ACCA Applied Skills · Performance Management · Uses and control of information
A retail chain records every till transaction as a line showing item code, quantity and price. A regional manager receives a weekly report that ranks stores by gross margin percentage and highlights those below target. Which statement best describes the relationship between the till records and the weekly report?
The till records are data and the weekly report is information. Raw transaction lines have no context, whereas ranking stores by margin against a target processes the data into something meaningful and useful for a manager's decision.
- AThe till records are information and the weekly report is raw data, because the report is produced later
- BThe till records are data and the weekly report is information, because processing has given the data context and meaning for a decisionCorrect
- CBoth are data, because neither has yet been used to take a decision
- DBoth are information, because both were produced by the company's systems
Explanation
Data are raw facts and figures without context. Processing the till lines into ranked margin percentages against a target gives them meaning and relevance for the manager, which makes the report information. The first option reverses the two terms.
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