Management Accounting. Background of Business Coursework

Introduction

In coming 2012 the Olympic Games is going to be held in London. The Olympic Games is an ancient game and the worlds most prosperous and popular sports events combined various sports in one event. Spectators from all over the world would come eagerly to enjoy the events and it would carry vast opportunity for different business and opens the door of making quick profit. Considering all these factors this report would discuss about a new business started to keep in mind these factors and to subject of the Olympic Games.

The business is concentrating on the stationary and food items. People who likely to come to witness the events are expected to do some kind of shopping and also they will buy food for consuming while enjoy the events. The business is about to supply these food items along with he beverages and some stationary items. In London there are many food stores, restaurants and stationary shops. But in the time of Olympic Games the demand will be so high that there will increase the possibility that the good profit margin would be generated by doing this business. The food products may be Pizzas, Burger, Hot dogs, Pastries, sandwiches and many more. The beverages may be of soft drinks like Pepsi, Coca-cola, 7-up and others, beer, fruit juices and tea or coffee. Stationary items may be of sandals, umbrella or any other essential products.

The proposed name for the proposed store is “Café Olympia’. This name has chosen to keep in mind the ancient history of the Olympic games and the critical customer association with the name “Olympia” as the first ever Olympic games was held on ancient Greek city “Olympia’.

About Survey

To forecast about the demand of the potential customer, a market survey has done. The survey technique was used because it is the most effective way to collect proper customer response. This survey has done with a questionnaire using as a survey tool. The respondents were selected randomly and their attitude towards the questions has been collected in the data base. The survey has done with many respondents and 20 of them were selected. They are selected from the street while passing away in a random basis.

Survey technique gives some benefits in this case. Firstly, the respondent became aware of the arrival at new stores in the time of Olympic and will find the store “Café Olympia” while they will come to enjoy the events. Secondly, the survey will bring out the customer expectation along with what they think not perfect for the business. Thirdly, the survey will also help to find out the possible demographics of the potential customers. If there any demographic patterns like preferences of a particular food by an age range, the business can be designed according to that fact. Finally, the survey will help to assess the market, the purchasing power of potential customers and the habit of the customers regarding consume of the products “Café Olympia’ is going to offer.

Preparing Questionnaire

As the tool of survey, a well designed questionnaire has been used. The questionnaire contains some selective types of questions from which the respondent select the most appropriate answers. There are some open ended questions also. At the beginning of the questionnaire the demographic part was aligned. From this part the age specifications of the customers and the other demographics which will affects the consumption pattern. There are three separate parts for food products, beverages and stationary. Each part starts with the first question of interest is a common question aimed to find out the preference that the respondents are willing to witness in the Olympic events. Then further two questions are related to find out the pattern of amount and price spent in the events. The next two questions are related to the customer preferences about the buy for home and the service delivery.

Survey Results from Public Opinion

From the survey using the questionnaire as a survey tool, various types of experience, information and opinion are collected. The experiences were quite positive and the respondent’s attitude towards the questionnaire and the survey was friendly enough. Many respondents were communicated and only 20 from those questionnaires were selected. Here the results of the survey has displayed by table.

The second question of section- A was about to the age of the respondents. The results are:

The next question is about to the gender of the respondents.

Then the first question of section B is about to know whether the respondent will come to enjoy the Olympic events or not. The survey considers only the questionnaire who says yes to this answer.

The next question asks “how many days would you prefer to come?’

The next question was ‘In which week of the six weeks of Olympic Games you will possibly going to enjoy the events?”

Then the question of interest section was started. The first part was for the food products. The first question was “Would you consider purchasing Slice of pizza/Sandwich/Hot dogs/Burger/Pastry/Pop Corn/Chicken fries whilst enjoying London Olympics 2012? The 20 respondents in the street survey answered the question for various types of foods and the result was:

And with the addition to this question the supplementary question was asked that includes “How often/how many?” This question was asked to know what amounts of these foods are required. The respondents replied:

Then the question came which asked that “Where have you purchased prior to London Olympic?”

As an additional question with this the respondent were asked “And what is the most expensive purchase of?”

The third question asked to the respondent was “Would you be likely to purchase for friends/ family during London Olympic?”

The respondents who said yes are then asked “for children’s and adults and how many?”

The answer for the question how many:

Then the question number four was asked which stated “Describe your favourite (taste, colour, size etc).According to this question the respondents were answered according to their preferences.

Then the additional questions asked for some comments. The respondents comment on their selection and from their comments the resultant table is:

In case of taste

In case of Colour

In case of size

The fifth question was about the importance of item which stated “What items are important to you when purchasing ?”

Then the same questions were asked According to the sequence for the beverages.

The first question regarding beverages was “Would you consider purchasing whilst enjoying London Olympics 2012?

The supplementary question was asked that includes “How often/how many?”

The second question was that “Where have you purchased prior to London Olympic?”

Then the additional question with the respondent were asked “And what is the most Expensive purchase of ?”

The third question asked to the respondent was “Would you be likely to purchase for friends/ family during London Olympic?”

The respondents who said yes are then asked “for children’s and adults and how many?”

The fourth question was “Describe your favourite (taste, colour, size etc)?” the respondents who selected soft drinks answered:

The respondents who selected fruit juices answered:

The last question for beverage section was “What items are important to you when purchasing ?”

Then the questions were for stationary items.

“Would you consider purchasing whilst enjoying London Olympics 2012?

After that “How often/how many?” was asked:

Then the question asked that “Where have you purchased prior to London Olympic?”

Then the respondents were asked “And what is the most expensive purchase of ?”

Then the question asked to the respondent was “Would you be likely to purchase for friends/ family during London Olympic?”

The respondents who said yes are then asked “for children’s and adults and how many?”

Finally the last question for stationary section was “What items are important to you when purchasing ?”

Analysis of Survey Results

From the above results the analysis of the information collected can be done. The analysis is based on observation and natural intuition to select some close and clear information about the customer preferences and to find out what the perception of the customers about the products the “Café Olympia’ offers. Based on the analysis, the survey gets some assumptions which are:

• The young and the teenage people are most likely to watch the Olympic events.
• Customer will attended in the events for a medium range of days. That is they are not attended in a day range of 8 to 28 days.
• The demand of the products will be high in the first two weeks and the last week.
• The most preferred food items were the Piazzas, Burgers and sandwiches.
• Most preferred beverage item is soft drinks and beer.
• Sandals, hats and umbrella are preferred by most customers.
• Most customers prefer beverages and stationary items to be available while enjoying Olympic events.
• Most customers are willing to pay 6 to 10 pounds for food items, 1 to 5 pounds for beverages and 11 to 15 pounds for stationeries.
• Maximum customers are willing to pay these materials from street shops. Most of them prefer the availability of these products.
• Most of the customers are not only buying these products for instant consumption but also for home. Most of them are willing to bring those things for the children.

These assumptions are helpful in such a way that these facts is indicating the possible customer segment, the possible product and offer range which are most preferable to the customers and also the possible range of expense the customers are ready to pay for the probable offerings.

Master Budget

Master budget is the total budget of a business including sales, purchase, labour, and other direct costs of business. For this business, master budget is going to be prepared with the help of following table done in this report.

Table: Master Budget in Six weeks of Cafe Olympia

• Note:
  • This is a business of purchase and sales, rather than manufacturing. So, overhead costs are not needed.
  • This business is start up with £600000 cash balance.
  • Annual costs of cash flow are determined by total sales deducted purchase, labour and other direct costs.

Sales Budget

Sales budget is the starting point of Master Budget, which is used to forecast the sales multiplying by unit. In this business of Olympic Event of 2012, it is assumed that, the following goods would be selling in London, which is:

• Food Items:
  • Slice of pizza
  • Sandwich
  • Hot dogs
  • Burger
  • Pastry
  • Pop Corn
  • Chicken fry
• Beverages:
  • Soft drinks
  • Cola
  • Lemon lime
  • Orange Flavoured
  • Coffee
  • Cappuccino
  • Black
  • Fruit juice
  • Orange
  • Mango
  • Lemon
  • Seasonal Fruit
  • Beer
• Stationary items:
  • Umbrella
  • Hats
  • Sandals
  • Magazines

Table: Sales Budget of Six weeks of Cafe Olympia

Note: Assume that, the budget sales per unit would be happen as customers’ preferences of choosing products from different items. It is also assume that, the number of customers would be not more than 2000 per week.

Purchase Budget

This budget is prepared after sales budget, to lists the number of units that must be produced during each budget week to meet sales needs. In this budget, total inventory of all products are purchased in equal volume of units. This purchase budget is shown below:

Table: Purchase Budget in Six weeks of Cafe Olympia

Note: Assume that, the budget purchase per unit would be happen with the optimum level of purchase according to customers’ preferences of choosing products from different items, is calculated It is also assume that, the number of customers would be not more than 2000 per week.

Wages Budget

Wages budget or labour budget has developed including all requirements of labour with sufficient labour hours have prepared to know their costs in these six weeks. If it is considered that, all labours would be working for 12 hours a day, for purchasing products from different sources, and sell it to customers in those events. So, per labour works in a day:

• =Time of a day/ Labour hours working in a day
• = 24/ 12
• = 0.5 labour hour per production purchase and sales

Table: Wages Budget in Six weeks of Cafe Olympia

Other Direct Costs

Other direct costs are relating with the purchase or sales directly of the business.

Table: Other direct costs in Six weeks of Cafe Olympia

Overheads

As the business would be performed with purchase and sales of products in Olympic events, so it is not related to the manufacturing costs. In overheads, the manufacturing costs of unit production are specified other than direct materials and direct labours costs. So, it is not necessary to done for this business.

Recommendations

Based on the above survey and budget analysis, there are some recommendations:

• There is a clear indication from he master budget is that, in the 1st two week of the operation the business will experience good profit. In 3^rd is going to be in loss and in 6th week there can be average profit. But the business will experience loss in the 4th and 5th week. So, there must be some incentives to earn profit from 4th and 5th week also.
• The sales unit should be maintained with purchase of units.
• The experienced and well educated people must be hired for the works.
• The store must be set up in a suitable place near to the all stadiums.
• The environment must be customer friendly.
• The direct costs can be reduced by using generators or other source of electricity.

Conclusion

As the Olympic Games are the most spectacular events in the world, it is termed as “The greatest show on the earth.” People of the whole world have great attraction to this event and many people follow all the events physically not considering where it is held. Thus people from many countries are expected to come to London in the time of Olympic Games and this is the main strength of the business. The above budgets are showing a hopeful situation for the proposed store “Café Olympia”. The budgets would be helping tool to anticipate the future demand and according to these the offerings of the store would be designed in a manner which may help to maximizing the profit.

References

Garrison, R. H., Noreen, E.W. & Brewer P.C., 2008, Managerial Accounting, 11^th edition, McGraw-Hill: International Edition, ISBN 0-17-111550-1.

Colin, D., 2009, Management Accounting for Business Decision, 4^th edition, ISBN 978-1-4080 1771-5.

Atrill, P., & McLaney, E. J., 2005, Management Accounting for Non-Specialists, 4^th edition, Prentice hall.

Stutely, R., 1999, The Definitive Business Plan, Pearson Education Limited, Great Britain, ISBN: 0273639307.

Pandey, I. M. (2007), Financial Management, 9^th edition, Vikas publishing house Ltd: New Delhi, ISBN: 81-259-1658-X, pp-328-377.