Budgeting and Financial Analysis for the London Docks Café

Objectives of Preparing a Budget

Your Task:

The London Docks Café is a company that prepares meals for tourists and citizens in its kitchen located next to the local airport. The company’s planning and actual budgets for September appears below:

Required:  

a)Outline the objectives of budgeting and explain how London Docks Café benefits from engaging in robust budgetary processes?

b)Prepare a report showing London Docks Cafe’s revenue and spending variance for September? (20 marks)

c)Based on the variances report you prepared in (b) above, which area/s of  activity should be of concern to the management of London Docks Café? Explain

d)Explain the terms profitability and sustainability. Assess and advise the London Docks Café on the measures they should adopt to ensure the attainment of both mandates.

The word count for this assignment is 2,000 words and will not include the title page, executive summary, contents page or bibliography.

It is important that you show knowledge of key debates within the wider literature. Also, it is strongly advised that you are critical in your writing and ensure a good level of integration and coherence in applying theories. Please work on, and ensure an excellent level of criticality, coherence, and flow of your report. This will require effective discussion and clarity.

Please note that a significant amount of the marks is awarded on the basis of wider reading, critical and logical presentation, quality of argument, referencing, academic integrity and academic writing conventions. Please see Assessment Criteria on the Moodle.

Reassessment

The reassessment will be a resubmission of this report, with tracked changes made in response to the feedback given. The date for Reassessment is 08th February 2021.

The Learning Outcomes assessed by this assessment are:

Knowledge

1.Demonstrate an understanding of different markets and sources of finance; and the role of budgeting in an organisation.  

2.Be able to assess budgets based financial data to support organisational objectives (CMI Los 2).

Thinking skills

3.Analyse the information contained in a company’s annual report; and appraise finance and investment decision.

Skills for life and work (general skills)

4.Demonstrate an understanding of the context within which accounting operates, and the various local and international standards that need to be complied with.

Subject-based practical skill

5.Effectively apply budgets and investment appraisal techniques.

We strongly suggest that you try to submit all coursework by the deadline set as meeting deadlines will be expected in employment. However, in our regulations, UEL has permitted students to be able to submit their coursework up to 24 hours after the deadline.  The deadline is published in this module guide.  Coursework which is submitted late, but within 24 hours of the deadline, will be assessed but subjected to a fixed penalty of 5% of the total marks available (as opposed to marks obtained).  If you submit twice, once before the deadline and once during the 24-hour late period, then the second submission will be marked and 5% deducted.  This rule only applies to coursework.  It does not apply to examinations, presentations, performances, practical assessments or viva voce examinations.  If you miss these for a genuine reason, then you will need to apply for extenuating circumstances, or accept that you will receive a zero mark.

a)Assessment criteria for the task:

Assessment Criteria 

Maximum Mark

Objectives of Preparing a Budget 15 

Revenue and Spending Variance Report  20 

Variance (s) which should concern Management  25 

Advising on Profitability & Sustainability 30 

Clarity & Structure: i.e. detailed, coherent and formal structure should be demonstrated. It also should be well presented  5 

Referencing: appropriate application of Harvard referencing should be evident  5

b)Guidance on referencing

As a student you will be taught how to write correctly referenced essays using UEL's standard Harvard referencing system from Cite Them Right. Cite them Right is the standard Harvard referencing style at UEL for all Schools apart from the School of Psychology which uses the APA system. This book will teach you all you need to know about Harvard referencing, plagiarism and collusion.  The electronic version of “Cite Them Right: the essential referencing guide” 9th edition, can be accessed whilst on or off campus, via UEL Direct. The book can only be read online and no part of it can be printed nor downloaded.

c)Details of submission procedures:

Notice is hereby given that all submissions for this component must be submitted to Turnitin.”  If you fail to submit component to Turnitin, in accordance with the guidance provided on the Virtual Learning Environment (Moodle), a mark of 0 will be awarded for the component.

Submitting Assessments Using Turnitin:

Turnitin is required for coursework assessments, such as report/research papers or projects in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and in PDF format.  There are two main reasons we want you to use Turnitin:

·Turnitin can help you avoid academic breaches and plagiarism.  When you use Turnitin before a submission deadline, you can use the Originality Report feature to compare your work to thousands of other sources (like websites, Wikipedia, and even other student papers).  Anything in your work that identically matches another source is highlighted for you to see.  When you use this feature before the deadline, you will have time to revise your work to avoid an instance of academic breach/plagiarism.  

·Turnitin saves paper.  When using Turnitin to electronically submit your work, you will almost never have to submit a paper copy.