Contents Finance For Managers Finance Essay

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Finance is very significant for business organisation. Finance comprises planning of financial resources, making of most favourable capital structure and effective consumption of financial capital by deep analysis of cost of capital and capital budgeting instruments. It is very advance knowledge. Like other technology, it can also enhance the efficiency of business, so effectual utilisation with sensible care is very necessary in Finance. Without this Finance can become hazardous for company. Suppose, if company attains large amount through its network resource but company has not made high-quality financial planning regarding its effectual consumption, then Company can reach at the stage of liquidation, because if Company has not high-quality plan for investment, it will not be able to provide good return to its creditor and investor, after this creditors of Company can put it in danger after demanding their finance. So, study of finance and its tool is very significant.

The Institute of Certified Management Accountants (ICMA), states "A management accountant pertains his or her professional knowledge and ability in the preparation and management of financial and other decision oriented information in such a manner as to assist management in the making of policies and in the development and control of the operation of the responsibility." Management Accountants therefore are viewed as the "value-creators" between the accountants. They are much more involved in forward looking and taking decisions that will influence the future of the business, than in the historical recording and fulfilment (store keeping) aspects of the profession. (ICMA)

For the analysis of various operations within the organisation, different evaluation techniques can be used. The selection of suitable analytical techniques is central in designing effective strategy that will guide to clear insights and proposals that will have an impact on the business. The appropriateness of each type of analysis to a particular study plan is determined by precise objectives and business need. Different techniques comprise perceptual mapping, correspondence mapping, discriminate mapping, conjoint analysis/ choice modelling, unmet needs/ gap analysis, Kano analysis, maximum difference scaling, turf/ coverage analysis/ line optimization, cluster analysis (k-means, latent class, etc), latent class modelling, discriminate analysis and SWOT analysis etc.

For this assignment paper, I have selected Coca-Cola Co. (Coke). Coca-Cola is a beverage manufacturing company and has grown many well known brands such as Sprite and Dr. Pepper etc organically or through acquisitions and mergers.

Question 1

Sources of Finance

Sources of finance are the essential part of an entity as they are obligatory for the operations and growth of the company. A corporation can raise finance through internal or external sources. In this particular assignment I have to discuss the long term source of finance for Coke. The statement of financial position extracts of company for the financial year 2011 are as follow.

Disclosures show that these non-current liabilities consist of bank loans and capital leases.

Bank Loans

A Bank Loan is a sum of money borrowed from the bank and then need to be repaid with interest on or before a set date. Bank loans are engaged out for a fixed period, banks would want some form of safety to certify that the bank loan is rewarded back including interest along with it. A bank loan is usually engaged out for a purpose e.g. borrowing money to commence a new business, providing new apparatus for their company, buying stocks, buying new goods to sell in your company, even buying shares or using the money to spend in the business. This is related to mortgage because with a bank loan you also need to pay back the money together with interest. 

Many trade owners who need financial assistance in their business will go to the bank promptly to take out a loan, but most companies that become unsuccessful or insolvent will find it difficult to pay the money back to the bank which had been borrowed and will then be in debt. If the business is then in liability they will have to discover a way to pay back the bank, if they are not capable to pay the debt they will then have to speak to the bank to ask for them to permit the business more time to pay back the money along with the interest. Also with the bank loan many companies will continue trading more equipment or purchase more supplies in order to keep the business running because from time to time a business is made triumphant because of the quantity and quality of the product or equipments required.

Advantages

The Advantages of this financial technique are that there are wide varieties of conducts to spend the money protected from a bank loan. A bank loan can be available quickly. As soon as the bank loan is secured, the skilled borrower can then complete a bank loan contract. A bank loan can be used in a number of ways; this money can be used for large items such as cars or any other sort of vehicle, furniture, investment etc. A bank loan can offer much needed funds for a borrower. These advantages take a big outcome from the loan.

Disadvantages

The Disadvantage is that when people use too much money, they get spellbound by their debt. Some loans contain a down payment fine, which restricts the borrower from paying the money off before without incurring additional cost. There are a number of restrictions on the contract e.g. there might me circumstances on the way the money is used.

Also one of the difficulties is that there might be a permanent date on which the loan has to be repaid. Borrowing too much money can lead to a bungled cash flow and also payments can even go beyond income in some matters of cases, this is why many loan payments are restricted to a certain percentage of a borrowers income.

And another drawback is that you have to return 100% of the money borrowed plus an interest rate. The interest rate depends on how long you need to pay the money back; the longer you take, the higher the interest rate.

Leases

A lease is an agreement between two parties- one is lessor other is lessee. The lessor owns a capital asset, but allows the lessee to use it. The lessee makes payments under the terms of the lease to the lesser, for a specific period of time. Leasing is, therefore, a form of rental. Leased assets have usually been plant and machinery, cars and commercial vehicles, but might also be computers and office equipments.

The business pays a regular amount for a period of time, but the item belongs to the leasing company. Most owners' cars are leased to business. The business pays the monthly fees for using the car.

According to Geoff Black (2005) (Pg-136), "A finance lease means by which companies obtain the right to use assets over a period time. The ownership of asset never passes to the actual users of the assets."

Advantages

It offers fixed rate financing; you pay at the same rate monthly.

Leasing is inflation friendly. As the costs go up over five years, you still pay the same rate as when you began the lease, therefore making your dollar stretch farther. (In addition, the lease is not connected to the success of the business. Therefore, no matter how well the business does, the lease rate never changes.)

There is less upfront cash outlay; you do not need to make large cash payments for the purchase of needed equipment.

Leasing better utilizes equipment; you lease and pay for equipment only for the time you need it.

There is typically an option to buy equipment at end of lease term.

You can keep upgrading; as new equipment becomes available you can upgrade to the latest models each time your lease ends.

Typically, it is easier to obtain lease financing than loans from commercial lenders.

Disadvantages

Leasing is a preferred means of financing for certain businesses. However it is not for everyone. The type of industry and type of equipment required also need to be considered. Tax implications also need to be compared between leasing and purchasing equipment.

You have an obligation to continue making payments. Typically, leases may not be terminated before the original term is completed. Therefore, the renter is responsible for paying off the lease. This can pose a major financial problem for the owners of a business experiences a downturn.

You have no equity until you decide to purchase the equipment at the end of the lease term, at which point the equipment has depreciated significantly.

Although you are not the owner, you are still responsible for maintaining the equipment as specified by the terms of the lease. Failure to do so can prove costly.

Ratio Analysis

Following are some of the relevant ratios regarding the long term financing of the company

Debt to equity

0.90

Debt to capital

0.47

Interest coverage

28.43

The above ratios show that the company is having a very balanced debt to equity ratio which means that currently it is not overly geared.

Debt to capital shows the overall coverage of the debt in the company by its Capital.

Lastly the interest cover is very large. It means that profit after tax for the company is more than sufficient to pay all the interest charges. There is also an indication that company has a great capability to raise finance through debt.

Changes in policy

In the past, company was reluctant in using the operating income as the sources of finance as means for investment. This eventually leads to less payment of dividends. Hence the corporate management of the company realised that there are some small shareholders in the company that only want is adequate return and also it is abiding by the corporate governance principles that the company must treat all the shareholders equally so in order to give dividends, company made a policy to use leases and loans from banks as long term sources of financing in case of some adjustment. This lead to satisfactory result as the company is not having any threat of liquidity and it can also easily all the payments and interest charges as the fall due. From Past five years, company has not issued any shares and it is also an indication that company is definitely not having any financial difficulties and if by chance the fall due, gearing of company allows it to raise finance through debt or credit financing.

Recommendations

At present Coke is a bit reluctant towards the use of debt as the source of it long term financing as company is not having any liquidity issues to pay its suppliers or tax authorities. As the Debt to capital ratio is very low so the company should take use of its superb liquidity position and credit history and make use of borrowings from banks to increase the portfolio of its products. This will lead to an increase in the gearing ratio and decrease in the interest cover ratio but it is acceptable.

Another policy that company can undertake is to repurchase its shares in order to improve its EPS by using the long term financing and hence can achieve a best mix of capital and loan quantities in the company.

Question 2

Role of Management Accountant

Horngren, Sundem and Stratton (2002) state that budgeted "goals and performanace are generally a better basis for judging actual results than is past performance" (Horngren, Sundem, & Stratton, 2002)

Management accounting or managerial accounting is concerned with the provisions and use of accounting information to managers within organizations, to provide them with the basis to make informed business decisions that will allow them to be better equipped in their management and control functions. In contrast to financial accountancy information, management accounting information is designed and intended for use by managers within the organization, whereas financial accounting information is designed for use by shareholders and creditors. Usually confidential and used by management, instead of publicly reported; forward-looking, instead of historical; Computed by reference to the needs of managers, often using management information systems, instead of by reference to financial accounting standards. This is because of the different emphasis: management accounting information is used within an organization, typically for decision-making.

Ideal Role of Management Accountant

The role of the management accountant is to perform a series of tasks to ensure their company's financial security, handling essentially all financial matters and thus helping to drive the business's overall management and strategy.

Management accountants are key figures in determining the status and success of a company. Some choose to become a Certified Management Accountant (CMA), a similar credential to CPA, but with a greater focus on cost accounting, financial planning, and management issues.

Job responsibilities can range widely. Depending on the company, your level of experience, the time of year and the type of industry, you could find yourself doing any of the following tasks:

Budgeting

Handling taxes

Managing assets to helping determine compensation and benefits packages

Aiding in strategic planning

Management accountants are responsible for all or part of a company's financial status, actions and transactions. They coordinate accounting operations, hire, and train and oversee staff. It lies also within the responsibilities of management account to maintain budget and perform financial analysis. Management accounts tend to strengthen the corporate position of the company by build business strategy and improve its image by managing relationships with investors and auditors of the entity. (International, 2012)

Consistent with other roles in today's corporation, management accountants have a dual reporting relationship. As a strategic partner and provider of decision based financial and operational information, management accountants are responsible for managing the business team and at the same time having to report relationships and responsibilities to the corporation's finance organization.

The activities management accountants provide inclusive of forecasting and planning, performing variance analysis, reviewing and monitoring costs inherent in the business are ones that have dual accountability to both finance and the business team. Examples of tasks where accountability may be more meaningful to the business management team vs. the corporate finance department are the development of new product costing, operations research, business driver metrics, sales management score carding, and client profitability analysis. Conversely, the preparation of certain financial reports, reconciliations of the financial data to source systems, risk and regulatory reporting will be more useful to the corporate finance team as they are charged with aggregating certain financial information from all segments of the corporation.

In corporations that derive much of their profits from the information economy, such as banks, publishing houses, telecommunications companies and defence contractors, IT costs are a significant source of uncontrollable spending, which in size is often the greatest corporate cost after total compensation costs and property related costs. A function of management accounting in such organizations is to work closely with the IT department to provide IT cost transparency.

Management is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of the financial statements included in this annual report. The financial statements have to be prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles and reflect management's judgments and estimates concerning effects of events and transactions that are accounted for or disclosed.

Given the above, one widely held view of the progression of the accounting and finance career path is that financial accounting is a stepping stone to management accounting. Consistent with the notion of value creation, management accountants help drive the success of the business while strict financial accounting is more of a compliance and historical endeavour.

Coca-Cola

In Coke, management accountant tends to cover a wide and vital corporate role. It is by far key executive position within the company as every kind of reporting and compliance responsibility related to the company is the responsibility of management accountant. From vast description of tasks done by the management accountant within coke, a few of them are listed as follows.

Providing Operation Management Reporting on monthly basis cooperation with related Department (TOL, S&M, HR and Finance) to be distributed among CCBI Senior Management and CCA Senior Management

Prepare debtors and aging report which provide detail Account Receivable collections by Modern and Traditional channel which will be used on FYR forecast

Providing comprehensive financial performance analysis that relates to some specific areas such product costing, pricing strategy analysis, net contribution analysis

Providing in-depth analysis of financial statement that includes Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet and Cash flow statements and identifying any key financial issues to be underlined

Provide Financial Statement for AIST stakeholder meeting

Prepare and submit Stock Movement & Inventory to Sydney on quarterly basis

Responsible for providing financial information requested by other functions

Supporting the Annual Business Plan and Full Year Review processes especially in product costing system

Management accountant is the head of finance department in the company. The finance department of the Coca Cola Company is responsible for financial record keeping. This involves keeping records of money received and paid out. The financial records will be used to produce the annual reports for the shareholders so that they can see the company performance. The Finance department is also responsible for the management accounts of the business like marketing etc. The Coca-Cola Company finance department is also responsible for making budget of the company and for each department like marketing 

department or research and development department. They will also be involved in the planning process like taking over or any major decision.

Differences

I think that these are more than what should be required from the management accountant. He should not be responsible for the detailed findings within the organisation but have to control the overall strategic position of the organisation along with the relevant reporting. There are two important tasks that are neglected in the roles that a management accountant plays in coke. The two tasks are the preparation of sustainability reports and environmental reports.

Ideally, reporting on sustainability is integrated into a single integrated report that communicates every aspect of a company's performance. Effective sustainability reporting is a powerful part of communicating with stakeholders about how you are performing against your objectives. Companies that embrace this are likely to have an advantage over their competitors and boost value for shareholders.

However, it can be a significant challenge to make your sustainability information and reporting more reliable, efficient and effective - for the benefit of both external stakeholders and internal management.

Access to information

Management accountant in Coke has access to all the management accounting information in the company. Management accounting information is focused at internal managers and decision makers. Its intended use is to provide financial data relevant to a manager's operations in an effort to make sound business decisions. Management accounting information comes in the form of financial ratios, budget forecasts, variance analysis and cost accounting. Without management accounting practices, making these decisions would be more like gambling and less of a science.

Once the forecast models are built, the budget process can begin. The budget process allots capital--money--for the future operations. Estimates of the future costs and liabilities are made. These dollar amounts are constructed from analyzing the past liability and cost trends. Al this budgeting information is accessible by management accountant within Coke.

Ratio analysis is completed at the end of each accounting period--monthly, quarterly and annually--to determine the company's ability to pay its long- and short-term debts. These rations demonstrate a company's solvency and liquidity. These same ratio analysis tools can be used to determine a company's effective use of inventory and raw material. This analysis tells the management accountant whether the company is operating within the overall guidelines that will promote profitability. 

Managerial accountant in Coke than uses all of the accounting data available to make decisions solid based on trends, facts and projects. These decisions are critical to the future of Coca-Cola Company. Effective managerial accounting takes much of the risk out of decision making and bases it more on fact. However, there is always financial risk in doing business. Analyzing past trends can create a clear picture of the future.

Question 3

Planning control and decision making

In Coke, planning and decision making is very systematic process. Company has to decide about different projects and graphical project planning techniques are used for planning controlling and deciding about different projects.

In Coke, projects that involve more than one person and/or more than one step pose the following questions:

• What tasks need to be done to complete the project?

• When and in what order will these tasks be done?

• Who will do each task?

• What are the intermediate deadlines (e.g., status reports), and what will be done by these deadlines?

To answer these questions, additional issues arise, such as:

• How long will each task take?

• What dependencies exist between tasks?

• Who has the knowledge/skill/time to do each task?

• What external constraints exist (e.g., time to order parts)?

The Gantt, PERT, and CPM charts describe the answers to these questions in time oriented diagrams.

In all cases, the "task" is the basic unit of interest. In this context, a task is some significant activity the group will need to perform to accomplish its goals. Note that the group will have goals that include the project itself as well as presentations, reports, proposals, etc.

Tasks are given:

• A name/description (typically, verb-noun, as in "design control board" or "research literature")

• An estimate of the amount of calendar time required

• A list of other tasks (if any) that must be completed before this task can begin (or end)-i.e., dependencies.

Other task attributes can be added if desired, such as time required in person-hours and other resources required (e.g., financial, special skills, special equipment).

Besides tasks, other information is required, such as:

• The overall project start/end dates

• Other deadlines or milestones (e.g., reports, etc.)

• Factors affecting time available (e.g., holidays, breaks, other classes, presentations, etc.)

Now the three methods (Gantt, PERT, CPM) will be described. Following that, a "cookbook" approach to the creation of a Gantt chart will be presented.

Gantt

The Gantt chart was invented in the early 1900's by Henry L. Gantt, an American engineer and social scientist. The horizontal axis is (linear) time; each task is given its own horizontal band where the calendar duration of the task is indicated by a box, line, or other object with a variable horizontal dimension. Tasks are often grouped into categories, and each category can be treated as a summary task whose duration spans all the tasks within that category.

Tasks are generally listed from top to bottom in the order they will occur; if there are groups of tasks, the tasks are chronological (by starting date) within a group, and the groups ordered by starting date.

The horizontal axis has a resolution appropriate to the type of tasks; a resolution of one day is useful for most projects. Note that if significant work is not expected to be done on weekends, these should be omitted from the chart, otherwise tasks will have their durations distorted if they straddle days when no work is likely.

A vertical line is usually placed on the chart to show the current date. Other important milestones can be noted (and labelled) with dotted vertical lines at the appropriate dates.

The advantages of the Gantt chart are:

• Time is explicit (and linear)

• All tasks visible in relationship to others

• Deadlines are shown

• Project status at intermediate times is shown

• can show progress by "filling in" task boxes

The unmodified Gantt chart has the following shortcomings:

• Tasks might not be associated with people (solution: tag tasks with the initials of the people responsible)

• Person-hours are not indicated, only calendar time (solution: note person-hours near the task "box")

• Dependencies are not explicit (solution: imply dependencies by ordering tasks, or use extra lines and arrows)

• No summary of the load on a person (solution: create an additional set of horizontal "task" lines for each person, showing what tasks they are working on when)

• Other resources not shown (e.g., financial) (solution: note resources in description or near task "box")

• Critical paths are not explicit (solution: use highlighting or other graphical means to indicate the sequence of tasks along the critical path)

• does not record difference between original plan and actual (solution: enhance the task "box" to show two different durations-an upper (actual) and lower (estimated))

PERT

A few of the shortcomings of the Gantt chart are solved in the PERT chart (Program Evaluation and Review Technique"). The PERT chart uses a connected series of nodes to make explicit dependencies between tasks. In addition, the order of tasks is given by the flow of the connections left to right, but the horizontal axis is not necessarily linear in time.

The PERT chart can be more compact than the Gantt, but does so at the cost of a linear time scale. The time resources required by a task are given numerically, rather than appearing graphically (i.e., horizontal dimension) as in the Gantt chart; this may make it harder to quickly see what areas are using the most time resources.

CPM

The CPM (Critical Path Management) chart is similar to the PERT chart but includes an explicit indication of the "critical path"-that sequence of tasks that defines the minimum amount of time for the project. Put another way, these are the tasks that a delay within will delay the entire project. One or more sequences of such tasks always exist; the CPM chart makes these paths (usually just one) explicit. Otherwise, CPM shares the same strengths and weaknesses as the PERT, and the two are often lumped together as one technique.

For complex, time-critical projects, the CPM/PERT charts might be useful in providing a clear indication of the critical sequences of tasks necessary to keep the project on schedule. However, the Gantt chart-especially when augmented by notations to show dependencies-is easier to produce and update, and is a good all-around project planning tool.

A "Cookbook" Approach for the Gantt chart

What follows is one way of creating a Gantt chart.

1. List all known milestones, deadlines, and deliverables (papers, presentations, etc.)

2. List all outside constraints on time (holidays, exams, etc.), money, equipment, etc.

3. Create a list of tasks

brainstorm a list of as many possible tasks for the project as possible

(Brainstorming: In a set amount of time, say 5 minutes, the group lists as many ideas as possible without criticizing them. Some will be useless; the idea here is to get as many different possibilities out as possible. Some might be tasks; others might be general categories of tasks.)

Group these brainstormed tasks into categories (e.g., documentation, software, etc.). Some elimination of ideas can be done at this point.

review each category and brainstorm additions within the category

4. Because these tasks have been brainstormed, go back and eliminate any tasks that are not significant or relevant.

5. for each task in the list

time (in person-hours, then estimate calendar)

dependencies (other tasks)

resources (money, parts, equipment)

(Note-the procurement of parts, equipment, and even expertise/knowledge might be a task in itself.)

who will be doing it (perhaps a function of required knowledge/skill, or time)

6. Organize the task groups by starting date (or other logical and consistent criteria), and tasks within groups by starting date

Note: You might find it useful to list each task on a small Post-It note so you can create a large scale version before working on the computer.

7. Use Excel or other tool to create the Gantt chart

Remember to include only working days on the time axis

Significant (and possibly recurring) milestones or deadlines can be shown as tasks (of minimal duration), as vertical lines at the appropriate date, or on the time axis.

Provide a table of symbols or any other necessary information to interpret the chart

Always show the current date as a vertical line; note the last revision date of the chart as well somewhere on the chart PERT and CPM charts may require either special software or more flexible software like diagramming/paint programs. Choose a chart type and method of creating the chart such that you can easily update the chart for your progress reports and even weekly meetings.

Alternative Approach

Coke can also make use of Logical Framework Approach (LFA), a highly structured and systematic method of analysing problems and defining objectives (which includes the problem and objective trees, explained in the previous section) and then of selecting and organizing the relevant activities for reaching the objectives, following a strict logical order. For each programme, the LFA should normally result in the production of a Logical Framework Matrix (LFM), also called a 'Log Frame', which summarizes the programme in a limited number of columns and rows and can be accompanied by more detailed work plans or activity schedules. (Handbook on Planning, 2009)