To answer this question, candidates are required to remember the cash flow cycle and cost entries as well as the impact of their timing on a business.
Diagram Description automatically generated

Source: https://cfoperspective.com/free-your-cash-trapped-in-the-cash-conversion-cycle/ Shorter payment term and more inventory are likely to have negative impact on the cash flow be-cause the buyer has to pay sooner and greater.
“Customers agree to pay immediately” will increase the organisation’s bank account sooner.
Depreciation has no impact on cash flow as it is only listed in Profit and Loss statement.
Increasing revenue may have negative or positive impact on cash flow, depending on the real situation.
Reference: CIPS study guide page 54
LO 1, AC 1.4

According to Investopedia, the financial services sector provides financial services to people and corporations. This segment of the economy is made up of a variety of financial firms includ-ing banks, investment houses, lenders, finance companies, real estate brokers, and insurance com-panies. As noted above, the financial services industry is probably the most important sector of the economy, leading the world in terms of earnings and equity market capitalization. Large conglomerates dominate this sector, but it also includes a diverse range of smaller companies.
According to the finance and development department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), financial services are the processes by which consumers or businesses acquire financial goods. For example, a payment system provider offers a financial service when it accepts and transfers funds between payers and recipients.
This includes accounts settled through credit and debit cards, checks, and electronic funds transfers.
Companies in the financial services industry manage money. For instance, a financial advi-sor manages assets and offers advice on behalf of a client. The advisor does not directly provide investments or any other product, rather, they facilitate the movement of funds between savers and the issuers of securities and other instruments. This service is a temporary task rather than a tangible asset.
Financial goods, on the other hand, are not tasks. They are things. A mortgage loan may seem like a service, but it’s actually a product that lasts beyond the initial provision. Stocks, bonds, loans, commodity assets, real estate, and insurance policies are examples of financial goods.
Reference: CIPS study guide page 79-80
LO 2, AC 2.1

RAQSCI stands for Regulatory, Availability, Quality, Service, Cost, Innovation.
LO 1, AC 1.1

Traditional financial systems operate with a centralised database, usually with a single point of authority.
Blockchain technology, on the other hand, allows for a distributed database that holds a growing number of records. Instead of existing in one place, the ledger is continually updated and synchronised across multiple computers in a network. Therefore, any participant in the network with the proper authorisation can view the entire ledger – without relying on an intermediary or any one authority.
Another key feature of blockchain technology is a “smart contract,” which is a self-executing protocol that enforces a previously agreed arrangement. For example, a smart contract could trigger an automatic refund under certain conditions or the automatic payment of an agreed commission after a sale. These smart contracts can eliminate delays in traditional Finance processes, while increasing transparency and reducing reliance on middlemen to follow through on their commitments. Moreover, like other parts of a blockchain, smart contracts are immutable, so they can enhance accuracy in the financial statements.
LO 2, AC 2.1

Printing and office supplies are often considered as low risk, low value items. Consolidation low value, low risk items into a broader range will dramatically increases the value of the contract and leverage of buying organisation in the negotiation.
Reference: CIPS study guide page 8-9
LO 1, AC 1.1

The buyer won’t pay the supplier until next month. This is a liability to the buyer. This amount can be recorded as accrued expense or accounts payable. On the other hand, the supplier has not sent the invoice, so it should be accrued expense.
Both accounts payables and accrued expenses are liabilities. Accounts payable is the total amount of short-term obligations or debt a company has to pay to its creditors for goods or services bought on credit. With accounts payables, the vendor’s or supplier’s invoices have been received and recorded.
On the other hand, accrued expenses are the total liability that is payable for goods and services that have been consumed by the company or received. However, accrued expenses are those bills in which an invoice or bill has not yet been received. As a result, accrued expenses can sometimes be an estimated amount of what’s owed, which is adjusted later to the exact amount, once the invoice has been received.
Conversely, accounts payable should represent the exact amount of the total owed from all of the invoices received.
Reference:
– CIPS study guide page 55-56
– Understanding Accrued Expenses vs. Accounts Payable (investopedia.com) LO 1, AC 1.4

There are many types of barriers to entry into a market. Some of these include:
– Economies of Scale: When manufacturing or selling at a large scale, companies are able to avail cost advantages because per unit costs of the product fall. So the more the company produces in quantity the more the benefit. When existing companies have this advantage, it can act as a barrier to entry because a new entrant will have to try to match the scale to achieve the same cost ad-vantage as the existing company. This may not be possible at the initial stage.
– A Differentiated Product: If the product being sold by the existing company or companies is highly differentiated or enjoys strong brand loyalty, then this can act as a strong barrier to entry. The new entrant will have to invest in creating a product with newer and unique features and bene-fits that surpass those offered by the old company. In addition, there will need to be strong efforts to break existing brand loyalties and shift them to a new untested company.
– High Capital Costs: If an industry requires huge capital investments at the onset, then this will act as a barrier to entry for many of the potential entrants. Only those will attempt to enter the competitive fray who have the resources to make this high initial investment.
– Other Cost Advantages: Apart from those cost benefits that come from economies of scale, there are other advantages that an existing firm may enjoy. These include access to the best suppliers, an understanding of existing materials and knowledge of their quality, possession of any necessary and important patents, and proprietary information and technological knowledge. There are also learning advantages, achieved over years of business and experience.
– Cost of Switching: The cost associated with a consumer’s move from one company or product or another is called the switching cost. If there are significant switching costs, then a new entrant may not be able to create means of removing these. Or, they may have to offer significant advantage to counter these switching costs at their own expense.
– Distribution Network: Often, distribution relationships are well established and may prove to be a strong barrier to entry for a new company. A new entrant will obviously need access to these dis-tribution channels but will need to invest extra in order to engage distributors who have established relations with existing competitors.
– Suppliers: As with distributors, suppliers may be vital to the operations of a new business. Exist-ing suppliers may have contracts or loyalties with existing companies and may prove to be difficult to form relationships with.
– Legal and Government Created Barriers: Government and regulatory requirements such as permits and licenses may be a strong barrier to entry. There may also be laws governing ways to conduct business that may conflict with a company’s practices in other countries.
– Barriers to Exit: Interestingly, barriers to exit may act as a deterrent to entry by new companies. If a company is unable to easily leave a competitive environment in case business does not work out, then it will have to stay and compete even if that is a detrimental business practice. In this case, the company may choose to not enter the market in the first place.

Based on variability, the costs has been classified into three categories, they are fixed, variable and semi variable. Fixed costs, as its name suggests, is fixed in total i.e. irrespective of the number of output produced.
Variable costs vary with the number of output produced. Semi-variable is the type of costs, which have the characteristics of both fixed costs and variable costs (Source: Key Differences).
Among above costs, leasing and depreciation are relatively static and do not change if volume of business activities increase or reduce.
Packaging, utilities and annual business rate (tax) are variable costs.
Reference: CIPS study guide page 26
LO 1, AC 1.2

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation (from CIPS L4M2: Market Analysis) Competitiveness is determined by market structure-how many suppliers operate and how concentrated they are.
A large number of suppliers = competitive market; few suppliers = oligopoly/monopoly # less competitive.
Hence, C is correct.
Relevant CIPS L4M2 Sections:
* Market competitiveness and supplier concentration
* Market intelligence for sourcing strategies

Through-life Management involves the life-cycle management of the products, services and activities required to deliver a fully integrated capability to the customer, while reducing the cost of ownership for the customer.
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Source: Andrew Graves
The installation stage occurs in In-Service Operations. At this stage, the machinery is shipped and installed on the buyer’s premises and check to ensure that it is working to the standards set out in the design specification.

The Kano model is useful in gaining a thorough understanding of a customer’s needs. You can translate and transform the resulting verbatims using the voice of the customer table that, subse-quently, becomes an excellent input as the whatsin a quality function deployment (QFD) House of Quality.
The model involves two dimensions:
Achievement (the horizontal axis), which goes from the supplier didn’t do it at all to the supplier did it very well.
Satisfaction (the vertical axis), which goes from total dissatisfaction with the product or service to total satisfaction with the product or service.
Dr. Noriaki Kano isolated and identified three levels of customer expectations: that is, what it takes to positively impact customer satisfaction. The figure below portrays the three levels of need: expected, normal, and exciting.

The Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI) is a conflict style inventory, which is a tool developed to measure an individual’s response to conflict situations.
Genichi Taguchi, a Japanese engineer, proposed several approaches to experimental designs that are sometimes called “Taguchi Methods.” These methods utilize two-, three-, and mixed-level fractional factorial designs. Large screening designs seem to be particularly favored by Taguchi adherents.
Six Sigma is a method that provides organizations tools to improve the capability of their business processes.
This increase in performance and decrease in process variation helps lead to defect re-duction and improvement in profits, employee morale, and quality of products or services.
Source:
– CIPS study guide page 171-172
– WHAT IS THE KANO MODEL?
LO 3, AC 3.4

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation (from CIPS L4M2 – Financial Management in Procurement) Positive cash flow arises when money flows into the business:
* A. Bank loan # immediate inflow of cash.
* D. Customer pays upon purchase # quick revenue collection, improving liquidity.
The other options either delay or reduce available cash (outflows).
Relevant L4M2 references:
* “Cash flow and working capital in procurement decision-making”
* “Financial metrics in business case justification”

If an organisation doesn’t have capability to produce a technical specification, they can draft one based on standards or consulting the suppliers.
Reference: CIPS study guide page 125-130
LO 3, AC 3.1

ISO 14001:2015 specifies the requirements for an environmental management system that an or-ganization can use to enhance its environmental performance. ISO 14001:2015 is intended for use by an organization seeking to manage its environmental responsibilities in a systematic manner that contributes to the environmental pillar of sustainability.
ISO 14001:2015 helps an organization achieve the intended outcomes of its environmental man-agement system, which provide value for the environment, the organization itself and interested parties. Consistent with the organization’s environmental policy, the intended outcomes of an environmental management system include:
* enhancement of environmental performance;
* fulfilment of compliance obligations;
* achievement of environmental objectives.
ISO 14001:2015 is applicable to any organization, regardless of size, type and nature, and applies to the environmental aspects of its activities, products and services that the organization determines it can either control or influence considering a life cycle perspective. ISO 14001:2015 does not state specific environmental performance criteria.
ISO 14001:2015 can be used in whole or in part to systematically improve environmental manage-ment.
Claims of conformity to ISO 14001:2015, however, are not acceptable unless all its require-ments are incorporated into an organization’s environmental management system and fulfilled without exclusion.
In conclusion, ISO 14001:2015 focuses on: management system (including roles, leadership and processes) and the life cycle of product or service. Life cycle is defined as “consecutive and inter-linked stages of a product (or service) system, from raw material acquisition or generation from natural resources to final disposal. […] The life cycle stages include acquisition of raw materials, design, production, transportation/ delivery, use, end-of-life treatment and final disposal.” The answer is process and life cycle.

Risks like natural disasters – fire, flood, or weather-related event, and cyber-attacks can disrupt the supply chain seriously. Threats and disruptions mean a loss of revenue and higher costs, which leads to a drop in profitability. And businesses can’t rely on insurance alone because it doesn’t cover all the costs and the customers who move to the competition. Risks must be identified early and supplier should have a plan that ensures continuous operations during disasters.
There are several steps many companies must follow to develop a solid business continuity plan. They include:
– Business Impact Analysis: Here, the business will identify functions and related resources that are time- sensitive. (More on this below.)
– Recovery: In this portion, the business must identify and implement steps to recover critical business functions.
– Organization: A continuity team must be created. This team will devise a plan to manage the disruption.
– Training: The continuity team must be trained and tested. Members of the team should also complete exercises that go over the plan and strategies.
Reference: CIPS study guide page 138.
LO 3, AC 3.2

The aim of this question is to check students’ understanding of different types of data. There are 2 types of data:
– Primary data is the collection of original or raw data which are generated from field research. In this case, only RFI and surveys from customers are considered as primary data.
– On the other hand, secondary data is public information that has been collected by others. It is typically free or inexpensive to obtain and can act as a strong foundation to any research project – provided you know where to find it and how to judge its worth and relevance. Examples of secondary data are government statistics, industry associations, trade publications, published market reports, etc.

In construction, specifications are written documents that describe the materials and workmanship required for a development. They do not include cost, quantity or drawn information but need to be read alongside other contract documentation such as quantities, schedules and drawings.
Specifications vary considerably depending on the stage to which the design has been developed, ranging from performance (open) specifications that require further design by a contractor or sup-plier, to prescriptive (closed) specifications where the design is already complete when the project is tendered.
Prescriptive specifications give the client more certainty about the end product when they make their final investment decision (i.e. when they appoint the contractor), whereas a performance specification gives the contractor and suppliers more scope to innovate and adopt cost effective methods of work, potentially offering better value for money.
Typically, performance specifications are written on projects that are straight-forward, standard building types, whereas prescriptive specifications are written for more complex buildings, or buildings where the client has requirements that might not be familiar to contractors and where certainty regarding the exact nature of the completed development is more important to the client.
Performance specification has some disadvantages:
– Well-defined performance metrics are needed to ensure that the specified performance will achieve the desired outcome
– Require reliable, practical, economical tests of performance
– Evaluations are subjective and require additional time and effort to complete Therefore, if a performance specification is used, the buying organisation will have to ensure that they are able to define and conduct tests on whether supplier’s solution can deliver the desired out-come.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation (paraphrased from CIPS L4M2 content) In CIPS L4M2, a business case is defined as the document or analysis that:
* Sets out the need or problem,
* Identifies and compares options (including “do nothing”),
* Assesses the costs, benefits, risks and impacts of each option,
* Provides a clear recommendation supported by evidence.
Its primary purpose is to provide decision-makers with a justification for investment or change, based on a structured evaluation.
Thus:
* Option A – correctly describes the main purpose: assessing costs and benefits of options.
* Options B, C and D – these are decisions or outputs that might be informed by a business case, but they are not what a business case “allows” by definition.
* Approving sourcing strategies or supplier lists is normally part of procurement governance, influenced by the business case but not the same as it.
* Approving final spend is a financial approval decision that follows from the business case evaluation.
Relevant CIPS L4M2 areas:
* Structure and purpose of a business case
* Option appraisal, costs, benefits and risk analysis
* The role of the business case in justifying external sourcing

Through-life Management involves the life-cycle management of the products, services and activities required to deliver a fully integrated capability to the customer, while reducing the cost of ownership for the customer.

Source: Andrew Graves
With through-life management, buyer not only cares about the physical asset but also other factors like customer services and maintenance.
Reference:
LO 3, AC 3.2

Risk control is the process by which an organization reduces the likelihood of a risk event occurring or mitigates the effects that risk should it occur. CIPS preferred way to determine your risk control strategy is to use the four T’s Process:
Transferring Risk can be achieved through the use of various forms of insurance, or the payment to third parties who are prepared to take the risk on behalf of the organization Tolerating Risk is where no action is taken to mitigate or reduce a risk. This may be because the cost of instituting risk reduction or mitigation activity is not cost-effective or the risks of impact are at so low that they are deemed acceptable to the business. Even when these risks are tolerated they should be monitored because future changes may make it no longer tolerable.
Treating Risk is a method of controlling risk through actions that reduce the likelihood of the risk occurring or minimize its impact prior to its occurrence. Also, there are contingent measures that can be developed to reduce the impact of an event once it has occurred. Finding an alternative sup-plier is an example of treating the risk.
Terminating Risk is the simplest and most often ignored method of dealing with risk. It is the ap-proach that should be most favored where possible and simply involves risk elimination. This can be done by altering an inherently risky process or practice to remove the risk. The same can be used when reviewing practices and processes in all areas of the business.
If an item presents a risk and can be changed or removed without it materially affecting the busi-ness, then removing the risk should be the first option considered; rather than attempting the treat, tolerate or transfer it.

According to Kraljic portfolio matrix, the low-value items with high supply risk are bottleneck items.

The purchasing strategy that is commonly recommended for these products is primarily based on acceptance of the dependence and reduction of the negative effects of the unfavourable position. An alternative strategy suggested by purchasing practitioners is to find other suppliers and move towards the non-critical quadrant.
– Accept dependence, reduce negative consequences: The main focus of this strategy is to assure supply, if necessary even at additional cost. Examples of this strategy are keeping extra stocks of the materials concerned or developing consigned stock agreements with suppliers. By performing a risk analysis firms can identify the most important bottleneck products and consider the implications. A possible action for dealing with unexpected bad dependence positions for certain products is to employ contingency planning.
– Reduce dependence and risk, find other solutions: This strategy is geared towards reducing the dependence on the supplier. The most common way to achieve this is to broaden the specifications of the product or to search for new suppliers.
The procurement team in the scenario has selected reducing dependency by finding alternatives. This is a right strategy for bottleneck item.

Value Analysis (VA) is concerned with existing products. It involves a current product being ana-lysed and evaluated by a team, to reduce costs, improve product function or both. Value Analysis exercises use a plan which step-by-step, methodically evaluates the product in a range of areas. These include costs, function, alternative components and design aspects such as ease of manufac-ture and assembly.
According to the Value Methodology standard, there are 6 phases to a Value Analysis:
– Information
– Function Analysis
– Creative
– Evaluation
– Development
– Presentation
1. Information
In this first phase, the team attempts to understand why the project exists and who or what it is to produce.
They obtain project data, present the original design or product concepts, and understand the project scope.
Schedule, costs, budget, risk, and other non-monetary issues are studied until the team is comfortable with the concept of the project, what it is to produce, and who its end users are.
This step also includes things like site visits and meetings with the project team, if required. Project documents like plans, drawings, specifications, and reports are obtained and the value engineering team becomes familiar with them.
2. Function Analysis
This step represents the meat and potatoes (core) of the value analysis. The team attempts to determine the functions the project serves. Functions come in two forms:
– Primary functions are those that represent the reason for the project’s existence, for example, a building project might have adequate plumbing as a primary function.
– Secondary functions are those that the project serves without being core to the project. For example, a building project might have as a secondary function maintaining the view of the neighboring building.
The functions are described in verb/noun pairs, such as “supply water to all suites,” or “Maintain view of adjacent park.” For a project like this, the team should come up with 10 – 15 functions. You might be surprised how many secondary functions exist for most projects. Subject matter experts would be a great resource, but in their absence an appropriate level of brainstorming and analysis are necessary.
The team should also identify value-mismatched functions to focus the improvements on. For ex-ample, maybe a large obstruction is preventing the view of the adjacent park from too many suites resulting in a potential mismatch of the cost vs. functional benefit. This is investigated in the next step.
3. Creative
This phase represents the generation of improvement ideas. The team develops alternative ways that the project can perform the functions that have been identified. At this step, the functions are looked at individually and each one gets a list of alternative ways to perform the function. There is no judging between the importance of the various functions.
4. Evaluation
At this stage, a priority is given to each project improvement idea. The ideas are discussed and potential costs are determined. Once the risk-reward profile of each idea is itemized, the team has determined which ideas are worth implementing into the project or feature.
A few years ago, there was a pedestrian bridge built near my home which was originally designed for emergency vehicles. Although this type of design is standard practice for the bridges of this type, the value engineering team identified that emergency vehicle passage was not needed (verb/noun pair = ‘maintain passage for emergency vehicles’). Also, a second major outcome of this value analysis was to change the design to an aesthetic, curved bridge because it was in a prominent location. The redesign of the bridge cost some money but this was more than made up by the cost of the bridge construction. Thus, the value analysis paid for itself about 10 times over in the reduced construction cost, and the bridge was significantly more aesthetic.
5. Development
Once the value improvement options have been whittled down to the ones that make sense, the value engineering team develop the options to the point of passing them back to the original project team. They must be clearly written and explained so that the project owner and stakeholders can understand how it benefits the project and act on it. Any potential negative factors are identified. Potential costs and cost savings are itemized.
6. Presentation
This last phase represents the presentation of the alternatives to the stakeholders. Often value engineering represents a change in the normal practices that people are used to, an “out of the box thinking.” Thus the best salesperson on the team is often the best one to do the presentation.
Some typical products of a value engineering analysis are a briefing document, risk analy-sis, present worth analysis, advantages vs. disadvantages, etc.
Reference: CIPS study guide page 163-171
LO 3, AC 3.4