Motives and expectations: A study of accounting students at New Zealand polytechnics

This report aims to investigate student's choices for studying accounting in New Zealand polytechnics. It provides information on students’ motives for choosing the institute and their expectations of the accounting programmes it is offering. The gap between accounting education and practice is an increasing problem for accounting firms. The skills accounting graduates display are often not the skills the workplace is interviewing for. This creates problems for accounting students trying to make a career in the industry. If they are not showing the skills that employers are looking for, their chances of finding paid employment are much lower. Nine polytechnic students studying for an accounting degree were interviewed for this report, using convenience and then snowball methods. The researcher followed a question guide for each interview focused on gaining the student’s opinions. Tentative results have found that students are satisfied with their overall level of learning. Study at the polytechnic was chosen over university because of flexible class times and being able to have a life outside of study. University was considered huge and scary, but also difficult for international students to pass entry criteria. There were 78 percent of students studying the CAANZ major, but only 56 percent wanted to study further to gain Chartered Accountant qualifications. This report will be of benefit to polytechnics as it will assist them in attracting and retaining more students

Examining the implications of the anti-money laundering and countering financing of Terrorism Act 2009 on New Zealand accounting firms

Money laundering is the act of introducing illicitly gained funds into the economy to assist in concealing their origin. On October 1 2018, it became mandatory for most New Zealand accounting firms to comply with the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009. The purpose of this act is to help detect and deter money laundering within New Zealand. The AML/CFT Act creates additional requirements for accounting firms and has severe penalties for non-compliance. This led to the research question of ‘What are the implications of the AML/CFT Act 2009 on New Zealand Accounting firms?’ For this research, interviews were conducted with accounting firms to help identify the costs and implications associated with the AML/CFT requirements. The results revealed that despite the October 1 deadline, accounting firms are still implementing programs. The new requirements were unclear and underestimated by firms. Large money and time costs were reported by all the interview participants and they all feel that the new requirements are excessive. As the AML/CFT Act is still new, it would be beneficial to explore further research in the future that examines the actual impact of maintaining the AML/CFT programs

Emerging role of inventory management at a liquor store in New Zealand

Inventory management has different applications as per the business model. However, it all boils down to reconciliation of stock, forecasting demand trends and accordingly placing orders so that you never run out of stock. In this research, discussion will be based on a small business model, ‘Thirsty Liquor’, a retail liquor store located in Hamilton, New Zealand. Liquor businesses always face competitive competition as the demand is constant and liquor is available in supermarkets and in a variety of liquor stores. This research focuses on the emerging role of inventory management and the problems faced by the business in implementing this system. For this research, qualitative methods were used and interviews were conducted to gain first-hand information. Personal observations were made. Interviews were conducted with managers of other stores as well. The outcome of this research highlighted the problem of storage place or a separate warehouse to maintain stock. Poor co-ordination amongst the staff resulted in few suggestions being made based of the gathered input. However, further research on liquor stores all over New Zealand would give an ideal understanding of the inventory management systems used by other retailers

Expanding the education role to narrow the audit expectation gap: exploring the expectation gap’s existence among accounting students

Society perceives and expects more from auditor’s than what auditors can actually achieve. Society has been found to misperceive the role of an auditor, in particular, in regards to fraud, internal controls and going concern issues. Society’s differing perceptions and expectations of the auditing profession is known as the audit expectation gap. This study aims to explore the audit expectation gap’s existence among Wintec accounting students and the effect that education has on the audit expectation gap. This research intends to answer two research questions. First, does an audit expectation gap exist among Wintec accounting students? Second, what is the effect of education on the audit expectation gap? To answer these research questions, 20 Wintec accounting students have been interviewed. Ten students who have received an audit education, and ten students who have not received audit education. Qualitative data was collected from these interviews and analysed using a mixed methods approach. This study found that an audit education exists among Wintec accounting students. This study also found that education reduced the audit expectation gap, in particular, the deficient performance gap and the communication gap. However, while education did reduce the audit expectations gap, it was not eliminated. This study recommends that Wintec provides a more basic auditing education during introductory accounting papers, educating students on the role of an auditor. This study also recommends that education focuses on the practical use of an audit report, to increase student’s understandings of the information in the audit report, and how this information is communicated. Thus, the researcher believes that these recommendations will help to further reduce the audit expectation

Accounting students’ motivations and expectations of their major: A study of Wintec accounting students

This research aspires to discuss and analyse the current system of recruiting and retaining volunteers in the events industry, and a comparison with the volunteer programme model existing in H3 Group. The method chosen for this research is qualitative, as the research includes interviews. In order to get a better understanding, interviews are going to be held with people who are part of the industry and have extensive knowledge of this matter. In addition, with the purpose knowing another perspective, two people will be interviewed who habitually participate in activities as volunteers for H3 Group, specifically for sports events in FMG Stadium. The results obtained basically indicate that there is a difference between the information given by the person in charge of the volunteer program of H3 Group, and the perception that the volunteers had about their personal experience of volunteering for the matches held by the Rugby League World Cup in November last year. The difference occurs mainly because according to the information provided by H3 Group, the volunteer programme includes a whole complete process, and the staff is always making sure that the volunteers feel comfortable and confident about what are they tasks. On the other hand, the volunteers think that the assigned task was not of great importance and that many times they got bored because they had nothing to do. Also, they did not receive any feedback on their performance, so they were not sure if what they did was good or not

The extent to which businesses in New Zealand are willing to pay carbon tax and other related mechanisms of carbon pricing.

Global climate change is the most critical environmental and economic problem that must be addressed. Failure to address the issue of climate change will result in catastrophic and irreversible damage to natural resources. Issues around climate change have been created by problems caused by industrial pollution and reckless deforestation for commercial gains. Therefore, corporations and businesses should be held accountable for damage they cause. The release of greenhouse gasses should be eliminated or reduced and one way to achieve this is by introducing carbon tax. The aim of this research is to determine the awareness and acceptance of carbon tax and carbon related pricing for businesses in New Zealand. This research included different businesses from different sectors to obtain generalisable results. Quantitative data was gathered from 15 businesses using a closed questionnaire. The data gathered by the survey were than analysed using a percentage approach. The research found that the businesses were aware of carbon tax and its importance. The majority of the businesses were prepared to incur extra carbon tax cost however, preferring the upstream method of taxation as they will be taxed based on quantum of emission. The literature and survey agree that revenue collected from carbon tax and related pricing should be used to fund research to reduce carbon emission and present carbon levels to the desired levels to protect the environment and ensure human existence

Motives and expectations for studying accounting: A case study of a polytechnic in New Zealand

New Zealand schools, universities, and institutes are known worldwide for their high standards. From 2007 to 2012 the international enrolments in postgraduate courses rose to 74.3%. In 2012, 47,668 international students enrolled with New Zealand’s funded tertiary education providers and 90,120 enrolled in 2013. This study aims to explore why international students choose to study accounting at a New Zealand polytechnic and what are their expectations of their study. To get answers to the above questions the qualitative research methods are used. Semi-structured interviews were conducted. The participants were mainly international students who were enrolled for an accounting course so that first-hand feedback could be received with an inductive approach. The findings from this research will help educational institutes to gain a better understanding of student’s expectations and accordingly tailor their qualifications. After conducting the interviews, few findings were related to the research literature. The research is still not complete as interviews are yet to be conducted with a couple of participants. As of now, the participants have expressed their interest of studying in New Zealand so that they can work in the economy. Since there are many small-medium sized enterprises, there is a good opportunity for accountants as most of their accounting needs are outsourced. After conducting sufficient interviews, data can be extracted to gain a precise understanding

Small business preference for software package

Until late 2016, the majority of small business uses QuickBooks and Excel to do their accounting work. However, the functions of these accounting tools are insufficient, and also the demands of companies are increasing. It has become inefficient and antiquated to use the software. A small business looked for new accounting software, but found that choosing an accounting software system is not straightforward, as every software package consists of different functions for users. The aim of this research was to analyse small business’ perceptions and preferences for accounting software systems in New Zealand. This is followed by an analysis of why users might want to replace their previous accounting software systems. In addition, the requirements for selecting accounting software were analysed. The main method used was qualitative research. Three people were interviewed regarding the reason for replacing their previous accounting software system. The first interviewee had not changed their accounting software system previously, but their reason for replacing their current accounting software system was that their previous accounting software system lacked the functionality he wanted. The second interviewee said e she disliked that the system frequently crashed and that it lacked the features she wanted. The reason why the last interviewee changed her previous accounting software system was that MYOB system could not improve her work efficiency

The emerging role of inventory management in small restaurants: Developing an effective inventory management system for a small pizza shop

The inventory management system is foremost in each association; particularly such associations who supply goods in advance for trade to consumers. This study project is determined on the place of work of the researcher, “Poppas Pizza.” The study is limited to learning the inventory management system of “Poppas Pizza”, classifying the limitations of the inventory system of the shop, and recommending solutions to progress the inventory management system of the shop. The entire research is dependent on the qualitative technique involving the personal observations of the researcher and, furthermore, with carrying out discussions with the shop director to identify information about these weaknesses. The study found weaknesses of the shop through learning the present inventory management system of the shop, and suggestions has been completed to progress the technique. The suggestions were completed through the previous studies and from the interviews

Corporate social responsibility: Exploring trends in social and environmental disclosure

With the increasing pressure placed on organisations by their stakeholders to accept responsibility for social and environmental impacts, corporate social reporting (CSR) is becoming increasingly important. In aiming to explore trends in CSR, and motivations behind the issuing of CSR reports by New Zealand companies, content analysis was first used to review annual reports and stand-alone corporate social responsibility reports produced by the top ten organisations listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZX). The content analysis aimed to identify any patterns and trends in the volume of disclosure during the 2013 to 2017 period. Additionally, environmental managers or staff concerned with CSR within organisations listed on the NZX were interviewed with the purpose of finding out what motivates them to report on social and environmental matters and how they decide the topics to report on. The study identified that there had been an increase in the level of reporting during the 2013 – 2017 period. The findings of this study highlight that CSR is motivated by key stakeholders, namely employees, institutional investors and shareholders. Risk management and protection of the business brand and image are also key motivations for CSR. Finally, organisations use a variety of methods to produce reports, including the use of standards, guidelines and risk assessments to set some clear goals and targets to report on. The researcher recommends that the study be carried out in the future with a wider scope to monitor the state of CSR reporting in New Zealand