Managerial accounting techniques to help them thrive

Managerial accounting techniques to help them thrive Globally Hotels operators and managers are relying on managerial accounting techniques to help them thrive in the highly competitive and economy recession. The critical aspect of focusing on increasing revenue, minimise cost, align incentive to performance, maximise profits level without decline in the quality of services rendered by Hoteliers are becoming evolving issues in the hospitality industry. The essence of this project is uncover how management accounting is use to provide specialised internal information to the Managers in Lagos Airport Hotel, Lagos Nigeria that are responsible for directing and controlling operations within the hotels. The types of information provided by management accounting information systems and how it help the management in their strategic planning (Short or Long term), measurement performance, attained the organisational strategic objectives of increasing the owners wealth. SECTION 1- DESCRIPTION OF COMPANY: LAGOS AIRPORTS HOTELS LIMITED Lagos Airport Hotel Limited, is a subsidiary of Odua Investment Company,The hotel began operation in 1942 under the ownership and management of Joseph Harold, a Brition . The hotel name was then Grand Hotel which was later changed Ikeja Arms was incorporated in 1961, having started business as an owner managed hotel with 5 rooms in 1942 under the name Grand Hotel, Lagos.with 5 rooms. It was renamed Ikeja Arms Inn in 1956 acqiured in 1959 by the Government of Western region of Nigeria comprises of Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Ekiti States in 1959 and incorporated as Lagos Airport Hotel in 1961. As at today the hotels had grown from 5 rooms in 1942 to 277 rooms consist of of , presidential suites , Monarchical Suite, Executive Suites, Presidential Suites, Executive/Business Suites, Standard/Executive Double, six conference halls well-secured car parks, two international Restaurants four Bars and an Olympic-sized Swimming Pool. The hotel under the leadership of Alhaji   Adebayo Jimoh , has over five hundred highly professional staff with additional two subsidiaries hotels namely Lafia Hotel and Premier Hotel Ibadan. The hotel strategic vision is to be the preferred choice for customers in the Nigerias hospitality industry. and mission statement is to passionately deliver efficient and catering services at competitive and affordable prices. In Peat survey 2009 the Airport is rated among the best top hotels in Nigeria and among the first leading hospitality companies in Lagos State. is rated among the best top 20 hotels in Nigeria. SECTION 2 COST BEHAVIOUR ANALYSIS HOTEL BUSINESS OPERATION AND COST BEHAVIOUR ANALYSIS HOTEL ACCOUNTING STRUCTURE AND LAGOS AIRPORT HOTEL EXPERIENCE The hotel business operation globally is characterised with a number of different cyclical sales revenue cycles which includes daily operating cycle, weekly , seasional cycle and general business cycle(Reccession). The Lagos airport hotels is not expempted from the above cyclical business patterned. Significantly, these various cyclical operation in hotel create a unique difficulties in forecasting revenue and cost. Secondly , hospitality operation are People oriented and people- driven, it is more difficult to effectively automate and control cost than it is on other non hospitality business sector 2.1 COST BEHAVIOUR AND ANALYSIS Lagos Airport Hotel operations tend to be highly departimised with separate operating division/unit that provide accommodation/lodging, Restaurants Bar services, Conference Banquest, Etc . Consequently the hotel accounting systems are designed to allow an independent evaluation of each operating department or division. To this end, cost directly traceable to a department are identified as direct cost, typically major direct cost in hotels includes cost of sales(foods drinks), salary wages, operating supplies e.g Soap, Toilet tissue paper etc . After direct costs are determined they are deducted from revenue to isolate contributory income which represent the depts or division contribution to support undistributed general overheads. As in their practice indirect cost are not easily traceable to a department and referred to as undistributed costs One of the arguments in favour of allocating indirect expenses to department is that aithough department managers are not responsible for controlling those costs, they should be aware of what portion of them is related to their department since this could have an impact on departmental decision making such as establishing room rates, foods and other service selling prices at a level that covers all costs not just direct cost. When this type of Full -cost accounting is implemented in a responsibility accounting system , it allows a manager to know the total minimum revenue that must be generated to cover all costs even though the control of some of those costs is not their responsility. Nevertheless there are mistake as regard the direct costs, controllable costs, indirect costs and non controllable cost. The assertion that say direct costs are generally more easily controlled than indirect costs but (Salome 2009) argued that in the long run all costs are controllable by someone at sometimes 2.2 RELEVANT NON RELEVANT COST CONCEPT AND APPLICATION IN HOTEL The theory of relevant and non relevant cost is widely used in hospitality cost management( ) the application is use for variety of decision making. A relevant cost is one that affect decision and such a cost must be in the future and different between alternatives. For example The Lagos airport is considering to introduce online booking with ATM Payment portal, the relevant cost would be the cost of web solution, ATM Machine, the cost of training employees on the new solutions and any change in maintenance and material supply costs on the new solution/machine. As long as no change is necessary in the number of staff required, the hotel labor cost would not be relevant cost and it would make no difference to the decision On cost behaviour Most hotels have a high proportion of fixed cost which are not expected to change in the short run of an operating period og a year or less and will not vary with increases or decrease in sales revenue, examples are management salaries, insurance or committed cost of an advertising campaign ,So this type of costs are not relevant for decision making Variable cost on the hand change in direct proportion to a change in sales revenue for example the more foods and drink sold, the more cost of sales incurred The usefulness of relevant cost , non relevant cost, fixed , variable, sunk cost etc in hotel business help the managers in making the following types of decision Allocation of indirect costs to revenue unit/dept Which types of equipment should they buy Whether to sell below total cost? Whether hotel should be close during off season? As the cost of low -activity characterises hotel sectors Which investment/business should they buy Make or buy decision making Alot more In the airport hotel activity -based costing is not broadly used while target costing has squat adoption level. But standard costing is most popular costing used in the hotel 2.3 MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING SYSTEM AND DECISION MAKING IN HOTEL A RELATIVE ILLUSTRATIVE STUDY OF LAGOS AIRPORT HOTEL The business success of the business depends to a very large extent upon the capacity of top management to develop the appropriate strategies in a number of issues which conform to the business corporate strategic goals The hotels have typically diverse level of decision making. Management at each level takes decision that are within its capability and responsibility For each level of decision making management accounting system has been found to provide appropriates information required for management decision making. To be specific the management accounting information system was found to be helpful to the hotel management to formulate and execute Strategies concerned with volume and capacity Strategies for assessing the relative profitability of division/ department or revenue area Strategies for pricing in condition of hotel space capacity Strategies for selecting product/service range where there are capacity or other constraints. Marginal costing is used by the hotels for cost structure and pricing decision. The marginal costing is mainly used for short-term planning, while activity based costing is the favoured costing method for long term strategic planning. The cost -volume -profit approach to decision (e.g Breakeven analysis) are widely produces to assist management in decision making . this assist them in evaluating current and future events regarding sales revenue inflow and cost outflow Cost volume profit analysis(CVP) cost are separated into variable and fixed componenets. They are then used to make informed and rational decision TABLE SHOWING Break even sales Break even sales equitation for Loding unit for 2009(See Financal hilghlight week6 project outline) The fixed costs(FC) are N197,702 , sales revenue N568,900 and variable cost (VC) are N63,968 .what is breakeven sales revenue? The break even point(BEP) = Fixed cost (Sales revenue Variable cost) = 197,702 (2053-230) BEP = 108 Rooms per day. Fig2: Break even revenue FC / 1-(variable cost/sales revenue) 197702/ 1- (N63,968/N568,900) 197,702/88.7% = N222,888 CVP analysis is a logical extension of breakeven analysis in hotels business it is used to make the following decision among others. At what level of sales revenue will operating income be TARTGETD INcme may be 700,000,000 How much must sales revenue increase to cover a new fixed cost If room rates are changes, what will be the effect on rooms sold? Whether to give bulk discounts or not? New investment decision SECTION 3 BUDGETING PROCESSING REVIEW BUDGETING AND BUDGETARY PROCESS OVERVIEW IN HOTEL INDUSTRY The objectives of organisation will be faciliatated by the implementation of an efficient budgeting, this because the whole essence of budgeting is to ensure that the allocation of resources is palnned to avoid waste and promote profitability For hotel managers to make meaningful decision about future, a manager must look ahead(Budget) Antril. P Mclaney.E (2009) Martin Micheal (2004) argued that for hotel or restaurant operators or manger the budget might be no more than looking ahead to tomorrow, estimating how many guests per night , estimating how many customers will eat in the restaurant etc Budgets not expressed in monetary terms could involve numbers of guest to be served, number of rooms to be occupied, number of employees required, or some other unit as opposed to monetary value Agara(2007), Martin Micheal (2004) identified the three main purposes of budgeting in hotels business To provide organised estimates of future unit sales, sales revenues, expenses, net income, staffing requirements or equipment needs, broken down by operating period and department To provide management with long-term and short term goals. To provide a method of control so that actual results can be evaluated against budget plans and adjustments, if necessary can be made The budgetary cycle or process is a five part process that involved the follows Establish attainable goals or objective Plan to achieve these goals or objectives Compare actual results with those planned , and analyse the difference(variance) Take corrective action required Improve the effectiveness of budgeting The starting point in budgeting is to forecast sales revenue, in hotel operation in forecasting the mnager usually considered past actual sales revenue and trends, current anticipated trends and the economic, competitive and limiting factors. Once the sales revenue had been forecast, direct operating expenses can be calculated based on anticipated sales level and undistributed expenses allocated or deducted to arrive at the net income. The various types of budgets include fixed, flecible, capital budget, operating , departmental,master budget etc Zero based budgeting (ZBB) this budget is found useful for controlling and controlling hotel operation, as the name implies no expenses can be budgeted for or incurred unless they are jusitified in advance. ZBB requires each department head to jusitify in advance the entire annual budget froma zero base. The department manager responsible for the cost prepare the analysis. After each department or division is anakysed , management ranks all decision unit and the final budget is allocated according to this ranking The variance analysis is useful tools for budgetary control as it is used for isolating the cause of difference between budgeted and actual figures. SECTION 4: FIRM PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS4.0 LAGOS AIRPORT HOTELS FINANCIAL STATEMENT AND PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS The financial report present merely a stewardship report . if the information is to have real meaning both to the management and other users of the report, it must be subjected to a process of analysis and interpretation. To do this, various stastics yardstick or analytical tools like ration analysis, comparative analysis, common size vertical analyisi , trend analysis/ percentage can be used. Ratio analysis is concerning with expressing relationship between inputs and output, the objective of ratio analysis is to construct a framework of such relationship which are important for the success of the company. One part of this framework bring together all these aspect of the business which contribute to profitability both fot the company and owners, another part of the framework assesses the liquidity of the hotel, the remaining part reflect the hotels standing or viability for the future. Table : Lagos Airport Hotel financial performance Anaysis for 5 years 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 Profitability Ratio Gross profit Ratio or Margin 63.5% 46.5% 51.8% 68% 67.6 Net profit ratio or margin 17.2% 1.3% 4.3% 17.4% 15.7% Return on Capital employed 63.7% 3.9% 12.3% 43.1% 61.1% Liquidity / Investment Ratio Current Ratio 1.2:1 1.3:1 1.34:1 1.37:1 2.05:1 Gearing Ratio 103% 91.4% 91.7% 93.5 49% Total Debt to shareholder fund 193% 169% 171% 166% 156.8% Earning per share 2.47 0.14 0.42 1.5 1.25 Comments: Gross profit ratio which indicates the gross margin on sales in a period is steadly show a sign of improved 2009 from downward slope that occurred between 2008 2007, however the gross profit ratio needs improvement The net income ratio and return on capital which indicates a relative efficiency of the hotels business and overall profitability of the business is worrisome even with 17.3% for net return 63.7 ROCE for 2009 the performance is still far below expected returns level and it glaring that the hotel has been performance in term of profitability badly. For the hotel to remain operation for the nearest features it must be profitable and liquid. The strategy to adopt here is for the hotels managemenet to reduce its operational cost, improve revenue per guests,rates of occupany and innovate a new products or service that can improve revenue and profitability stream. The liquidity position of the hotel is far below ratio 2:1 recomended for healthy company, liquidity ratio measure the ability of a firm to meet its short -term obligations and reflect short term financial strength of the firm while the gearing ratio is extremely high as the company operation is funded from debts and depend on borrowed fund for expansion which is very vulerabilty to earning of shareholders and poses a possibility of take -over or bankcruptcy. The overall trend analysis for the hotel(see apendix2) provides uselful insight into some of the factors that might contributed to this aweful financial position Interestingly, many individual operating ration are specifically available for hospitality industries which focus on internal operation like rooms/accommodation, Foods Beverage analysis and decision making. Some of these analysis includes but not limited to income per guests for each division, costs per guest by items, foods and or beverage cost percentage, labor cost percentage average foods or beverage dollar/Naira by meals period and by revenue areas, seat turnover by meals period etc In the rooms or lodgimg division average rate per occupied room, revenue per available room (REVPAR) , Occupancy percentage, annual revenue per room, labour cost percentage etc The internal analysis of the above influenced the management decision making in term of improve sales level, directing efforts into selling higher priced rooms rather than lower priced, increasing rate of occupancy percentage or average room rate. On the impact of success critical factor(CSF) on the financial performance, the monetary indicators, grosss operating profit per available room was used SECTION 5 : CAPITAL INVESTMENT ANALYSIS 5.0 CAPITAL BUDGETING TECHNIQUES IN HOTEL INDUSTRY The largest investment that hotel or food seervice business has to make is in the land and building (Martin Micheal 2004) . The hotels management also make frequent investment decision for items such as equipment, furniture purchases and replacement. Due to elongated life time and colossal of capital outlays entail for capital investment, management espoused a more pragmatic approach and use appropriate capital investment control methodology to ensure right capital investment decision making There are hazard in making capital investment, the hazards can be seldom be eliminated but there are techniques available that allow the manager to reduce some of the quesswork The Lagos Airport hotels use Payback period and net present value, rn as a tools to guide investment decision A Case study of capital investment decision making in Lagos Airport Hotel A typical capital investment decision techniques is the Lagos airport hotel was contemplating of improve the restaurant services and planning to purchase a new type of oven and other modern kitchen apparatus. Or invest in Cinema or Casio Opertaion The hotel management is provided with two alternative investment option to choose from with their annual net cash inflows over the five -year investment period Year Otption1- Restaurant Improvement Option2- New Cinema Casio Centre 1 1,200,000 630,000 2 1,290,000 870,000 3 1,320,000 1,275,000 4 1,230,000 1,725,000 5 615,000 1,815,000 The initial investment outlay of N4,950,000 NPV is at 12%, Would either of them be a good investment for the hotel? Solution Option 1 -Restaurant improvement Net cash flows Cumulative net cash flows Year 0 Cost investment (4,950,000) (4,950,000) Year1 Net Saving 1,200,000 (3,750,000) (-4,950,000 + 1,200,000) Year 2 Net saving before Dep 1,290,000 (2,460,000) (-3,750,000 +1,290,000) Year 3 Net saving before Dep 1,320,000 (1,140,000 ) (-2,460,000+ 1,320,000) Year4 Net saving before Dep 1,230,000 90,000 (-1,140,000 +1,230,000) Year5 Net saving before Dep 615,000 705,000 ( 90,000+ 615,000) Option 1 Payback period = 3 years, 11 months plus 4 days Option 2 -New Cinema CASINO CENTRE Net cash flows Cumulative net cash flows Year 0 Cost investment (4,950,000) (4,950,000) Year1 Net Saving before Dep 630,000 (4,320,000) (-4,950,000 + 630,000) Year 2 Net saving before Dep 870,000 (3,450,000) (-4,320,000 +870,000) Year 3 Net saving before Dep 1,275,000 (2,175,000 ) (-3,450,000+ 1,275,000) Year4 Net saving before Dep 1,725,000 (450,000) (-2,175,000 +1,725,000) Year5 Net saving before Dep 1,815,000 1,365,000 ( -450,000+ 1,815,000) Option 2 Payback period = 4 years, 3 months The analysis above showed option 1 have a shorter pay back period and logic of using pay back period is that projects that can recoup their cost quickly are economically more attractive than those with longer payback(Antrill Mclaney 2009) so Option 1 is to be selected based on pay period methods. The major drawback o9f pay back period is that it ignore cash flow after the payback period and it does not take time value of money(Effect of inflation/ interest /risk etc) into consideration NET PRESENT VALUE(NPV) Net present value methods of appraisal consider all of the costs and benefits of each investment opportunity and make a logical allowance for the timing of those costs and benefits The NPV is consider better among all other investment appraisal techniques because of cashflow timming recognition, uses of all relevant cash flow and meet the objective of the business which to increase owners wealth LAGOS AIRPORT HOTEL USING NPV METHOD OPTION1 -Restaurant Improvement NPV Option 2 New Cinema Casino centre Time Cash flow N NPV (12%) Cash flow N NPV Year0 (4,950,000) (4,950,00) (4,950,000) (4,950,00) Year1 1,200,000 0.8929 1,071,480 630,000 562,527 Year 2 1,290,000 0.7972 1,028,388 870,000 693,564 Year 3 1,320,000 0.7118 939,575 1,275,000 907,545 Year 4 1,230,000 0.6355 781,665 1,725,000 1,096,238 Year 5 615,000 0.5066 311,559 1,815,000 919,479 -817,333 -770,647 Here we must ask how can management decide which option or project is acceptable, judging by NPV decision which stated that If the NPV is positive the project should be accepted, if it is negative the project should be rejected If there are two (or more) competing projects/options that have positive NPVs, the project with higher (or highest) should be selected. In this case of Lagos Airport hotel non of the two option is Negative and it should be rejected unless management has other non financial benefits attached with options which may still at long run contribute to the actualisation of the hotels strategic goals. SECTION 6: COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS As usual for business environment in the hotel industry is a highly competitvive, and Lagos Hotels Limited found itself in a such competitive based marketing segment with more than 5000 operators in the market. Significantly the hotels has the followings 7 majors/ market leaders to complete with Sheraton Hotels Tower, Pretoria Hotels, Federal Palace Hotels, Lagos Hilton Hotel, Excellence Hotel, PVC Hotels and Reassurance Hotels The core keys advantages of competitors in Comparism with Lagos airport range from their location advantage(Most of them located in Victoria and ikoyi areas of Lagos that accommodation the major businesses in Nigeria) International Operations advantage, 21st century well designed architectural building , modern facilities luxury, Branding, high Price advantages, innovation program (Customer Loyalty Program) etc The major advantages of Lagos airport is strategic location in the ikeja but with old building structures Next to Lagos is Victoria Island, which takes while to get to, about 2hrs, this is because of the amount of traffic and chaos on the roads, also some of the roads are in a bit of a mess, pot holes that can swallow you without trace. Victoria island is modern, and the Hotel Eco is very good, but costs  £250 GBP per night note the Sheraton in Lagos is also modern and costs  £300-350 per night, bottled water in the Eco was  £4, but if you are spending  £250 a night who cares, you must keep drinking water in this heat. These hotels do cost more than a London Hotel, but then there is no where else decent apart from Lagos Airport Hotel. Note the Airport Hotel was  £100 per night, I booked at the desk where ther is a written price sheet on the wall, you will have to put down a security deposit but you do get this back at the end of your stay. SECTION 7: BALANCED SCORECARD APPLICATION OF BALANCED SCORED CARD FRAMEWORK (A CASE STUDY OF LAGOS AIRPORT HOTEL) Balanced scorecard as the name suggested offers a more balanced view of a firms or of a managers performance by intergrating both financial and non financial information in a coherent fashion .This overcomes one of the obvious defects of traditional performance measurement systems which places undue emphasis on historical financial information. For long term effective and efficient performance, especially in hotel enterprise, the information related to service quality, introduction of new products, service, additional supply, entrance on new market, the competitor performance and human capital relation management is vital. Goardana Mateja also empaciated the need for balanced score card application in hotel indsutry The hotels operations are oriented towards people and to that end their financial performance depends on the behaviour and manners of hotels employees, the development of new products and service and as the most important , guest satisfaction In Lagos airport hotel use it to implement strategies of a change/ restructing in management programme undergo in 2009 Apart from using it to create a link between the performance measurement indicators and hotel strategies, Management use it to communicate strategy to both managers and staff. At operational level the Balance scored card are use to align employess efforts with those reuired for successful strategic implementation However, successful implementation of a balanced scorecard is not a trivial matters especially for hotels like Lagos Airport Hotels that is Government owned which make some top management appointment political in nature. Apart from this balanced scored concept is simple but it implementation is found to be time consuming and costly task especially to hotel like Lagos Airport with weak financial resources and manpower to support the practice of this new management concept in the longrun. Table: Lagos Airport Hotel Balanced scorecard Hotel Management Balanced Scorecard Managing the day to day activities of a hotel can be facilitated with the help of KPIs. KPIs, on a BSC are the means to attain the end of Measuring Performance. Such tool can be used when umpteen external and internal forces have a bearing on the organi Perspective Performance Financial Perspective 53.63% Customer Perspective 65.56% Efficiency 29.67% Staff perspective 65.78% Total Performance 54.85% Scorecard includes 4 categories, 17 indicators Strategy tree and scorecard details : Perspective Goal Weight (x of 10) Description Performance (%) Measure unit Target Values Financial Perspective 3 53.63% Wage Costs as a % of total sales 3 It refers to wage cost as a % of total sales of the hotel. 40% % 0% Annual operating profit per room 3 It refers to annual operating profit per room available in the hotel. 10000 $ 25000 Food cost as a % of food sales 2 40% % 0% % increase in labor costs 2 20% % 0% Total Performance in group Financial Perspective 53.63% Customer Perspective 3 65.56% Number of positive feedbacks 3 It refers to number of positive feedbacks received from the customers (on a scale of 1 to 10). 9 Score 10 Number of complaints received 2 It refers to number of complaints received from the customers regarding the services provided by hotel (on a scale of 1 to 10). 3 Score 10 Response rate 3 Metric is not available in trial version 1 minutes 1 Frequent customers as a % of total customers 2 Metric is not available in trial version 30% % 100% Total Performance in group Customer Perspective 65.56% Efficiency 2 29.67% % of room booked through reservation channels 2 It refers to % of room booked through reservation channels maintained by the hotel. 25% % 100% Internet bookings 2 indicates the % of bookings received through internet services. 30% % 100% Room occupancy 2 Metric is not available in trial version 60% % 100% Rate of sales inquiry conversion 2 Metric is not available in trial version 30% % 60% Average length of stay 2 Metric is not available in trial version 2 days 4 Total Performance in group Efficiency 29.67% Staff perspective 2 65.78% Staff turn

Hip Hop Article Summaries Essay

Article 1 Talking about Afro-American teens in 2005 Bert Staples described how he felt that Hip Hop had lost its way and betrayed its many fans. He feels that, although it started out with a number of different themes, it   now only perpetuates the myth that achievement only belongs to white people and negative things such as violence belong only in black culture. He describes how the music was used to insult rivals and provoke gang war fare that ended in fatalities in the 1990’s. There are record companies, he claims, who promote violence in order to sell records. He gives the example of 50 Cents, otherwise Curtis Jackson, whose records are insulting and promote violence. Staples   says that newer artists are more likely to adopt similar methods just to get noticed.   He speaks about the music industry’s greed and lack of any self control which has led to the present situation, one in which the general public has decided that Hip Hop is no longer acceptable and so are stopping buying discs or going to gigs. Hip Hop – so violent that it has shot itself in the foot. Article 2   Hip Hop and Youth Culture The writer describes Hip Hops an ‘emerging cultural phenomenon’ now representing millions of dollars and which is intertwined with young people’s lives. It came about, like many other trends have done in the past , because the people   concerned   found they were unable to gain any acceptance in the entertainment   industry through the standard channels. Adults refused to accept Hip Hop as legitimate music. This rejection made it all the more attractive to the young, black and white, both in rebellion against the mainstream. They found it was easy to participate in – you don’t need to be a musician or have a good singing voice to rap. In contrast to the first article this writer says there are many themes, all of which play out with dominant percussion. There is little reliance on traditional Western music types. It is way of expressing pride in one’s community, but this has led to gang warfare.. Part of the attraction is the ease in which the message can be delivered. It can be an honest expression of feelings   – it can also be insulting – both are part of Hip Hop. It was only when it became violent that the music industry became interested – they could count the dollars.

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Dollar General Case Free Essays

Dollar General: Case Study #1 Timothy Mayer Professor Perreira 02/01/2010 Executive Summary: Dollar General Corporation is a leader in the discount retail industry, but clearly could use new information systems to further establish its presence and dominate the industry. The ability of Dollar General to set up new stores quickly, at a low cost, and efficiently has enabled them to maximize their revenue, while keeping costs minimal. Dollar General is very dependent on the ability of the management they place in charge of each store opening, known as the setter, to coordinate the process and make sure the opening runs as smoothly as possible. We will write a custom essay sample on Dollar General Case or any similar topic only for you Order Now The setter must be able to train the store manager to run the Dollar General store to the exact specifications presented by the upper management of the company. Dollar General does depend on some information systems to help open and establish its stores. They have contracts with companies, like IBM and Spacenet, which set up most of the technological requirements for their stores. These relationships allow for Dollar General to monitor and accelerate the creation of new stores in a way that is familiar and comfortable for them. However, once the stores are up and running information systems are not utilized to their fullest extent. This has lead to numerous inventory and employee issues that are costing the stores and company money. With the economy in the USA at one of the lowest points it has been in history, Dollar General is in a perfect position to increase sales and establish a greater industry presence. They must adapt and embrace though technology that can help establish this growth in order to continue to be successful. Case Study Dollar General’s use of information systems is a far from perfect system. They have the technology in place for the most part, but do not fully utilize its potential. They clearly do not fully embrace technology. They use a satellite system over a higher speed options and do not use networks to enhance their operations. Their reasoning for this is to keep the overhead costs down, but this increasing the overall deficiencies of their business. The main process that suffers from the lack of information systems s their inventory process. When inventory arrives at a store, it is not scanned nor is the amount of goods verified or noted. This had lead to the shrink rate, the amount of loses in sales a store writes off, to increase and develop a distrust between corporate management and the employees at the stores. Dollar General uses inventory information systems at their distribution centers already. By adapting this technology on the store level, Dollar General will be able to sol ve one of the biggest problems they face. Dollar General clearly has found a niche in their industry that has worked for them for years. In order to keep their status and grow further they need to increase the budget they provide to each store for technology systems. The economy of the United States is at a perfect place for discount stores to flourish. The limitations and issues created by the lack of advanced systems will eventually catch up to them and cause more losses of revenue. The initial costs might be greater, but over the long term Dollar General will position itself in a better place. How to cite Dollar General Case, Papers

Accounting Policies of Annual Report

Question: Discuss about the Accounting Policies of Annual Report. Answer: Introduction In the Summary of Accounting Policies of the Annual Report of the company, the disclosures have been given in accordance with AASB116 (Para 73) regarding the basis of measuring the carrying costs that is the building and other property, plant and equipment are recorded in the books at historical cost less depreciation and any subsequent costs towards PPE are either added to the carrying amount or shown as separate asset as per the nature of cost incurred and the divisibility of costs (Flight Centre Travel Group, 2016). Other disclosures that has been complied with AASB 116 (Para 73) are the method of depreciation that is straight line method is being used, the disclosure of useful life of a building that is 30 years and Plant and Equipment that is 2-8 years (Flight Centre Travel Group, 2016). Further, the disclosure regarding impairment of assets is also mentioned which states that the carrying amount of the assets is impaired immediately to its recoverable amount as soon it is recognized that the carrying amount is getting more than the estimated recoverable amount. In the notes to financial statements, there are proper reconciliations for the carrying amount at the beginning of the year and at the end and also showing the changes therein, which is compatible with the disclosure requirements of AASB116 (Para 73). The assets have been recognized in the financial statements as their costs can be measured and these will provide economic benefits in future to the enterprise (Para 7-10). The PPE have been shown under the head Non-Current Assets in the Balance Sheet. The assets after recognition have been recorded according to Cost Model (Para 30) where the assets have been carried at cost less accumulated depreciation and impairment losses that is $.2,16,239,000 in Balance Sheet as on 30th June 2016. The Depreciation on PPE has been shown in Consolidated Profit and Loss Account of the company for the year ending 30th June 2016 in accordance with AASB 116 (Para 48-49) and has been calculated at straight line basis as mentioned in notes to accounts which may be the best possible method according to company (Para 50-62). Further, the impairment criteria used by the company is in compliance with the AASB 136 as mentioned in the notes to accounts of the annual report of the company (Para 2 , Para 12-14) which states that the carrying amount of the assets is impaired immediately to its recoverable amount as soon it is recognized that the carrying amount is getting more than the estimated recoverable amount (Flight Centre Travel Group, 2016). Categories of intangible assets of the organization In addition to goodwill, there are two more categories of intangible assets of this organization Brand Name and Customer Relationships, and Other Intangible Assets- Software Brand Name and Customer relationships are recognized initially at fair value. There is no defined measure to calculate the value of Brand Name of company and value of a relationship with customers. Also, the accuracy of the useful life of brand names is not easy to judge and are assumed to have an indefinite useful life. Factors that help in assessing the useful life from time to time are the trademarks protection which is renewed a number of times and such other factors (Vaitilingam, 2010). With regard to Other Intangible Assets- Softwares, the Research and Development costs of Softwares are recognized as carrying the cost of software. The development costs are capitalized project wise where the project if feasible on technical and commercial basis, and such costs include material, labor, services, and other related overheads. Useful Life of the software is generally taken by the company as between 2.5 to 5 years depending upon various market updations and compatibility. The Intangible assets such as brand name have indefinite useful lives and hence amortization is not possible but impairment is done on a timely basis as and when required and is done by global teams (Damodaran, 2012). The impairment loss for all the intangible assets is calculated and recognized when the carrying amount of asset is higher than its estimated recoverable value. The Provisions are shown under the head Current Liabilities in the Balance Sheet of the organization and its justifications and relevant information is provided in the notes to accounts also. Provisions are liabilities which are to be settled in next in coming future or next financial year. These may be non-trade liabilities also. For example Salary payable, Telephone Expenses Payable, Rent Payable etc. The Liability for Long Service Leave is also shown in provisions as a liability and classified into current liability and non-current liability. That portion of long service leave that is not expected to be settled within 12 months are showed under the head provisions. LSL are future payments which are not expected to be settled within 12 months after the end of the period in which the employees have rendered the services. The company considers all future wages, payments, salaries, promotions, departures and average age levels of employees. Entire payments are discounted at using current market rates and national corporate bonds with terms of maturity and currency to find out discounted cash outflows. The Company which has proposed or declared any dividend but has not paid it at the year end should show it as a Provision in the Balance Sheet provided it is fully authorized by the board and is no longer at the discretion of the company. This shall constitute a liability till it is distributed (Parrino et. al, 2012). The reason behind it is that the company has now incurred a liability by authorizing the dividend but not yet paying it and is to be paid on any future date. It shall be a current liability because it is to be paid in coming 12 months. Contingent Liabilities These are those liabilities which may or may not arise as an event on a reporting date but the occurrence of which could be very dangerous to the companys future. These may arise out of events which may become a permanent liability on happening of any event which cannot be predicted. However, the ignorance of this shall be against the principle of prudence because a sudden rise of any liability which is not foreseen may badly affect companys profit and reputation. For example- a Court case filed by any competitor for breach of trademark or patent which is pending for trial for years and not yet decided at balance sheet date. These are not recognized in the financial statements but are to be fully disclosed with the likely amount to be paid in the notes to accounts of the company. This disclosure helps the stakeholder to fully understand the extent of the liability and allows the company to prepare itself from this unforeseen liability. The contingencies of the organization as seen from above are the case filed by ACCC against FLT as on reporting date which is challenged by FLT in the higher courts. The decision may or may not come in the favor of FLT, hence it is shown as contingent liabilities at the balance sheet date. The disclosures have also been made in the companys notes to accounts regarding other general probable contingencies (Needles Powers, 2013). On the other hand, a contingent asset may arise due to an event which results in a favorable position for the company but the company does not disclose this matter in the notes to accounts because this may mislead the stakeholders against the wrong anticipation of future profits (Choi Meek, 2011). For example- winning a court case against the insurance company for insurance claim which is likely to be won by the company but shall only be recognized as a contingent asset when the claim is ordered by the court or received by the company or the evidence of which is fully known. Contingent assets are not shown anywhere because any gain or profits are recorded only after they occur actually (Berk et. al, 2015). This is in accordance with the Accounting Standards and principles. Using the financial statements calculate, and comment on, the following ratios: Current ratio, the rate of return on total assets, times interest earned, the debt ratio and the P/E ratio. The market price of the ordinary shares at the close of business on 30th June 2016 for your company was $31.58. (15 marks) Ratio Computation Ratios for the year ending 30th June 2016 Current Assets = $ 2,26,32,33,000 Current Liabilities= $ 1,56,67,24,000 Current Ratio = 1.44 times This ratio of 1.44 times denotes a perfect combination among current assets and current liabilities were current assets fully cover the current liabilities and are also not excessively involving companys funds. Current Assets should not only cover the current liabilities but should also be in liquid form so as to cover any contingencies (Berk et. al, 2015). Rate of Return on Total Assets= Net Profit after taxes/ Total Tangible Assets Net Profit after Taxes= $ 24,67,00,000 Total Tangible Assets = $ 2,55,56,28,000 Return on Total Assets = 9.65 % This ratio denotes earning made by the company against tangible assets utilized in the company. The ratio is just appropriate and shows that company shall be able to cover assets cost at this pace in next 10 years. Times Interest Earned= EBIT / Interest Expense EBIT= $ 34,78,09,000 Interest Expense= $ 2,80,51,000 Times Interest Earned = 12.40 times This ratio denotes the number of times the interest paid covers the EBIT .This shows the interest paying capacity of the company (Arnold, 2010). The company is well placed in terms of interest to be paid . Also it denotes the borrowing capacity of the company. Total Debts= $ 7,68,45,000 Shareholders Equity = $ 1,34,59,45,000 Debt Ratio= 5.71 % This ratio denotes that the percentage of debt to total equity is in the favor of higher equity utilized in the company against the debt. The ratio also says that the interest bearing debt is lower and equity is on a higher side which also suggests that dividend payments shall be higher (Arnold, 2010). P/E Ratio = Price Earnings Ratio = Market Price per Share/ Earnings Per Share Market Price per Share = $ 31.58 Earnings Per Share = 242.4 Cents or $ 2.424 P/E Ratio = 13.03 The higher P/E Ratio denotes the higher market price of the company. A Higher ratio suggests that the investors can expect a higher rate of return on their shares. References Arnold, G 2010, The Financial Times Guide to Investing, Prentice Hall. Berk, J, DeMarzo, P. Stangeland, D 2015, Corporate Finance, Canadian Toronto: Pearson Canada. Bodie, Z., Kane, A. Marcus, A. J 2014, Investments, McGraw Hill Choi, R.D. Meek, G.K 2011, International accounting. Pearson Press . Damodaran, A 2012, Investment Valuation, New York: John Wiley Sons. Flight Centre Travel Group 2016, Flight Centre Travel Group Annual Report Accounts 2016, viewed 12 May 2017 https://www.fctgl.com/sites/fctgl.com/files/01%20FLT%20FY16%20Annual%20Report.pdf Needles, B.E. Powers, M 2013, Principles of Financial Accounting, Financial Accounting Series: Cengage Learning. Northington, S 2011, Finance, New York, NY: Ferguson's. Parrino, R., Kidwell, D. and Bates, T 2012, Fundamentals of corporate finance, Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Vaitilingam, R 2010, The Financial Times Guide to Using the Financial Pages, London: FT Prentice Hall.