Managing Financial Resources and Decisions Sample Assignment

Introduction

The report aims to investigate the important accounting and financial concepts related to an organization by emphasising its involving situations. The paper explores the financial aspects of Clariton Antiques Ltd., which is a partnership firm dealing with antique products in London. Being part of an unincorporated business, it aims to grow its business through opting to open a new branch in Birmingham. Hence, the business should need to select an ideal source of finance for funding such expansion plan suggesting the performing the information highlighting the feasible financial plan of the chosen company. Additionally, other relevant areas of financial and operational contexts are prioritised throughout the contents assisting Clariton to manage its financial resources and decisions in a profitable manner.

Task 1

1.1 Identify the Sources of Finance available to Unincorporated and Incorporated Business

Different sources of finance are available to the different kinds of business, as determined by their structures. Being Clariton is a partnership business managed by its four partners, it is preliminarily assumed that the company follows an unincorporated structure.

1. Sources of Finance available to Unincorporated Business

Unincorporated Business - According to Groves et al. (2016), a partnership firm is developed with the help of a partnership agreement facilitating the formation of the business while explaining the duties and liabilities of each partner. Therefore, the personal savings of each partner or availing loans from different financial agencies are the two valuable sources of investment for this kind of business. The financial sources available to the unincorporated business are:

Term Loans - It can be borrowed from the financial institutes for meeting the small and large requirements through lending funds at the different rates (Johnson 2014).

Bank Overdraft - The overdrawing facility is provided by the banking institutions with charging a certain rate of interest for the excess money.

Trade Credits - The business can avail the certain amount from trade creditors within the market to fulfil the short term requirement while adding up the payment of interest for the taken amount.

Savings - One of the most effective and highly used sources of the unincorporated business is the business savings reutilised as the capital.

Personal Borrowing - Borrowings from friends and families of the owners can also be invested into the business termed as personal sources of finance.

Leasing - Without purchasing, leasing or hiring a required asset of the business from its owner in exchange of the periodical charges is one of the viable sources of finance for the unincorporated business.

1. Sources of Finance available to Incorporated Business

Incorporated Business - Commonly refers to the private or public limited companies, where a broad range of financial sources is available for funding the achievement of primary business goals. The fundamental characteristic of such business is acquiring a high volume of profit through selling products or services at profitable prices and ensuring the rotation of such profit to the benefit of operations (Cosgrove and Rijsberman 2014).

Sources of finance available to an incorporated business are;

IPO - Shareholders use Initial Public Offering process for offering the company shares to the general public for raising funds for the business.

Debentures - Debentures refer to as the bonds issued by the companies to the bond holders, generally treated as the borrowers. The company later required paying a certain rate of interest to the bond holders for their particular amount.

Retained Earnings - A certain portion of surplus can be reused in the business for funding its operations or specific goals.

Sale of Assets - The business can arrange funds through the sales of its old machineries and equipment.

Hire Purchase - Hire purchase is the process of using an asset of the business on an instalment basis without paying the full price.

1.2 Assess the Implications for using Internal and External Sources of Finance

Refereeing to the case study of Clariton Antiques Ltd the influences of differ types of financial sources on the business has been referred in the following part evaluating on the external and internal funding sources for the business.

The various sources of finance can be essentially classified into internal and external categories. While personal savings, sale of assets, working capital, and retained earnings signify the internal sources, share capital, loans, hire purchase, and overdraft primarily suggest the external financial sources available to Clariton Antiques Ltd.

1. Internal Sources of Finance

Personal Savings – It represents a vital financial support for short-term financial needs encountered by the small or unincorporated business like, Clariton Antiques Ltd. Due to the absence of interest payments, personal savings have a low acquisition cost. Nonetheless, failure to achieve the expected outcomes by the business would result in the loss of entire amount for the owners (Grant 2016).

Sale of Assets – It is a short term financial resolution, business like, Clariton Antiques Ltd. can gather temporary cash through selling its unnecessary or abandoned assets or equipment. However, the business should need to sell at a profitable rate for ensuring the utilisation of such amount into the business.

Working Capital – Heckman, Comes, and Nickel (2015) have defined working capital as the constructive way for the companies to promote financial capital through condensing its day-to-day operational activities. Although the efficiency of the process, it only satisfies the short-term monetary needs of Clariton Antiques Ltd.

Retained Earnings – It is one of the economic and manageable financial sources available to any business like, Clariton Antiques Ltd. impeding the possibility of losing the proprietorship (Ferrell and Fraedrich 2015). Nevertheless, the certain amount relies heavily on the profitable tactics employed by the business and advantages gained from the taxation schemes.

1. External Sources of Finance

Share Capital – Share capital is an essential financial source available to the companies through issuing shares in the market generally. Although the chief contributions of the shareholders satisfying the financial needs of the corporation to a great extent, the business of Clariton Antiques Ltd. requires proportionately sharing its profits and values subsequently (De Visscher 2016).

Bank Loan –Bank loan is a common financial source used by the businesses like, Clariton Antiques Ltd. for justifying the monetary requirements. However, the certain financial sources increase liability for the companies by adding specific rate of interests at the frequent intervals.

Hire Purchase –As dictated by Lusztig and Schwab (2014), hire purchase reduces the financial expenditures of a corporation to a large extent by eliminating the requirement of purchasing the required asset or equipment with paying the full price. Despite the absence of unnecessary spending on the high valued assets or equipment, hire purchase requires the owners paying monthly charges to the vendor for the hiring.

Bank Overdraft –It is a short-term financial resolution for the firms allowing the owners of business like, Clariton Antiques Ltd. to overdraw amounts from their business accounts. The payment of certain interest rate on the additional withdrawn amount on a daily basis is one of the critical limitations of the proposed source.

1.3 Evaluate Most Appropriate Source of Finance for Clariton Antiques Ltd.

The variations in the use of financial sources are majorly observed due to the size and characteristic of the business. It is evident that a large organization gains a broader scope than the small-scale enterprises regarding the choices and utilisation of financial sources.

Being a small-scale and growing partnership firm, personal savings can be a lucrative source of finance for Clariton. It may also consider issuing shares in the market for funding its current expansion plan and raising the share capital simultaneously (Petty et al. 2015).

The certain expansion aim of the business is certainly indicating the requirement of a large financial fund for its sufficient fulfilment. Therefore, the partners must need to consider obtaining financial loans of a certain amount after conducting risks-benefits analysis associated with the process. It may also use the bank overdraft facility according to the appropriateness in addition to looking for grants and donations from the government or public institutions.

Task 2

2.1 Analyse the Costs of the Two Sources of Finance

Clariton has recognised the need of £5 million for facilitating the expansion of the business. For promoting the proposed sum of capital, the company has considered two different sources of finance, such as equity financing (We Finance Limited) and debt financing (bank loan with brokerage fee). We Finance has agreed to lend the required amount of money in return for a 20% stake in the ownership structure of the Clariton. In case of the bank loan, a brokerage fee of 1% in addition to the interest of 2% for the next ten years should need to be considered by the company if it had opted for the certain source of finance. Therefore, the costs associated with the two individual financial sources can help to determine their appropriateness to Clariton.

1. Cost of Equity Finance (Dividend)

Dividend is the rate of return or the portion of share of profit which is distributed or given to the shareholders of the business such as, We Finance Limited making investment in the business of Clariton Antiques Ltd. The shareholders make investment and get the shareholding of the business therefore; in respect to the amount of capital invested the dividends are paid as the share of profit of the shareholder.

Cost of equity can be measured by applying the traditional method, which denotes:

Here, Clariton’s current dividend value is £8,000, which is same as it was valued in the earlier year. The share capital of the company is valued at £150,000. Therefore, dividend per share is derived as £0.05 with the market value of stock stands at £276,000.

Therefore,  1.8%

1. Cost of Debt Finance (Interest)

Interest of bank Loan the charge that the brand would get from Clariton Antiques Ltd. for availing the loan from the banking organization which is a fixed obligation for the company to pay to the Banking organization.

The debt financing, i.e. the bank loan of the proposed money would require paying interest @ 2% per annum for the next ten years in addition to the brokerage fee of 1% to be paid initially. The brokerage fee in each of the ten years is applicable at a rate of 0.01%. Hence, the annual cost of debt financial for availing £ 5 million is:

(2 + 0.10)% = 2.1%

The performed analysis is precisely depicting that the equity financing would be a viable choice for Clariton over the debt financing due to the involvement of more costs in the later process. The choice can significantly reduce the expenditure for the company resulting in a more appropriate approach.

1. Tax is the charge imposed by the state and central government on the business for carrying out the business operations and is chargeable on the business profit not on costs.

Tax assumed to 30 % for the business of Clariton.

Kd = C x (1- t) + F

= 2 x (1 – 0.3) + 1

= 2.4% (Net amount cost of availing bank loan)

2.2 Explain the Importance of Financial Planning for Clariton Antiques Ltd.

Financial Planning commonly guides the overall spending and investment of business through making appropriate decisions for capitalising the profitable aspects and increasing the sustainability. It signifies finance planning as the process of aligning all the available financial sources for the business while maintaining the daily operations through crafting business strategies for suitable supervision and exploitation of assets (Benn, Dunphy and Griffiths 2014). The basic importance of financial planning can be observed in three vital areas for Clariton, which are discussed below:

1. Budgeting

Budgeting refers to the precise plans and guidelines guiding the business to spend appropriately on implementing proper monitoring and controlling process (Agrawal, Catalini and Goldfarb 2015). More clearly, budgeting is a decorative spending plan of an organization consisting of necessary ideas for the business regarding the useful elements and resources for supporting the daily functions. Due to the small-scale unincorporated structure, a limited scope is available to Claritonin the area of availability of effective sources of finance. Therefore, budgeting helps the company to closely monitor and control its spending in the irrelevant areas while emphasising on gathering increasing returns through investing in the productive areas (Abdulsaleh and Worthington 2013).

1. Implications of Failure to Finance Adequately

Financial planning process importantly identifies the adequacy of financial funds and resources for satisfying the current and future needs of operations. It chiefly committed to steering the business in a profitable direction for fulfilling the future growth of the business. The fundamental expansion plan of Clarton will not be accomplished without the presence of a proper financial plan. The presence of a pertinent financial plan highlights the primary funds, resources, knowledge, skills, and expertise required for starting the chosen operation (Brigham and Ehrhardt 2013). Cheng, Ioannou, and Serafeim (2014) have found that the presence of a competent financial plan increases the capability of the company to position its key resources and assets in a profitable manner to extract more returns. The additional returns consequently could be invested by the business in some lucrative areas to harvest more profit and strengthen the current financial position.

1. Overtrading

Storey (2016) has defined overtrading as the particular situation of business when it encounters the necessity of additional resources, funding, or competencies for accomplishing the current project. Therefore, the additional need can be of different types, such as the human resource, working capital, and net assets. Some of the factors causing the emergence of such situation are misleading aims of the business, failure in forecasting, delayed delivery of goods and materials, and inappropriateness of financial planning (Cavusgil et al. 2014). Hence, the fundamental involvement of a financial plan can avoid happening such events due to its ability to capture the unforeseen measures prior to the different undertakings. Clariton can commonly face the overtrading issues during its business expansion process in a dynamic work environment. The involvement of a sufficient financial planning will help the company to maintain a robust liquid position throughout the implementation of required actions.It should need to emphasise the budgetary needs and requirements through the financial planning process to eliminate the overtrading issues.

2.3 Give an Assessment of the Information that will be needed to make Decision on Financing the Takeover

The business along with its stakeholders needs to make appropriate financial decisions by considering relevant information. Financial decisions can be classified in investing and financing divisions. The information needs vary according to the users, as the partners of Clariton, We Finance Limited, and the financial broker has their distinct needs in terms of gathering the needed evidence.

1. Partners

The partners of Clariton is required making healthy financial decisions for ensuring the flawless operations as part of the business expansion process. Most importantly, they are committed to adopting certain methods allowing the business yielding maximum returns (Crane and Matten 2016). Crane and Matten (2016) have argued the importance of considering both short and long-term factors by the partners by ensuring the smooth execution of daily business activities and maintaining a solid liquid position for the future investments respectively. Therefore, the partners need to track daily activities of the business with their costs while reviewing the profit and loss statement and balance sheet of the firm for determining the current position (Wirtz et al. 2016).

1. Venture Capitalist (We Finance Limited)

A venture capitalist like We Finance always looks for the financial status associated with a company before making their financial decisions while providing funding assistance to the start-ups and small-scale businesses. It aims to explore the risks and opportunities associated with the investment decision. The operational tenure of the company signifies the values and instabilities associated with business while guiding the venture capitalist on its decision (Damodaran 2016). We Finance will need to investigate the management actions and efficiency of Clariton before making the investment decision. Additionally, it may also assess the size and structure of the market for anticipating the expected return on investment. It is worth to mention that the venture capitalist finally needs to conduct a cost-benefit analysis for measuring the benefits over the cost of financing the business. It will depict a clear picture to We Finance regarding its investment decision.

1. Finance Broker

Finance broker always focuses on the commercial information and details regarding the profitability of the company by accessing the current and historical performance data of the business. It aims of determine the profit-making capacity and financial status of the company through checking the financial statements and relevant transactions for making the referral decision. During the initial phase, the broker must need to calculate the brokerage fee (@1% on £5 million, i.e., 50,000) and annual interest charge (@2% on £5 million, i.e., 100,000) for checking the capability of the business to pay off the required amounts in the certain time.

2.4 Explain the Impact on the Financial Statements

1. Venture Capitalist

If Clariton chooses equity financing as the source of financing the business, it would primarily affect the balance sheet due to the offering of 20% stake in the ownership. As a result, the value of share capital would require being modified while the value of dividends would increase by offering them to the shareholders. While the increase of share capital would reflect in the liabilities column of the balance sheet, the same increase in debenture value would be reflected in the assets column of the particular financial statement. Therefore, Clariton needs to share its profit to the additional stakes in the ownership structure.

1. Finance Broker

If Clariton goes with debt financing for funding the business, it will influence the figures in both profit & loss statement and balance sheet of the firm. It should need to increase the value of liabilities in the balance sheet while adding the expenditure (interest of loan and brokerage fee) in the statement of P&L. If Clariton uses the loan for purchasing new equipment for the business, it will reflect in the assets column of the balance sheet while the liabilities column would reflect the credit of the business.

Task 3

3.1 Prepare and Analyse the Cash Budget for Clariton Antiques and advice on Decisions that can be taken to improve their Financial Position

The above table demonstrates the cash budget for Clariton Antiques Ltd by including the monthly receipts and payments for the next six months ending June 2017. The calculations are done as part of creating the cash budget essentially point out cash deficits for the company in the first three months while surpluses for the remaining three months. Damodaran (2016) has mentioned that cash deficit at the end of the period suggests the inefficiency of the management in handling day-to-day transactions of the business. Hence, it is essential for Clariton’s management to execute proper business policies to enhance the utilisation of every resource and align efforts and functions favourably to avoid deficits in the cash balance (Lusztig and Schwab 2014). Clariton must need to organize its strategies and procedures supporting the expansion of the business and maintaining anadequate balance in cash and cash equivalents to settle off the occurring obligations. It can be effectively achieved by conducting a cost reduction practice from the intended operations. The firm could use hire purchase instead of fully purchasing the assets or equipment for downsizing a substantial amount cost from the operation (Storey 2016). Principally, maintaining a high level of cash reserves can also be achieved by enhancing the profitability and revenue-making capacity of the business. The above table clearly suggests that the business would fail to achieve the desirable volume of sales during some months. Therefore, it could think of adopting a more superior pricing strategy, offering discounts to the customers, or using proper promotional methods for significantly escalating the sales (Cheng, Ioannou and Serafeim 2014). In addition to the enlargement of sales, the proposed tactics could shorten the debt collection period from its debtors resulting in more efficiency for the business. Levying a high rate of interest to the debtors defaulting their payments could dramatically persuade them to pay their debts within a short time. Here, the managers of the company must need to exhibit their commitment through regularly checking the day-to-day business transactions. Furthermore, citing the suggestion of Wirtz et al. (2016), Clariton should need to place its inventory management system properly for tracking, recording, monitoring, and controlling the flow of different items according to the demands and expectations of the market.

3.2 Explain How Unit Cost will be calculated to make Pricing Decisions giving Suitable Examples

Considering the high prices of the antique items in the global market, the future of owning an antique business always scores high in the metrics. It is also evident that tough economic environment has also put a limit to the spending capacity of the modern customers worldwide. As a result, companies from different domains are consistently providing an increasing level of attention to the pricing of their goods and services. From the scenario of antique market, it is observed that the items are continuously becoming rare while the prices of individual products are escalating simultaneously (Groves et al. 2016).

Therefore, pricing tactic adopted by an antique business determines its competence and growth within the market. Different pricing tactics depend largely on acknowledging and explaining the unit cost related to the production or inventory of the company. Unit cost refers to the cost per unit of the product, and the amount can be derived easily if the company produces or maintains a similar category of products. It is the amalgamation of both fixed and variable costs associated with the production or maintenance of the chosen goods or items (Heckmann, Comes and Nickel 2015). Clariton needs to determine the cost per unit based on break-even analysis due to the absence of production process within the business. The business fixes the price of each item after considering the outcomes of break-even analysis. Abdulsaleh et al. (2013) study the organizations dealing with antique products to suggest that the charges associated with recording and maintaining the inventories are greatly considered during the setting of prices. Based on such suggestion, Clariton needs to ponder the prices of acquiring each antique item, rent and rates of the facilities, costof inventory management system, insurance, and other relevant rates for determining the unit cost of the products (Bruton et al. 2015). After deriving and justifying each cost associated combining the unit price, it adopts an appropriate pricing process from a range of various methods for pricing the products. Cavusgil et al. (2014) indicate the individual pricing tactic adopted by the business as the default pricing technique, where some businesses price their items based on their superior estimations, others use the average market prices for the last year to determine the rates. Moreover, there are companies, which use online resources or mark-up basis for pricing their items. As a luxury goods operator, Clariton must need to combine the proposed pricing tactics for determining the best prices of the products while increasing sustainability of the firm.

3.3 Assess the Viability of the Projects using Investment Appraisal Techniques

Payback Period of Investment 1 and Investment 2

3 years is known as the standard criteria for selecting the desired investment from the choices. The payback period calculation above reflects the payback periods for investment 1 and investment 2 as 3.3 years and 3.1 years respectively. Hence, investment 2 is more preferable for Cariton due to the less time it would take to pay the invested amount.

Average Rate of Return of Investment 1 and Investment 2

The standard ARR is 35% for the selection of the certain project. The above calculations suggest both have achieved the desired benchmark with 37.98% for investment 1 and 43.56% for investment 2. However, investment 2 is more favourable than investment 1, as it reflects more returns than the other one.

Net Present Value of Investment 1 and Investment 2

Present value refers to the current value of the investment by considering its future value in contrast to the invested sum with the help of a compound interest (Chen et al. 2014). Here, the compound rate of interest is 14%, as the rate represents the current cost of inflation. It will assist in determining the present value for the next six years for the computation of NPV.

With the help of the identified formula, present value factors for six years are calculated as 0.8772, 0.7695, 0.675, 0.5921, 0.5194, and 0.4556 correspondingly. Based on the obtained value, the NPV of each investment is highlighted below:

Clariton sets the standard benchmark of 2 million for selecting the preferred investment. The NPV calculations for the both options suggest £3.38 million and £2.53 million for investment 1 and investment 2 respectively. Therefore, investment 1 with the higher net present value should be the ideal project for Clariton based on the calculation.

Task 4

4.1 Discuss Key Components of Financial Statements

In order to know the components of the financial statements, it is essential to consider the primary types of financial statements maintained by an organization while discussing the key contents subsequently.

Income Statement–It deals with the incomes and expenditures incurred by a firm over the certain accounting period, such as moths, quarters, or years.The financial performance of the company is documented through the income statement through assessing the income and expenditures of the firm while including all the operating and non-operating activities.

Statement of Cash Flows–It records the cash payments and receipts generated through various operational transactions of the business concerning the entries included in the income statement.The cash and cash equivalents of the business are evaluated by the statement from operating, investing, and financing viewpoints.

Statement of Changes in Equity and Gains–It is also known as the statement of retained earning highlighting the changes in the owners’ equity capital in a specific accounting period (Morden 2016). With the help of the evidence recorded by the statement regarding the variations in the equity capital, it helps the owners and managers to understand the gains and losses in the structure.Under the shareholders’ equity, it is an important part of the balance sheet principally influenced by the incomes gained by the business excluding the dividends paid to the shareholders.

Statement of Financial Position–It includes the assets, liabilities, and owners’ capital over the specific accounting period to exhibit the current financial standing of the company essentially. With reporting the difference between assets and liabilities of the business, it represents a valuable financial statement for the organization.

Notes to the Financial Statements–Based on the concept of Brigham and Ehrhardt (2013), the notes record the supplementary information regarding the financial and operational aspects of the business. These are an integral part of the major financial statements of the firm involving the full disclosure principles and assisting their formulation.The additional information, which is left out of the financial statements are documented by these notes allowing the users for the future references.

4.2 Compare the Format used by Clariton Antiques Ltd to presenting their Financial Statement with that of a Sole Trader

Sole traders and partnerships are the different natures of businesses with their difference in structures and sizes. Not only the factors determine the activities and approaches of the companies but also these have the influence over the format of financial statements (Brummer 2015). Clariton is a partnership business, which is dissimilar than a sole trading agency. The main differences in the formats maintained in the financial statements are elaborated below:

(Source: Poza 2013)

4.3 Interpret the Recent Financial Statement of Clariton Antiques Ltd. using Appropriate Rations and Making Comparison with the Previous Year

Profitability Ratio - Net Profit Ratio

The expert suggests the more the net profit ratio is for a firm, the more it indicates the profitability of the business (Morris et al. 2015). The NP ratio of Clariton has slightly increased from 2014. However, it should need to promote its sales with the application of superior pricing policy and promotional tactics for enhancing the profitability of the firm. It will allow the business to achieve its objectives more fashionably.

Liquidity Ratio - Current Ratio

According to the experts, the value of 2 is the preferred current ratio for the companies, as it suitably helps the business to settle of its existing short-term obstacles (Cassar, Ittner and Cavalluzzo 2015). Based on the preferred value, Clariton does not demonstrate a promising value in terms of current ratio in neither years. Hence, it should devote its efforts to enhance its liquidity position for ensuring the flawless operations and achievement of business aims.

Turnover Ratio - Stock Turnover Ratio

STR helps to highlight the efficiency of the business to handle its inventories through monitoring the movement of stock during a financial period (Raco 2014). The outcomes of the stock turnover ratios for 2015 and 2014 represent a stable movement of stock throughout the operational years. Therefore, Claritonhas a stable inventory management system for maintaining the business.

Conclusion

The overall reports help to demonstrate the different sources of finance available to the diverse organizational setting by emphasising their advantages and disadvantages. In addition, the assignment reveals the importance of determining the cost of each financial options apart from the preparation of cash budget for ensuring a sensible financial management. It also signifies the necessity of investment appraisal techniques to ensure productivity in the financial decisions. Furthermore, the inclusion of ratio analysis for judging the current performance of the business completes the paper to unveil fundamental accounting and financial concepts required for managing financial resource and decisions in a specific firm.