Financial Accounting and Reporting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Financial Accounting and Reporting - Essay Example 4. Customers Customers use financial information to assess the financial position of a company and its ability to supply goods or services stably for a long period. 5. Employees Employees need to know the profitability of their company, its ability to remunerate them in the long term and to ensure their job security (Elliott, 2008). LEGAL REQUIREMENTS ON ACCOUNTS PREPARATION The accounts must be submitted to the tax authorities, corporation tax should be on the basis of the company’s profits. This is done at the end of the financial year. The company’s accounts must be made public by filling them in the house of companies (Horngren, 2002). They must be submitted by the company within nine months after the financial year end. The accounts must be accurate and directors have a legal responsibility of ensuring that the accounts are accurate. The use of an accountant does not reduce the responsibility (Webster, 2004). The financial statements that must be prepared include; balance sheet, profit and loss account, notes to the accounts, director’s report and auditor’s report. The balance sheet must be signed by the director, and a printed name of the director must be included (Horngren, 2002). The accounts should be prepared in conformity of internationally accepted financial reporting standards. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PARTNERSHIP AND SOLE TRADER ACCOUNTS A sole trader’s earnings are subject to tax in the self-employment category while a partnership is subject to corporation tax (Elliott, 2008). The accounts of a sole trader seize to exist upon death of the trader while those of a partnership continue to exist since it is a legal person. A partnerships’ accounts contain capital comprised of shares of stock which are categorized into preference and ordinary shares (Webster, 2004). A sole trader’s account contains capital raised from other sources like from personal savings or soft loans. The partnership has to file its leg al accounts with the state while a sole trader’s account need not to be filed with the state (Horngren, 2004). A sole trader accounts mostly include incomplete financial records while a partnership must prepare financial statements in conformity with the statutory requirements. The accounts of a sole trader are usually voluntarily prepared while those of a partnership are a statutory requirement. ?'000' Stock ?'000' Balance b/d 4000          Cash balance 250 Balance c/f 4250       4250    4250    Bank Balance b/d 3310 Stock 250          Balance c/f 3060       3310    3310    Telephone Balance b/d 580          Accruals 82 Balance c/f 662       662    662    Advertising Balance b/d 3300 Prepaid 337       Balance c/f 2963    3300    3300             Wages Balance b/d 6650       Accrual 123 Balance c/f 6773    6773    6773             Motor Expenses Balance b/d 1460 Prepaid 42       Balance c/f 1418    1460    1460             Accountancy Fee Balance b/d 326 balance c/f 326    326    326             Debtors    Balance b/d 4500 depreciation 225       Balance c/f 4275    4500    4500             Doubtful Debts Balance b/d 120       Debtors 225 Balance c/f 345    345    345             Fixed Assets Balance b/d 24000 Depreciation 7700       Charge 4075       Balance c/d 12225    24000    24000             Depreciation Balance b/d 7700       Charge 4075 Balance c/d 11775    11775    11775 sherwood Trial balance As at 31.1.2013 Dr ?'000' Cr ?'000' Stock 4250 Sales 43000 Sales returns 980

Future and Outlook on Hospitality Industry Research Paper

Future and Outlook on Hospitality Industry - Research Paper Example The author of the essay "Future and Outlook on Hospitality Industry" begins with that according to reports â€Å"Hotels 2020: Beyond segmentation†, customers would like to either have the biggest share of having the say or take full control over what services they expect to received and what they wish to pay for. Six hundred and ten tourists were surveyed as a section of the research and it shows that 92 % think that by the year 2020 hotel customers anticipate their stay to be adopted around a list of choices they create at the time of booking and before they set in. The survey looked at the way all the features of the hotel knowledge might be modified in the future. Things like letting the customers decide which communication method is preferable for them (media, email, phone text or mail), and having take charge of the kinds of communications sent to them, to give choices on their in-check process, in-room technology or pricing mold. The survey also shows that by 2020, over eighty percent of the clients will be able to decide on the size of the room they want to stay in, the bed size, business machines and other facilities for purposes of bookings and payments. The chief executive of Fast Future Research and the report writer pointed out that, the desire for hotel customers to have the say and control over their experience, is creating big changes. The study foresees appearance of â€Å"whole service model† that shifts away from the normal hotel packages to a service option menu, where clients choose their specific needs. The world has been hit by the present financial depression. With not much flexible income, the industries have been affected (Kraft & Mantrala 320). According to the experts, there is good news for the year 2011. The scenery is developing rapidly as new machinery increase the need for hotels to become more societal and viral in their advertising efforts. The demand from customers is causi ng hotels to make intensive efforts on being environmental friendly. Alternatively, there are other sections in the industry that you could go for as a customer. Cruise industry is one of them. It is one that I would advice you to pick, if you were not for the hotel or restaurant type of hospitality industry. Anyway, I will come to this segment later as I would like to outline a few pros and cons of the hotel industry to you (Kraft & Mantrala 96). Let us look at what the professionals of the industry and projecting on performance in 2011. The projections by Smith Travel Research (STR), and everything shows that there will be a drastic change in the improvement. The researchers trail supply, require data for the businesses, and offer expensive market share analysis for all main international hotel chain and brands. Over 5 million hotels rooms are represented by STR and they are known to be the world is leading sources of historical hotel presentation trends. Hotels in the US are expe cted to experience increase in three main performance measurements, which are: Occupancy: 1.8% increase to 58.5% Average Daily Rate (ADR): 4.2% increase to US$ 102.21. RevPAR: 6.1% increase to US$ 50.78 A small increase of (0.7%) in supply will be experienced in the industry while a 2.5% increase will occur generally in demand. This news will thrill the hotel owners since it will be a great relief for them and the hospitality professionals. The experts detected the increase in 2009, and have been seeing it improve in 2010. Which should go on in 2011 and 2012? Mark Lamnno, CEO of STR said the tough fundamentals that hotels went through in 2010 will end up in a faster turnaround than predicted, he also said that while this force ended up in quickly improving occupancies last year, we sought to find rebounding rates to help in RwvPar growth in 2011 and 2012. By the time we are in the middle of 2011, we may not have experienced fast and hastening room rates and by the time reach 2012, w e will now anticipate the growth of room rates to equal or exceed the boom years of 2006 and 2007. According to the findings, I have in this research, I feel