HI5017 T3 2019 Managerial Accounting
Assessment Details and Submission Guidelines
Trimester
T3 2019
Unit Code
HI5017
Unit Title
Managerial
Accounting
Assessment
Type
Assignment
Assessment
Title
Individual
Assignment
Purpose of the assessment (with ULO Mapping)
Students are required to develop their
understanding of the purpose and use of management accounting systems, and its usefulness in aiding managers make informed decisions. You are to
critically evaluate the
literature (using journal articles) to analyse the practical use of management
accounting systems by contemporary
companies, in terms
of their relevance to the real-life companies’ decision-making by
managers and achievement of business
goals (ULO 1, 5, 6, 7 & 8)
Weight
30% of the
total assessments
Total Marks
30
Word limit
Not more
than 3,000 words. Please use “word
count” and include in assignment.
Due Date
Week 9
Sunday at 11.59 p.m.
Submission
Guidelines
All work must
be submitted on Blackboard by
the due date
along with a completed
Assignment Cover Page.The assignment must
be in MS
Word format, no
spacing, 12-pt Arial
font and 2 cm
margins on all four sides
of your page
with appropriate section headings and page numbers.Reference
sources must be
cited in the
text of the
report, and listed appropriately at the end
in a reference list using
Harvard referencing style.It is the
responsibility of the
student who is
submitting the work,
to ensure that
the work is in
fact her/his own
work. Incorporating another’s work or ideas
into one’s own work without appropriate acknowledgement is an academic offence. Students
should submit all assignments for plagiarism checking on Blackboard before
final submission in the
subject. For further details, please refer
to the Unit
Outline and Student Handbook.
Purpose:
Individual
Assignment Specifications
This assignment aims at developing your understanding of the purpose and use of management accounting systems, and its usefulness in aiding managers make informed decisions. You are to critically evaluate the literature (using journal articles) to analyse the practical use of management accounting systems by contemporary companies, in terms of their relevance to the real-life companies’ decision-making by managers and achievement of business goals.
Assignment Task:
Journal Article Critique (30 Marks)
You are required to conduct a literature search and discussion in this assignment.
You are to choose a peer reviewed journal article (from any country) on the:
- Use of Standard Costing in a real-life company; and
- Use of Target Costing in a real-life company.
Register the two article names and details with your Lecturer in class. The articles should be published between 2010 – 2019. Choose your articles only after you have accessed several relevant articles, and then choose the best articles that will answer the assignment question below.
Required: Critically evaluate the relevance and challenges of both costing systems by answering the 5 questions below:
Questions:
- Briefly discuss the features of standard costing as a planning and control system. (5 marks)
- Based on your standard costing article, discuss the relevance of standard costing as a planning and control system in your real-life case company. Did it satisfy the features discussed in (i)? Why or why not? Include examples in your answer from your standard costing article. (5 marks)
- Discuss what target costing is and compare and contrast it from standard costing. (5 marks)
- Is target costing relevant in today’s competitive and (in most cases), uncertain business environment? Explain with examples from your target costing article. (5 marks)
- Based on your literature findings (above), which of the two systems would you recommend for contemporary organisations to use for planning purpose and which system you would recommend for control purpose? Explain (5 marks)
Additional Information:
- You are encouraged to choose the journal article from the following Accounting and Management Accounting Journals:
Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal; Journal of Management Accounting Research Journal of Applied Management Accounting Research
- You can access these journals in ProQuest Database by clicking on the above links. Log in details for ProQuest are – Username: Holmes2004; Password: Holmes. These journals can also be accessed via the ProQuest Database link available via the Student Login page in the Holmes website. You can also use Google Scholar. Don’t use Google.
- No student can choose the same article as another student from the same class, else both students may receive a zero mark, at the Lecturer’s discretion.
- The two journal articles must be uploaded (as a separate PDF file) together with your assignment (as a MS WORD file format) in Blackboard under the folder <Assignment>. 5 marks will be deducted if you do not submit the articles with your assignment.
Assignment Structure:
The report should include the following components:
- Assignment cover page clearly stating
your name and student number
- Abstract (one paragraph)
- Table of contents
- A brief introduction or overview of what the report is about.
- Body of the assignment with appropriate section headings
- Conclusion
- List of References.
Marking Criteria
Marking Criteria | Weighting |
Journal Article Critique | |
1. Briefly discuss the features of standard costing as a planning and control system. | 5% |
2. Based on your standard costing article, discuss the relevance of standard costing as a planning and control system in your real-life case company. Did it satisfy the features discussed in (i)? Why or why not? Include examples in your answer from your standard costing article. | 5% |
3. Discuss what target costing is and compare and contrast it from standard costing. | 5% |
4. Is target costing relevant in today’s competitive and (in most cases), uncertain business environment? Explain with examples from your target costing article. | 5% |
5. Based on your literature findings (above), which of the two systems would you recommend for contemporary organisations to use for planning purpose and which system you would recommend for control purpose? Explain | 5% |
Overall Presentation of Assignment | 5% |
TOTAL Weight | 30% |
Marking Rubric
Excellent | Very Good | Good | Satisfactory | Unsatisfactory | |
Journal Article Critique | |||||
Briefly discuss the | (4.1 – 5 marks) | (3.6 – 4 marks) | (3.1 – 3.5 marks) | (2.1 – 3 marks) | (0 – 2 marks) |
features of standard | Present an | Present a very | Present a good | Present a | Unable to |
costing as a planning and | excellent | good discussion | discussion of the | reasonable | explain the |
control system. | discussion of | of the features | features of | discussion of | features of |
(5 marks) | the features of | of standard | standard costing | the features of | standard costing |
standard costing | costing as a | as a planning and | standard costing | as a planning | |
as a planning | planning and | control system. | as a planning | and control | |
and control | control system. | and control | system. | ||
system. | system. | ||||
Based on your standard | (4.1 – 5 marks) | (3.6 – 4 marks) | (3.1 – 3.5 marks) | (2.1 – 3 marks) | (0 – 2 marks) |
costing article, discuss the | Present an | Present a very | Present a good | Present a | Unable to |
relevance of standard | excellent | good discussion | discussion of the | reasonable | explain the |
costing as a planning and | discussion of | of the relevance | relevance of | discussion of | relevance of |
control system in your | the relevance of | of standard | standard costing | the relevance of | standard costing |
real-life case company. | standard costing | costing as a | as a planning and | standard costing | as a planning |
Did it satisfy the features | as a planning | planning and | control system, | as a planning | and control |
discussed in (i)? Why or | and control | control system, | with or without | and control | system from the |
why not? Include | system, with | with examples | examples | system, without | case company. |
examples in your answer | examples | provided from | provided from | example | |
from your standard | provided from | the case | the case | provided from | |
costing article. | the case | company. | company. | the case | |
(5 marks) | company. | company. | |||
Discuss what target | (4.1 – 5 marks) | (3.6 – 4 marks) | (3.1 – 3.5 marks) | (2.1 – 3 marks) | (0 – 2 marks) |
costing is and compare | Clear, concise, | A very good | A good discussion | Adequate | Unable to |
and contrast it from | compelling | discussion of | of target costing | discussion of | present a |
standard costing. | discussion of | target costing | and compare and | target costing | proper |
(5 marks) | target costing | and compare | contrast it from | and compare | discussion of |
and compare | and contrast it | standard costing. | and contrast it | target costing | |
and contrast it | from standard | from standard | and compare | ||
from standard | costing. | costing. | and contrast it | ||
costing. | from standard | ||||
costing or | |||||
confusing. | |||||
Is target costing relevant | (4.1 – 5 marks) | (3.6 – 4 marks) | (3.1 – 3.5 marks) | (2.1 – 3 marks) | (0 – 2 marks) |
in today’s competitive | Clear, concise, | Present a very | Present a good | Present a | Unable to |
and (in most cases), | compelling | good discussion | discussion of | reasonable | explain of target |
uncertain business | discussion of | of target | target costing’s | discussion of | costing’s |
environment? Explain | target costing’s | costing’s | relevance in | target costing’s | relevance in |
with examples from your | relevance in | relevance in | today’s | relevance in | today’s |
target costing article. | today’s | today’s | competitive and | today’s | competitive and |
(5 marks) | competitive and | competitive and | uncertain | competitive and | uncertain |
uncertain | uncertain | business | uncertain | business | |
business | business | environment, | business | environment | |
environment, | environment, | with or without | environment, | ||
with examples | with examples | examples | without | ||
provided from | provided from | provided from | examples | ||
the article. | the article. | the article. | provided from | ||
the article. |
Based on your literature | (4.1 – 5 marks) | (3.6 – 4 marks) | (3.1 – 3.5 marks) | (2.1 – 3 marks) | (0 – 2 marks) |
findings (above), which of | Clear, concise, | A very good | A good | An adequate | Unable to |
the two systems would | compelling | recommenda- | recommenda- | recommenda- | present proper |
you recommend for | recommenda- | tion for which | tion for which of | tion for which | recommenda- |
contemporary | tion for which of | of the two | the two systems | of the two | tion for which of |
organisations to use for | the two systems | systems | contemporary | systems | the two systems |
planning purpose and | contemporary | contemporary | organisations to | contemporary | contemporary |
which system you would | organisations to | organisations to | use for planning | organisations | organisations to |
recommend for control | use for planning | use for planning | purpose and for | to use for | use for planning |
purpose? Explain. | purpose and for | purpose and for | control purpose. | planning | purpose and for |
(5 marks) | control purpose. | control | purpose and | control purpose. | |
purpose. | for control | ||||
purpose. | |||||
Overall Presentation | (4.1 – 5 marks) | (3.6 – 4 marks) | (3.1 – 3.5 marks) | (2.1 – 3 marks) | (0 – 2 marks) |
(5 marks) | Include all | Include all | Include all | Include most | Lack key |
elements and is | elements and is | elements and is | elements and | elements and is | |
very well | well presented. | generally | is adequately | poorly | |
presented. | Writing flows | presented | presented. | presented. | |
Writing flows | clearly and | appropriately. | Writing | Writing does | |
clearly and | sections are | Writing mostly | sometimes | not flow clearly | |
sections are | linked | flows well and | does not flow | leaving the | |
linked very | effectively. | sections are | clearly leaving | paper to seem | |
effectively. | Referencing is | linked. | the paper to | disjointed. | |
Referencing is | of a high | Referencing is in | seem | Referencing is | |
exemplary. | standard. | accordance with | disjointed in | not in | |
English is used | English is used | guidelines. | areas. | accordance with | |
very effectively | effectively with | English is used | Referencing is | relevant | |
and error-free. | very few errors | effectively with | somewhat in | guidelines. Basic | |
present. | few errors | accordance | English is used | ||
present. | with | with errors | |||
guidelines. | present. | ||||
Basic English is | |||||
used with | |||||
some errors | |||||
present. | |||||
Total Marks (30) | /30 |