APM: Chapter 6 PM & Informati on System

Organisation need information for planning, decision‐making and control. Part C of the
syllabus covers this information. In essence, we can identify two themes in Part C of the
syllabus:

First, the design and operation of the systems which produce information;

Second, the information which is produced.

* Management accounting and information systems play a vital role in performance

management, because they provide the information which managers use as the basis for
planning and control, and which enables performance measurement to take place.

* The verb requirement for the learning outcomes is either 'discuss' or 'evaluate'. As such, in
an exam question you may need to consider the extent to which an organisation's information
systems provide managers with the information they need for planning, control and decision
making within the organisation, and perhaps also how those systems could be improved.

* It is expected the 50-mark Section A question in the exam to focus on a range of issues from
across syllabus sections A, C and D. So you should be prepared for issues around an
organisation's performance measurement systems (Section C of the syllabus) to
be included as a part of the 50-mark case study question.

* APM is an accounting paper, not an IT exam. You will NOT be expected to explain the
technical details of different systems. Instead, your FOCUS SHOULD BE on how effective the
systems are in providing the information needed to manage an organisation's performance.
For example are the systems in an organisation suitable for that organisation? How could they
be improved? Equally, if the organisation changes it processes, what impact will this have on
the performance information it needs?

PERFORMANCE REPORT
* An important topic covered in this chapter is "performance reports". Questions in the APM
exam frequently ask candidates to evaluate how useful is a performance report to managers
in an organisation. Again, as with information systems, if performance reports do not provide
managers with the information they need to control the business, or to assess how well it is
performing in key areas, this will significantly reduce the managers' ability to manage
performance effectively.

Read this article https://www.accaglobal.com/sg/en/student/exam-support-resources/

professional-exams-study-resources/p5/technical-articles/improving-answers1.html

in order to see how candidates can easily misunderstood the question on performance report.

* In SUMMARY, this chapter requires you to discuss the characteristics of different systems
used by the organisation and assess the different types of reports generated & used by the
organisation to manage their performance. NOT TO EVALUATE THE PERFORMANCE OF
THE ORGANISATION !!!

2. Pay close attention to point 5 Management reports & attempt Activity 2.- HYDRA
Activity 2 Students refer to workbook

Critically assess the performance report AND suggest improvements.10m 15 minutes

Take note answer should be planned on

Assessing similar to evaluate the report

What do you think of the report evaluate both good and bad.

Why so

1, The information does provide budget information which can be compared as well as
forecasted data to show future expectations for sales.

2. In more details the information is broken down into quarter and at least TWO quarters are
given. Although it should be noted these quarters information for budget is not provided to
gauge quarterly performance.

3. Also the revenue details are broken down into different segments of the bicycles for women
separate from the men. This will enable to see trends or how the co has performed over the
year in different bicycle segments.

4. The information seem summarized and gives not too much financial detail which makes it
easier for the top management to gauge the general picture of revenue performance.

Weaknesses

1 The information if it to assist assessing co performance could be BETTER presented had it

used % change in the sales to show how significant the changes are.

2. Also despite mentioning the mission of being the best in the country is shown to what
extent this has been achieved.

Providing EXTERNAL data to aid comparison or benchmarking with other in the bicycle
industry to see if this has been achieved. For examples the sales of the top market leader
against Flag co. flags market share could be shown to gauge if it achieving the title of leading
bicycle retailer in the country.

The current report only provided company’s own performance.

The information is largely annually with some quarterly information. No further breakdown on
the periods is given. It is possible that with the bicycle there could be seasonal fluctuations in
the sales over the year. But this is not shown. Where perhaps quarterly performance against
target quarters as well as previous yr quarter to how similar seasons sales over the years
have changed. These could also be in % to aid assessment of co performance.

Additionally the information for sales since it is very important could be given a more frequent
timeline like monthly sales rather than just annually pr quarterly.

This can aid detection of sales trend changes and enable managers to take advantage of
possible interest in co products as well avoid carrying declining lines of product.

The information are all financial which although very important should also be completed by
providing non financial information
As a retail business like flag must also be concerned with it customer relation ship
management. It s mission to make the best quality bicycle and bring joy to customers

It surely want to see how far these have been achieved

First we can see there no performance measures that refer to quality such as awards won by
its bicycles in design competitions. Or even customer assessment of bicycle perhaps flag
average score on customer feedback in its bikes.

Can you try to come up with sentences like this .

Start with practicing with such Q.

Look at the answer. Understand make sense of the answer in your head.

Close ANSWER and START to type.

Read your answer DOES IT MAKE does anyone else understand what you are typing.

3. Prepare summary of technical articles on big data, performance report and lean
management. Refer to the attachments in google classroom for the articles or
accaglobal website.

Homework

1. Attempt the following questions - they offer you practice relevant to key technical
knowledge relevant to this chapter. Illustrate in class NJN MJ 2017

Homework

a. Flack Q1 MJ2016

b. Thyme Q1 ii SD2017 - integrated reporting

c. Dargeboard Services Q1 iii MJ2017 - evaluate reporting on dashboard

d. Kolmog Q1 ii J13 - evaluate strategic performance report & choice of metrics used

e. Metis Rest J12 (practice using Skill Checkpoint 3 in the workbook)

 ACTIVITY 2
 NJN MJ 2017
 MARCH 2021 Flag
 FLACK MJ2016
 SKILLS CHECKPOINT