Fundamentals of cost and management accounting 3rd year COS3247 south africa

Subject cost and management accounting

QUESTION 4 (30 Marks) a) You are a Management Accountant of Alumni a Hotel group, you have been given the following ratios for the 2018/2019 financial years, given in exhibit 1 below. Analyse Alumni performance using financial ratios over the 2-year period. Include what these ratios mean as well as what may have caused such a performance. (20 Marks) b) What are the limitations of accounting ratios (10 Marks) Module Name: Cost and Management Accounting 3 Page 4 of 5 Exhibit 1 Extract from board minute Performance during 2019 is disappointing as shown below. The board need to understand why revenue and profits have fallen. Alpaca 2019 2018 Change in revenue -10% Gross margin 39.5% 40.1% Operating margin 11.2% 15.5% It was agreed that a review of Alpaca's performance should be conducted as a matter of urgency The board recognise that Alpaca prides itself on the quality of staff it uses throughout all its hotels. However, staff costs are increasing despite revenue falling and the board feel they now need to address this. There are a number of key teams operating at Alpaca and the board would like to understand how to enhance the performance of these teams to help the business to grow and improve profitability