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The impact of new reporting requirements on local charities in the Waikato region
Get PDFCharities play a significant role in society. Over 27,000 charities work in New Zealand for the welfare of the community. Prior to 2015, there was no mandatory requirements for financial reporting; however, some charities used “the for-profits standards”. But there was evidence of poor accounting standards. Since 2015, there was a significant change in reporting requirements issued by XRB. The main purpose of new reporting standards was to improve transparency, accountability and public trust. The new accounting standards brought more transparency and disclosure of non-financial information. There were a few negative impacts of this new regime as charities had insufficient knowledge about new standards, which resulted in deficient quality of reports. This research seeks to investigate the impacts of new reporting requirements on local charities in the Waikato Region. The method carried out for the research was semi-structured interviews. Under this method the accountants of three different charities in the Waikato Region were interviewed. The findings of the study were arrived at based on the analysis conducted. Some of major findings of the study criticised the new changes as they increased the workload of charities and created other related issues. There were some issues related to revenue recognition, and the outcomes were long term. It was a mixed review by the charities on the effectiveness of the “Charity Services”. The study concluded that the aim of new regime was for increased accountability, which may not have eventuated, as according to the research the charities instead face issues of workload, outcomes and revenue recognition
Better sales and marketing methods for Mument
Get PDFThe main business of Mument, is to sell maternal and infant products. It is a one- stop store, where customers can find baby and children’s items from new-born until nearly 12 years old, Mument has a membership system, which means customer can deposit 1. getting 15% off when they reach 300 points.. The aims of the research were to improve sales and selling skills, and to develop better marketing methods. The questions for Mument are how to gain better sales and select effective marketing methods. For this research, I have selected quantitative methods, and use a questionnaire to get the primary research results. 18% of customers find a long wait for their order unacceptable, 30% of customers think Mument sales-people lack professional information, and find having only one sales-person in the store at weekends insufficient. 64% customers know about mother and baby product information through friends, and 58% customers know about Mument from friends. Most member’s babies’ birthdays are in April, May, September and October. I recommend that the owner analyse what kind of products customers require frequently, and order these before they ask, have a longer training time to allow sales-persons to acquire professional information, and have sales promotions at specific times
Relationship dynamics in logistics
Get PDFIn recent years, a growing number of organisations have outsourced logistics services to logistics services providers (LSPs). To account for greater interconnection between organisations, supply chain relationship is crucial for achieving successful logistics outsourcing. Because organisations need to continuously change their decision-making in outsourcing, relationships among organisations in outsourcing are dynamic. Further, because logistics outsourcing has created more supply chain relationships (SCRs) among suppliers, LSPs, and customers, managers need to use a network perspective to manage multiple relationships in the process of outsourcing. The triadic relationship is recognised as the smallest network structure. As a result, the primary goal of this research is to study dynamics of supply chain relationships in logistics outsourcing from a view of triadic relationship. This relationship is called a logistics triad and consists of a supplier, a logistics service provider (LSP), and their common customer. The present research was carried out in two stages. The first stage collected triadic cases from LSPs. To improve validity and reliability, the second stage used a deductive process to test findings of the first stage by collecting triadic cases from suppliers and customers. Results of the comparison between the two stages provided verified research findings because the two stages exhibited close similarity. The research outcomes led to the identification of factors that influenced the relationship dynamics in logistics triads. Among these factors, the combined effects of purchasing volumes, resource capability, and focal firm can override influences from other factors to determine stability and dynamics of logistics triads. Overall, this research makes several major contributions to the knowledge of supply chain relationships: developing an integrative model of triadic relationship dynamics, identifying control approaches used by organisations to dominate triads, and demonstrating organisations' mediating effects on dyadic relationships within triads
Traffic jams and heart failure – using metaphors to learn pathophysiology
No full textTeaching pathophysiology to undergraduate nursing students is challenging because there is a need to interpret theoretical concepts into the reality of everyday clinical situations with patients. A key element of this learning is having the ability to recognize physiological patterns indicating pathophysiological changes that emerge on patient assessment. While students may understand the abstract concepts relating to this science, applying the theory in practice is another challenge. In this article, we present an example of everyday teaching moments that draw on the idea of metaphor providing a bridge to understanding the theory of pathophysiology in practice
Miss Saigon [2nd Keyboardist]
No full text2nd Keyboardist in orchestra for St Peter's School production of Miss Saigon, written by Boubil/Schönberg, performed 4-10 May 2018. The orchestra comprised professional musicians based around the Waikato region
Tracing sources of cadmium in agricultural soils: a stable isotope approach
Get PDFCadmium (Cd) is a biotoxic heavy metal, which is accumulated by plants and animals and thereby enters the human food chain (Gray et al. 2003). The application of phosphate fertilisers has also resulted in the long-term accumulation of Cd in agricultural soils around the world, including New Zealand (NZ). In 1997, the main source of NZ phosphate fertilisers was changed from Nauru island phosphate rocks (450 mg Cd kg-1 P) to a variety of phosphate rocks with lower Cd concentrations, in order to meet more stringent Cd limits in P fertiliser. Following this change, the accumulation of Cd in topsoil samples from the Winchmore research farm (South Island, NZ) was evaluated and was found to have plateaued post-2000 (McDowell, 2012). In this study, stable isotope analysis was used to trace the fate of Cd in Winchmore farm soils in order to determine the cause of the plateau.
The isotope ratio of Cd (δ114/110Cd) was measured in pre-2000 and post-2000 phosphate fertilisers, phosphate rocks, topsoil (0-7.5 cm) and control (unfertilised) subsoil (25-30 cm) samples from the Winchmore site. The analysed topsoil samples were archived samples collected over the period 1959-2015. The isotopic compositions of fertilised topsoils ranged from δ114/110Cd = 0.08 ± 0.03 to δ114/110Cd = 0.27 ± 0.04, which were comparable to pre-2000 fertilisers (δ114/110Cd = 0.10 ± 0.05 to 0.25 ± 0.04) but distinct from the post-2000 fertilisers (δ114/110Cd range of -0.17 ± 0.03 to 0.01 ± 0.05) and control subsoil (δ114/110Cd = -0.33 ± 0.04) (Salmanzadeh et al., 2017). We combined this stable isotope data with Bayesian modelling to estimate the contribution of different sources of Cd. An open source Bayesian isotope mixing model implemented in Matlab (Arendt et al., 2015) was used here with some modifications to estimate the fractional contribution of different sources of Cd through time including pre- and post-2000 fertilisers, and the control soil. The Matlab code of Arendt et al., 2015 was modified to consider only one isotope system (rather than two), and fewer sources. This modelling confirmed the dominant contribution (about 80%) of Nauru-derived (i.e. pre-2000) fertilisers in increasing the Cd concentration in Winchmore soils.
To help constrain the soil Cd mass balance we used an existing model (CadBal) (Roberts and Longhurst, 2005), to estimate residual soil Cd and output fluxes based on known P fertiliser application rates, the initial Cd concentration, farm and soil type, and soil dry bulk density. We incorporated the isotope data into the mass balance expression in order to evaluate the performance of CadBal in estimating the past topsoil Cd accumulation and predicting the future concentrations and isotope ratios of Cd (up to 2030 AD). The results of mass balance modelling confirm that recent applications of phosphate fertilisers have not resulted in an accumulation of Cd during the most recent period, thus Cd removal by either leaching or crop uptake has increased, which is consistent with the modelled isotope data (Figure 1).
We can conclude that it becomes possible to distinguish the sources of Cd within the soil using stable Cd isotopes (Imseng et al., 2018) and that the residual Cd in topsoil at Winchmore still mainly originates from historical phosphate fertilisers (Salmanzadeh et al., 2017). One implication of this finding is that the contemporary applications of phosphate fertiliser are not resulting in further Cd accumulation. We aim to continue our research into Cd fate, mobility, and transformations in the NZ environment by applying Cd isotopes in soils and aquatic environments across the country.
Figure 1. Results of Cd mass balance modelling in CadBal for the period of topsoil fertilisation including a prediction up to the year 2030 AD. (a) Mean concentration of Cd in the dryland treatment of Winchmore long-term irrigation trial (symbols) and the CadBal model (lines) outputs (red symbols = this study- plot 15 of Winchmore site; grey symbols = McDowell study-average of all plots; solid black line = dryland optimized CadBal from McDowell (2012) for all irrigation plots; black dashed line = Plot 15 dryland optimized CadBal-this study, first scenario; blue line = Plot 15 dryland optimized CadBal-this study, second scenario; red line = Plot 15 dryland optimized CadBal-this study, third scenario; red dashed line = Plot 15 dryland optimized CadBal-this study, fourth scenario); (b) Measured and modelled Cd isotope ratios based on CadBal outputs, isotope ratios measured in fertilisers and the fractionation factors of Wiggenhauser, et al. (2016); lines designate modelling scenarios as in (a), red dots are the third scenario with no fractionation (α factor not applied); (c) modeled scenario 3 (solid) and scenario 4 (dashed) isotope ratios in topsoil (red lines), leachate (blue lines) and pasture (green lines)
Job costing: An analysis of the construction industry
Get PDFThe construction industry in New Zealand is very large and shows no signs of slowing down in the near future. It is one of the largest contributors for employment growth. However, some of the largest construction companies are seeing huge losses and debts. This report sets out to find out why this is happening and will do so by analysing job costing methods and investigating variances of quoted and actual costs in the construction/painting industry. Many Potential Job Costing methods have been identified, but the best-suited options were the profit point analysis and micro costing methods. Another potential method to improve quoting would be to use a structured project learning approach. However, the answer may not lie within job costing but with the fact that material and labour prices are increasing yearly and will be different when jobs are quoted from when they are carried out. A survey was sent via email to 85 construction businesses. 10 viable responses were gathered back. A financial analysis was also carried out on 45 jobs gathered from a painting business known to the researcher. The financial analysis found there was an average variance of 5 %, with labour contributing 69% of this. When looking at jobs under 5000 averaged 1% variance. The survey results found that average estimated variance for labour was 6% and materials were 1%. The researcher recommends using a structured learning approach. It is essential that construction businesses are aware of increasing material and labour costs. It is also evident that smaller jobs saw larger variances, therefore smaller jobs should be quoted as accurately as larger jobs
Effective procedures to attract and retain workers in tourism
Get PDFThe tourism industry is one of the world’s largest service industries and a major player in the New Zealand economy. Despite the growing economy that tourism generates globally and brings into the country, there is a shortage of skilled personnel. The industry has difficulty attracting and retaining qualified staff. This research will explore an overview of tourism recruitment and effective procedures to attract and retain skilled seasonal workers in the organisation. The research also explored the use of skilled seasonal workers in the tourism industry in New Zealand. In recent years there is a common misconception that the tourism industry has under-skilled staff and a lack of vision regarding career pathways. From that standpoint, the industry often offers poor financial compensation. This research will explore an overview of tourism recruitment and effective procedures to attract and retain skilled seasonal workers in the organisation. The study is based on qualitative and quantitative analysis of six previous and current seasonal workers who have provided qualitative feedback on the questionnaire which was emailed and handed out to the participants. The positives and negatives and the reasons that these employees wanted to return or not are investigated Results show that 60% of the participants will NOT return and at the same time indicate that wages and manager leadership skills are the reason. This research also highlights the importance of implementing retention strategies in the industry
Internal controls on charities in New Zealand: Challenges and solutions
Get PDFCharities and the non-for-profit sector play an important role in New Zealand’s economy. However, several charity scandals in the last two decades have affected potential donors and their trust in New Zealand’s charities. Consequently, charities need to adapt their ability to afford structural and strict internal control environment by improving internal controls. This research aims to evaluate internal controls in charities in New Zealand and explore the challenges in implementing them. This research also recommends internal control strategies and solutions that can be adapted to the particular needs and requirements of charities. This research uses qualitative methods, in which data collected from previous BDO fraud surveys and in-depth interviews from five charity staff members is used to analyse results. This research found that small charities in New Zealand lack internal controls, which may cause fraud losses to their organisations. It also found four challenges that charities face in implementing internal controls in New Zealand: financial difficulties, technological difficulties, lack of staff, and specific accounting knowledge. To solve these challenges, this research recommends some strategies and solutions that are practical and efficient for charities to prevent fraud, such as control review, code of conduct, risk assessment, and monitoring processes. The researcher recommends charities should choose the control practice that is the best match to develop their organisation’s objectives
A study on strategies for growth and sustainability
Get PDFThis project studies the strategies for growth and diversification of an organisation to help them to withstand competition in the market in which they operate. Areas of research developed are based on various problems such as sales promotion, employee motivation, financial requirements and competition within the market. The organisation lacks sales promotional activities due to lack of investment in sales and marketing. We conducted a situational analysis. A qualitative method was used for data collection with a set of interview questions. The basis of our study was that we found that the organisation could improve their sales by concentrating on digital marketing as well as direct marketing. The organisation could appoint more salespersons to conduct door-knocking in different regions to develop their direct marketing activities. Providing training and motivation to staff would help to improve their efficiency and skills. They could appoint a more experienced employee to make an efficient team. We also found that entering new markets would help the organisation to increase their profit and competitiveness in the market in which they operate. This can be achieved by opening a new unit outside the Waikato region. The organisation can also maximize the alliance with other organisations to provide complete home heating and insulation solution for their customers