Accounting and Finance Practices 3/4 (need one person to complete all 4 assignments)

Simulation

In Module 3, you will use CVP analysis to inform the pricing of your 3 products.

SCENARIO CONTINUATION:

You’ve now completed SLP2, and it the date is (once again) January 1, 2016.

You turn on the TV, and once again, the local television news anchor is talking about events that occurred on January 1, 2012.

Your decision-making process will be different this time, as you will be using CVP analysis, a technique with which you recently became familiar.

You analyze the results of the decisions you made in SLP2. But this time, you aim to improve your Final Total Score by using the CVP Calculator to help you determine a new and improved strategy.

You analyze your SLP2 results using CVP and develop your complete four-year strategy, again taking notes, documenting your reasoning.

You finish the report that shows your revised strategy for the next four years.

Do not run the simulation yet! Simply turn in your written report.

Session Long Project

Write a 6- to 7-page paper, not including cover and reference pages, in which you use the results from SLP2 and CVP analysis to develop a revised strategy.

Keys to the Assignment

The key aspects of this assignment that should be covered and taken into account in preparing your paper include:

1. The revised strategy consists of the Prices, R&D Allocation %, and any product discontinuations for the X5, X6, and X7 tablets for each of the four years: 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015.

2. You must present a rational justification for this strategy. In other words, you must provide clear and logical support for your proposed strategy using financial analysis and relevant business theories.

3. Use the  CVP Calculator and review the PowerPoint that explains CVP and provides some examples.

4. You need to crunch some numbers (CVP Analysis) to help you determine your prices and R&D allocations.

5. Make sure all of your proposed changes are firmly grounded in CVP analysis, on the financial and market data provided you, and on sound business principles.

6. Present your analysis professionally, making strategic use of tables, charts, and graphs.

· Time Line Summary:

SLP1

· 2015: Hired on December 15.

· Turned first report in to Sally on December 30th.

SLP2

· Time Warp 1 begins: January 1, 2016 warps into January 1, 2012.

· You realize you have to make decisions for 2012 – 2015, which you do.

· December 31, 2015 – You have gone through all four years, and you write your report to summarize how you did.

SLP3

· Despite your efforts in SLP2, you are once again taken back to January 1, 2012. You decide to use CVP analysis to revise the four-year plan you developed in SLP2. You analyze the results of your decisions from SLP2, taking detailed notes. You use the CVP Calculator to help develop your revised strategy, taking additional notes explaining the logic your decisions.

NEED TO BRUSH UP ON CVP ANALYSIS?

The following link will provide a CVP refresher:

Rehman, A. (2014). Cost-Volume-Profit relationship (CVP Analysis). Accounting for Management. Retrieved on August 27, 2014 from http://www.accountingformanagement.com/cost_volume_profit.htm

BECOME FAMILIAR WITH THE SIMULATION

Visit the simulation here: https://forio.com/simulate/michael.garmon/tablet-development-sim/simulation/

You will see the simulation interface, which provides you with information about the Clipboard Tablet Company, as well as the input interface to implement your strategy (pricing decisions and R&D budget allocations).

Explore the interface, and become familiar with it and the information it provides. The left-hand menu includes these options:

Each time you open the simulation (or when you reset it to play again), you will begin at end of the year of 2011, and the data you see will show the results for 2011 and 2010. When you run the simulation, you will always run it for the four-year period of 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015. At the end of each year, you will see the results for that year and the previous year.