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ACCA Strategic Professional · Advanced Performance Management · Management reports

Calloway Retail's management report is produced on the 25th of the following month, and sales managers say that by then promotions have ended and corrective action is impossible. Management proposes a live dashboard drawing on point-of-sale data. What is the main risk that should be assessed before adoption?

The main risk is reliability: real-time point-of-sale data may not be validated or reconciled, and short-term swings can mislead, so managers might act on inaccurate figures. Timeliness improves, but the trade-off with accuracy and data governance must be assessed before adoption.

  1. AReal-time data may be unreconciled or unvalidated, so managers could act on unreliable or volatile figuresCorrect
  2. BDashboards cannot show variances against budget
  3. CPoint-of-sale data is always less accurate than monthly ledger data
  4. DA dashboard removes the need for any budget

Explanation

Faster reporting improves timeliness but may trade off reliability, as data may not yet be cleansed or reconciled and short-term fluctuations may mislead. Dashboards can show variances, and POS data is not inherently inferior. Dashboards do not replace budgets.

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