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FM

The management of receivables - Simple settlement discount - ACCA Financial Management (FM)

VIVA Subject Guide
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50 Comments

  1. Jaymin
    Hello Sir,

    I have a query that the discount which we calculated was on the whole 12million as that is our pa sales. However, why did we count the overdraft fees at 20% for at whole 12 million?

    Shouldn't a company have some money in reserves and from Profit as to not need the overdraft of such huge amount? although the answer would not change as the OD would still be more cost effective than the discount option.
  2. John MoffatTutor
    If the money was coming from existing cash reserves then we would charge interest at whatever rate the cash had been earning (the cost of the lost interest)
  3. Jaymin
    Oh! Yes, understood, it makes sense. Thank you!
  4. Fuseini
    Hi John, per the internet, the effective annual rate(EAR) formula is = (1+ i/n)^n - 1 but (1+ i)^n - 1 was used in this working. Thus, in this working the interest was not divided by "n". Would you kindly explain why?
  5. John MoffatTutor
    Because we are already using the period rate (here the 2 month rate) and so do not need to calculate it separately.
  6. Yaasin
    Sir,Please how did we arrive at the 100$ for the 3 months or it was an assumption?
    Thank You
  7. John MoffatTutor
    Using 100 makes the calculations easier, but you can use any figure you want.
  8. Tim
    Dear Sir,

    Thank you for the wonderful lecture. Just wanted to check my understanding of the logic and terminology here, for the question in Example 1, is it correct to say that we are comparing between the Compound discount rate over a year (or per annum) and the simple interest rate from overdraft per annum?

    Thanks in advance for your feedback.

    Regards,
    Tim
  9. John MoffatTutor
    Not really. We compounded the monthly cost of the discount to get the equivalent annual rate so as to compare with the overdraft annual rate.

    (I wouldn't really worry about the terminology here anyway for Paper FM)
  10. JojoBeat
    Hi sir, does the effective cost p.a. mean the cost of the discount + interest cost of reduced overdraft together?
  11. John MoffatTutor
    No it doesn't. It is the effective interest cost of offering the discount which we can then compare with the overdraft interest rate.
  12. JojoBeat
    So if the question asked (in absolute terms) should we offer the discount, we would take the 20% x old receivables VS 27.76% x new receivables?
  13. Chiweta
    Mr. Moffat, why did you use TWO months not THREE months since it was THREE months given in the question??????
  14. Chiweta
    I'm sorry, I just figured out right now and unfortunately I can't delete my comment, my apologies....
  15. John MoffatTutor
    No problem :-)
  16. John MoffatTutor
    The period is reduced by 2 months - from 3 months down to 1 month.
  17. anisha17
    Hi Mr Moffat. I hope you are well. in the second example that you showed i entered 1/99 on my calculator but it is giving me 0.01. How do i get the same figure as you got?
  18. John MoffatTutor
    Maybe you have set your calculator to round to 2 decimal places, but 1/99 is certainly equal to 0.010101 (and not 0.01).
    You are going to have to look at the instruction manual that came with your calculator.
  19. Jacqueline Shi
    Sir, i don't understand the comparision without mutiplying the effective cost by time factor.
    e.g. 27.75%>20% instead of 1/12* 27.75% < 3/12*20%
  20. John MoffatTutor
    We are comparing the equivalent annual % cost of the discount with the annual % cost of the overdraft.
  21. Jacqueline Shi
    Yes, Sir. But when considering whether to offer the discount, should we take T/R days into account ? The 27.75% is only used for one month while the 20% is used for 3 months.
  22. John MoffatTutor
    No - they are both being expressed as yearly costs.
  23. Jacqueline Shi
    Thank you Sir.
  24. John MoffatTutor
    You are welcome :-)
  25. Jacqueline Shi
    Sir, when i caculated the net cost in Example 1, i got two outcomes.
    One was (3/12*12*20%-1/12*12*27.75%)-4%*12m= -157,500
    The other one was 60/365*12m*20%-4%*12m= -85,479
    I wondered which one was correct.
  26. james
    Sir. Why don't we use like: 4.167%*6 because 4.167% in the example is equal to 2 months? When I multiple like that, it will equally to 12 months . Is there any misunderstanding in here :(
  27. John MoffatTutor
    It is compound interest. Check back to the Paper MA (was F2) lectures if you have forgotten.
  28. james
    Yes, Sir. But why we cannot use the formula like in my examples. Is it because normally or in reality, people usually use compound interest instead of using simple interest, right Sir?
  29. John MoffatTutor
    It is not a question as to what anyone might do in reality, it is calculating what the true interest cost per year is (which is what matters for the company).
  30. james
    Thank you Sir.
  31. John MoffatTutor
    You are welcome :-)
  32. Former user
    [Content removed at user request]
  33. Varsha
    Sir, I couldn't understand the comparison of the Effective % cost with the overdraft interest of 20%. How does that tell us whether we should offer the discount or not?
  34. John MoffatTutor
    Getting money early means we can reduce our overdraft and save the overdraft interest. However giving the discount is costing money even though it saves interest.
  35. Varsha
    Okay. got it .Thanks :)
  36. John MoffatTutor
    You are welcome :-)
  37. Bisola
    For example 2. How did we arrive at 10 days and 25 days. it's nowhere in the question
  38. Praveen
    Its just his question not there in notes.
  39. Bisola
    For example 2, was 25 days and 10 days assumed. It's nowhere in the question
  40. Asher
    Thanks Mr Mofatt for this lecture. Your explanation is always in place.
  41. afuakay
    Hello,
    I am a bit confused her with the first example.
    From what I know, effective interest rate (R)= [(1+ i/n)^n] -1
    My question is why didn't you divide 0.04167 by 6 in the bracket? Any reason for that?
    Here is what i mean
    R= [(1+0.04167/6)^6] -1
  42. John MoffatTutor
    Why would be divide by 6??

    The interest of 4.167% over 2 months. There are 6 periods of 2 months in a year and so if it was not for the fact that the interest was compounded, then the yearly interest would be
    6 x 4.167%. Because it is compounded it is as I show in the lecture: (1.04167^6) - 1.

    If you are still unsure about compounding then do watch the Paper MA lectures on interest, because this is revision from Paper MA (was F3).
  43. Jane
    I agree with your approach and it makes sense, (I have watched the lecture from MA).
    But why than your formula reveals the different results comparing to usual EAR formula: (R)= [(1+ i/n)^n] -1 ?
    This formula is used everywhere, even in Excel by using the internal formula "Effect" for EAR I got 25,44% instead of your's 27.7559%.
    In Excel I used: =(EFFECT(0.04167,6)*6+1)*100 (for mine calculations with EAR formula) and =100*POWER(1.04167,6) - for yours.

    thank you
  44. joelsasi
    As per my understanding the formula is correct, but 4.167% over two months only not for per annum, therefore there is no need to divide by n as it is not given as annual interest rate.is this make sense?
  45. Mohammad Fazal
    we added 1 to the yearly rate in example 1 to get 1.04167 thats fine, but in the next question the yearly rate is 1.0101, when we add 1 to it it should be 2.0101 but you didnt add 1, may i ask why
  46. John MoffatTutor
    If, for example, the monthly percentage was 1%, then adding on 1% each month is the same as multiplying by 1.01 each month - try it yourself with some made up numbers.

    If you are still unsure that watch the Paper MA (was F2) lectures on interest.
  47. cm1985
    Kindly help me to understand where $100 is coming from.
  48. John MoffatTutor
    You could use any figure, but because they are %'s it is easiest to use $100. For every $100 that they invoice, $4 is discount.
    Use X's if you prefer!!
  49. cm1985
    Thank you very much.
  50. Faizan
    Why do we add 1 to the percentage while calculating the annual cost

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