Reference no: EM13340741

Financial analysis making appropriate use of techniques and theory - You are required to provide management of each client with information in whatever form/style you consider to be the most suitable to answer the tasks.

Part -1:

Dallas Limited

Dallas Limited is a newly formed manufacturer of a specialised part for the oil industry. The managing director, Mr David Gaskell has been informed that for decision making purposes his company could adopt a marginal accounting process or a total absorption process for recording the on-going manufacturing costs of his products. Mr Gaskell does not employ, as yet, a management accountant and has requested guidance from Diverse Management Consultants.

Mr Gaskell has provided Diverse Management Consultants with the following quarterly information and requested that both Marginal Costing Accounts and Absorption Costing Accounts are prepared, together with an explanation of any differences in the financial results.

He would like to have a far better understanding of both concepts and as also requested a full critical appraisal of both methods.

Selling Price of Specialised Part                                            £ 130.00

January to March Sales                                                            70,000

January to March Production                                                    80,000

April to June Sales                                                                    70,000

April to June Production                                                            70,000

Normal Expected Annual Production                                      400,000

Labour Variable Cost                                                              £ 65.00

Materials Variable Cost                                                           £ 30.00

Other Variable Costs                                                               £ 15.00

Variable Selling and Distribution Cost                                     £ 10.00

Fixed Production Overhead Cost per annum                    £ 2,000,000

Fixed Administration Costs per annum                                 £ 240,000

Fixed Selling and Distribution Costs per annum                  £ 100,000

Part -2:

The accountant at Dynasty Limited Mr David Edwards has been arrested suddenly and is not expected to return for some time.

The Managing Director has approached Diversity Management Consultants for guidance in reviewing two capital projects the company are considering with the aim of delivering increased profits for distribution to shareholders.

He has a limited knowledge on capital investment appraisal but does understand that there are a number of techniques that can be used to assist in the decision making process.

He is expecting Diversity Management Consultants to apply as many techniques as is practical and to make a clear recommendation.

To assist his understanding he has also requested that the strengths and weaknesses of the various techniques are fully evaluated together with your view as to the usefulness of capital investment appraisal.

He has provided Diverse Management Consultants with the following information.

The initial investment will be £120,000 and it is expected the cost of capital is 12%.

There will be a residual scrap value of £ 20,000 at the end of the project period.

The net after tax cash flows of the projects are as follows to be received at the end of each year :

                                            Project A      Project B        

                                             £                 £                         

Year 1                                  30,000         30,000                         

Year 2                                  30,000         30,000                   

Year 3                                  60,000         40,000                  

Year 4                                  45,000         40,000                            

Year 5                                                      35,000

Part -3:

Deadwood Limited are concerned that they may not be manufacturing the correct mix of products in one of the divisions, Division A and have asked advice from Diverse Management Consultants. Output in this division is limited at the moment because of machine capacity and other bottleneck operations. The Managing Director has specifically asked for the preparation of the optimum production mix accompanied by a forecast of the profit and for further information on the theory of constraints.

At present the company is manufacturing three products (Gold, Silver and Bronze) in this division, using the same machines.

The following estimates have been made in respect of the next financial year:

Product	Gold	Silver	Bronze
	£/unit	£/unit	£/unit
Selling price	100	110	90
Variable material cost	30	25	15
Variable labour cost	14	14	14
Variable overheads	8	12	8
	Hours	Hours	Hours
Time per unit required on machines	4	8	6

Fixed overhead costs for the next financial year are expected to be £ 320,000.

The maximum machine capacity in the next financial year is 85,000 hours.

The forecast demand for each of the products for the next year is:

            Product Gold           7,400 units

            Product Silver          4,200 units

            Product Bronze       6,600 units

Part -4:

Dire Straits plc. is in the process of preparing a quotation for a special job for a customer. They have asked Diverse Management Consultants to assist them in the decision making process by calculating the relevant costs for the contract and giving advice as to pricing strategy. Dire Straits would like to win the contract as they are currently operating with spare capacity due to the economic conditions prevailing.

The Managing Director has asked you to explain the assumptions that you have made and to highlight any qualitative factors that could affect the decision.

The Technical Department have spent 150 hours working on the contract specification and have estimated costs to be as follows:

                                                                                                              £  

Direct Materials:

4000 units of Alpha at £15 (original cost)                                           60,000

Special part to be purchased                                                              20,000

Direct Labour:

Employees       2000 hours at £12 per hour                                        24,000

Modern Apprentices 400 hours at £6 per hour                                      2,400

Specialist Engineers to be bought in                                                     8,000

Plant and Machinery:

Depreciation                                                                                            3,500

Contract Supervision                                                                               5,000

Technical Department 150 hours at £14 per hour                                   2,100

Sub Total                                                                                             125,000

Central Overhead Recharge @ 10% of the above                                12,500

Total Estimate of Costs                                                                        137,500

To further assist Diversity Consultants the following information has been brought to their attention:

There is enough Alpha material in stock. If it is not used on this contract it is unlikely that it would be required in the near future. If the company chose to sell 4000 units of Alpha it has estimated that it would generate £20,000.

The current employees will be used on the contract as there is currently no work for them and there are no plans to recruit further modern apprentices. However one extra operative will need to be recruited from an agency at a cost of £800.

With regard to contract supervision it is expected that no extra staff would be required but if the contact is won there could be overtime required at a cost of £500.

Finally the work has been completed by the Technical Department with no additional costs being anticipated.