You will prepare a report to Revive Marketing interpreting the profit/ loss result and providing recommendations using critical thinking in appropriate report style. The word limit is 500 words and penalties apply for reports under/over word limit (up to10% variation on the word limit will be accepted). You MUST follow the structure of a formal report below and refer to the additional Report Instructions and Template on Blackboard as there are certain extra facts to discuss):
Title Page
Executive Summary
Table of Contents
Introduction
Discussion
Conclusions
Recommendations
References
Report Instructions:
The object of this report is to assist students to develop critical thinking skills and business report communication skills by writing a short business report. This report is to be written after completing the accounting practice set. Consider you (the student) are the accountant for Revive Marketing. You will be writing this report to the owner of the business, Mr Alan Longer, to assist him with decisions he must make regarding the future of the business.
The word limit is 500 words and penalties apply for reports under/over word limit (up to10% variation on the word limit will be accepted).
The report will advise the owner of Revive Marketing on the performance of the business for April 2014. It will discuss alternatives available to Mr Alan Longer on the future of the business and the implications of these various alternatives.
The report will draw conclusions from the data available and make recommendations to the owner. When writing the report please take into consideration the following information:
• Alan is considering changing some of his marketing software from the current desktop software to cloud based software but is unsure of the advantages and disadvantages.
• Because Alan has little experience of accounting, the full time staff member handles all the cash and banking duties and prepares the bank reconciliation each month.
• The accounting reports are currently prepared at the end of each month. Because of the cost, Alan is considering requesting that the reports are prepared only quarterly (every 3 months) as that will reduce his accounting fees.
• Alan aims to achieve an annual profit of $185,000 and seeks your advice whether he is currently on track to achieve this and if not, suggested strategies to ensure that the annual profit could be achieved.
BACKGROUND AND FACTS
Alan Longer is the owner of Revive Marketing, a management consultancy business that he established several years ago, after graduating from the Queensland University of Technology. He operates the business as a sole trader.
He provides marketing consulting services to clients in a broad range of industries and has received several industry awards for his professional services. Revive Marketing currently employs a full-time graduate and utilises other casual staff as needed.
The business is operated from rented office space in South Brisbane, close to the CBD, where it has a 5 year lease.
He has a variety of clients and he offers them different payment terms depending on the size and industry of the client as well as the size of the work that is to be undertaken. Some established clients are offered either 14 or 30 days credit. Other clients are required to pay a deposit before the work is commenced. For new clients, Alan insists on the entire balance being received by cheque before the work is undertaken.
Some years ago, he borrowed money from ANZ bank to upgrade the office and computer equipment and to develop a website to advertise his services. The loan of $60,000 is repayable over 10 years. The portion of the loan repayable within 12 months is classified as a Current Liability on the Balance Sheet and the remainder of the loan owing is classified as a Non-Current Liability.
The business records of Revive Marketing are prepared on an accruals basis. Alan submits his Business Activity Statements quarterly on a cash basis to the Australian Taxation Office.
Report Structure Template
A report is a clearly structured document that presents information as clearly and concisely as possible. Reports should be easy to read and professional in presentation and contain the following order of presentation.
Title page
This page should include:
• the report title, which states the report’s purpose (examples include: ‘How to improve your profits’, ‘Improve business performance’. These are example titles, please choose your own report title
• your name/s and the name of the person (and business) receiving the report to be placed in the bottom right-hand corner
• the submission date.
Executive summary
An executive summary is one paragraph that provides the reader with a brief overview of the entire report, including its purpose, context, major findings, conclusions and recommendations. This should be the last item that you write once your report has been completed. (approximately 50 words).
This is placed on a separate page between the title page and the table of contents.
Table of contents
Lists the main sections (headings) of the report, and the page on which each begins.
Introduction
The introduction should:
• define the purpose of the report
• outline the issues to be discussed (scope) and their significance (eg. Analysis of business performance)
• inform the reader of any limitations to the report, or any assumptions made
(approximately 60 words)
Discussion
This contains the main substance of the report, organised into sections with headings and subheadings rather than paragraphs. The body of this report should include the following:
• A description of the issue or situation which is being reported on.
Hint: As this report will be using data from the Income Statement, give a brief introduction to the topics of accounting and financial statements, and the purpose of the Income Statement. Confirm whether the business has made a profit or a loss. Discuss the initial steps a business would take to increase profit (ie. Increase fee revenue and/or decrease expenses). What implications may arise when steps are implemented to increase profit? (approximately 300 words).
You should appropriately reference one or more reference materials in this section (eg. textbook, lecture notes, etc.) Remember this is a professional document so ensure the reference is a reputable source.
You should consider and discuss the additional information that Alan has provided including the cloud computing option, banking, quarterly reporting and annual profit goal.
Conclusion
This summarises the key findings from the discussion section. Relate your conclusion to the objectives of the report and arrange your points logically so that major conclusions are presented first. (approximately 40 words).
Recommendations
These are 1 or more suggestions about what the business could do in the future. They must be realistic, achievable and clearly relate to the conclusion of the report. (approximately 50 words)
Reference list
This must contain all the material cited in the report. It must be accurate and consistent with a standard referencing style. Refer to QUT APA Reference Guide for Students 2013 and www.citewrite.qut.edu.au. Your one or more reference/s may include for example the prescribed textbook, lecture notes etc.
Example report structure
(Note that this is an example only. Your table of contents will be different)
Title Page
Executive summary
Table of contents
1. Introduction (Choose sub- headings if you wish as this is your creation)
2. Discussion (Choose sub- headings if you wish as this is your creation)
2.1 General
2.2 Income Statement
2.3 Balance Sheet
2.4 Other considerations
3. Conclusions
4. Recommendations
5. References
*All the data information will be provide in an excel document.
* The report should be have 4 references inclunded
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