28.3.03

Took some time out yesterday from work to take Mrs W to Broadway that's about an hour away from home: along the A44 from Oxford. A lovely olde worlde village, a glimpse of which is provided here with a couple of pics I took. We ate at the Italian Restaurant in Broadway and I have to say that the salad that came with the quiche I ordered had certainly never heard of Italy: no olive oil, no balsamic vinegar, no Italian style herbs: just a typical plodding English salad comprising iceberg lettuce, sliced onion and sliced tomato. Mrs W had, ahem, fish and chips! Chips that came out of the freezer and into the deep fat fryer, fish that came from a similar source! The public toilets in the car park just behind the high street deserve a mention: the normal British public toilet is a disgrace with its smell, its damage and its lack of decency; but here we had a clean and very well kept set up. The attendant was even listening to Radio 4 rather than that blethery Radio 1 or the soporific Radio 2. Whilst waiting to be served an ice cream in a shop, came across two products that came as a shock: a toffee cow pat: we used to call them cow clap in the North; but it means the same ... toffee cow droppings! mutton buttons: chocolate covered sheep poo! It has to be asked: who on earth wants to consume products derived, however tenuously, from animal excrement? These things cost around £3 each, too. Here's a couple of pics for you: Broadway's a nice place to visit and the drive there is interesting, too: especially when the sun shines as it did yesterday. DW
I am beavering away at my new web site and although I am making good progress I am stalling at the setting up of the ecommerce end of the thing. Currently in negotiation with a chap about setting up the site, it's relatively slow going. The technical content side of the site is going well and by early next week I should have section 2 finished: a major section on the behaviour of costs. DW

26.3.03

Grace is a student and needed some guidance on stock management (that's inventory management for our American cousins) and credit management. Grace wanted advice on the application of stock and credit systems in a particular organisation ... couldn't give the fine detail but there is a lot on the web to help. Here's what I said. Dear Grace, Stock management: Tesco is a brilliant case study for stock management: they are at the forefront of all developments in supply chain management, including stock control. Look here: I then searched for Tesco at this site and this page shows what they have. The Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply is a good place to look, of course http://www.cips.org/ There's a link on the left that will take you to the "CIPS Purchasing & Supply Management (P&SM) Model" which is a good looking pdf file Take a look at this as it gives headings for you to think about if nothing else. Look here, too, as you can follow through a stock management system that they are selling ... some screenshots and descriptions that could be helpful. Cumbria County Council has a stock management newsletter that you can download at and it might be worth a look. Maybe you would like to look at web based systems. A nice bright and bold site comprising a presentation format. Credit management: You can start here at Credit Management; but will have to register to make much progress: registration's free and painless! This is a commercial site but a lot of content is free. I went to the Institute of Credit Management but couldn't see much of interest, perhaps you can. The Credit Protection Association could have a few things of interest. Another commercial looking site but some useful looking links, I think. Well, Grace, I hope that's been worthwhile and you have a lot of work to do now! Let me know how the seminar went ... don't forget to talk to me! DW

25.3.03

Fiona wanted to know which is better for mangaement information purposes financial or management accounting? Here's what I advised Dear Fiona, This is a popular and interesting question that faces many first year students. The basic rule is that while both financial and management accounting have the same transactions and documentation as each other (materials arrive, invoices and goods received notes flow around the organisation, goods are produced ...), it is management accounting that is the highly focused, internal management information system that provides management with the additional decision making information they need to manage their business as optimally as possible. Financial accounting is a stewardship, externally focused, reporting system. Fiona, you need now to go to my web site and look in the management accounting section where you should find all of the material you need: there's even a table that compares financial with management accounting that should form the basis of your answer. My own text book, Cost and Management Accounting published by Prentice Hall has this table in Chapter 1 and it also has supporting discussion: see if this book is in your library. Take a look at the free trial on my web site, too, Fiona, as I am launching a new commercial side of my site and that will effectively be a text book on the web when it's finished: text, examples, questions and answers, how to work with spreadsheets, real life tips and examples ... ideal for a student such as yourself both now and for the rest of your time as a student. The site will be modular in that you will be able to buy just what you need and no more. I have finished the first section, Introduction to Management Accounting, and once I've got the ecommerce part of the site up and running I will go live. Section two is nearing completion, too, The Behaviour of Costs. That's enough to get you started, Fiona. See how you get on and let me know if you need any more help. Best wishes DW

24.3.03

A glorious weekend that saw me milling around the garden watering things and pretending I knew what I was doing! Some more of my seeds are poking their heads through the soil now! On Sunday I made myself some soup and feel the need to share it with the world! Carrot, Carraway and Coriander Soup tablespoon of oil small onion halved then sliced medium sized carrot chopped into pieces half a litre of vegetable stock or water and vegetable stock cube carraway seeds chopped coriander leaves lightly fry the onion in the oil until it has turned transparent then add the carrot and heat through for a couple of minutes add the stock/cube and water and half a teaspoon of carraway seeds and bring to boil boil gently until the carrots have cooked through liquidise return to pan, add coriander and a few more carrawy seeds then bring back to boil then take off the heat serve immediately You'll be stunned at how delicious it is! Mrs W couldn't stand it. DW

23.3.03

A question on the general background to and meaning of deferred tax came in from my old friend Maggie. Here is a summary of what I have found. Firstly, a definition of deferred tax A liability that results from income that has already been earned for accounting purposes but not for tax purposes. From the ASB in the UK, a very useful summary of FRS 19 FRS19 has replaced SSAP 15 and here is an ASB summary of the status of SSAP15 A PDF document from a BOC annual report that has a brief word on how they deal with deferred tax in their accounts. Also from BOC All UK companies must adopt this new standard for accounting periods ending on or after 23 January 2002. Under the previous accounting standard, SSAP15, no provision was required for deferred tax that was unlikely to become payable in the foreseeable future. Under FRS19, provision must be made for deferred tax no matter how remote the likely payment date or the extent to which payment may be continually deferred by future investment decisions or transactions of the Group. Within BOC, tax is deferred mainly as a result of accelerated tax depreciation of capital investments. The effect of applying FRS19 alone in 2001 would have been to raise the underlying tax charge by approximately 6 per cent. Some indication of what is important about deferred tax taken from an advertisement for a Deferred Tax seminar: Tax in Company Accounts With the Emphasis on Deferred Tax Of particular interest to all involved in preparing or understanding the taxation entries in statutory accounts. The course will review the UK corporate tax system, including recent major changes, and their implications for accounting and disclosure requirements. Deferred tax is very much in the news with the change to full provision now being mandatory. Coverage will include a detailed review of the new Accounting Standard and its impact on different corporate sectors, including the effect on dividend cover, banking covenants, past acquisitions and the pros and cons of discounting. Programme • The UK corporate tax regime and recent major changes • FRS16 - Tax in Company Accounts • FRS19 - Accounting for Deferred Tax • The impact of the change from 'partial' to 'full' provision • Implementation • Quantifying the prior period adjustment • Revisiting past acquisitions • Discounting the deferred tax • Case studies Very useful notes from AccountingWEB entitled FRS 19 - Deferred tax: Appendix 1 (Notes to the Accounts) and this from the same source: FRS 19 – Deferred tax Solomon Hare gives expert guidance on FRS 19 – Deferred tax. There's a Word document to download from there too. Here'a an article from the ACCA on FRS 19 Deferred Tax by Paul Robins: it was published on 1 March 2001 so be careful just in case it's a bit out of date. That should be useful everyone. DW