Reference no: EM132375970

Task instructions

You are to complete this when you have completed your work placement. As the work placement dates can vary we have set the completion date as week 14 of semester. However, you are urged to get your work submitted as soon as possible so that you can be given feedback.

Answer the questions below. You are expected to observe the accounting and general office environments in which you work. What software is (are) used, the nature of the business, internal controls and what accounting tasks are done in the office.

You will have to adapt your answers for the work place and industry that you are in. The two major areas will probably be either a public accountant's office or general industry focusing on the finance side of the business.

A public accountant's office will a have stream of client projects on the go at any time (This is usually called WIP - work in progress). Your answers could reflect the nature of the jobs coming through and the internal practice management documents and software which keeps track of costings and payroll. Maybe you can comment on a specific client, but be mindful of privacy and confidentiality. Alternatively, you could comment on the practices own internal processes.

General industry will have a different focus. You could be focusing on a specific role such as costings, payroll, debtors, creditors, procurement, general business administration or general accounting etc in any business.

Section B - Student Answer Sheet

What is the employer?
• Name:
• Address:

General Business Comments
What type(s) of business structures are used to run the business(s) Sole trader, Partnership, Company, Trust or other type of structure or combination of structures (such as a company and a trust or several companies being run in the overall business).

Unit Trust

Describe the advantages and disadvantages of the structure that you identified.
• Advantage:
– Do not have to pay any tax: The beneficiary pays income tax base on proportional profits derived from the trust.
– Unit Trust holder receive asset protection from internal, as well as external parties. The beneficiary cannot claim the trust's assets.
– Don't have to comply with regulations monitored by legislation, ASX and ASIC.
• Disadvantage:
– Unit Trust holder don't have any legal rights over the trust. A trustee is the only one can make decision.
– Can have a massive monetary ramifications. The beneficiary can be subject to PAYG calculations.

How many employees are in the business and in your immediate work area? Who are the other stakeholders in this business?
5 employees.
Would you describe the business as a micro business, medium or a very large business? Explain your answer.
Micro one.

Identify the types and characteristics of systems, technology and software required to manage the functions of this business in general i.e do they use an ERP system, custom made system or cloud computing etc?
HandiTax, HandiLedger.

Is there any othersoftware used in the business? (What about spreadsheets?) What were they used for?
Other accountant software.

Briefly describe the type of business, its objectives and goals as well as the general industry in which it operates. Describe the strategic plan of the business.

Describe the type of work did you did.
Accountant assistant. Eternal Accountant.

Financial System
What are the financial systems that are in your workplace and describe what their roles are? For example are there specialised pay roll packages, customer relationship packages or general accounting software?

Did you use any or all of them? What internally generated software is used? Who uses it and what is it for? Describe them.

What did you like about the software packages?

What are the source documents from which data is extracted?

What reports are generated? Who uses them and what do they do with them?

What were the reporting and auditing requirements for this business?

Documentation
Did you see or view any work papers and/or administrative forms? Briefly comment on those that you saw.
Tax Return/ BAS.
What was their purpose?

Did you see any staff or procedures manuals? Were they used?
Job list, Bill sheets, bill number, invoice number

Administration - Internal Control
Outline the key features in the business's administrative systems and practices.

Earlier this semester we studied internal controls. Review the CPA booklet which identified the types of internal controls. Think about the internal controls in the business that exist and those that don't exist.

Briefly describe some of the internal controls that you observed.

Comment on some of the internal controls that don't appear to exist in the business. Why do you think that this is so? (Maybe consider the relative size of the business)

Did you see any evidence of Budgeting/ Costing?

Attachment:- Develop and Manage Financial Systems.rar