Reference no: EM132604005
BSBFIM501 - Manage budgets and financial plans
Assessment Task 2: Budget planning project
Instructions
Carefully read the following:
King Edward VII College has been operating for 5 years. The College is based in Melbourne CBD and has an additional campus in Sydney. The College offers a range of courses in management, marketing, human resources and international business. It currently has around has around 500 students enrolled across all of its courses. Courses are offered at all levels, from Certificate II to Graduate Diploma.
King Edward VII College is very popular due to its competitive pricing structure, innovative teaching methods and state of the art facilities.
The College currently employs 24 staff members that include the CEO, a Marketing Manager and Marketing Assistant, Promotions Officer, Human Resources Manager, Operations and Finance Manager, Administration Manager, Office Assistant, Receptionist, Academic Manager, Student Services Officer and approximately 14 trainers.
As the Marketing Manager for the company, you are allocated a budget each year to spend on marketing.
This year the budget you have been allocated is $25,000, which is approximately 10% of revenue. Your budget does not include salaries and wages of staff, which is accounted for through another cost centre.
Your marketing plan for the year includes the activities below. The amounts in brackets are your cost projections for each activity:
• Redesign web site to improve branding ($5,000)
• Design and implement.an incentive scheme for referrals by students ($2,400)
• Conduct a radio advertising campaign ($10,000)
• Online communications: newsletters, websites. Blogs, Twitter (zero cost: staff time only)
• Stand at VCE Careers Expo 2016 (Stand package $3,300)
• Develop and publish 2016 promotional brochure ($1,500)
• Sponsor community organisation to improve local community profile ($2,000)
• Contingency amount ($800)
You would also like to conduct a TV advertising campaign and have been quoted a price of $30,000 to run the campaign. As this is obviously well over the budget limit, you need to negotiate an increase in budget. In order to negotiate this increase, you will need to research and present an argument for using TV advertising and the benefits to the company.
Put this item in your budget, but it can only remain in the budget if the CEO agrees to it.
Complete the following activities:
1. Develop a draft marketing budget
As the Marketing Manager for King Edward VII College, you are required to develop a budget for marketing for the year. Review the case study information provided to you and, based on amounts allocated to each marketing activity, develop a marketing budget using the Marketing Budget Template to discuss at a meeting with the CEO.
Save this document as Draft Marketing Budget.
Prior to the meeting, you are also required to research the benefits of television advertising in order to present a case for an increase in budget. Make notes to assist you at the meeting.
2. Send an email to the CEO (your assessor).
The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.
It should introduce and summarise the contents of the attachment and ask for an appointment to discuss it with them.
Attach your draft marketing budget to the email.
Your assessor will advise you of the time and date of the meeting.
3. Participate in a budget meeting
The next part of the assessment requires you to participate in a meeting with the CEO (role- played by your assessor) to discuss the marketing budget. At the meeting, you will need to:
• Provide a copy of your completed budget to the CEO
• Explain each of the planned marketing activities
• Confirm the amount allocated to each of the marketing activities, including the amount allocated for contingencies.
• Negotiate to increase the budget to accommodate the TV advertising campaign you wish to run (as per the case study information, you will need to present the benefits of television advertising to convince the CEO).
During the meeting, demonstrate effective communication skills including:
• Speaking clearly and concisely
• Using non-verbal communication to assist with understanding
• Asking questions to identify required information
• Responding to questions as required
• Using active listening techniques to confirm understanding
4. Revise the marketing budget
Following the meeting, revise your marketing budget to incorporate feedback from the CEO. Save this document as Revised Marketing Budget.
5. Send an email to the CEO (your assessor).
The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.
It should introduce and summarise the contents of the attachment, and seek their feedback and ask for the place, date and time of the meeting with your team.
Attach your revised marketing budget to the email.
6. Meet with your team to discuss the budget.
The final part of the assessment requires you to meet with your team to confirm the budget for the year.
You are also required to introduce the team to the company's Finance Policies and Procedures, so revise this before the meeting, and write a short summery of it to share with your team.
At the meeting, you will need to:
• Discuss the overall budget allocation
• Discuss the amounts allocated to each marketing activity
• Discuss the amount allocated for contingencies
• Provide an outline of the Finance Policies and Procedures.
During the meeting, demonstrate effective communication skills including:
• Speaking clearly and concisely
• Using non-verbal communication to assist with understanding
• Asking questions to identify required information
• Responding to questions as required
• Using active listening techniques to confirm understanding
Assessment Task 3: Monitor and control finances project
Instructions
Carefully read the following:
As set out in the company policy, you are responsible for MbnItoring and recording expenditure each month.
The finance department has provided you with Marketing Expenditure, a report on expenditure for 2016/17. There will also be some notes included to assist you to complete this task.
Note: that the company deems a standard variance in budgets of up to 5% acceptable.
Complete the following activities:
1. Update the marketing budget.
Enter the amounts in Marketing Expenditure into your budget under actual expenses. Save this document as Actual Marketing Budget.
2. Write a report on the marketing budget and expenditure
Your budget report should include:
• Projected budget and actual budget
• Overall level of variance, as well as variance for individual marketing activities.
• Reasons for overruns
• Proposed solutions for following year's budget
Use the Marketing Budget Report Template to guide your work
3. Draft a word processed letter to the CEO (your assessor).
The text of the letter should be in grammatically correct English, written in art appropriate (polite, business-like) style.
It should introduce and summarise the contents of the attachments.
Submit your budget report and updated marketing budget with the letter.
Use the Campus Budget Report Template to guide your work
Assessment Task 4: Debtor management project
Instructions
Complete the following activities:
1. Write an Aged Debtor Report for the CEO.
Analyse the information in the Aged Debtor Summary.
Note that the company's usual terms are payment 14 days from invoice.
Research best practice debtor management and then write an Aged Debtor Report. Your report should include:
• An outline of the information in the Aged Debtor Summary.
• What this says about the company's aged debtor processes.
• At least 5 recommendations that could be adopted by the company in response to your analysis. This should be based on the debtor management research you conducted.
Your aged debtor report should be approximately one-page long.
2. Draft a word processed leder to the CEO (your assessor).
The text of the fetter should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.
it should introduce and summarise the contents of the attachment.
submit your performance report with the letter .
Assessment Task 5
Complete the following activities:
1. Implement debtor management procedures
Assume that the CEO advises that in response to your recommendations, debtor management procedures should be developed and implemented in relation to customer invoices.
You are required to develop simple debtor management procedures for customer payments. It should include a range of simple steps from a friendly reminder to sending a formal letter of demand.
Your debtor management procedures should be approximately one-page long.
2. Draft a word processed letter to the CEO (your assessor).
The text of the letter should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.
It should' introduce and summarise the contents of the attachment.
Submit your debtor management procedures with the letter.
3. Monitor debtor management procedures
Assume it is six months later and you are required to review a summary of current aged debts to determine the effectiveness of the implementation of the debtor management procedure. Review the Aged Debtor Monitoring Summary.
Compare it against the previous Aged Debtor Summary to determine the effectiveness of the procedure.
4. Draft a word processed letter the CEO (your assessor).
The text of the letter should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.
It should summarise your findings regarding your analysis of the Aged Debtor Monitoring Summary.