You have been appointed the Accounting Business Advisor to local businesses. Your role will require you to demonstrate knowledge in financial management, financial and management accounting and FinTech applications.
You are required to demonstrate your understanding and application of the key concepts, principles, practices and processes of financial and management accounting in the context of hospitality and tourism. Assessment Brief Module title: Finance for Hospitality and Tourism
Module code: IHM4003
Assignment title: Portfolio of Accounting Tasks
Assignment format: Portfolio
Word/time limit: 2,000
File type: MS Word of PDF File
Percentage of final grade: This assignment is worth 100% of your final grade for this module.
Submission deadline: See module iLearn page for date of submission
Grade release: You will normally receive your provisional grade and feedback within 20 working days of the submission deadline
Useful terms: Learning outcomes (LOs)
The skills and knowledge that you should be able to show in your work.
Rubric/Marking Matrix
A set of rules or guidelines used to grade or assess work.
Task summary: In this assignment, you are required to demonstrate your understanding and application of the key concepts, principles, practices and processes of financial and management accounting in the context of hospitality and tourism. This will help you develop the financial skills necessary for effective management and decision-making in your future careers.
Your Role: You have been appointed the Accounting Business Advisor to local businesses. Your role will require you to demonstrate knowledge in financial management, financial and management accounting and FinTech applications. You are required to produce a portfolio of accounting tasks as evidence to assist local businesses. Your portfolio must be appropriately structured containing the following sections:
A front cover page.
Table of Contents.
Introduction providing an overview of the purpose of your report, your chosen organisation and an outline of the issues that it will address in sequential order.
Main body.
Conclusion.
References using the AU Harvard Referencing Style.
Research: You must apply appropriate research skills to systematically analyse accounting information and sources to establish facts regarding financial and management accounting processes in hospitality and tourism businesses. This will include analysis of financial statements, business reports and academic literature. You should research a wide range of sources, including company website resources, academic, industry and practitioner sources to establish the context in which businesses operate.
The assignment: Arden Hospitality and Tourism Enterprise (AHTE) is embarking on a mission to providing accounting and financial advice services for new and existing local hospitality and tourism businesses to promote investment project in the industry. You have been appointed the Accounting Business Advisor to local businesses. You are required to produce a 2,000-word formal portfolio of evidence of accounting and financial based tasks addressing a range of concepts as directed below:
Assignment instructions: For this assignment, you must produce a portfolio of accounting tasks as instructed below:
Task 1: Interpretation of Financial Accounting Information Marriott International Inc. Financial Statements: The financial statements below have been adapted from the Financial Report for Marriott International Inc. for 2024. Using the data:
Demonstrate how to calculate the key Profitability Ratios to evaluate the company’s performance for 2024 in comparison to 2023.
Comment on the company’s performance and suggest recommendations based on trends revealed by the ratios over the two-year period.
Outline the main benefits of ratio analysis.
Marriott International, INC. Consolidated statements of Income in $million for 2024 and 2023
2024
2023
$m
$m
Revenue/Turnover/Sales
25,100
23,713
Less operating costs and expenses
(21,333)
(19,849)
Operating Income BIT
3,767
3,864
Gains and other income, net
31
40
Interest Expenses
(695)
(565)
Interest Income
40
30
Equity in earnings
8
9
Income before taxes
3,151
3,378
Provision for income taxes
(776)
(295)
Net Income
2,375
3,083
Earnings per share
2024
$
2023
$
Earnings per share - Basic
8.36
10.23
Earnings per share - Diluted
8.33
10.18
Marriott International, INC. Consolidated Balance Sheet for Fiscal Years 2024 and 2023 ($m)
2024
2023
Current assets
$m
$m
Cash and cash equivalents
396
338
Accounts and notes receivable, net
2,795
2,712
Prepaid expenses and other
294
261
Total current assets
3,485
3,311
Fixed Assets
Property and equipment, net
1,833
1,581
Intangible assets
Brands
5,770
5,907
Contract acquisition costs and other
3,718
3,283
Goodwill
8,731
8,886
Total intangible assets
18,219
18,076
Equity method investments
298
308
Notes receivable, net
136
138
Deferred tax assets
650
673
Operating lease assets
845
929
Other noncurrent assets
716
658
Total Assets
26,182
25,674
Liabilities and Stockholders’ Deficit
Current Liabilities:
Current portion of long-term debt
1, 309
553
Accounts payable
763
738
Accrued payroll and benefits
1,449
1,390
Liability for guest loyalty programme
3,487
3,328
Accrued expenses and other
1,641
1,753
Total current liabilities
8,649
7.762
Long term debt
13,138
11,320
Liability for guest loyalty programme
4,032
3,678
Deferred tax liabilities
81
209
Deferred revenue
1,103
1,018
Operating lease liabilities
794
887
Other noncurrent liabilities
1,377
1,482
Stockholders’ deficit
Class A common stock
5
5
Additional paid in capital
6,179
6,051
Retained earnings
16,531
14,838
Treasury stock, at cost
(24,644)
(20,929)
Accumulated other comprehensive loss
(1,063)
(647)
Total noncurrent liabilities
(2,992)
(682)
Total equity + liabilities
26,182
25,674
(500 words)
(LO: 3, 5)
Task 2: Sources of Business Finance for Small and Entrepreneurial Businesses
You are playing the role of a financial management advisor helping local hospitality and tourism businesses in understanding the funding options available for small businesses. The local leaders are considering capital ventures and business angels as potential sources. Your role is to provide accurate, informative and actionable insights on financing/funding decision-making. In this context:
Explain how venture capital investing differs from business angels investing?
Evaluate and compare the key benefits and drawbacks for both venture capital and business angels as methods of financing.
Provide practical advice to local leaders on the criteria that their businesses will need to meet to qualify for both venture capital and business angels funding or financing.
Use appropriate templates (e.g., tables or graphs) to summarise and support your findings.
(500 words)
(LO: 1, 5)
Task 3: Budgetary Planning and Budgetary Control Briefly outline the distinctive features of capital investments which justify the development and application of a special set of techniques to evaluate them.
Using the information below relating to the Arden Café Ltd, serving food and beverages, prepare a budgetary control statement showing the fixed budget, flexible budget, actual results, volume and price/cost variances for the period:
Briefly indicate possible reasons for the variances recommend strategies that can be used to deal with observed variances.
Budgeted and actual results for Arden Café Ltd for quarter ended 30 th March 2025
Budget
Sales Volume
93750
Sales revenue (average spend)
£10
Direct Food costs as a percentage of sales
40%
Other Variable costs as a percentage of sales
12%
Fixed Labour costs
£197,500
Fixed Overheads
£97,500
Actual Results
Sales volume (covers)
£102,500
Sales revenue
£813,334
Variable Food cost
£338,125
Other Variable Costs
£106,250
Fixed Labour Costs
£206,250
Fixed Overheads
£81,250
Your work should demonstrate how to prepare a budgetary control statement, using appropriate templates, showing the fixed budget, flexible budget, actual results and variances for the period.
Layout the budgetary control statement, clearly labelling each column using the format you were taught in class.
Enter the fixed budget
Calculate and enter the flexible budget figures.
Remember that both sales and variable costs should be the actual business volume multiplied by the budgeted unit information while the fixed costs remain unchanged.
Enter the actual figures.
Calculate the variances.
(500 words)
(LO, 2, 5)
Task 4: Exploring Fintech Applications in hospitality and Tourism You are tasked with the role of an accounting fintech advisor to the local hospitality and tourism businesses. Your objective is to help decision-makers understand and evaluate the value of financial technologies (fintech) for their operations. In this context:
Explain and justify why hospitality and tourism organisations should be considering investing in Blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies
Evaluate how Blockchain applications can transform or enhance the accounting practices within the industry. Outline the main benefits and limitations of blockchain applications. Briefly discuss the key operational improvements or challenges.
Use supporting case study evidence to underpin your work where possible.
(500 words)
(LO, 4, 5)
Learning outcomes (LO) By completing this assessment, you will have shown and be assessed on all five of the learning outcomes:
LO1 Explain different sources of business finance available to organisations within hospitality and tourism.
LO2 Apply various management techniques including budgeting, investment appraisal and cost volume profit analysis.
LO3 Interpret financial accounting information using basic ratio analyses.
LO4 Identify and assess the role of various FinTech applications.
LO5 GA: Professionally knowledgeable in their subject area, with in‐ depth comprehension, awareness, independent research skills, and other skills associated with their subject area and discipline(s).
Your marker will use a rubric/ marking matrix to grade your work, and you can access this by clicking on the submission portal
