Contribute to Planning and Implementing Business Improvements Report

This report analyzes business improvement strategies within an automotive workplace. It covers essential aspects such as setting Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), financial performance, and employee evaluation. The report emphasizes the importance of setting targets, timeframes, and budgeting for wages and unplanned expenses. It also includes case studies that explore strategies for increasing sales, managing costs, and implementing effective promotional strategies. The report highlights the significance of monitoring income and expenditure, comparing actual results with budgets, and preparing invoices. Furthermore, it addresses resolving dispute accounts, gathering financial information, and planning diagnostic procedures. This comprehensive analysis offers valuable insights for improving business performance in the automotive industry, with a focus on financial planning, promotional strategies, and operational efficiency.

Running head: CONTRIBUTE TO PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTING BUSINESS
IMPROVEMENTS IN AN AUTOMOTIVE WORKPLACE
Contribute to Planning and Implementing Business Improvements in an Automotive
Workplace
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

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CONTRIBUTE TO PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTING BUSINESS IMPROVEMENTS
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Table of Contents
Assessment Tool 1: Written Questions......................................................................................2
Answer to Question 1.............................................................................................................2
Answer to Question 2.............................................................................................................2
Answer to Question 3.............................................................................................................2
Answer to Question 4.............................................................................................................2
Answer to Question 5.............................................................................................................3
Answer to Question 6.............................................................................................................3
Answer to Question 7.............................................................................................................3
Answer to Question 8.............................................................................................................3
Answer to Question 9.............................................................................................................3
Answer to Question 10...........................................................................................................4
Answer to Question 11...........................................................................................................4
Answer to Question 12...........................................................................................................4
Answer to Question 13...........................................................................................................4
Assessment Tool 2: Case Study.................................................................................................5
Assessment Tool 3: Case Study.................................................................................................8
References................................................................................................................................10
Assessment Tool 1: Written Questions

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CONTRIBUTE TO PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTING BUSINESS IMPROVEMENTS
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Answer to Question 1
The managements of the companies are needed to collect information about the Key
Performance Indicators (KPIs) of the businesses to set and archive business performance
targets that includes information on the companies’ financial performance, information about
customers, information about the performance of the employees and others. This information
helps to measure the overall business performance (Parmenter 2015).
Answer to Question 2
In businesses, it is important to set targets as it provide the business with guidance and
direction, contributes in facilitating planning, motives as well as inspires employees and
assists the companies to evaluate and control performance. These aspects together assist to
improve overall business performance.
Answer to Question 3
It is essential to set timeframe along with collecting the necessary information as
setting targets assists the businesses to prioritize as well as focus on the most important tasks
that can impact the business. For this, the presence of timeframe puts the pressure on the
managements to unify their business operations as per priority (Marcel 2014).
Answer to Question 4
Wages and salaries paid to the employees is a significant part in payroll budgeting.
For the purpose of salaries and wages, the companies are needed to consider the regular
hourly rate as consideration of this assists the companies in preparing the budgeted salaries
and wages for the employees.
Answer to Question 5
In the budgeting process, it is needed to calculate the expenses along with the
determination of income. From this income, it is needed for the companies to make a

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CONTRIBUTE TO PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTING BUSINESS IMPROVEMENTS
IN AN AUTOMOTIVE WORKPLACE
provision for expenditures with the aim to make the current year’s balance more accurate.
Thus, it is needed to make the provision (Adongo and Jagongo 2013).
Answer to Question 6
In case the companies do not plan for the unplanned expenses, they can affect the
annual budget by making the finance expenses off the track. For this reason, it is needed for
the companies to make necessary provisions for unplanned expenses in the annual budget.
Answer to Question 7
It is needed to gather the financial information in the areas of financial operations that
includes revenue, profit and expenses; financial position that includes assets, liabilities and
equity and cash flow position. It is needed to gather this information in regular basis as this
information helps in assessing the overall financial performance and position of the
businesses (Adongo and Jagongo 2013).
Answer to Question 8
Companies analyse the budget discrepancies by obtaining the different between
budgeted revenue or expenses with the actual revenue or expenses. Thus, as corrective
measures, it is needed to identify the reasons for variances and to take the necessary actions
so that they do not occur again (Johansson and Siverbo 2014).
Answer to Question 9
It is needed for the companies to consider the industry standards for preparing
invoices due to the fact that the companies must adjust their payment invoice as per the
hourly payment to the employees.
Answer to Question 10
With the aim to resolve the dispute accounts as per the industry standards, the
managements of the companies are needed to compare the disputes with the adopted

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CONTRIBUTE TO PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTING BUSINESS IMPROVEMENTS
IN AN AUTOMOTIVE WORKPLACE
standards as it will provide the companies with the view that what strategies are needed to
take for resolving these discrepancies (Marginson 2013).
Answer to Question 11
It needs to be mentioned that the companies use to implement five kinds of
promotional strategies for their businesses; they are Advertising, Sales promotion, Public
relations, Personal selling and Direct Marketing. These promotional strategies are reviewed
based on the increase in sales and number of customers from the implementation of these
strategies (Ali, Gafar and Akbar 2013).
Answer to Question 12
The necessary adjustments in the promotional strategies are implemented by
reviewing these adjustments with the personnel responsible for business promotions. After
the process of review, these adjustments are discussed with the personnel responsible for the
implementation of these adjustments.
Answer to Question 13
First, the management is needed to ascertain the equipment/stocks required for their
business. Second, they are needed to list these stocks/equipment and to send the list to the
purchase departments. Third, it is the responsibility of the purchase department to ensure
buying the requirements by making the needed payments.

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CONTRIBUTE TO PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTING BUSINESS IMPROVEMENTS
IN AN AUTOMOTIVE WORKPLACE
Assessment Tool 2: Case Study
Time Frame and Budgeting Targets: The business has faced financial loss in the last six
months. Now, the target is to increase the sales of the business in the coming six months.
Hence, the timeframe for the budget will be the coming six months. The target to increase the
sales revenue will help the company in recovering the incurred loss and the target of the
company will be to concern the loss into 20% net profit at the end of the coming six months
(Miller 2018).
Costs and Margins: As mentioned above, the target is to gain 20% net profit in the coming
six months. As per the budget, for gaining this net profit, the budgeting target will be to
decrease the cost of goods sold and operating expenses by 2% and 5% respectively. At the
same time, it needs to be ensured that sales increases by 30% for achieving 20% net profit
(Mennicken and Sjögren 2015).
Appropriate People and Unplanned Costs Provision: It is not possible to archive this target
without the involvement of the company’s senior management. For this reason, the Chief
Financial Officer, Accounts and Finance Manager and the Chief Executive Officer needs to
be included in this plan. In addition, it is needed to set aside a certain fund as provision in
order to tackle any unplanned costs that can come up while achieving the target.
Monitoring the Income and Expenditure: For monitoring the income and expenditure
regularly, the company is needed to employ both internal and formal monitoring and
reporting process. Under the internal process, the responsible personnel will match the
budgeted income and expensed with the actual income and expenses for identifying the
variances. However, under the formal monitoring process, they will be needed to prepare a
report on the outcome of their monitoring of the income and expenses and will submit it to
the official bodies of the company (Ruch and Taylor 2015).

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CONTRIBUTE TO PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTING BUSINESS IMPROVEMENTS
IN AN AUTOMOTIVE WORKPLACE
Comparison with the Set Budget: At the same time, it is needed to ensure that there is
sufficient comparison of the actual results with the already set budget as it will help in
identifying the discrepancies in achieving the target of 20% net profit. In case any
discrepancy is there, it is needed to take the corrective measure to eradicate that discrepancy
(Brantley et al. 2013).
Preparation and Recording Invoices: It is needed to select which revenue and expenditure
categories need to be included in the budget for performing the planning process. For this, all
the necessary cost items need to be properly recorded for preparing the expense invoices.
More specifically, the company is needed to track the processing and receive of necessary
invoice, correct approval of the invoices and the adoption of appropriate accounting for the
invoices.
Provision for Dispute Accounts: The company needs to have the necessary provision in the
form of budgetary control and responsibility centre. Under this, the actual results will be
compared with the budgeted figures. In the presence of any dispute account in the budgetary
process, the responsible personnel can either exercise the control action or can revise the
original budget. In addition, the company can develop a responsibility centre for tacking the
dispute accounts that includes revenue centre, expense centre, profit centre and investment
centre.
Involvement of Management in Promotional Strategies: For this whole process, it is needed
to include the marketing department of the company to set up, review and adjust the
promotional strategies. As the target is to increase the sales and profit, it is needed to review
the current promotional strategies of the company for judging the promotional deficiencies.
Based on this analysis, effective promotional strategies are needed to develop for positively
impacting the sales (Baker 2014).

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CONTRIBUTE TO PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTING BUSINESS IMPROVEMENTS
IN AN AUTOMOTIVE WORKPLACE
Required Stock or Display Equipment: With the aim to support the promotional strategies,
the company will be needed certain equipment so that the products can be displayed in the
shops for attracting more customers as it is needed to boost the sales.

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Assessment Tool 3: Case Study
Collection and Organization of Required Information: In order to know about the reasons
behind the company’s financial struggle, it is needed to collect the required information. For
this, the firm is needed to follow certain steps. The first step involves the identification of the
areas of financial challenges for the firm. The second step includes the selection of the issues.
The third step involves planning the method to collect the required information. The fourth
step includes the collection of the required financial data. After that, the collected data is
analysed and interpreted to know the reasons for the financial difficulties so that necessary
actions can be taken (Zhai and Lafferty 2017).
Communication of Ideas: For communicating ideas with the supervisors, it is needed to
arrange a formal meeting with them for pressing the idea (McQuail and Windahl 2015). The
detailed discussion of the idea will occur in the meeting where there will not be any
disruptions. After that, it is needed to demand feedback on the idea with the aim to improvise
it. The company can communicate the idea with the customers through personal
advertisements (McQuail and Windahl 2015).
Planning and Organizing the Required Activities for Business Improvements: In the first
step, the company is needed to ascertain the business activities that need improvements. After
that, it is needed to analyse what is happening and how realistically they can be improved.
The next step involves in obtaining the authorities and support from the senior management.
The next step involves in the selection of the staffs or employees for bringing the
improvements. The next step involves in preparing the plan along with determining the
required resources. The next step involves in the implementation of the plan. After that, it
needs to monitor the implemented plan (Jeston 2014).

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CONTRIBUTE TO PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTING BUSINESS IMPROVEMENTS
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Use of Mathematical Ideas and Techniques: Since the business operates in Australia, it is
needed for the company to adopt and comply with the standards of AASB 1055 Budgetary
Control for budgetary disclosure requirements (Jorge 2015). It needs to be mentioned that the
national minimum wage rate of Australia is $18.93 per hour or $719.20 per 38 hour week. It
is needed for the company to consider this hourly rate while preparing the budget.
Planning of Diagnostic Procedures: It needs to be mentioned that there may be certain
budgeting related issues that are contributing towards the difficult financial condition of the
company. For this reason, the company must have a budget review system where the
budgeting targets will be reviewed in order to find any variance. In case the presence of any
variance can be seen, the responsible personnel will be needed to revise the budget (Jeston
2014).
Use of Workplace Technology: The firm is needed to ensure the use of appropriate
technology for fixing the financial issues. By using the technology, the firm needs to organize
all information in one central place so that anyone can access and use this information for
their requirements. After that, appropriate technology needs to be adopted for increasing the
speed for processing information. Lastly, the firm needs to adopt the correct technology for
supporting the quick decision-making process (Hacker 2017).
Marketing Concepts and Principles: It needs to be mentioned that decrease in sales and
profitability is a major reason for the financial difficulty for the company. Thus, in order to
increase the sales, the firm is needed to ensure to adopt as well as implement effective
promotional strategies with the aim to reach to increased number of customers. After that, the
firm can also considers the development of new product range in order to cater to the needs
of their customers in more effective manner as these steps will assist the firm in increasing
the sales revenue which is needed to increase the profitability (Baker 2014).

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References
Adongo, K.O. and Jagongo, A., 2013. Budgetary control as a measure of financial
performance of state corporations in Kenya. International Journal of Accounting and
Taxation, 1(1), pp.37-5.
Ali, N.A.M., Gafar, M.H.A. and Akbar, J., 2013. Enhancing promotional strategies within
automotive companies in Malaysia. Procedia Economics and Finance, 7, pp.158-163.
Baker, M.J., 2014. Marketing strategy and management. Macmillan International Higher
Education.
Brantley, M.W., Lee, L.H., Chen, C.H. and Chen, A., 2013. Efficient simulation budget
allocation with regression. IIE Transactions, 45(3), pp.291-308.
Hacker, S., 2017. Pleasure, power and technology: Some tales of gender, engineering, and the
cooperative workplace. Routledge.
Jeston, J., 2014. Business process management. Routledge.
Johansson, T. and Siverbo, S., 2014. The appropriateness of tight budget control in public
sector organizations facing budget turbulence. Management Accounting Research, 25(4),
pp.271-283.
Jorge, S., 2015. Public sector accounting and auditing in Portugal. In Public Sector
Accounting and Auditing in Europe(pp. 156-172). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Marcel, M., 2014. Budgeting for fiscal space and government performance beyond the great
recession. OECD Journal on Budgeting, 13(2), pp.9-47.
Marginson, D., 2013. Budgetary control: what’s been happening?. In The Routledge
Companion to Cost Management (pp. 21-43). Routledge.