APM*** ACCA Paper APM March 2020 Exam was.. Instant Poll and comments ***

It was good - time management was the key. Topics that come up: Q1 Evaluate performance management report and KPI's Changing role of the management accountant Data warehouse Q2 VBM EVA Q3 JIT TQM Not a bad exam. Easy marks for EVA and cost of quality

I have 3 questions in specific. In the EVA calculation do you subtract the reduction in allowance in NOPAT and add the value of allowance it was at the beginning year to capital? Also what EVA did u guys get What exactly was to be written in VBM? Why was there no question from corporate failure? Overall the paper was lengthy but doable with a few challenging topics.

Was there a specific format for the cost of quality report?

@chintanshah1992 said: It was good - time management was the key. Topics that come up: Q1 Evaluate performance management report and KPI's Changing role of the management accountant Data warehouse Q2 VBM EVA Q3 JIT TQM Not a bad exam. Easy marks for EVA and cost of quality

The 4 headings were given. So I just bifurcated the costs in a statement and gave it heading - cost of quality report.

@manthan007 said: Was there a specific format for the cost of quality report?

The 4 headings were given. So I just bifurcated the costs in a statement and gave it heading – cost of quality report.

What did you guys put for Q2A? Implement VBM step 2. also for the last question quality report did u exclude item such as labour cost and material cost as they are productions costs? or did you include them as quality ?

What did ppl get as eva? I thought that was a fair paper but could have spent hours on question 1

I got eva as 0, anyone else?

I actually totally messed this paper up. VBM & EVA were the killers for me due to not doing much revision on these areas so it's my own fault. The quality cosy question was easy, due to time I moved on with the plan to go back and do it quickly and completely forgot. 100% resit for my last exam, so disappointed. Tried to rush the studying to avoid doing the exam on the computer. Oh well

I didn't include the material or theabour cost in the calculation

@borisdmello said: I got eva as 0, anyone else?

Me too!

:( i got $508 or something to that effect!

I added the interest, took off tax paid and the tax saving on interest, adjusted for the provision change and added the marketing. Then added the 500k to the opening ce

@jennie1984 said: Me too!

me too

i got something like $(330) for EVA NOPAT operating profit less: tax benefit on interest less: cash tax less: provision (as it was a reduction) add: marketing Capital employed add: b/f provision

i did not adjust the capital employed for the marketing as we are using the b/f capital employed.

Generally, the exam looked very fair. I did all the questions one by one, leaving 2a (VBM) till the very end - was afraid to get stuck on it otherwise. Got back to it just 10 minutes before the end, so I think I miss this part totally. Hope the rest of question will bring enough marks to pass - they all looked manageable. Good luck to everyone!

hits123 - I got ($220) for EVA, because I adjusted for $300k in the Capital calculation (full amount of the doubtful debt rather than $200k. The EVA question wasn't as detailed as I thought it might be.....and didn't have a clue how to talk about why it wouldn't be appropriate for the Company (think I mentioned family business and might not be bothered about cost of equity). VBM I flunked!!! Think I did okay on the JIT part (reliance on suppliers, appropriateness of new KPI's, reducing appraising and increasing quality checks early in the process). Data Warehouse and role of management accountant.....a bit waffly!!!!

Yes opening capital employed. Ignore marketing spend but adjust for the overall provision at start of year. Thats what I did. Very positive feedback on poll

EvenI got similar EVA $500+

I thought the management accountant burns and scapens 3 parts was very specific!

Q1) Done really well. Knew how to deal with a) report evaluatiom, b) assessment of KPI d) Data warehouse. What came as a surprise was c) which was relevant to burns and Scapens and honestly despite not have reading it, I did it correct. Really reading the scenario given was the key Q2) Done fine as well. Did b) first, was able to calculate EVA, but a bit confused on the adjustments needed. Oh well did what was needed. Explained the difficulties and done A) did it at the end with some further explanation of VBM and explaining 1) and 4) well Q3) a bit of overwheling with both JIT and Quality cost interlinked. Did b) first and calculated the quality cost well and also linked with revenue and explained. However a) couldnt explain.

First time sitting this. Was a fair exam. Q1 - Performance report - Okay I think Other indicatiors - Okay although forgot how to work out TSR so just put that I needed more information Role of SMA - Okay although probably could’ve been clearer in my answer Data warehouse - used characteristics of big data for my answer so not sure Q2 - VBM? My head went at this point, so answered part b. In the end just wrote about target setting, smart etc did not relate to the scenario at all B) EVA - I got $104. Deducted the movement in the provision as it was a reduction. Didn’t add the full prov to C/E. Capitalised the market spend. When I was doing practice questions on this I was adding up the numbers wrong (with a calculator as well) so wouldn’t surprise me if that was wrong. Q3 - Just in time - blew this ... made one or two points on the production and purchasing B) quality costs - did the cost calc and %of revenue. Included all costs under the categories. Didn’t comment on the results.

What did people put for the difficulties for the firm relating to EVA?????

@jennie1984 said: I added the interest, took off tax paid and the tax saving on interest, adjusted for the provision change and added the marketing. Then added the 500k to the opening ce

@ezatsarnaya said: me too

i did exactly this and got an eva of 40$. I had practiced a lot of eva questions so it was helpful. dint get enough time for writing much on vbm as i dint know wat was included messed up in evaluation of performance report as well half way thru the question i realised that the report is to be evaluated not the performance

I gave VBM introduction like 2 sentences (not sure if marks will be there since they already defined it in the question)... Then gave my answer based on the 4 points given.. For the 4th point measuring performance : I mentioned about their weak systems n how it does not add value etc. Went with the flow... Couldn't think of much for point 2 on the time horizon and 3 on both strategic operational level ...

I forgot to link the quality costs to revenue .. was in a rush , hope they give marks for putting them in the right place...

I sat the CBE and it was very hard for me to type because the desk was too high and very uncomfortable .I had to keep my shoulders somehow higher and still couldn't type faster if that makes sense .The desk and monitor very small. I couldn't see the entire spreadsheet and have my workpad opened in the same time. Even if I did practice CBE I still lost lots of time arranging the pages on the screen in a way that will allow me to work. I believe I could have done much better if the computers and desk would be same as in a work environment. I am a tall person and I struggled I can only imagine how hard must have been for a shorter person. Very disappointed. This may have been only in the location where I sat the exam. I don't think I will pass as I didn't have enough time to get enough marks.

Added back the 200k to NOPAT right? because its a non cash income... it was just for 10 marks so I just wrote Comment and two limitations... should be enough right?

I thought the questions were decent, but my time management was off so I pretty much scrambled to get figures on the page for the cost quality section, I just about put the figures in under the 4 headings and gave some other comments about JIT for the first bit. For Eva, I had practice but was a little shaky with amendments so don't think I got the calculation fully right. For EVA difficulties I mentioned that the WACC can be hard to quantify exactly, that it is an absolute measure so can't be compared to the EVA of their competitors/other companies if they are a different size. In general what did people for setting targets/implementing measures under V? I waffled a bit about how their objectives would focus on externally staying ahead of the competition so mentioned models like the balanced scorecards with factors like innovation, etc. With examples of a measure. Not sure if that was right