Practical Assignment Guide, Semester 2, 2023

Due Date for Submission: Monday 11^th September 2023 at 5.00 PM

Please note that the Folio Assignment for ACCT5011 Accounting Systems in the Digital Age is an individual assessment task worth 30% of your total marks in the unit. Please refer to the online marking rubric for an explanation of how individual marks will be allocated for this assessment task. The assignment is to be submitted online through the Blackboard “Assessment” folder.

High standards of academic integrity are expected. You are referred to the URL link provided in the ACCT5011 Unit Outline (see: Academic Integrity Website) for further information on Academic Integrity and originality.

No Turnitin submission is required for the Folio Assignment file because it is not a written submission, but an original Microsoft Office 365 / Excel Assignment.

VIVAS

To detect any academic misconduct, we will conduct vivas (i.e. short interviews with some students) on the assignment. Students will be randomly selected.

Interviews will be held face to face or using Blackboard Collaborate.

Required:

Question 1: Interactive Dashboard / Strategic Competitive Position     (10 marks)

Using Microsoft Office 365 / Excel, prepare a single interactive dashboard of the key ratios that you feel would help an analyst to evaluate the strategic competitive position of the two companies you have been allocated (see attached list of allocated companies).

Please note, to create the ratios you must use the company data tables provided (i.e., Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet). Ratio calculations should be shown on a separate table / worksheet to the interactive dashboard.

Please select any four ratios from the following categories: Liquidity, Asset Management, Leverage / Debt Management, Profitability, Cash Flow and Market Based Ratios (see ratio analysis lecture material provided).

In addition, to the four ratios selected, students are also required to calculate the Altman Z score for the two companies allocated. Altman Z score calculations should be detailed on a separate worksheet.

The single Dashboard should contain, at a minimum: 1) two different chart types; 2) images of company brand and other graphical images related to each company’s business; 3) filters for data in your charts to engage user interaction with your Dashboard; and 4) Title and text boxes to explain the charts and diagrams in your Dashboard.

Question 2: Excel Case Study: APAC Data Model                                   (15 marks)

Case study detail: – imagine you are a recently appointed graduate accountant in APAC International Limited and your manager has asked you to investigate the overall sales and profitability for the company and to identify key areas for improvement and present your findings to the board. Using Microsoft Office 365 / Excel and the APAC Data Model provided (see Assessment folder), prepare a two-page interactive dashboard of your findings and recommendations. Your analysis should include all areas: customers, products and regions (i.e. locations). Please note, remember to select data model when creating and inserting pivot tables.

The visualisations should contain, at a minimum: 1) two interactive dashboards; 2) different chart types, and tables; 3) calculated fields; 4) filters for data in your visualisations to engage user interaction with visualisation; and 5) Title and text boxes to explain the charts and diagrams in your visualisations.

Question 3: Cash Budget                                                                               (5 marks)

Using Microsoft Office 365 / Excel create a cash budget (use dynamic arrays where possible) for September to December 2023 for Pasta Food Services, a small food provider to retail outlets. The staff of the firm has compiled the following set of assumptions and forecasts to be used in the cash budgeting process:

• Actual and expected sales through to January are as follows:
  
  

Month	*July	*August	September	October	November	December	January
Sales	250,000	260,000	270,000	350,000	380,000	400,000	250,000

Note: * July and August sales are actual

• 50% of sales are for cash. Of the remaining 50% of sales, 60% is collected in the following month and 40% is collected two months after the sale.
• Raw materials inventory purchases are equal to 50% of the following month’s sales (e.g., July purchases are 50% of expected August sales). 70% of purchases are paid for in the month following the purchase, and the remainder are paid in the following month.
• Wages are forecast to be equal to 25% of expected sales.
• Payments for leases for equipment are $15,000 per month.
• Tax payments of $25,000 will be paid in September and December.
• $160,000 is scheduled to be paid in October for capital investment, but management is flexible on the scheduling of this outlay. Use the Scenario Manager to show the optimal month for the investment.
• Pasta Food Services must keep a minimum cash balance of $20,000 by agreement with its bank. Its cash balance at the end of August was $35,000.

Format Requirements and marking note

The Folio Assessment task must be submitted online as one MS Excel workbook file with a separate cover page. Please note, the following submission format requirements:

Cover-page is to be submitted with full student name, student ID and student signature. Please note that this cover sheet is to be submitted separately to your Practical Assignment MS Excel workbook.

When naming your Cover Page in MS Word, please use the following file name protocol:

Student ID_Surname_Practical Assignment_Cover Sheet.docx.

Folio Assignment task is to be submitted with full student name and student ID. Please note your MS Excel workbook file is to be submitted separately to your cover page.

When naming your MS Excel file, please use the following file name protocol:

Student ID_Practical Assignment.xlsx

Please Note: It is your responsibility to make sure that the above uploaded files can be successfully opened by the marker. The marker will only mark the visualisations that you provide and normal late penalties as per the Unit Outline will apply if the Unit Coordinator has to request them again. This can result in a zero mark for the assignment depending on how much time has passed.

Total marks = 30%

End of final assignment guide

Company Allocations for Practical Assignment

No	Student ID	Sample	No	Student ID	Sample	No	Student ID	Sample
1	21272521	Sample 1	37	21218994	Sample 37	73	20426181	Sample 13
2	21609187	Sample 2	38	21106345	Sample 38	74	21399873	Sample 14
3	21202654	Sample 3	39	21336689	Sample 39	75	21302949	Sample 15
4	19704375	Sample 4	40	21389557	Sample 40	76	21454675	Sample 16
5	21423154	Sample 5	41	21135048	Sample 41	77	18607790	Sample 17
6	21293519	Sample 6	42	21105025	Sample 42	78	21340758	Sample 18
7	21530180	Sample 7	43	21330665	Sample 43	79	21342495	Sample 19
8	21236161	Sample 8	44	19200064	Sample 44	80	21138584	Sample 20
9	21446902	Sample 9	45	21438239	Sample 45	81	21310706	Sample 21
10	21045202	Sample 10	46	21309458	Sample 46	82	21351611	Sample 22
11	21367362	Sample 11	47	21324781	Sample 47	83	21378377	Sample 23
12	21150999	Sample 12	48	21372861	Sample 48	84	20103002	Sample 24
13	21092897	Sample 13	49	21203000	Sample 49	85	15569457	Sample 25
14	16911758	Sample 14	50	21338494	Sample 50	86	21284940	Sample 26
15	20810399	Sample 15	51	21204265	Sample 51	87	18817706	Sample 27
16	21609271	Sample 16	52	20200084	Sample 52	88	21407116	Sample 28
17	21315015	Sample 17	53	13506106	Sample 53	89	20088248	Sample 29
18	20225294	Sample 18	54	21334324	Sample 54	90	21253306	Sample 30
19	21441402	Sample 19	55	21311369	Sample 55	91	9577590	Sample 31
20	18694954	Sample 20	56	21156023	Sample 56	92	21183791	Sample 32
21	21104310	Sample 21	57	20625580	Sample 57	93	21106484	Sample 33
22	21245112	Sample 22	58	21386477	Sample 58	94	21604030	Sample 34
23	21255580	Sample 23	59	21178331	Sample 59	95	21302525	Sample 35
24	21265275	Sample 24	60	21036581	Sample 60	96	20461535	Sample 36
25	21316490	Sample 25	61	21332739	Sample 1	97	21297948	Sample 37
26	21093832	Sample 26	62	21206436	Sample 2	98	21320077	Sample 38
27	21262577	Sample 27	63	21327230	Sample 3	99	19895680	Sample 39
28	20803658	Sample 28	64	21334201	Sample 4	100	21265301	Sample 40
29	20913599	Sample 29	65	21425943	Sample 5	101	21352685	Sample 41
30	21243006	Sample 30	66	21596593	Sample 6	102	21303722	Sample 42
31	19456650	Sample 31	67	21360264	Sample 7	103	21565548	Sample 43
32	21208377	Sample 32	68	21180828	Sample 8	104
33	20884446	Sample 33	69	21094291	Sample 9	105
34	21340392	Sample 34	70	21108820	Sample 10	106
35	21133495	Sample 35	71	21444566	Sample 11	107
36	21170353	Sample 36	72	21327450	Sample 12	108

Total marks = 300%

End of Practical Assignment Guide