Group Assignment- Management Accounting
• Part A – Project Plan (6%)
Form groups of 3-4 students. Complete the word document (Project Plan Template) and prepare a GANTT Chart using Microsoft Project.
Part B – Spreadsheet (15%)
Prepare a spreadsheet model to perform the calculations and inform the decision being made.
By this point you will need to have chosen a topic and how the calculations and tools can be used to inform a particular type of decision within a specific business context.
Note that the owners of your organisation are concerned with the social and environmental impacts of the organisation and so a social OR environmental outcome should be included into your model. This does not, however, need to be the focus of your model. For example, a pizza restaurant might use a flexible budget and standard cost variance analysis (Topic 10) to plan and manage their direct materials. A spreadsheet model might allow the manager to input the expected number of pizza’s and the output would be the requirements for dough, pepperoni, cheese, etc. The actual number of pizzas sold could then be input and variances for each raw material item determined. Identifying and reducing waste through Standard Cost Variance Analysis (SCVA) might be an important environmental aspect of your spreadsheet model.
You will be assessed based on the quality of your spreadsheet model. It should provide insights and information that support decision making. This will require the use of appropriate tools and formulae that provide the correct result over a wide range of output. You will need to use appropriate Excel functions, for example, vlookup which allows data to be placed in a table that is easy to verify and update. Excel tools, such as drop-down lists which can improve usability and ensure accurate data input, should also be used.
Part C – Presentation (9%)
Presentation should include:
??A description of the business, the decisions being made and the needs of the users. This can be any type of business (e.g., manufacturing, retail, service, or non-profit). Importantly, the owners are concerned about the social and environmental impact of the organisation. In your presentation you will choose a decision scenario that has a social or environmental implication and you will demonstrate the incorporation of a non-financial, specifically social or environmental, outcome in your spreadsheet model.
??The features of your spreadsheet model and its use, particularly any features (with special reference to the nature of the business and the needs of the users)
??A specific decision scenario and the use of the spreadsheet model for making decisions.