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

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

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 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.

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

For 1st question, did anyone manage to calculate any thing for the additional proposed indicators? I think it was TSR, ROCE and inventory days?

I thought info was missing for these to fully calculate so I commented on what they can reflect but didn’t have any numbers. Did anyone calculate something?

There was no share price mentioned anywhere so I also commented on the fact that the TSR could not be calculated.

@borisdmello said:
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 deducted it because it was a reduction so had been added to profit in the first place and commented that provisions are an example of over prudence. I then added the full 500k to the ce at the start of the year to eliminate accounting estimates.

The eva I said about being absolute, assumptions in wacc, time consuming and complex

I totally agree with you hassan, i feel i was better prepared to answer these questions in the exam. i think i did much better than my last attempt. But only time will tell.

Also EVA of zero ha, was kind of like it must be right because would be toooo weird a coincidence (… Probably wrong actually ?)

Tough but fair paper. VBM part a, I doubt I had enough real matter to get anywhere near the marks on offer.. Plus Burns and Scappens:,Had some general waffle but lacked integration points I reckon.

Alas its done…. at least until next time ?

Overall the exam was ok and managed the finish the paper. Q1 was the most manageable. Suprised JIT came up gain. Did not like the VBM question the 15 marks was too much and didn’t know what to say.

I think he examiner has made the questions more straightforward now. Really hope i pass as it is my last one

Hi All,

I felt this exam was quite good except that it was easier than I expected so spent a lot of time on harder things – risk, corp failure (Z and A Score) etc.

I got 400k or something of the sort for EVA – but I know that isn’t correct. However was able to say it was positive thus wealth creation etc so regardless might get a point.

How did you guys get inventory days? I left this because no COGS?

I felt it was all a bit random – JIT and VBM but only because it’s quite different to the past exams. I think it was an easy exam if you’d didn’t study hard and thus focus on harder areas lol.

I also made sure I reminded myself that it was performance REPORT because I did also start talking about their performance.

I too talked about big data. But stupidly I didn’t remember the three drivers of change – like I said the easy stuff is only easy if you know it!

q1 – (ii). additional performance measures. I did not do TSR, I ignored it like it was never there. The other calculation was easy. For inventory days, Inventory was given in the appendix and COG (Revenue – GP). The ROCE calculation give around 35% for each year. Inventory days was about 31 days and Receivable days was about 3 days.

(i) – Most of the performance indicators did relate back to the company mission and strategic objectives, however not all. Eg. the indicators was not clear how the company measured – increase individual spending. There was a measure that measure the percentage of individual spending but this only indicate that these were one off and the company had a difficulty getting customer to make additional purchases- and this raises questions such as Are customers satisfied with the overall service?

The ROCE and Profit measure did measure growth, but not sustainable growth for the shareholders. EVA suggested.

Finally, the performance report should have been benchmarked against other online retailers instead of internal bench marking, as this type would be probably acceptable from an operational perspective.

Changing roles or management accountant was easy. Didn;t remember who the hell was Burns and Scapens – But i did highlighted and discussed all of the same factors, – increase competition, technology and strategic focus.

I thought that the big data investment was too expensive to undertake, giving the cost of $50, which will need software to process this data and maintenance cost, in addition to the company previous experience, which it had non. So it was a high risk undertaking for the company.