Performance Objective 1 Demonstrate the application of professional ethics, value and judgment My General Manager wanted to conceal increased cost of sales by 2.3% from Head office in the financial accounts for 6 Months. He asked me to hide it and then divide and absorb it in next few months to hide the impact. I did not agree on this and showed the true and fair picture in Financial Reports.
What did you learn from this experience and how will it influence your future behavior in the workplace? If I would have acted upon on the order of General Manager and decreased the cost of sale by 2.3%, it would be against my professional ethics. This act would have built my false image and expectation of others from me of doing such things in future as well. To act ethically means choosing to do the things that you know are right or good and avoiding those behaviors that are wrong or bad in professional context.
What would have been the impact had you not behaved ethically in this situation? If I had not behaved ethically in this situation, this would be against my professional ethics. This would be against the objectivity, integrity and professional behavior, which I suppose to follow in all situations. If I acted unethically it showed that I am a person who does not have moral values and is not capable to work in professional environment.
Professional Objective 2
Describe how in your role you have contributed toward effective governance, provide at least two examples. Establishing policies, to make significant and strategic decisions and to oversee the organization activity, makes contribution towards effective governance. As a professional Accountant my involvement was toward evaluating and improving governance, risk management, and internal control, which represent core competences/capabilities of professional accountants. Organizations can be assured that professional accountants are able to contribute strongly in meeting organizational objectives in these areas. I played an active role in ensuring that governance, risk management, and internal control form an integral part of an organization’s overall management system. As professional accountant I was also involved in the practice of external audits, assurance providers, and business advisor Who provide professional services that aim to promote more robust governance arrangements .As an Accountant I prepare management’s performance reports or issue their own reports to the public to help citizens, elected officials, and other community stakeholders with valid, relevant and reliable data on a timely and accessible basis. In doing so, the reports provide active citizens and elected officials with the information they need to evaluate community conditions and services.
In what ways did you make sure you acted in the best interests of all concerned? There are many standpoints on which I turn in the greatest interest of all concerned. The first one is deontological principle; one has to do what is right that’s good in itself. The second reason what is good is because of long-term advantage of it (Utilitarianism). I expect to be treated well so I treat other people well. Acting unethically is always a short-term view. So, I always consider an ethical path, which is in the best interest of all concerned.
What negative impact(s) would have resulted if you had not acted in the way you did?
I trust employee’s relations are more significant than ethical and professional responsibilities as jobholder. It’s easy to stand up to an enemy but difficult when the other is friend and colleague. The impact my action was that I gained trust of my seniors. (Back ground a colleague wanted favor as regard to a mistake)
Professional Objectives 3 What experience have you had in dealing with non-financial risk? Finance function has been stretched to every part of the organization, gathering information from every part and thus has view of entire company. This allows and encourages the panorganizational view central to any embracing risk management approach. I have been part of risk valuation process and assessed market risk, strategic risk, IT risk. I got professional advice from concerning experts and identify critical points in each area. I have created retrieval plans for IT, Health & safety, compliance, security and management of crises and disasters.
Using an experience in your workplace explain how have you ensured that the risk was correctly dealt with? I have identified Data loss risk in IT risk assessment. I have referred with IT specialists within my organization and recommended my organization about my outcomes and solution. As per my proposal we have created policy that every day back up tape must be replaced and should be kept in fire resistant safe or away from the building. So in the event of fire we will not lose our data and business information. I have confirmed it is happening on daily basis through log forms and IT Audit. Another just a current example is I have measured business discontinuity risk and destruction risk due to Political Riots. I have asked our insurance company to offer insurance for loss in case of Riots. How did your organization benefit from your actions?
Proper risk assessment plays vital role in any organization. Through risk assessment, my organization was able to control and minimize risks such as compliance, health and safety, employee turnover, IT disaster, discontinuity of business..
Performance Objective 4 What have you learned about how you work as an individual? An individual should follow professional code of ethics at work. I have learned I should work with professional competence and due care, I should be objective, I should not disclose confidentiality. My behavior should be professional and I should work with integrity. Moreover I am getting feedback from my mentors on my work and I also contribute in company appraisals and career development plans.
How have you changed your behaviour or approach in the workplace as a result of what you have learned? I have been following ACCA code of conduct in my workplace as a result I have been seen as professional and objective professional. I have been improving also since I have started evaluating my appraisals and commenced following my career development plans.
How has this helped improve work outputs or business results in your area? My managers were more than satisfied with my performance and work done by me as they considered me more reliable in the future projects and I was allocated with the assignments that are possible to be more information sensitive and highly confidential.
Performance Objectives 5
Describe situations where you have effectively demonstrated each of the forms of communication mentioned I have presented Budget to Management. I have exhibited my communication skills by describing financial data to non-financial people. I have listened/learned all the questions carefully and then answer in most suitable method, which was easy to apprehend for non-financial people.
What did you do to help communicate effectively? My Counselors at my work place assisted me communicate effectually. Furthermore I have done part time English Language courses from British Council and also passed IELTS (English language test). Further it has improved my communication skills that also aided in my job more effectively and enable me to understand my seniors, colleagues, subordinates and other stakeholders in the way to understand them what my job requires and what is the legitimate output actually.
How have your communication skills helped you to improve your performance elsewhere? Improved communication skills allow me to ask questions openly from my ACCA teachers. Also it aided me to propagate in my career and improved my professional relations with all the stakeholders of my company.
Performance Objective 6 Describe your experience of using information technology I am using IT in my daily work life. I have worked on several accounting and business packages such as SAP, SUN, Sage, Opera Revenue Management System, Iscala, Tally, and Sage Line. I am generating Financial Models in Excel and these are very
supportive in making business decisions. I have done Adobe Photoshop Course from Aptech Bahrain in 2013 and financial modeling curse to improve my Excel and financial modeling skills.
How have you applied your IT skills to improve your personal performance? I am applying my IT skills to improve my personal performance everyday basis. I have generated Financial Models for business forecasting and analysis, which allows me to make business decisions quickly and effectively. I am using IT accounting and business packages which make my life easy, paying supplier on time, chasing my debtors as per terms, calculate benefits/payroll for employees collectively, and maintain company records timely and effectively. I can perform my tasks rapidly so I get time, which I can utilize to learn new skills.
How has your IT skills and associated improved performance benefited the wider organisation? My IT skills are making my job relaxed, which effects on my departmental and organizational performance. My IT skills help me to make decision quickly, which directly benefit organization.
Performance Objectives 7 Describe how you have managed the ongoing (business as usual) activities in your role. Training and delegation - I believe in training and motivating people. I invest my time in training the skills, which I have, and then I delegate my tasks to my team members. This way I get time to work more carefully on critical areas and learn new skills. I have also trained operational Managers in finance i.e. Budgeting and forecasting and reading P&L, controlling costs in their concerning areas, resulting in they do all the forecast and budget for their departments and send to me for review. Communication: I have made improvement to communication within department and communication with other departments and with business partners
(suppliers, customers, shareholders etc.). Professional Ethics- I am professional accountant and according to my ACCA code of conduct I always control my ongoing activities with guideline provided by my professional body and within professional ethics. Research on Activities- I always research on daily tasks how other organizations within my industry and sister companies are doing these. I continuously attempted to make speedier but controlled system.
Explain where you have recommended your own approach to managing ongoing activities to others and why I have freshly recommended my current organization concerning staffing, financial reporting, communication to and from finance department and applying new policies and processes. My approach is based on to simplify activities but with improved controls, improving communication, improving document control system, improve IT infrastructure, and building good team with training and development.
How does you approach to managing your activities contribute to organization performance? My organization performance has been improved with my suggested approach. Our payroll cost has been reduced by idea of training and developing people and multi tasking. My organization is ordering, purchasing, payment process is faster now as I have researched in market and bought Material Control System, so we can approve Purchase Orders electronically which save time also control inventory, stores and costing more effectively.
Performance Objectives 8 Describe an occasion when you have identified an opportunity to improve departmental performance.
As a manager I had three supervisors working as my immediate subordinates and large portfolio of clients and other assignments, which regularly added to the workload. At the time there was allocation of work among supervisors was random and based on good terms with senior management. I decided to change the structure and through support of senior management allocated clients to the three supervisors. The allocation was done through consultation and in a fair manner to avoid grievances among the supervisors. Each supervisor was made responsible for the clients allocated to him. In this way they became aware of their obligations and were able to plan their work in much better manner than before.
How did you contribute to developing the opportunity for improvement? The modification I brought in the lower organizational structure brought remarkable change in the work environment. Inter departmental competitions ended as work was allocated in infringement by one supervisor in the work of other ended. This resulted in increased performance.
Was this opportunity fully successful, why was this? If not, why not? The change was not only appreciated internally but clients as well they were clear who is responsible for their work. It also streamlined operations and my capability to handle the jobs in hand.
Performance Objectives 9 Describe your role in managing a discrete assignment I always obey step-by-step methodology for managing a job. The steps, which I learned from my ACCA studies and through experience. I make critical path for the assignment in Microsoft
Projects and asses the duration of each task and identify the task which are core to the project and can delay the project if get delayed. I assign tasks to my team and review performance by marking off the critical path for each task completed. I keep a contact with clients personnel so that I am aware of their requirements and keep them to up to date of the work being performed. I also involve senior management in every step to have their support which very important for any job.
How did you apply learning from your day-to-day role in this assignment? My day-to-day handling methodology is also similar as I delegate the work to relevant personnel and as manager guarantees effectiveness and efficiency of work. I make sure before handing over the task to team member that they have competency and experience in the area task has been assigned. Also I use my ACCA professional knowledge at every step.
What did you learn from the assignment that will help you in your day-to-day role? I learnt that systematic and preplanned steps, keeping all stakeholders on board are the key to successful completion of the job/assignment. I also learn from my colleagues working on the project regarding other areas (i.e. IT, Sales & Marketing, Human Resources). Each assignment gives me more knowledge and experience in various areas of finance and business. These skills, I am using in my day-to-day work enhances my performance.
Performance Objective 11 Outline your contribution to interpreting financial transactions or financial statements
My contribution in interpreting the financial transaction or financial statements is to analyze and interpret the economic nature of transactions and the overall financial performance and position of an entity. It includes evaluation of financial information by using the key financial ratios. Interpretations is performed by selection, evaluation and anlysation of financial data, along with other information in order to assess the performance by using the ratios like liquidity, profitability, activity, financial leverage, shareholder, return on investment etc.
How has this interpretation helped your department or organization? This interpretation helped the organization in the decision-making. Also it is advantageous in advising investors, shareholders, creditors and potential stakeholder of the organization. Furthermore, my financial interpretations helped my organization evaluating business growth, working capital management, and worthiness of potential customer and liquidity of organization. In addition, my financial interpretations are very helpful for management in making decision regarding investments, new projects and new products.
What business decisions have or could be made based on this interpretation? The major business decision taken which were based on this interpretation included but not restricted towards the different departments of the organization in well-informed decisions and reasonable forecasts. Uses of ratio analysis vary from creating common size accounting statements to determining the business s inventory turnover or tracking the success of a marketing campaign over time. Standard ratios are used for different departments to accomplish specific tasks. Even though the use of ratio analysis important for a business when making decisions, there are also limitations of using such ratios. Uses of ratio analysis include breaking data down so that it can be compared. When comparing two sets of data, ratios can help bring the numbers to equivalent figures. For instance, if the business wants to compare its monthly cost of goods sold for the past year, it
should not look at the raw numbers. Instead, the business should calculate the cost of goods sold as a percentage of the total sales in order to determine if costs truly have increased or decreased. Making forecasts is another use of ratio analysis. Comparing ratios over time can help business make reasonable predictions about what it should expect in the future if conditions remain the same or similar. Breaking data down to ratios and comparing the ratios over time also can help businesses see if trends or cycles emerge.
