ACCT7107 Case Assignment Questions S2 2023
Dakota Office Products
You are a junior accountant at the business advisory division of Best Managing – _a medium size
accounting firm. You have recently reached an important milestone in your career: you have been
confirmed for your position, which makes you a permanent staff member at the firm.
You have been assigned to one of the consultancy teams in your division to work with a new client
Dakota Office Products (DOP). DOP has recently suffered its first ever loss in the history of the
business without knowing what caused the loss.
Since your confirmation, you have been assigned more critical tasks by your team leader. You are
currently working on providing responses to the following task items in preparation for the next
meeting with the client:
1. Exploring Costing Systems:
a) In this first task, we delve into the world of costing systems. Your role involves
recommending the most suitable costing system for DOP. Be sure to outline your choices for
the various elements of a costing system, and importantly, justify why these choices are
optimal. (10 marks; < 200 words)
b) Extending your analysis from the first part, your task is to assess the appropriateness of
DOP's current choice of costing system. This evaluation will provide insights into areas that
might need adjustment. (10 marks; < 200 words)
2. Examining Pricing Strategies
a) As we move to the client's pricing method, your expertise comes into play. You're tasked with
proposing the pricing method that best suits DOP. Don't forget to explain the reasoning
behind your chosen method. (10 marks; < 200 words)
b) With insights from the earlier task, your critical thinking shines as you assess whether DOP's
current pricing method aligns with their overall strategy. Your analysis might shed light on
areas that require re-evaluation. (10 marks; < 200 words)
3. Evaluating Service Profitability:
This task revolves around evaluating the costs and benefits of introducing the desktop delivery
service (DDS). By delving into the numbers, your goal is to ascertain whether this service enhances
DOP's profitability, all while referencing relevant calculations. (15 marks; < 200 words)
4. Unravelling Loss:
Building on your prior customer profitability analysis with the use of the cost information from an
activity-based costing system (Topic 4 & 5 tutorial work) and your recent analyses from Questions 1
to 3, it's time to uncover the underlying reasons behind DOP's maiden financial loss. explain the
reasons why DOP suffered its first ever loss in the business’ history (20 marks; < 250 words).
5. Analysing Specific Cost Allocation:
The spotlight now shifts to a specific cost item: "order entry expenses $800,000 (Exhibit 1). consists
solely of fixed annual salaries of data-entry personnel." Your expert scrutiny will determine whether
the current allocation of this cost is appropriate, taking the available data into account. (10 marks; <
200 words)
ACCT7107 Case Assignment Questions S2 2023
6. Crafting Solutions for Recovery:
Concluding our exploration, your mission is to present three actionable recommendations that can
effectively tackle the core issues contributing to DOP's recent financial setback. These
recommendations must lay out practical steps that can lead to tangible results. (15 marks; < 200
words)
Note 1: an actionable recommendation is a recommendation that sets out the actual action plan, for
example: if the general recommendation is to reduce labour costs, then the actionable
recommendation could be to reduce labour costs by negotiate lower wages with the workers.
Note 2: Word counts are inclusive of any calculations presented.
Total available marks: 100