Manage budgets and financial plans - Accounting QUESTIONS

1. Why should organisations collect, file and maintain accurate financial records? Discuss in 50 to 80 words.

2. What are the expectations of managers and supervisors in relation to budget or financial plans? Discuss in 100 to 120 words.

3. What are the reports that can be used for financial planning in an organisation? Discuss in 30 to 50 words.

4. What is the process for preparing budgets or other financial plans? Discuss in 80 to 100 words.

5. What two forms of budgeting might be used?

6. Which form of budget allows changes to be made? Discuss in 50 to 80 words.

7. Explain how contingency plans work. Discuss in 80 to 100 words.

8. Why should team or work group members be actively involved in designing and developing contingency plans? Discuss in 80 to 100 words.

9. How can employees be engaged in the preparation of financial reports, allowing details to be easily disseminated among team members? Discuss in 80 to 100 words.

10. Why should employees be involved in setting and monitoring the budget? Discuss in 30 to 50 words.

11. What is responsibility accounting and what is its importance to an organisation? Discuss in 100 to 120 words?

12. What are cost centres? Discuss in 100 to 120 words. Give examples of cost centres that might be encountered in an organisation.

13. What is the importance of a cash flow budget or report? Discuss in 100 to 120 words.

14. What data do you need to collect, and from whom, in order to construct a cash flow budget? Discuss in 30 to 50 words.

15. Describe in 100 to 120 words how the budget is used to monitor work, performance, variation, and team/ division outputs.

16. What is the meaning of the following terms:

a. Assets.

b. Liabilities.

c. Expenses

d. Equity

17. Describe in 30 to 50 words (each) what the following budgets/ reports are and how they might be used to inform a team's operations.

a. Variance analysis.

b. The General Ledger

c. A sales report / Budget report

d. Variance Analysis Reports

e. The revenue and Expenditure report /budget

18. Explain (30 to 50 words) why reports must be made to:

a. Management.

b. Investors.

c. Creditors.

d. The government.

19. What details might be provided in a financial report? Discuss in 120 to 150 words.

20. What is GST and how is it implemented? Who is required to register for GST? What piece of legislation primarily governs GST?

21. What are audits and why are they carried out?

22. What are:

a. Budgets.

b. Cash flows.

c. General ledgers.

d. Profit and loss statements.

23. There are several ways organisations maintain financial records. They include manual systems (hard copy) and computer-based (electronic) systems. How do computer and manual systems operate?

24. Why do organisations need accurate and timely financial information? What information is required to manage the organisation's finances? Who is usually responsible for an organisation's financial management?

Project 1 - Practical Work

Conduct research or use an organisation that you know of, get a copy of an Annual Report.

Answer the following questions:

1. To whom is this report disseminated and how is this done?

2. Why do these people need the information contained in the Annual Report?

3. What financial information does the report offer? Describe the contents of the report and explain what it tells you about the business' activities-successes and non-successes-during the year.

4. Examine the financial summaries for information about the fiscal condition of the company. Did the company show a profit?

5. What sorts of recommendations are made and what suggestions are made regarding business activities for the upcoming year?

If possible, find a copy of the Annual Report from the previous year.

6. Compare the two and report on whether the projections from the first report were accurate.

7. Were the recommended changes/ improvements made and how did they impact on the next year's report?

Discuss the annual report in 3 to 5 pages.