Coursework Brief:

Students are required to develop a financial Business Plan for a new business organization or a new project or venture, with a maximum of 4,000 words in length for the main word processed text of the plan.

This COURSE WORK BRIEF should be read in conjunction with the NOTES TO STUDENTS AND ASSESSMENT CRITERIA.

Notes for Students:

Instructions for completion and submission of written assignment;

• The summative assessment for the module is through a single component of coursework.
• The assignment comprises a written Business Plan.
• This assignment makes up 100% of the student’s overall grade for the module.
• Reports should be submitted as a hard copy, securely bound, printed out with a line-spacing of at least 1.5, single sided.
• Students should also submit an additional electronic copy of their main word processed business plan together with any supplementary spreadsheets, electronically on MyBeckett using the Turnitin icon, but the complete hard copy of the business plan with supporting financial statements and evidence, provided to the Accounting Administration Team, is the official submission.
• You should include a note of the word count on the cover of your assignment. Assignments exceeding the limit by more than 5% will be subject to a 5 mark reduction as a penalty. Should the assignment exceed the limit by more than 10%, the excess beyond the 4,000 word limit will be ignored.
• Words included in the financial statements, appendices and bibliography are not included in the word count.
• You should use Harvard referencing.
• Any websites referred to must be properly referenced

 

The default assessment is by an individual assignment, but students may elect submit a group assessment. Students wishing to be assessed as a group must produce a written statement to that effect, signed by all members of the group, by week 4 of the module. Where a group assignment is submitted all participators must have a meaningful management function within the business, and the business must demonstrably reward all the participants adequately for involvement in the operations of the entity. The marks apportioned to the group will be the same for all members of the business project. This will only be varied in exceptional circumstances at the tutors’ discretion. The maximum permitted group size is 4.

The organization, project or venture should be a realistic business start up which is financially viable. It should be a plan that the student could realistically implement and which could provide adequate financial support for the student’s reasonable expectations for their standard of living.

Students are required to present their financial Business Plan using a structure they consider appropriate, and which should address the following issues separately:

1. Introductory section including title page, executive summary and list of contents;
2. Evaluation of the market for the proposed enterprise;
3. Operational plan;
4. Evaluation of the sustainability and corporate social responsibility of the proposed enterprise;
5. Financial projections including –
   1. Marginal costing model with break even analysis
   2. Sales forecast
   3. Cash budget – 3 years monthly statements, i.e. 36 months
   4. Income statements (profit and loss accounts) – 3 years annual statements
   5. Statements of financial position (balance sheets) – 3 years annual statements;
6. Appendices including appropriate evidence to support plans and projections;
7. List of all references, using Harvard referencing.

The Business Plan should be prepared to a high professional standard, with an imagined audience composed of highly experienced professionals such as, depending on the financial strategy and nature of the venture: Bankers, start up lenders within the government backed scheme, providers of local authority finance and potential shareholders or other equity investors.

Statements should be supported by logical arguments, facts, and figures which should be fully referenced. 

Students are strongly encouraged, but not required, to use ICT based tools in developing their financial plan. For example the cash budget and extended trial balance on the MyBeckett site for this module.

 

Feedback:

Date generic feedback will be available:	Within four weeks of the assessment period, subject to the date set for the release of results
How generic feedback will be returned to you:	Posted on the module on MyBeckett.
Date provisional marks will be available:	Within four weeks of the assessment period, subject to the date set for the release of results
How provisional marks will be returned to you:	Posted on the module on MyBeckett.
Date individual feedback will available	Following the Module Board and the return of all scripts from the External Examiner
How individual feedback will be returned to you:	By email from tutors on request