Costing Systems for WH Group Limited Pricing Strategy

Cost is one of the major factors that is used by the organisation in evaluating the pricing strategy, which is used by organisation in generating higher level of profitability. The pricing strategy goes in hand with other marketing mix elements such as product promotion channel decisions and customer reach. The organisation mainly requires the overall costing measures for improving its pricing strategy. The company WH Group Limited situated in Hongkong is responsible for the hog slaughtering, processing, distribution, and packaging of processed pork meat (Wh-group.com 2018). The management mainly needs adequate cost structure for developing the pricing strategy for WH Group Limited, which is needed in improving the overall financial performance and penetrate more markets. The company has been operating in different countries such as USA, China, and Europe, where the adoption of pricing strategy could help in improving its market grip.

Therefore, with the identification of relevant cost incurred from operation could help in improving the level of pricing strategy, which might increase its competitiveness in the market. In addition, detection of cost incurred from operation also helps in understand the level of revenue, which is needed by originations to improve its profitability. Furthermore, cost such as fixed and variable expenses also helps in identifying the relevant breakeven sales, which might be needed by the company to survive in the competitive market. Lastly, the evaluation of cost might help in understanding the level of price, which could be adopted by the company to attain adequate profits and sustain competition in the market.

WH Group Limited is mainly a manufacturing process, where different level of activities is conducted to obtain the finished products. The costing systems mainly comprises of six different level of costing measures, which allows the organisation in reducing its expenses and raise their profit level. The organisation uses the six costing systems all around the world are job costing, contract costing, batch costing, process costing, service costing, operation costing, and multiple costing. However, WH Group Limited is mainly a processing unit where different level of process are conducted to complete the overall operations (Wh-group.com 2018). Therefore, the company could adequately use process costing within the organisation for improving its overall financial performance. The company could eventually with the help of process costing might reduce the level of expenses, which might be incurred from operations.

The process costing is an effective strategy, where the production is conducted through different level of stages or process, which can be effectively used by WH Group Limited for detecting the expenses incurred in each process. This insight in the overall expenses incurred in the production system could eventually help the company in making adequate decision for reducing their expenses. This could eventually help the company in controlling its cost and improve the level of profits that might be generated from operations. In this context, Titman, Keown and Martin (2017) mentioned that job costing segregates all the expenses incurred in different process, which helps in identifying the process that incurs the highest cost.

Process Costing System for WH Group Limited

WH Group Limited has been using the process costing system in their operations, as depicted in their annual report. This indicates that the company adequately uses costing system to reduce crisis and incur high profitability. This indicates that the company could eventually use different types of costing measure for improving the level of profits. The company could use multiple costing system instead of process costing method, which could help in use two or three level of costing system for reducing its costs. The combination of batch costing and process costing could eventually help the company in detecting the actual cost incurred from the operations. This detection could eventually help in understanding the overall expenses that has been conducted by the company (McNeil, Frey and Embrechts 2015).

Moreover, the company uses Structure of the Global Offering — Pricing and Allocation for their pricing system, which has been providing adequate support to their competitiveness level. This pricing system mainly falls under the economic pricing system, where the overall prices are set to support their competitiveness in the market. WH Group Limited can adequately use penetrative pricing strategy for entering new markets all around the world, which might help in raising the level of competitiveness in the market. The use of penetrative pricing strategy could eventually help in improving the level of sales of their products by penetrating new market and raising their customer base. This would compensate for the change in pricing strategy and raise the level of profits generated by WH Group Limited (Wh-group.com 2018).

Moving averages are considered an analytical tool, which is used by the companies to identify the relevant level of sales trend. With the use of moving average companies are able to identify the level of sales demand, which might be conducted from customers. This could eventually help in supporting the sales demand of the organization. the forecasting sales for January is 1,243,249, while the figure for February is 1,274,268. This relevant projection of the sales revenue could eventually allow the organization to detect the level of products, which is needed for maintaining the production level. The assumption of February sales is conducted on the basis of January sales, which is also forecasted. Hence, any changes in the actuals ales of January could directly reduce sales value of February (Balakrishnan, Watts and Zuo 2016).

The company is mainly aiming for capital investment, which will require long term source of financing to support operations of the company. The use of Mortgage, debentures and share issues can be conducted by the company to support expansion project. However, there are advantages and disadvantages for all the three identified sources of finance, which could be used by the company.

Use of Different Costing Systems

Master budget is mainly a set of interconnected budgets, which consist of sales, cost, production, income, and other budgets. In addition, the good practise of master budget is to serve the organisation with relevant planning and control tools for improving the decisions made by the management. The relevant consideration of good practise in the master budget directly indicates the effective formulation of sales, cost, production, income, and other budgets, which could help in supporting activities of the organisation. Furthermore, the master budget needs to be prepared in a sequence, which is sales budget, production budget, Direct material purchase budget, direct labour budget, overhead budget, selling & distribution budget, and cost of goods manufacturing budget (Berlinger, Lovas and Juhasz 2017). This sequence consideration needs to be conducted by the organisation for effectively formulating the overall master budget, which might help in improving productivity of the organisation.

Closing cash budget is relatively negative, which indicates that Forward Ltd has overdrawn cash. This is due to the problems related to debtor’s collection period, which is relatively reducing cash availability of the organisation. Therefore, the organisation should reduce debtor collection period for improving its cash availability or can increase the supplier payment period. This could eventually help the organisation in reducing the gap between cash inflow and cash outflow period. Hence, improvement in closing cash budget of the organisation could be conducted, which might be supporting its liquidity condition.

The changes in production unit will change the entire master budget, as it might reduce the relevant cash budget of the organisation. In addition, the estimation of the production units is 2,000 for June, 2,200 for July, 2,400 for Aug and 2,500 for Sep. This could eventually help in drafting an adequate master budget for the company, which might support its production needs. The changes in production budget mainly helps in improving the level of productively and demand from customers. This change in production budget is conducted to accommodate the sales per unit that could be demanded from customers (Bris, Koskinen and Nilsson 2014).

The above table mainly represents the value of budget, actual and variance analysis, which helps in identifying signification of the variances. The relevant figures mainly represent higher variance, which is been conducted by the company, due to the reduction in production units. The reduction in production units has mainly raised the level of variance in all the months leaving June, as the organisation has relatively paid for the materials. With the help of variance organisation are mainly able to detect favourable and unfavourable condition of the drafted budget, which helps in evaluating the need of adequate budget. The variance analysis mainly pinpoints the lag, which was conducted while drafting the budget. Hence, with the use of variance analysis organisation are mainly able to accurately pinpoint the discrepancy and draft adequate budgets in future (Chauhan 2016).

Pricing System for WH Group Limited

With the help of budgetary monitoring process organisations are mainly able to evaluate the actual results against approved budgets of the organisation. This could eventually help in identifying the overall discrepancy in the budget drafting process and guide the organisation in preparing adequate budget. The organisation with the budgetary monitoring process can revise the internal budget throng coordination process. Moreover, the relevant management of forecasting gaps in the budget can be identified, which might allow the organisation in making adequate decision on its internal and external activities. This budgeted process could also help the organisation in reviewing and improving the internal budget process. The accurate monitoring and timeliness of the budget process are conducted for identifying the areas, which could be improved by the organisation. Hence, the budgetary process could eventually allow the company to reduce the level of expenses incurred from operations and smoothly conduct its production process (Lara, Osma and Penalva 2016).

The company could adequately use other process, which might help in reducing cost incurred by the organization in the manufacturing process. The use of zero-based costing process could be used by the organization for reducing the overall expenses incurred and its operations. The company’s overall reduction in cost related activities, as maximum high manufacturing cost erodes the prophets. Therefore, the use of zero-based costing could eventually help in detecting the cost and expenses incurred by the organization in each phase. This would eventually help in reducing any kind of extra burden that might be affecting operations of the company.

The process directly helps in identifying any kind of activity expenses that has been conducted by the organization to complete its production function. However, the selection of adequate production process is conducted with the help of zero based costing process. This could help in minimizing any kind of extra expenses of processes which is used by the organization. This might help in reducing the excessive expenses conducted on the manufacturing process and maintenance of livestock. Moreover, any reduction in expenses is relatively of profit for the organization, where is the use of zero based costing process could eventually help in improving financial viability of the organization.

Activity based costing is another measure, which could be used by WH Group Limited for reducing the overall expenses from manufacturing process. The company could eventually identify the accurate production cost of a product, which might help in improving is pricing structure and increase its market competitiveness. Thus, detection of accurate production cost would eventually help in reducing any kind of extra expenses that is conducted by the organization in its manufacturing process. Relevant information about cost behavior is also depicted with the help of activity-based costing system where, fixed overhead and variable overhead incurred is a manufacturing process is adequately depicted.

Monthly Sales Revenue

Activity based costing also helps in increasing the overall cost object where multiple cost drivers evaluated to identify whether they are transaction based or product volume based. This detection could eventually help in identifying the actual cost of its finished products.

Both payback period and accounting rate of return has benefits and weakness, which allows the company to evaluate relevant projects. The use of appraisal techniques allows the organisation to gauge into the projects financial viability, which might improve their level of profits in future (Nguyen, Nguyen and Yin 2015). There are certain advantages of the payback period are depicted as follows.

• Payback period is easy to compute and understand, which helps in identifying the minimum years that will be needed by the project to return the initial investment amount.
• With payback period the organisation can gauge into the liquidity position of the project

There is relevant disadvantage for using payback period are depicted as follows.

• No time value of money is recognised in the calculation of payback period, which does not accurately comprehend the actual cash flow.
• Payback period does not evaluate the cash inflows, which are conducted after the period.

The advantages of accounting rate of return are depicted as follows.

• The investment appraisal method mainly portarys a better picture of the profitability that will be generated from the project.
• The method helps in identifying the value of net earnings after relevant deduction from tax and deprecation.

      The disadvantages of accounting rate of return are depicted as follows.

• The difference in ROI and ARR mainly confuses the organisation in selecting the accurate project for investment
• The method does not include the external factor such as time value of money, which might affect the overall return that might be generated from the project.

From the evaluation both accounting rate of return and payback period is used by the organisation in evaluating the projects. However, the use of Net Present Value (NPV) might have been used by the organisation in evaluating the projects and detect their financial viability. The net present value is mainly conducted to quantify for the time value of money on the cash inflows that are conducted on the future years. This mainly helps in detecting the actual contribution of the projects, which is conducted to firm value. Therefore, with the help of net present value the organisation could eventually help in detecting the financial viability of the investment and identifying whether the project will produce profits or loss in future. Tricker and Tricker (2015) mentioned that with the help of investment appraisal techniques organisation can understand the financial viability of a project. Net Present Value is the major investment appraisal that is used by the organisation to estimate the financial viability of the project, as no other investment appraisal techniques compensate for the time value of money.

The major difference between the investment appraisal techniques in public and private sectors is the perception of investment that is conducted within the two sectors. The private sectors mainly focus on the level of return that in needed from an investment, which could generate higher profits. The organisation could eventually help in generating higher level of income from investment, as it focuses in internal rate of return. This internal rate of return is followed by the management of private sectors, as it allows them to accumulate the return as soon as possible. This quick collection of the return from the projects allow the organisation in having adequate availability of cash to support other projects.

Sources of Finance for WH Group Limited

On the other hand, public sectors need to comply with the needs of their stakeholders, which influences their selection of projects. The public sector mainly uses Net present value method in selecting the overall projects, as it helps in identifying financial viability of the project. The public-sector companies mainly select projects, which have the highest net present value in comparisons with other projects. This is mainly conducted to increase the actual return from the investment. The public-sector companies mainly ignore the use of other investment appraisal techniques claiming they do not use time value in in their calculations (Paul and Mitra 2017).

From the overall evaluation of the above calculation conducted on both project A and project B, relevant viability of the projects can be identified. The use of adequate investment appraisal techniques such as payback period and accounting rate of return, project A is mainly selected for the organisation. This decision is mainly taken on the basis improved values of payback period and Accounting rate of return provided by project A in comparison with project B. The payback period of 3.9 years and accounting rate of retune of 9.23% is provided by project A, while project B has payback period of 3.92 years and accounting rate of return of 7.38%. Therefore, it could be estimated that use of project A is most viable option for the company, as it might increase the overall return from investment. Moreover, the valuation of Net present value is also conducted, which depicts Project A value at 5,315,960.02, while the NPV value of project B is 3,680,499.57. This indicates that all the three investment appraisal techniques support financial viability of project A and depict the relevant profits that could be generated from the investment (Bhandari and Adams 2017).

The post appraisal audit mainly helps in identifying the overall investment scope of different projects. In addition, the organisation could eventually utilise the overall investment plan, structure of changes, change of capital cost, reflection of changes in creating of source and formulation of targeted measures. The relevant evaluation of appraisal audit could eventually help in identifying the lag in projects, which could help in supporting the profits earned by the company. In addition, the company can control the impact of external risk on activities of the project, which might help in supporting the level of profits earned by the organisation (Bodie, Kane and Marcus 2014).

The above table mainly represent the overall profitability ratio of WH GROUP LIMITED, which has relevantly improved over the past fiscal years. In addition, the different between gross profit margin and net profit margin has drastically declined over the period of two years. This mainly indicates the decline in administrative expenses, which is incurred by the company during the fiscal year (Evgeniou, Vermaelen and Yue 2016). The gross profit margin has mainly inclined over the period from 19.24% to 19.54% indicating lower cost of sales obtained by WH GROUP LIMITED. Moreover, the net profit margin has inclined from 5.75% to 4.69% over the period of one two fiscal years. This indicates the financial viability of WH GROUP LIMITED, as higher profits is being earned by the company over the fiscal years.

Master Budget for WH Group Limited

The liquidity ratios mainly indicate a declining phase for the company, as its financial position has deteriorated in 2016 in comparison with 2015. The current ratio of the company has mainly declined from the levels of 1.82 to 1.46 in 2016, which reduces capability of the company to support its shorty term obligations. The current ratio is at the levels of 1.46, which is not adequate, where it should be near 2. Moreover, the quick ratio has also decline from 1.21 in 2015 to 0.95 in 2016, which indicates that the company will not be able to pay off its shorterm debt with its current assets (Isa, Ghani and Lee 2017). This revelation portrays low financial capability of the company to support its financial obligations.

The overall evaluation conducted in the above section is mainly related to profitability and liquidity ratios of the organisation, whereas the management will need different aspect to understand its actual financial position for the fiscal year. The management will want different level of ratios such as efficiency and gearing, which helps in identifying the overall financial position of the organisation. The use of gearing ratio could eventually help in detecting the actual financial position of the company and its status regarding solvency. The detection of solvency is the main ratio, which needs to be evaluated by the company, as it might help in understanding its ability to continue its operations. In this context, Kawano (2014) mentioned that companies with the help of ratios can understand its overall financial viability.

Moreover, the use of efficiency ratio could also help in detecting the management decision was helpful in improving financial position of the organisation. In addition, the ratios could eventually help the management in changing its overall efficiency rate to support its liquidity and profitability position. Moreover, the management could indicate the use of 2 years for the analysis part, which needs to be improved from 2 years to 5 years or 10 years. This could eventually help in understanding the trend of profitability and expenses incurred by the company over the fiscal years.

From the strategic point of view the company mainly needs to improve its overall liquidity position, as it has not accumulated adequate current assets to support its activities. In addition, the company’s current and quick ratio values are at risk levels, where the management needs to sell non-current assets to support its financial obligation. This might reduce financial viability of the company and hamper its financial progress. The company mainly needs to reduce the overall cost of production, as the high expenses is directly reducing the level of profits, which can be generated from operations. The management has curbed the administrative expenses and needs to reduce the cost of sales for improving its profit level. The improvements in profitability could eventually help in generating high level of cash reserves for the organisation, which could be used in adopting new technology for its production needs.

Production Budgets for Forward Ltd

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Raw Materials Budgets for Forward Ltd

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Evaluating the potential of activity-based costing in the chosen organization: