HI5017 Managerial Accounting: Reflection On Costing Method Assessment Answer

Question :

Assessment Details and Submission Guidelines
Trimester	T3 2019
Unit Code	HI5017
Unit Title	Managerial Accounting
Assessment Type	Assignment
Assessment Title	Individual Assignment
Purpose of the assessment (with ULO Mapping)	Students are required to develop their understanding of the purpose and use of management accounting systems, and its usefulness in aiding managers make informed decisions. You are to critically evaluate the literature (using journal articles) to analyse the practical use of management accounting systems by contemporary companies, in terms of their relevance to the real-life companies’ decision-making by managers and achievement of business goals (ULO 1, 5, 6, 7 & 8)
Weight	30% of the total assessments
Total Marks	30
Word limit	Not more than 3,000 words. Please use “word count” and include in assignment.
Submission Guidelines	All work must be submitted on Blackboard by the due date along with a completed Assignment Cover Page. The assignment must be in MS Word format, no spacing, 12-pt Arial font and 2 cm margins on all four sides of your page with appropriate section headings and page numbers. Reference sources must be cited in the text of the report, and listed appropriately at the end in a reference list using Harvard referencing style. It is the responsibility of the student who is submitting the work, to ensure that the work is in fact her/his own work. Incorporating another’s work or ideas into one’s own work without appropriate acknowledgement is an academic offence. Students should submit all assignments for plagiarism checking on Blackboard before final submission in the subject. For further details, please refer to the Unit Outline and Student Handbook.

Purpose:

Individual Assignment Specifications

This assignment aims at developing your understanding of the purpose and use of management accounting systems, and its usefulness in aiding managers make informed decisions. You are to critically evaluate the literature (using journal articles) to analyse the practical use of management accounting systems by contemporary companies, in terms of their relevance to the real-life companies’ decision-making by managers and achievement of business goals.

Assignment Task:

Journal Article Critique (30 Marks)

You are required to conduct a literature search and discussion in this assignment.

You are to choose a peer reviewed journal article (from any country) on the:

Use of Standard Costing in a real-life company; and
Use of Target Costing in a real-life company.

Register the two article names and details with your Lecturer in class. The articles should be published between 2010 – 2019. Choose your articles only after you have accessed several relevant articles, and then choose the best articles that will answer the assignment question below.

Required: Critically evaluate the relevance and challenges of both costing systems by answering the 5 questions below:

Questions:

Briefly discuss the features of standard costing as a planning and control system. (5 marks)
Based on your standard costing article, discuss the relevance of standard costing as a planning and control system in your real-life case company. Did it satisfy the features discussed in (i)? Why or why not? Include examples in your answer from your standard costing article. (5 marks)
Discuss what target costing is and compare and contrast it from standard costing. (5 marks)
Is target costing relevant in today’s competitive and (in most cases), uncertain business environment? Explain with examples from your target costing article. (5 marks)
Based on your literature findings (above), which of the two systems would you recommend for contemporary organisations to use for planning purpose and which system you would recommend for control purpose? Explain (5 marks)

Additional Information:

You are encouraged to choose the journal article from the following Accounting and Management Accounting Journals: Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal; Journal of Management Accounting Research Journal of Applied Management Accounting Research
You can access these journals in ProQuest Database by clicking on the above links. Log in details for ProQuest are - Username: Holmes2004; Password: Holmes. These journals can also be accessed via the ProQuest Database link available via the Student Login page in the Holmes website. You can also use Google Scholar. Don’t use Google.
No student can choose the same article as another student from the same class, else both students may receive a zero mark, at the Lecturer’s discretion.
The two journal articles must be uploaded (as a separate PDF file) together with your assignment (as a MS WORD file format) in Blackboard under the folder <Assignment>. 5 marks will be deducted if you do not submit the articles with your assignment.

Assignment Structure:

The report should include the following components:

Assignment cover page clearly stating your name and student number
Abstract (one paragraph)
Table of contents
A brief introduction or overview of what the report is about.
Body of the assignment with appropriate section headings
Conclusion
List of References.

Answer :

Reflection on Costing Method

Reflection on the two selected articles

With the ramified economic growth, many costing methods are available for the organization which could be used to strengthen the overall cost allocation in the different process of the organization. There are two articles have been selected one is on the standard costing and second one on the target costing which reveals their practical implication in the particular industry or real life company. Both articles have revealed the core insights and possible issues which is faced by organization while adopting the particular costing method for the proper bifurcation of the cost.

1.1 What went well

While going through the research in the selected articles, the best thing which I found in my research is that I learned the practical implication of the target costing and standard costing in the real life business company and how these methods are aligned to strengthen the overall outcomes of the process. Furthermore, it enlighten my understanding and also helped me to learn the key aspects of the undertaken work approach with the bifurcation of the costing in the different process model. I have gained the key insights on these two models have assisted me to make the proper bifurcation in the practical manner (Woods, Revill, Sculpher, & Claxton, 2016). The best thing happened to me is that with the available real life-based article, it was easy for me to align my theoretical understanding on this topic with the real life based work on the given costing model.

1.2 did not go to plan

The main wrong thing which I faced in my work was that i was stuck in several points due to the alignment of the one information with other in the given articles. I had to pick one point of understanding to match it with the data sheet or graphs given in the other parts of the articles. I had to focus on developing divergent learning on it so that I could grasp the right interpretation with the practical data set given on the both costing method (Baines, et al. 2017).

1.3 How did I address any difficulties?

After reading the data given in the both articles, I was troubled to make the good grasp on the interpretation. I took the help from the other articles and made the good research by using the books, online website based articles and other supporting website to strengthen my knowledge on the standard costing and activity based costing method (Smith, 2019).

1.4 What had I have learned from it?

The main thing which learned from it is that with the practical implication of the data set and alignment of the information with the other books and documents, proper divergent and core knowledge could be developed. We need to use the right information with the right alignment so that we could clear our concepts and viewpoints to strengthen our own practical based learning (Hoque, 2018).

2.Reflection on the research experience

My research experience has been very effective for my own practical experience knowledge and I learned the research using the practical based information in the real-life case example.

2.1 What was enjoyable?

The main thing which I enjoyed in my research is that how one information is linked with other. The practical implication of the data and the impact of the one costing method on the business costing. I was amazed how the nature, product process and the set organizational structure could impact the adoption of particular costing method (Zambon, & Dumay, 2016).

2.2 What was difficult?

I have been very weak in my alignment of my understanding and data knowledge with the practical information. I had to pick one point of understanding to match it with the data sheet or graphs given in the other parts of the articles (Nitzl, 2016).

2.3 What insight I gained from my learning

I main insight was related to the adoption of the practical costing method in the business functioning for the proper bifurcation of the cost in the different department. It was the good learning for me as I could make my understanding more exposed towards the costing and accounting methods which company could use. In addition to this, I have also learned that nature, product process and the set organizational structure could impact the adoption of particular costing method (Woods, Revill, Sculpher, & Claxton, 2016).

2.4 Issues, challenges which I had experienced

The main issue or challenges which I had faced in my work was that I had to make the lot of research to select the two particular articles which could justify the both costing method and its adoption in the real-life based company. I also had to face one more challenge in finding the supporting documents which could justify my further research and information given in the research report (Liu, & Cui, 2019).

3. Reflection on what I had learned

The individual assignment on which I worked made me learn that it is easy to work in the team. When we are doing work individually, it takes lot of time and less steps we followed to complete our research which may result to the compromise in the research report. The two costing method have been evaluated and the main thing which I learned in this research is that the adoption of the costing method is highly based on the complexities, nature of the business and process undertaken in the cost allocation program. Therefore, both costing method are rightful for the adoption but with the critical evaluation, virtue of the one costing method is justified with the intents or factors affecting the organization while adopting the particular costing method (Hada, Bărbuţă-Mişu, & Avram, 2018).

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