Accounting Information: Waitrose Limited and Code of Conduct Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of accounting information, focusing on Waitrose Limited as a case study. It examines the supermarket's inventory management and sales processes, highlighting the accounting information systems used for these key functions. The report also explores changes introduced to improve customer service, such as chatbots and feedback analysis. Furthermore, it delves into a case of a code of conduct breach, outlining the issues involved and the changes implemented by organizations to minimize risks, including rewarding ethical behavior and providing actionable resources. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and the importance of ethical conduct in business operations.

Accounting Information

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
QUESTION 1...................................................................................................................................1
Business processes and related controls......................................................................................1
Changes introduced in last decades to improve the standard of customer service......................2
QUESTION 2...................................................................................................................................4
Nature of breach of code of conduct or business and outlining the issues involved...................4
Changes introduced in recent years in the organisations to minimise risks................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Accounting information is the content which is recorded by accounting professionals in
financial statements of the company. In order to analyse that entity is performing well or not it is
an important element which helps to determine the same (Barth, 2015). This report is divided in
to two parts, first one is based upon a medium or large size company Waitrose Limited, in which
their accounting information systems for key processes are analysed. Second part of this report is
based on a case of reported and recoded breach of code and changes introduced in recent years
to minimise risks.
QUESTION 1
Business processes and related controls
Waitrose Limited is one of the largest supermarkets which is established in UK and
operating business all around the world. Its headquarters are in Bracknell, Berkshire, England.
Wallace Waite, Arthur Rose and Daivd Taylor founded it in year 1904 and currently it is
operating business in almost 350 locations. Its parent company is John Lewis Partnership.
Various business processes are used by the organization in order to execute business activities
such as sales, purchase, inventory management. Different accounting systems are used for these
processes (Belfo and Trigo, 2013). Two of them which are majorly used by organisation are as
follows:
Inventory management process: In this process all the inventory which is purchased by
Waitrose Limited from its suppliers is managers properly. Under inventory management process
controlling and supervising of stocks of company is done by top level executives. It helps to
make sure that organisation is having sufficient goods to meet requirements of clients. In order to
control this procedure, inventory management system is used which helps to keep detailed
information regarding goods whether they are in transit, delivered or in warehouse. There are
three different types of inventory management systems LIFO in which recently received goods
are used for sales first, FIFO in which earlier received products are used for sales first and
AVCO in which inventory is sold on average basis. From all of them FIFO method is used by
Waitrose Limited in order to sale products to the customers (Chu, Mathieu and Mbagwu, 2013).
It guides them to order goods before the warehouses get empty. As it is an easy to implement
method so it helps to reduce possibility of manipulation of income.
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Sales process: It is a procedure which is used by business entities to deliver best products
or services to the customers according to their demand. It is very important for companies to
fulfil their requirements in order to enhance sales. Waitrose Limited follows business to
customers selling process where clients come to the supermarkets and buy products according to
their needs. Under this procedure various activities are performed such as enquiry to client,
understanding their requirements, providing them appropriate alternatives, helping them to buy
one and selling the selected product (Collier, 2015). All these steps are followed by sales
executives which are hired by Waitrose Limited in order to facilitate customers to buy best items.
In order to control sales procedure management information system is used by Waitrose Limited
which helps to form appropriate decisions regarding sales, coordinate with sales executives,
analyse selling process etc. With the help of all data related to all the selling activities is recorded
in computer system and then evaluated by top level managers so that they can make decisions for
betterment of company.
Changes introduced in last decades to improve the standard of customer service
There are various types of changes which are introduced in last decade in order to
improve standard of customer service. All of them are as follows:
Solving their problems as soon as possible: The change which is being introduced in
last dace is related to resolution of customer's problems as soon as possible. Earlier companies
used to take long time period to resolve their issues but now all the organisations such as
Waitrose Limited are trying to deal with their concerns quickly so that standard of customer
service can be improved. It helps entity to retain its clients and attract prospects.
Using chatbots: It is a new and innovative way which is being introduced in the market
for the purpose of improving customer services. It is an effective and efficient technique which
helps business entities to reduce their cost of taking feedback from clients. It is an artificial
intelligence tool which helps to conduct conversation with the help of auditory and textual
methods. It could be used by Waitrose Limited in order to receive comments from customers
regarding the products which are sold by it to them (Chatbot, 2019).
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Illustration 1: Chatbot, 2019
(Source: Chatbot, 2019)
Customer hall of fame: It is also a way of increasing customer services by helping them
to realise that they matters to the organisation. Most of the companies use hall of fame for their
most favourite customer by displaying their name on the screen. For example, if a client is
frequently buying products of a higher amount then name of that customer could be added to hall
of fame in order to show them that everything which is done by them is appreciable by business
entity. In last decade it is the biggest change which is being introduced in the market for the
purpose of improving customer service. It could be used by Waitrose Limited by giving
preference to its premium customers and adding their name to hall of fame (Gheorghe, 2012).
Analysing feedbacks: Another way which is also being introduced in last decade is
analysing feedbacks of clients and then resolving their issues. This way can help to establish
good image of the company in minds of customers. Reason behind the introduction of this way is
to enhance customer service. Waitrose Limited can conduct feedback programs in order to take
feedback from the clients and then making changes in policies accordingly.
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All the above described changes are introduced in last decade in order to improve
customer service. With the help of all of them Waitrose Limited can enhance interest of clients in
the company and try to retain them for a long period in future.
QUESTION 2
Nature of breach of code of conduct or business and outlining the issues involved
The case which is being selected to address this part of report is related to social media
posts breach code of conduct. In which a APS code of conduct is being breached by Ms B. It was
designed to protect integrity of APS and maintain public confidence in administration. It was set
out in section 13 of an act which is public services act 1999 (Breach of code of conduct, 2018).
This case states that a governmental department found that Ms B used a twitter account
and posted some bad tweets for governmental border protection policies. When it was identified
that the tweet is posted by her she denied for the same and said that the accounts is not hers.
Department said that she breached APS code of conduct by posting such type of comments
which are highly critical for minister, government, department and manager of Ms B (Jarva and
Lantto, 2012).
It has been also identified by the department that she had also breached the code in
continuing secondary state as psychoanalyst. She was dismissed as a result of all the actions
which are taken by her. According to Ms B all the tweets which were made by her are made
against the manager who bullied her and motive of posting the tweet is not saying critical things
for government but to file a complaint against the manager (Libby, 2017).
She argued that the tweet was not offensive or damaging to individuals but these were her
thoughts regarding political situation which were formulated in free time. Judge said that
Australian citizens dos not have any right or freedom to pass critical political expressions. It has
also been stated by judge that if there is such type of right then also it is not allowed to people to
breach and contract of employment (Ngwakwe, 2012).
Changes introduced in recent years in the organisations to minimise risks
There are various types of changes which were made by organisations in order to
minimise risk of breach of code of conduct in recent years. With the help of it entities are bale to
establish ethical environment for employees where they can work productively and effectively.
All the changes which were introduced by companies in order to reduce risk are as follows:
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Reward ethical behaviour: There is a quote that what gets rewarded gets repeated. This
a way which can help business entities to reduce possibility of such types of cases which are
related to breach of code of conduct and may take place in future. In order to promote ethical
behaviour companies can giver reward on monthly basis to the employees so that all the other
staff members get motivated to work in ethical manner. If a business entity promote only those
workers who are demonstrating ethical behaviour then others will get inspired to behave like
them. It will help enterprises to minimise risk of breach of code of conduct. Rewarding ethical
behaviour is a change which is being introduced by companies in recent years (Loughran and
McDonald, 2016).
Provide actionable resources: Different types of training programs and workshops help
staff members to analyse ethical dilemmas but such type of resources may fail to grasp reality of
ethical breaches. In order to promote ethical behaviour it is one of the major change which is
being introduced by companies in recent years (Ruch and Taylor, 2015). Under this activity
enterprises ignore cross cultural values, provide incentives to inflate targets etc.
Lead by example: It is very important for leaders to establish a code of ethics for all the
subordinates which would be followed by them while working in organisation. In order to
demonstrate ethics of organisation they can formula a code, refer staff to the compliance
department, communicate importance of ethics with the help of regular mails to the employees.
Leaders who may get success in setting ethical and positive examples for group members get
various benefits such as increased productivity, minimised risk of breach of code of ethics etc.
Asking employees to write a personal code: Under this type of way top executives of
the company ask their employees to write a personal code which carry such activities that won't
be performed by them in future. This option helps to promote them to write about such things
which could guide them to respond unethical behaviour and situations at work. If employee
make a list by themselves then they always try to behave according to it and make sure that they
will not act unethically (Shehzad and Ismail, 2014). It is the most effective change which is
being adopted by most of the companies in order to minimise risk of unethical behaviour of
employees in recent years.
CONCLUSION
From the above project report it has been concluded that there are various types of
processes such as sales, purchase, inventory management etc. which are executed by business
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entities in order to fulfil needs of customers. Different types of accounting information systems
are also used to control these processes which are inventory management system and
management information system. Various changes are also introduced by companies in order to
improve customer service which includes feedback analysis, customer hole of fame, chatbots etc.
Breach of code of ethics results in strict action against the person who have taken this step.
Business entities are using different ways which includes lead by example, providing actionable
resources, rewarding ethical behaviour etc.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Barth, M. E., 2015. Financial accounting research, practice, and financial
accountability. Abacus. 51(4). pp.499-510.
Belfo, F. and Trigo, A., 2013. Accounting information systems: Tradition and future
directions. Procedia Technology. 9. pp.536-546.
Chu, L., Mathieu, R. and Mbagwu, C., 2013. Audit quality and banks' assessment of disclosed
accounting information. European Accounting Review. 22(4). pp.719-738.
Collier, P. M., 2015. Accounting for managers: Interpreting accounting information for decision
making. John Wiley & Sons.
Gheorghe, D., 2012. The accounting information quality concept. Economics, Management, and
Financial Markets. 7(4). pp.326-336.
Jarva, H. and Lantto, A. M., 2012. Information content of IFRS versus domestic accounting
standards: evidence from Finland. The Finnish Journal of Business Economics, (2),
pp.141-177.
Libby, R., 2017. Accounting and human information processing. In The Routledge Companion
to Behavioural Accounting Research (pp. 42-54). Routledge.
Loughran, T. and McDonald, B., 2016. Textual analysis in accounting and finance: A
survey. Journal of Accounting Research. 54(4). pp.1187-1230.
Ngwakwe, C. C., 2012. Rethinking the accounting stance on sustainable
development. Sustainable Development. 20(1). pp.28-41.
Ruch, G. W. and Taylor, G., 2015. Accounting conservatism: A review of the literature. Journal
of Accounting Literature. 34. pp.17-38.
Shehzad, K. and Ismail, A., 2014. Value relevance of accounting information and its impact on
stock prices: Case study of listed banks at Karachi Stock Exchange. Journal of
Economic Info. 1(3). pp.6-9.
Online
Chatbot. 2019. [Online]. Available through:
<https://thefinancialstrategy.com/global-chatbot-market-2019-upcoming-trends-growth-
drivers-and-challenges-till-2026/>
Breach of code of conduct. 2018. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.apsc.gov.au/case-h-social-media-posts-breach-code-conduct>
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