acknowledged and fully referenced. Copies of internet materials used should be submitted separately (in a single file in PDF4 format) with the final paper. All references and sources must be properly acknowledged, and the paper should include a bibliography of referenced sources. A copy of the final paper should be retained by the author until after assessment of the paper has been finalised. Case Background The details of the case and relevant data are provided separately on the ACT202 Learnline site. Note that the case details and associated data and figures will be unique to each student based on each student’s student number. To obtain the case details and associated data and figures each student should download the MS Excel file5 from the Assessments section of the ACT202 Learnline site. When you have downloaded the workbook file, enter your student number in the field/cell indicated and the relevant case details, data and figures necessary to complete your assignment will be generated. You cannot use the worksheet in the file, or link to the worksheet in the file to complete your assignment. You will need to print this worksheet and/or transcribe the data and figures manually. However, if you print this worksheet to PDF format, you can "copy & paste" and/or "export"6 the details from the PDF document to an excel worksheet

3 The length of assignment is an indication of the depth of analysis that is required. It does not include appendices, tables,

i l lustrations or calculations. The length of the assignment is provided only as a guide and need not be adhered to exactly. The intention is that you demonstrate that sufficient analysis is undertaken, without excessive workload. You are however

expected to be concise. 4 Instructions for creating PDF documents and/or combining documents of different formats are provided on the Learnl ine site.

5 Students who are unable to open the MS Excel fi le should contact the lecturer for assistance .

6 After selecting the text in the PDF document, select the right-click dropdown menu options, to export the data to MS Excel.

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Prepare a Written Report/Essay Prepare a report on your analysis of the case. Your report should identify if there are any deficiencies inherent in the company’s existing costing system and if so explain how activity-based costing could overcome these deficiencies. If, in your analysis, you determine there are no inherent deficiencies, explain why not. (To set your report in the appropriate business context, you should refer to the information given in the case details, the schedules provided and the outcomes of the following requirements.) To support your report you should undertake the following (and use the outcomes in your report):

1. Assign the costs to the activity centres using the resource driver consumption patterns shown in Schedules 1 and 2.

2. Calculate the cost of each activity performed in the relevant (to your allocated case) activity cost centre, using the information provided in item 1 above and in Schedule 3

3. A list of the activities performed and their annual costs is provided in Schedule 4 (some costs will need to be calculated as indicated in item 2 above). In addition the schedule provides an activity driver for each activity and the annual quantity of each activity driver. Calculate the cost per unit of activity driver for the activities listed. (Calculate to four decimal places.)

4. Based on the information calculated in item 3 above and in Schedules 5 and 6, prepare a bill of activities and determine the cost per unit for each of the two product items identified.

5. Would the difference in costs for the two products be reflected in the conventional costing system? 6. Do you think that the existing costing system understates or overstates the cost of the two products

identified in item 4 above? Explain your answers in detail with reference to your calculations. 7. Consider and describe the changes in cost structure that are likely to have occurred at the Company

over the last 15 to 20 years, and speculate on their causes. 8. Now complete your analysis and prepare your report. Your report should identify if there are any

deficiencies inherent in the existing costing system and if so explain (using the outcomes from items 1 to 7 above) how activity-based costing could overcome these deficiencies. If, in your analysis, you determine there are no inherent deficiencies, explain (again using the outcomes from items 1 to 7 above) why not.

9. Include in your discussion, what factors the management accountant should consider when deciding whether to use an Activity-based system that includes both manufacturing overhead and non- manufacturing costs. And furthermore outline the benefits, costs and limitations of act ivity-based costing.