Knowledge questions are designed to help you demonstrate the knowledge which you have acquired during the learning phase of this unit. Ensure that you:
• review the advice to students regarding answering knowledge questions in the Gamma College Student User Guide
• comply with the due date for assessment which your assessor will provide
• adhere with your RTO’s submission guidelines
• answer all questions completely and correctly
• submit work which is original and, where necessary, properly referenced
• submit a completed cover sheet with your work
• avoid sharing your answers with other students
Assessment information
Information about how you should complete this assessment can be found in Appendix A of the Gamma College Student User Guide. Refer to the appendix for information on:
• where this task should be completed
• the maximum time allowed for completing this assessment task
• whether or not this task is open-book.
Note: You must complete and submit an assessment cover sheet with your work. A template is provided in Appendix B of the Student User Guide. However, if your RTO has provided you with an assessment cover sheet, please ensure that you use that
Information for students
You are required to manage finances within a budget for a case study organisation and then report on your findings.
You will need access to:
• your learning resources and other information for reference
• software such as an accounting program or Microsoft Excel or similar
• your Café Quarterly Budget
• your Budget Report Template.
Ensure that you:
• review the advice to students regarding responding to written tasks in the Gamma College Student User Guide
• comply with the due date for assessment which your assessor will provide
• adhere with your RTO’s submission guidelines
• answer all questions completely and correctly
• submit work which is original and, where necessary, properly referenced
• submit a completed cover sheet with your work
• avoid sharing your answers with other students.
Assessment information
Information about how you should complete this assessment can be found in Appendix A of the Gamma College Student User Guide. Refer to the appendix for information on:
• where this task should be completed
• how your assessment should be submitted.
Note: You must complete and submit an assessment cover sheet with your work. A template is provided in Appendix B of the Student User Guide. However, if your RTO has provided you with an assessment cover sheet, please ensure that you use that.
Activities
Complete the following activities.
1. Carefully read the following information.
Successful completion of this unit requires that you complete the range of tasks
listed above. It is important that you provide evidence that you have successfully
completed each task.
Below is a guide to the skills and knowledge you must demonstrate when you are
completing each activity step. We have provided several documents to assist you
and you will find these in the student resources.
You will need access to:
• your learning resources and other information for reference
• software such as an accounting program or Microsoft Excel or similar
• your Café Quarterly Budget
• your Budget Report Template.
• space for a meeting.
What do I need to demonstrate?
During this task, you will be required to demonstrate a range of the skills and
knowledge that you have developed during your course. These include:
• managing a budget for a business over a three-month period that meets the
specific business’ needs and including reviewing operating procedures and
sourcing new suppliers.
• Allocating budget resources including:
allocating funds according to budget and agreed priorities.
discussing changes to income and expenditure priorities with colleagues prior to implementation.
consulting with, as well as informing staff about resource decisions.
promoting awareness of the importance of budget control.
Maintaining resource allocation records.
• Monitoring financial activities against a budget over the three-month period
including:
identifying and using financial records to check actual income and
expenditure against budget.
making sure that the reference records used are accurate.
Identifying and reporting significant deviations
Investigating options for more effective management of deviations
advising colleagues of budget status in relation to targets.
• Identifying and evaluating options for improved budget performance including:
Assessing existing costs and resources and proactively identifying areas
for improvement including:
− discussing desired budget outcomes with colleagues.
− undertaking research to investigate new approaches to budget
management.
− defining and communicating the benefits and disadvantages of new
approaches.
− factoring in the impacts on customer service levels and on
colleagues when developing new approaches.
− presenting clear and logical recommendations for budget
management.
• Completing financial reports relating to the budget including:
completing the required financial and statistical reports according to
required timelines.
preparing and presenting clear and concise information to enable
informed decision making.
How will I provide evidence?
Your assessor will provide you with templates to complete each task. You will find
some detailed information about providing evidence; this will include:
• a completed Café Quarterly Budget
• a completed Budget Report.
You will need to complete each activity and submit the completed templates at the
end of each step completed.
2. Carefully read the following scenario.
You are the café manager of a popular café within the Blue Healer Hotel and Spa.
The owner has provided you with the budget for the next quarter and it is part of
your responsibility to allocate resources and manage the finances within the
budget.
The budget has been increased in month three as this is a popular month where
lots of visitors stay at the Blue Healer and neighbouring guest houses as there is a
music festival on. As such, additional wait staff will be hired on a casual basis and
less private catering jobs will be booked in as the café will be at its peak.
Additional information:
• The business uses local suppliers but due to a recent drought the cost of meat
with the usual supplier, Fresh Farms, went up by 7% last month.
• The café serves breakfast, light meals, light dinners and sharing plates,
smoothies, coffee, pastries and is a local favourite for its homemade iced tea.
• Due to the clientele of the hotel and health spa, and the area within which the
Blue Healer is located, there have been a number of requests for more
vegetarian and vegan options.
• Apart from you and the owner (you also cook and prepare food) there is fulltime chef named Navneet, two part-time kitchen porters and casual wait staff
employed.
• There has been a pattern of food wastage in the past two months with too
much fruit purchased that spoiled before it could be used as the iced tea
became so popular that not as many smoothies were made and sold.
• The food budget has blown out over the past three months, but the owner can’t
increase it as the profit from the café is being invested into building and
landscaping works to create an outside undercover area that will double the
capacity of the café.
• The business uses Wave Accounting free online software for recording income
and expenditure but makes use of Excel spreadsheets for budgeting and
planning purposes.
3. Review past information and future budget and plan fund allocation.
Review the following:
• Case study and additional information above
• Café Quarterly Budget – budget page
• Café Quarterly Budget – past information page
Look at the cost of sales figures related to food and beverage purchases which is
the food and beverage budget that is allocated to you.
Do some research and source some local meat suppliers in your area and check
out the costs of menu items you have planned for previously in the past, or meals
you are familiar with and see what that 7% could look like and the impact over a
three-month period. Bring this information with you to the meeting in the next
activity step to provide recommendations to the owner.
Think about how you can work effectively with the budget allocated to you and the
changes you could make to manage the finances more effectively.
Make notes on your research and findings for use in the following activity.
4. Have a meeting with the owner to discuss the budget and fund allocation.
Now that you have reviewed all the information, have a meeting with the manager
(your assessor) at the date and time advised to discuss any concerns, priorities and
changes you would like to make before you allocate the funds. Review the new
suppliers you have sourced with your assessor.
During the meeting, you will need to demonstrate effective communication skills
including:
• speaking clearly and concisely
• using non-verbal communication to assist with understanding
• asking questions to identify required information
• responding to questions as required.
5. Allocate funds.
Using the Café Quarterly Budget template – Fund allocation page, allocate the
funds for the quarter to the relevant areas and what you will purchase from existing or new suppliers. Make notes in the relevant column to support your choice and rationale. Add or delete rows as necessary and apply cell formatting and the use of formula functions as necessary.
Submit to your assessor.
6. Meet with your team.
Briefly meet with Navneet (your assessor) to discuss the resource allocations and
the planning for the next quarter in relation to fresh produce, reduction of wastage
and recipe variation.
Make sure that you discuss the importance of sticking to the budgeted allocations
and discuss ways that food wastage can be avoided to ensure the budget is met.
During the meeting, you will need to demonstrate effective communication skills
including:
• speaking clearly and concisely
• using non-verbal communication to assist with understanding
• asking questions to identify required information
• responding to questions as required.
7. Monitor activities – month 1.
It is the end of month 1. You have kept to the budget and the funds have been
allocated as you planned for.
Using relevant software (such as an accounting program or Microsoft Excel or
similar) and the exact figures from your fund allocation document, enter the
expenses you have incurred over the first month exactly as they are represented in
your fund allocation page of your spreadsheet.
Print a report of the entries or take a screenshot and submit to your assessor.
8. Monitor activities – month 2.
It is the end of month 2. You have kept to the overall budget, but funds have had to be rearranged in the following ways:
• There was an accident when unloading the vegetable crate one week and all
the produce was spoiled. You had to purchase a second crate which pushed
your amount spent with the vegetable supplier up by 10%.
• To accommodate for the overspend, you reduced the amount spent on cakes
and pastries by that same amount and baked inhouse.
Enter the expenditure figures into the software you are using as outlined in your
fund allocation document but consider the information above and work out the
variances.
Print a report of the entries or take a screenshot and submit to your assessor.
9. Monitor activities – month 3.
It is the end of month 3. The following has happened:
Due to recent environmental conditions, less people came to the local area than
planned for and many people cancelled their accommodation at Blue Healer. Some
of the food for the first week had already been ordered and as such – there was a
lot that went to waste. The figures have been calculated for the month based on 4
weeks. $6000 was spent on food in preparation for the increased numbers but
during the first week there was a total waste of 35%. Many items were able to be
frozen, and as such the budget can be amended for the next quarter to try and
recoup some of the losses. The following three weeks the same amount was spent
as budgeted for the two prior months, being $3,750 per week and a total of $6000
for the month was spent on beverages.
Enter the expenditure figures into the software you are using as outlined in your
fund allocation document but consider the information above and work out the
variances.
Print a report of the entries or take a screenshot and submit to your assessor.
10. Develop an actual budget from the past three months.
Develop an actual budget using the past information and your financial records you
complied and submitted in the previous activity steps. Make a new page in the Café
Quarterly Budget spreadsheet and name it ‘Actual Budget’.
Assume the following information:
• Variances of 10% are not considered unusual.
• The actual income is as follows:
• The operating expenses are all correct.
Submit to your assessor. Your assessor will provide you timelines for completing
this task which you must adhere to, and you will be assessed on this.
11. Conduct research and write a budget report.
Compile a report to the owner about what has occurred over the past three months. You will also need to conduct some research when writing this report as outlinedbelow. Submit in the timeframe as provided to you by your assessor.
Include the following in your report:
• The status of the budget and the variations in relation to what was projected –
use percentages and figures to discuss a detailed account of what has
occurred in the overall actual budget in relation to projections.
• Lessons learned from what has occurred in the past quarter and ideas for how
you can prevent similar situations in the future by improvements that can be
made.
• Undertake research to investigate new or different approaches to budget
management and then outline the benefits and advantages of different
approaches you could take and how these approaches may impact on
customer service levels or staff.
• Provide recommendations for budget management for the next quarter and
provide estimates for this period.
Make sure you use correct budget terminology, and your report is neatly presented,
clear and concise with the use of statistical representations.
Use the Budget report template (below) to guide your work.
Submit to your assessor. Your assessor will provide you timelines for completing
this task which you must adhere to, and you will be assessed on this.
