Strategic Management Accounting
APC309
Individual assignment
General Information
1.Weighting – 100% of the marks for this module
2.This is an individual assignment of about 3,000 words (plus or minus 5%), excluding appendices and bibliography. The word countMUSTbe shown on the front of the assignment.
3.There are a number of parts to this assignment. Each part is equally weighted. All parts are discreet from one another.
4.All of the learning outcomes for the module are being assessed in this assignment. The learning outcomes are shown in the section entitled “Marking Guide”, which is further on in this document.
5.The University’s policy on cheating collusion and plagiarism will be applied to this piece of work.
Background information on the imaginary organisation to which the three questions relate:
You are a consultant management accountant who has been engaged by amedium to large, fast growing company Jessup ltd. The company isinvolved inadvertising and public relations and isrun by four directors who are all advertising experts. While the company is doing very well they feel it has reached a stage wherethey need better management of the accounting function. Generally, they areunsure of the strategic benefits a senior management accountant would bring and particularly theyhave concerns with which costs are most relevant to decision making and of any methods by which they can accurately cost their activities.
You are required to produce a reportto the directors which addresses the following three questions:
Question 1: What are the key roles which a strategic management accountant would undertake in an organisation such as Jessup?
Question 2: What is meant by the terms relevant and irrelevant costs and revenues in Strategic Management Accounting decision making? Include several small numerical examples in your answer. .
Question 3:What are the benefits and problems of introducing activity based costing into an organisation such as Jessup?
Guidance:
Students are encouraged to be inquisitive and innovative in their approach as to what should be included in this report the following may be of some use in providing guidance as to what could possibly be included,although this is in no way meant to be prescriptive.
The aim of the assignment is to help you understand how key areas of strategic management accounting are demonstrated in practice by a medium to large organisation. This will include investigating topics from throughout the course linked to the above issues. Some of the principles, concepts ad models will be more relevant to your chosen approach than others and so it is likely that different students will formulate different approaches to the problems. This is normal, it is not expected that all of the course content will be used in the analysis, concentrate on that which you feel is most important.
As part of your work you might find it helpful to briefly explore the underlying theory behind the key areas of investigation that you identify before applying them to report.
With a total of 3,000 words you do not have a lot of room for long introductions so assume you are writing to a sophisticated audience who has some working knowledge of strategic management accounting and is well versed in business theory. Numerical example for illustrative purposes may be of usebut should not be the main thrust of the work. If used theyshould be to provide evidence to support your findings from your other analysis of position and policies. If other sources are used remember toreference everything!
Please avoid relying too heavily on descriptive sections reproducing information available from course material or the set text. It is your own logical, evaluation of the situation, the interpretation of course material and presentation, with critical analysis, of a coherent strategic plan that will attract high marks.
Marking Guide
The learning outcomes for this module assessed by this piece of work are
Knowledge
1.Critically evaluate a range of key strategic management accounting models and concepts.
2.Critically understand of specific analytical skills in keyareas within management accounting at local and international level
3.Critically understand of the role and limitations of management accounting theory.
Skills 4.Applied the key management accounting concepts and methodologies in order to contribute to successful decision making in an organisation.
In light of this the assessment criteria in the grid below will be used when assessing your work.
* Please note of the key points and requirements for answering each questions from the attached files. Thank you very much!