Management Accounting Assignment

602 Management Accounting David Xu Id: 65990771 Session Preparation Assignment (SPA) #2 Understanding Key Cost Relationships 1. Read Chapter 2 of SN, Key meanings in the Chapter. Understanding key cost in a firm is the most important issue in management accounting. That is because business survives on value exchange. Customers and business are willing to exchange money and services (products) based on the costs. How products cost can effect a firm’s financial health is very important for managers. Cost objects are the different aspects of a firm’s operation, or products, it is essential concept in management accounting.If not properly handled, cost objects can hinder, not help, the manager to understand to company’s reality. The example here is very easy to explain the situation. Also cost objects are vital to planning, motivation, and controlling. In some cases, manager makes decision to close or open new store in a region based on the cost objects. We can also see products as cost object, normally happen in manufacture business. Because accrual accounting makes a number of judgement and assumptions and all that are subjective, so it is common that managers sometimes understate or overstate a company’s profits in a period.Direct cost and indirect cost VS Raw Material and Maintenance cost The main business in NZ and Australia are service business, mostly dealing with people. Cadbury is a good example for manufacture business. Product cost and period cost. The later is a new concept and is not difficult to understand. Apportion indirect cost. Deciding indirect cost in a company is often not straightforward and sometimes involving a number of judgements and assumptions. We can attach overhead cost to products to better understanding the reality. Function based costing system Predetermined Overhead Absorption ratesActivity based costing systems Variable costs are normally direct costs, it is used in the cost of work-in-progress and fini shed good inventories of products. Fixed and variable costs VS Rates and Raw Materials Variable cost and company’s activity level Cost-Volume-Profit Analysis Use of function can help to understand the analysis Very good example to explain the case Contribution margin = Sales – Variable Costs Managers have to make some assumption to in terms of how cost and profits may change at different level of activity 2. Think back to your answers to Section 3 in SPA#1. hat might be the key costs of Ryman Healthcare Ltd? What might be the key issues facing Ryman in terms of managing its costs? Why do you think this? What might be the key cost relationship that you would need to deeply understand in order to be able to manage the business of Ryman Healthcare? The key costs according to the principles of cost objects, they can be: 1) Costs to maintain the retirement villages, including nursing cost, medical cost, etc. 2) Costs to construct retirement villages, including building mate rials, mortgages and interests, etc. ) Costs to market in selling the retirement village units, including advertise, commercials, etc. 4) Logistics costs, includes warehouse, etc. 5) Overheads, including power, rates, security, etc. If I am the CEO of Ryman Healthcare, I think the key issues in managing the costs will be: 1) Hidden costs between different departments in the company. These costs are usually indirect costs in Ryman Healthcare Ltd, like costs to fix leaky buildings in the village units, ever increasing financial costs in the recession economy. ) How to properly apportion indirect costs to Ryman’s main service, occupation rights of individual retirement village units. We have to make some judgement and assumptions in the process. For example, when fix a leaky buildings, the costs can be categorized in building maintenance costs; when financial costs increases because of the financial crisis (more difficult to borrow money), it can be categorized to construction c osts. 3) To analysis the fixed and variable costs in the company. Fixed costs are staff wages, electricity, rates, etc. variable osts are village unit construction cost, outsourcing nursing cost when extra help needed, etc. The key task here is to increase profits and also put the variable costs under control, which is big challenge to CEO in Ryman Healthcare. 4) Use different methods in dealing different department of the company. We can use functional-based costing system method in construction department, and use activity-based costing system in nursing department in apportioning of the indirect costs. Key cost relationship in Ryman Healthcare: The cost relationship can be best expressed in Cost-Volume-Profit Analysis (CVP).Function y is variable cost and x is number of village unit, then y = f(x). We assume that variable cost is straight-line function, which means when village units increases, the variable costs (costs to run the villages) increase in the same trend. In reality, when running a retirement village, it has a minimum cost regardless how many units are occupied. We call this minimum cost is M. We also use C as cost to run each unit, the total variable costs can be represented as: Y = M + C x X Y: variable cost M: minimum cost to run a village, it is fixed cost C: cost to run one village unitX: number of village units From the financial statements of Ryman, it has $40 million profits last year, way above break-even point, so we will focus on minimising the total cost. In the above function, if we increase the number of units X, and keep fixed cost at a certain level, then the average fixed cost per unit will reduce. Here we also assume that cost to run per unit is hard to reduce and unchanged at a certain level of village units, and used as constant here. In this CVP analysis, CEO of Ryman Healthcare can deeply understand the cost relationship between fixed cost and variable costs.

Chinese food in the United States( food as culture) Annotated Bibliography - 1

Chinese food in the United States( food as culture) - Annotated Bibliography Example The jury is a fundamental part of English judicial system, though few cases are decided by jury these days. It ensures that the judicial system works for the public’s benefit and not to benefit unjust leaders. It promotes not only a healthy society but also a healthy criminal justice system, where political leaders cannot silence their opponents by abusing the criminal justice system. Though it plays an important role, the constitutional position of the Britain’s jury is vulnerable as it is not written in the constitution (Michaels & Laura 54). Although juries play a significant role in criminal justice system, they usually deal with minor cases. The criminal cases are usually divided into three categories. â€Å"Summary† offences are the minor ones and are less serious in nature and are tried only in magistrate’s court. â€Å"Indictable only† is the most serious kind of offences while â€Å"triable either way† are the ones found between the serious offences and minor ones. The triable either way as indicated can be tried either in magistrate’s court or crown court (Towl & David 34). Majority of criminal cases are summary because they are commonly committed because they are least in nature and are listened in the magistrate’s court where the jury has no role. The other few remaining cases in crown court, the defendants either plead guilty and there is no need for a jury or a judge informs the jury that the law demands the judge to acquit the defendant. Therefore, cases heard by the jury are very few when compared to the total number of cases brought before court. The removal of the juries in civil cases was slowly and it might gave started in the mid nineteenth century, when judges were given authority to refuse a case be heard in front of a jury but by a sole judge. This led to the use of jury almost obsolete. The Supreme Court gives qualified jury right to the

Operations and Quality MBA TMA Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Operations and Quality MBA TMA - Essay Example n, including engine test cells, two foundries in Worchester 50 miles west of Northampton and a low volume engine plant at Wellingborough (Kimbereley, 2000). The Company has occupied the Northampton base since 1964, with a staff of about 425 and offers technologically advanced engine design, manufacture and test equipment (Ciber, 2005). The Company’s rich and varied history is set to continue, with activities as diverse as Racing, Aerospace, Medical equipment design and Confidential Consultancy work as part of the company profile. (Cosworth, 2007). Cosworth Ltd has introduced CIBER SAP’s All-in-one solutions in order to enhance the efficiency of their business operations. The Company was operating earlier with a disparate MRP system that contained a plethora of bespoke products and several old fashioned proprietary applications, which were not dynamic and did not provide real time data (Ciber, 2005). The goals of the new SAP implementation process that has been carried out at Cosworth is to reduce costs, cut down on wastes, establish best practices and improve the overall system performance (Ciber 2005). The SAP system will also allow for increased flexibility and improvements in reporting and planning. According to Jeremy Hill, the Head of business systems at Cosworth, the biggest advantage offered by the introduction of SAP systems at Cosworth is the facility to share documents, since earlier, there was no coordinated policy and facility to share documents with documents and designs being faxed and needing reassembly at the other end or being sent around on CDs, while the new e-service has helped in the delivery of an efficient and responsive customer service (Clark, 2006). The All-in-one SAP application also allows for the establishment of cross company synergies and an end to end data supply system, ensuring that there is improved reporting and decision making across the organization. (CIBER, 2005). This report will examine the Sales processes at

Independent Research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Independent Research - Essay Example . . Before the constitutional monarchy in 1931 (Kiriwat 2001), all theatre Khon, or masked dance drama was for palace performances only. Khon is still part of an elite group of the Thai National Theatre. Their performances are only related to the Rhamakayian. Lakon Nai also dealing with the Rhamakayian, was intended to be danced only by women who can do the complicated hand and finger movement. They are both very much part of the Thai culture. This is a study to present a short history of the origins of Rhamakayian and its importance in Thai Culture. The study will show how the royal family changed Rhamakayian from the original Ramayana developing two distinct dance styles which began centuries ago. King Rama I and King Rama II standardized the dance forms . This classical dance of today still has ancient origins. It style is old fashioned and no longer appeals to modern audience. It will be shown why the perception of the audience is no longer met. An audience is determined by the t ype of performance . Their needs and expectations will be shown in order to how what companies can do today, to bring the universal aspect of Rhamakayian back to the dance and drama without losing this beautiful Thai Epic. To conclude, the study will have shown that the use of an ancient subject is universal and its dance and drama can be brought up to the expectations of today's audience. The Origins of Ramakien from the original Ramayana Ramayana is a "timeless tale", which originated in ancient India. India was considered the centre of the world. The epic consists of 18 books covering every significant and insignificant aspect of human nature and character. The epic, though adapted to each individual country's culture and standards, has traversed all of Asia. It is so ingrained in the culture of the Asian world that it is compulsory in University and some lower education. In Indonesia, students are quoted as saying "Islam is our Religion but Ramayan is our Culture". (Kumar 2007) The Way of the Ram as Ram was a God who left his children , Lav and Kush to travel the world. This epic is universal to all as it covers the nine sentiments known to man. Each and every situation in a person's life is covered in the epic. So that the reader might get an excellent feel of the importance of Ramayana on the development of Rakayian. Expressing feeling are used in movement as they show the power of the sentiments in dramatic art. As it will be explained in the psychology of the audience are the Rasas expressed to the people in the hall? Love: between Sita and Rama Valor : Shiva's bow was broken when it was being restrung Pathos: Kakasura's feelings when he surrendered Suprise: the bridge over the ocean Humour: Shoorpanakha going to Rama Terror and Disgust: battlefield Fury: Killing Ravana Peace: Interaction with the sages. All of Asia was influenced by the story. "Ramanama is for the pure in heart and for those who want to attain purity and remain pure.' Mahatma Gandi". (Kumar 2007,page 4) The progression from Ramahaya to Ramakian was done in stages. The first Ramakian version came to Siam in the 14th century. In the 18th century there was a great fire which destroyed all existing written versions of the epic. The most modern version comes from King Rama I who in the 18th century saw the importance of cataloguing and sequencing the whole epic. He added his own writing where he had to complete the storyline. In Thailand, Ramakien changes in context but the story stays the same; the

Climate Change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Climate Change - Essay Example Describe three key findings of the AR4 report that are mentioned in the Introduction Section. Key findings include: 1. An increase in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice and rising global sea levels 11 out of last 12 years from 1995-2006 rank among the 12 hottest years on record Global sea level rise of 1.8mm from 1961-2003 Polar ice caps shrinking – Artic sea ice extent shrank 2.7% per decade Changes in precipitation – decline in Mediterranean, Sahel, southern Africa and increase in eastern part of North and South America, North Europe 2. Natural systems are being affecting by regional climate change, particularly temperature increase Glacial runoff increase glacial lake sizes Hydrological effects – increase runoff, earlier spring peak discharge, warming of lakes/rivers, which effects thermal structure and water quality 3. Effects of regional climate change in natural and human environment are emerging, although many are difficult to discern due to adoption and non climatic drivers Agricultural changes – planting crops earlier on in the year Increase in climatic health hazards, e.g. European 2003 heat wave killed 15,000 people in France What is the difference between natural and anthropogenic drivers of climate change? Provide an example of each. Natural changes refer to climatic alterations in the Earth’s atmosphere that aren’t affected by humans. Astronomical Effects Terrestrial Effects Orbital variability of the Earth Global geometry of continent/ocean distribution Solar storms and flares Ocean tide cycles Sunspot cycles Periodic ocean circulation changes, e.g. El Nino These processes control the amount of suns radiation reaching specific latitudinal zones on Earth Volcanic eruptions Anthropogenic drivers have also been highlighted as contributing to climate change and accelerating the warming of the Earth’s atmosphere. Examples include increased CO? (280ppm from pre industrial levels to 379pmm by 2005), burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, CFC’s and aerosols and from agriculture, e.g. cows releasing significant amounts of methane. What is a greenhouse gas (GHG), and how have their levels changed in the atmosphere changed since 1970? A GHG is a gas in the Earth’s atmosphere that contributes to the greenhouse effect through absorbing and emitting radiation causing climate change. They include CO?, methane, nitrous oxide and halocarbons. Changes in the atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases and aerosols, land cover and solar radiation alter the energy balances of climatic systems. There has been a 70% increase in global GHG emissions due to human activities between 1970-2004. CO? annual emissions have increased by 80% from 21 to 38 gigatonnes. CO? also represents 77% of total anthropogenic GHG emissions. Describe the SRES scenarios. What are they, and why do we have more than one of them? SRES refers to the scenarios descr ibed in the IPCC Special Report on Emission Scenarios. The SRES project an increase of baseline global GHG emissions by a range of 9.7 to 36.7 GtCO? – eq (25% to 90%) between 2000-2030. The SRES scenarios are grouped into 4 scenario families (A1, A2, B1, B2). They explore alternative development pathways, covering a wide range of demographic,

Discuss the need (if any) for international environmental restriction Essay

Discuss the need (if any) for international environmental restriction and the constraints that international agreements are subject to. Use the cases of the Mo - Essay Example It can be argued that if environmental concerns are brought out of their current green image and established with economic rules, the will to enforce them and the ability to accept them could be far greater than it is at the present moment. Undoubtedly, human beings have polluted and exploited the planet that we live on and while the effects of the pollution caused by human activity can be disastrous, it might not be recognized as such until it starts to affect the urban centers of the world that we live in (VonAncken, 2006). Of course there have been successful international agreements on what steps must be taken to prevent an all out attack on the environment and measures such as the Montreal Protocol have certainly met with a lot of success (Kruger, 1999). However, a lot remains to be done in a world where countries such as the United States and Australia have not fully agreed to the more advanced Kyoto Protocol. It would be useless to deny the facts as they stand since global warming and environmental degradation is a harsh reality. According to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) global temperatures have risen by 0.6 Â ± 0.2 Co in the last century. Most importantly, the cause for this rise is attributed to human activity (IPCC, 2001). However, there are those who contest the reason behind these facts and suggest that the global rise in temperatures is a natural phenomenon. At the same time, there are many who make dire predictions about the coming climatic changes. Global climate change has quickly become one of the most hotly contested issues in terms of science as well as politics. However, it is also becoming a topic for debate in terms of economics and international law where it may take center stage when new agreements are formed between nations as to how they control what they do to hurt or help

Employee relations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Employee relations - Essay Example It also includes the ongoing evaluation of performance of employees, managing it, ensuring that ‘laws and regulations’ are followed and also to solve the employees disputes (Society for Human Resource Management, 2011). Good employee relations denote peaceful, pleasant, abundant relation between labour and management. Sound relation regulates the production by minimising conflicts. It improves the worker’s strength by resolving their problems through negotiation and consultation. It improves the status of employees, evades any kind of disputes and thus, preserves ‘industrial democracy’. Employee relation is the virtual balance of negotiating influence between the employees and management. In every organisation, an efficient ER executive provides instruction about how a company can manage with the grievances, penalising process and legislative recognition process of the Employment Relations Act (1999). For managing the employee relation the managers mu st act in a reasonable and logical manner towards the employees and labour unions. It is vital for personnel authorities to ascertain standards of activities which are rational (Gennard & Judge, 2005). In this context, the study will evaluate the employee relations related challenges as faced by Royal Mail. Analysis of Organisation Royal Mail is a public limited company controlled by the government of the UK. Their annual turnover is more than ?8 billion and it has almost 200,000 employees. In the UK, Royal Mail operates under its well-known brands: Royal Mail; Post office and Parcel force Worldwide. Royal Mail has gone through a restructuring process to reduce costs, improve effectiveness to compete with other rivalries in the postal sector. It ensures delivery of sustained high quality services effectively (CSR Case Study Series, 2005). Basic Organisational Structure Royal Mail Group serves mails and parcels throughout the UK. It has almost 168,000 employees in the UK. It has 11,9 05 Post Offices and manages almost 400 million parcels per year. The network of Royal Mail includes almost 11,500 branches throughout the UK. Royal Mail Group has five non–Executive Directors and three Executive Directors who take all the managerial decisions for Royal Mail. The CMU (Communication Workers Union) is the labour union of Royal Mail which stands for non–managerial employees. The company follows the bureaucratic organisational structure. The flow of communication goes through different layers of management which causes slow decision making. With respect to employee relation, organisation can adopt unitary or pluralistic approach (Royal Mail Holdings plc, 2010). Industrial Relation Theory There are three theories of industrial employees’ relations namely unitary, pluralist and radical. Unitary: In unitary system, the organisation is a harmonious system. There is no trade union. Mangers and workers both share similar interest, purpose and objective. Pl uralistic: In pluralism, there are two parties in the organisation namely trade unions and the management. Any conflict is dealt with collective bargaining, mutual agreement or negotiation between trade union and management. Marxist