HOLMES INSTITUTE FACULTY OF HIGHER EDUCATION HI5017 MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT...

Question

HOLMES INSTITUTE

FACULTY OF
HIGHER EDUCATION

HI5017 MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT T3 2019
Assessment Details and Submission Guidelines

Trimester T3 2019
Unit Code HI5017
Unit Title Managerial Accounting
Assessment Type Assignment
Assessment Title Individual Assignment
Purpose of the
assessment (with ULO
Mapping)
Students are required to develop their understanding of the purpose and use of
management accounting systems, and its usefulness in aiding managers make
informed decisions. You are to critically evaluate the literature (using journal articles)
to analyse the practical use of management accounting systems by contemporary
companies, in terms of their relevance to the real-life companies’ decision-making by
managers and achievement of business goals (ULO 1, 5, 6, 7 & 8)
Weight 30% of the total assessments
Total Marks 30
Word limit Not more than 3,000 words. Please use “word count” and include in assignment.
Due Date Week 9 Sunday at 11.59 p.m.
Submission
Guidelines
 All work must be submitted on Blackboard by the due date along with a completed
Assignment Cover Page.
 The assignment must be in MS Word format, no spacing, 12-pt Arial font and 2 cm
margins on all four sides of your page with appropriate section headings and page
numbers.
 Reference sources must be cited in the text of the report, and listed appropriately
at the end in a reference list using Harvard referencing style.
 It is the responsibility of the student who is submitting the work, to ensure that the
work is in fact he
his own work. Incorporating another’s work or ideas into one’s
own work without appropriate acknowledgement is an academic offence. Students
should submit all assignments for plagiarism checking on Blackboard before final
submission in the subject. For further details, please refer to the Unit Outline and
Student Handbook.

Page 2 of 5
HI5017 MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT T3 2019
Individual Assignment Specifications
Purpose:
This assignment aims at developing your understanding of the purpose and use of management accounting
systems, and its usefulness in aiding managers make informed decisions. You are to critically evaluate the
literature (using journal articles) to analyse the practical use of management accounting systems by
contemporary companies, in terms of their relevance to the real-life companies’ decision-making by managers
and achievement of business goals.

Assignment Task:
Journal Article Critique (30 Marks)
You are required to conduct a literature search and discussion in this assignment.

You are to choose a peer reviewed journal article (from any country) on the:
- Use of Standard Costing in a real-life company; and
- Use of Target Costing in a real-life company.

Register the two article names and details with your Lecturer in class. The articles should be published
etween 2010 – 2019. Choose your articles only after you have accessed several relevant articles, and then
choose the best articles that will answer the assignment question below.

Required: Critically evaluate the relevance and challenges of both costing systems by answering the 5
questions below:

Questions:
1. Briefly discuss the features of standard costing as a planning and control system. (5 marks)

2. Based on your standard costing article, discuss the relevance of standard costing as a planning and control
system in your real-life case company. Did it satisfy the features discussed in (i)? Why or why not? Include
examples in your answer from your standard costing article. (5 marks)

3. Discuss what target costing is and compare and contrast it from standard costing. (5 marks)

4. Is target costing relevant in today’s competitive and (in most cases), uncertain business environment?
Explain with examples from your target costing article. (5 marks)

5. Based on your literature findings (above), which of the two systems would you recommend for
contemporary organisations to use for planning purpose and which system you would recommend for control
purpose? Explain (5 marks)

Additional Information:
a) You are encouraged to choose the journal article from the following Accounting and Management
Accounting Journals:
Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal;
Journal of Management Accounting Research
Journal of Applied Management Accounting Research

) You can access these journals in ProQuest Database by clicking on the above links. Log in details for
ProQuest are - Username: Holmes2004; Password: Holmes. These journals can also be accessed via the
ProQuest Database link available via the Student Login page in the Holmes website. You can also use Google
Scholar. Don’t use Google.

c) No student can choose the same article as another student from the same class, else both students may
eceive a zero mark, at the Lecturer’s discretion.

https:
search.proquest.com
usiness/publication/publications_31671?accountid=30552
https:
search.proquest.com
usiness/publication/31820/citation/6A92B992C7C74BC4PQ/3?accountid=30552
https:
search.proquest.com
usiness/publication/publications_40108?accountid=30552
Page 3 of 5
HI5017 MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT T3 2019
d) The two journal articles must be uploaded (as a separate PDF file) together with your assignment (as a MS
WORD file format) in Blackboard under the folder . 5 marks will be deducted if you do not
submit the articles with your assignment.

Assignment Structure:
The report should include the following components:
a. Assignment cover page clearly stating your name and student number
. Abstract (one paragraph)
c. Table of contents
d. A
ief introduction or overview of what the report is about.
e. Body of the assignment with appropriate section headings
f. Conclusion
g. List of References.

Marking Criteria
Marking Criteria Weighting
Journal Article Critique
1. Briefly discuss the features of standard costing as a planning and control system. 5%
2. Based on your standard costing article, discuss the relevance of standard costing as a
planning and control system in your real-life case company. Did it satisfy the features
discussed in (i)? Why or why not? Include examples in your answer from your standard
costing article.
5%
3. Discuss what target costing is and compare and contrast it from standard costing. 5%
4. Is target costing relevant in today’s competitive and (in most cases), uncertain
usiness environment? Explain with examples from your target costing article.
5%
5. Based on your literature findings (above), which of the two systems would you
ecommend for contemporary organisations to use for planning purpose and which
system you would recommend for control purpose? Explain
5%
Overall Presentation of Assignment 5%
TOTAL Weight 30%

Page 4 of 5
HI5017 MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT T3 2019
Marking Ru
ic
Excellent Very Good Good Satisfactory Unsatisfactory
Journal Article Critique
Briefly discuss the
features of standard
costing as a planning and
control system.
(5 marks)
XXXXXXXXXXmarks)
Present an
excellent
discussion of
the features of
standard costing
as a planning
and control
system.
XXXXXXXXXXmarks)
Present a very
good discussion
of the features
of standard
costing as a
planning and
control system.
XXXXXXXXXXmarks)
Present a good
discussion of the
features of
standard costing
as a planning and
control system.
(2.1 – 3 marks)
Present a
easonable
discussion of
the features of
standard costing
as a planning
and control
system.
(0 - 2 marks)
Unable to
explain the
features of
standard costing
as a planning
and control
system.
Based on your standard
costing article, discuss the
elevance of standard
costing as a planning and
control system in your
eal-life case company.
Did it satisfy the features
discussed in (i)? Why or
why not? Include
examples in your answer
from your standard
costing article.
(5 marks)
XXXXXXXXXXmarks)
Present an
excellent
discussion of
the relevance of
standard costing
as a planning
and control
system, with
examples
provided from
the case
company.
XXXXXXXXXXmarks)
Present a very
good discussion
of the relevance
of standard
costing as a
planning and
control system,
with examples
provided from
the case
company.
XXXXXXXXXXmarks)
Present a good
discussion of the
elevance of
standard costing
as a planning and
control system,
with or without
examples
provided from
the case
company.
XXXXXXXXXXmarks)
Present a
easonable
discussion of
the relevance of
standard costing
as a planning
and control
system, without
example
provided from
the case
company.
(0 - 2 marks)
Unable to
explain the
elevance of
standard costing
as a planning
and control
system from the
case company.
Discuss what target
costing is and compare
and contrast it from
standard costing.
(5 marks)
XXXXXXXXXXmarks)
Clear, concise,
compelling
discussion of
target costing
and compare
and contrast it
from standard
costing.
XXXXXXXXXXmarks)
A very good
discussion of
target

hi5017-assignment-t3-2019-sunday-e1dejrf0.pdf

Kushal · Accepted Answer

Contents
Features of the standard costing	1
Relevance of the Standard Costing	2
Real Life Company following the Standard Costing – Pfizer	2
Target costing features and difference against standard Costing	3
Target Costing relevance in current environment	4
Real life company following the target Costing – Toyota	5
Recommendations	5
Conclusions	6
Journal Articles –	7
References	7
Features of the standard costing 
1. Cost identification – 
a. In the standard costing we need to first of all identify all the costs which are likely to occur based on the historical trends and past experiences.
b. In the standard costing, we are not making any changes to the present working conditions and based on that only we will try and identify what should be the costs of the production of goods or developing he services will be.
2. Cost comparison – 
a. Based on the actual costs that will occur after the production of goods and services, we need to understand if the costs which we had projected for the forecasting and budgeting are in line with the costs we are actually occurring . 
b. This costs play a major part in the health of the company, does have a material impact on the income statement, balance sheet and the shareholders wealth creation.
3. Variance Identification – 
a. Once we know the actual and budgeted costs, we can try and understand the variances across multiple processes to identify how they stack up against each other and how much higher or lower costs were actually incurred during the production of the goods and services. 
b. Once it is known, we might want to identify the processes or the activities where the variance is significantly higher which can materially impact the statements.
4. Verification – 
a. Once all the variances are identified, before reporting these results to the management we need to ensure that all these expenses are verified by the auditors and internal control teams to ensure that the reports ready to move forward.
5. Presentation to the Top management team- 
a. Once all the reports are presented, along with the root causes for each of the variance, are prepared for the executives so accordingly all the decisions are taken care of.
b. Another aspect of this, it provides the firm an opportunity to capitalise on the different aspects where the cost savings happened and also provides the opportunity where the actual costs were higher than he prescribed in the budgeted costs.
6. Feedback- 
a. Once this is prepared, management gives their inputs to manage these expense, stop the bleeding, capitalise on the areas and corrective suggestions are provided.
Relevance of the Standard Costing 
Standard costing is still relevant in many manufacturing firms where the revenue projects are fairly stable and consistent and they do not have to deal with the competitive actions which might end up disrupting markets. For example, in the mature industries, where the market share of the firms are more or less stable and they do not have to rely upon the pricing actions taken by the other firms. 
Hence, based on the relevance of the industry the firm takes the call whether they will be able to maximize the profitability on the sound projections of the sales revenue, the cost forecasts, the variance analysis, the success rate of the feedback mechanism where the management is able to provide the guidance on the cost leakages which can be optimized to ensure the highest profitability levels. Standard costing is still widely used in the Asia, western parts of the world. It will continue to do so in the future years until they become fit to use the 
Real Life Company following the Standard Costing – Pfizer 
Pfizer Inc. (Pfizer) is a pharmaceutical company engages into producing the biologics and biosimilar. The company develops its own products, engages into research and development and produces healthcare devices too. They majorly focus on the drugs, vaccines. Two segments of Pfizer are functional: Pfizer Innovative Health (IH) and Pfizer Essential Health (EH). IH focuses on developing and commercializing medicines and vaccines. IH therapeutic areas include internal medicine, vaccines, oncology, inflammation and immunology, rare diseases and consumer healthcare. EH includes legacy brands, branded generics, generic sterile injectable products, and biosimilar and infusion systems. EH also includes a research and development (R&D) organization, as well as its contract manufacturing business. Key brands of Pfizer are – 1. Prevnar 13, 2.Xeljanz, 3.Eliquis, 4.Lipitor, 5.Celebrex, 6.Pristiq and 7.Viagra. 
Pfizer in the preparation of the annual and quarterly budgets focuses on the historical expenses for each of the activities, including the direct and indirect expenses, different overhead expenses, sales and general administrative expenses, technology expenses and taxes, all these costs are budgeted and after the period ends, against all these activities the budgets are created.
Methodology followed by Pfizer- 
Pfizer engages into multiple products developments, research, and development, production processes,

HOLMES INSTITUTE FACULTY OF HIGHER EDUCATION HI5017 MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT T3 2019 Assessment Details and Submission Guidelines Trimester T3 2019 Unit Code HI5017 Unit Title...

Solution

Answer To This Question Is Available To Download

Related Questions & Answers

Submit New Assignment