FNS Financial Services Training Package
Qualification National Code and Title:
FNS40217 Certificate IV in Accounting and Bookkeeping
State code:
BDQ3
AssignmentTutorOnline
Assessment Title
Assessment 1: Case Study
Unit National Code & Title
BSBSMB412 – introduce cloud computing into business operations
Date Due
Session 7
Date Received
Student Name
Student ID
Student Declaration
I declare that the evidence submitted is my own work:
…………………………………………..
Assessor Name
Assessment Decision
☐ Satisfactory
☐ Not Yet Satisfactory
Assessor Signature
Date
Is student eligible for reassessment (Re-sit)?
☐ No
☐Yes
Reassessment Date:
Feedback to student
Via Blackboard (LMS) – Please check [Grade] section.
Feedback from student
Via Blackboard (LMS) – Please use [Comment] section during submission.
Student signature
Date
Assessment Instructions
TO THE STUDENT
Purpose of Assessment
To achieve competency for the unit BSBSMB412 you are required to have a satisfactory outcome for two (2) assessments, AT1 Case Study and AT2 Knowledge Test.
This Assessment consists of ten (10) tasks addressing cloud computing.
Task 1a: List & describe cloud services
Task 1b: Identify & compare cloud service providers
Task 2: Research IT service providers
Task 3: Discuss risks
Task 4: Request clarification
Task 5: Business case
Task 6: Supporting others
Task 7: Prepare budget & cost-benefit analysis
Task 8: Verbal clarification
Task 9: Develop timeline
Task 10: Policies & procedures
Allowable Materials
Blackboard (topic by topic) will include the following: Weekly Readings, Class notes and Weekly Activities.
Text: Introduce Cloud Computing in Business Operations (Software Publications, ISBN 978-1-925291-66-7).
Required Resources
Computer with:
Internet Access
Word processing software
Access to Learning Management System (LMS)
Reasonable Adjustment
In some circumstances, adjustments to assessments may be made for you. If you require support for literacy and numeracy issues; support for hearing, sight or mobility issues; change to assessment times/venues; use of special or adaptive technology; considerations relating to age, gender and cultural beliefs; format of assessment materials; or presence of a scribe you need to inform your lecturer.
Assessment Submission
All questions/activities must be attempted.
This is an unsupervised assessment that needs to be completed outside of class. This is an individual, open book assessment, where online research and access to your textbook is permitted.
To verify the authenticity of your assessment, your lecturer may ask questions to substantiate it is your own work. You will only be verbally questioned on some of the tasks and questions with this assessment.
The answers to assessment questions are based on your text and internet research.
You must answer all questions:
An individual response is required for all tasks and questions.
Reference all material derived from elsewhere.
Written responses should be in a Word document.
Include the question numbers and the full question as a heading above your answer.
Follow SMBS document formatting guidelines.
Guidance and clarification on the assessment is available from your lecturer.
To be deemed satisfactory for this Assessment all Assessment Tasks need to be completed correctly.
Final documentation is to be uploaded to the appropriate area in the Blackboard course created for this unit.
If you are marked as NYS (Not Yet Satisfactory) on your first attempt, you will be provided with another opportunity to re-attempt the assessment.
Case Study contents
This Assessment requires you to complete the following:
Tasks 1-10
These tasks consist of written answers to questions to confirm your knowledge in relation to the unit BSBSMB412 Introduce Cloud Computing into Business Operations.
You are required to undertake research for each task.
All questions and any subparts within a question must be answered
AUH29 – Introduce cloud computing into business operations
ASSESSMENT 1 (AT1): CASE STUDY
TASK
1st attempt
(S/NYS)
2nd attempt
(S/NYS)
Comments
Task 1a: List & describe cloud services
Task 1b: Identify & compare cloud service providers
Task 2: Research IT service providers
Task 3: Discuss risks
Task 4: Request clarification
Task 5: Business case
Task 6: Supporting others
Task 7: Prepare budget & cost-benefit analysis
Task 8: Budget clarification
Task 9: Develop timeline
Task 10: Policies & procedures
Note: You are entitled to appeal if you are not satisfied with the assessment process or outcome. The appeal must be lodged within four weeks of receiving the assessment information or outcome. Your lecturer can advise you of the formal process.
Business Scenario
You have recently been promoted to Helpant Accountant at South Metro Business Solutions (SMBS) and your boss has assigned you to a new client, Quality Homes owned by two partners, Sam and Tom.
General Overview of Quality Homes
Quality Homes is a Real Estate business operating from South Perth. Since its inception three years ago, the business has experienced significant growth. Sam and Tom project over $1.5 million dollar in sales commissions this year and they currently have around $2 million dollar in Accounts Receivable.
Due to the exceptional growth, a lot of demands have been placed on their bookkeeping and business operational needs.
The business employs a full-time office administrator and two part-time sales staff who often work remotely.
General Bookkeeping
Sam looks after the books at home in the evenings with an accounting software located on his stand-alone home desktop computer. Sam takes the financial documents home and spends two hours each evening entering the transactions in the software. At the end of the week, Sam collates all the documents and stores them in the filing cabinet at home. This process takes a couple of hours to complete every week.
Payments from Clients
The business does not collect cash from its clients. At the moment the only payment method they accept is through EFT transfers. Payment to their account occurs on settlement of home sale. Quality Home does not hold any cash on the premise.
Payments to suppliers
Quality Home only pays bills via EFT using the business bank account. Sometimes invoices are lost between the office and Sam’s house and has to contact the supplier to request a replacement invoice. This takes time and delays payment to the suppliers which is not ideal.
Payroll
The accounting software that Sam uses is several years old and out of date. Because of this, Sam is required to manually calculate the PAYG withholding rates for each employee each pay period and process them. Before the wages can be entered, Sam is continually chasing up the staff for completed timesheets. He manually enters the hours into the system to calculate the employee payments. He often hears excuses from staff that the timesheets are hard to complete or that they forget to write down their hours, or they simply left them at home. Payroll has never been easy and seems to be getting harder as the business grows.
Productivity & Client Management
The staff each have their own laptop with a Microsoft office installed. Each salesperson keeps their individual client contacts on their computer as well as notes regarding past conversations and other important details. While this is great for the salesperson, both Sam and Tom are not able to check on the team to ensure that call backs are being made, nor do they have a complete list of client details in a centralised location. This is starting to become a concern as Tom believes that lost opportunities are occurring.
Scheduling team meetings has become more difficult as the business grows; this is because the sales staff are always out meeting clients at different times making it is difficult to find a suitable time for meetings.
Additionally, the partners would like to know who their sales staff are meeting with to ensure they are being as productive as possible.
File Management
The file management system at the office is showing its age. While the company is young, because it is rapidly growing, the current system has become a liability to the partners. With staff who often work remotely and Sam storing invoices in a filing cabinet at home, something needs to be done to address the problem of no centralised file management system. As the company grows, there is a greater chance for lost documents, incorrect files being used amongst the team, and not being able to meet ATO and other legal obligations.
An example of an error that occurred recently was that sales staff have different copies of client interview forms, financial fact-finding sheets, sales scripts and other documents needed to “close” the deal. These files are saved on their laptops and rarely do they check for updates for newer versions at the head office. Last week, a loan application was sent to the mortgage broker, however the sales representative didn’t have the latest version of the loan application which resulted in a delay in processing of the loan, which hurt the clients trust in Quality Homes.
Task
The partners have asked SMBS’s Helpance in improving their bookkeeping and business practices.
They would like to find and implement suitable cloud solutions into the business. They are considering methods of improving file management, implementing a customer management software package, and a new accounting program. They do not know a lot about cloud solutions and need your Helpance.
Address the tasks listed below, to help Quality Homes develop a credible cloud solution.
Task 1a
List four (4) cloud services that could be useful to Quality Homes and how could these cloud services improve business operations?
Describe for each of the four cloud services one (1) business operation that would be improved by its implementation.
Cloud Service
How it improves business operations
Business operation to be improved when implemented
1.
2.
3.
4.
Task 1b
Select two (2) of the cloud services from your answer in Task 1a and identify and compare two (2) cloud service providers (software solutions) per application.
Your answer:
Cloud Service
Cloud Service provider
1.
1.
2.
2.
1.
2.
Task 2
Using the two (2) cloud services you have identified in Task 1. Research two (2) local IT service providers who can Help Quality Homes with implementing the suggested software solutions.
For each provide:
Company Name
Contact details (physical address, phone number, website)
Summary of the service provided
Description of the benefits the IT service provider could offer Quality Homes
Write a detailed recommendation for one (1) provider.
Your answer:
IT Service Provider 1:
IT Service Provider 2:
Your recommendation:
Task 3
List and describe five (5) risks that Quality Homes might face when implementing cloud services.
Your answer:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Task 4
Due to pricing variances in licensing agreements, send an email to the partners seeking clarification about their future staffing and IT needs (and save for your records).
Your message should seek additional information about the business’s direction, such as staffing forecasts and computer software needs. These questions will help you draft an appropriate budget later in this assessment.
Insert a screenshot of your email and the response below.
Your answer:
Task 5
Write a report using the information collected from the two cloud services and two cloud service providers (software solutions) from Task 1a and the recommended IT service provider from Task 2.
Your case must address:
Description of the problems and opportunities you have identified.
Potential benefits and limitation of each of the recommended solutions.
Financial costs of each recommended solution.
Your recommendation of the best software option.
Your report should include items such as cost, support, or user friendliness of the software.
Your answer:
a)
Service Provider
Problems
Opportunities
[ enter name of cloud service]
[enter name of cloud service]
[enter name of cloud service provider]
[enter name of cloud service provider]
[enter name of local IT service provider]
b)
Service Provider
Benefits
Limitations
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
c)
Service Provider
Cost
1.
2.
3.
4.
5
d)
Answer:
Task 6
If Quality Homes is going to implement the two cloud services from Task 1b, what can the partners do internally to help staff use the services more effectively?
List and describe three (3) tools you would use to support others.
Your answer:
Task 7
In response to the email received from the partners, prepare the following:
A budget for implementing your two selected cloud services.
basic cost-benefit analysis.
Be sure to priorities both your short- and long-term solution.
Your response should consider all relevant costs for the implementation of your recommendation for years 1 and 2.
Use the template provided (BSBSMB412-AT1 – Student Template.xlsx) for your cost-benefit analysis and budget. Submit the Excel file as separate document.
Your answer:
Task 8
Before submitting your completed budget, seek additional clarification from the partners by verbally asking questions to ensure that your proposed budget expenditures are aligned to their expectations.
Assessor to complete:
The student followed instructions regarding authorisation to proceed and used communication practices and protocols to gain required authorisation.
Yes: ☐ No: ☐
Task 9
Prepare a timeline for implementing the two selected cloud services. (Template provided on Blackboard, submit as separate document.)
Submit BSBSMB412-AT1 – Student Template – S2 2021.xls to Blackboard
Task 10
List and describe three (3) policies and procedures that need to be updated when implementing cloud services.
