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ACCA Applied Knowledge · Management Accounting · Sources of data

Delta Co is preparing a sales forecast. It has the following data items: (1) last year's sales volumes by product from its sales system; (2) forecast national GDP growth from a government agency; (3) customer complaint logs held by its customer service department; (4) a market research agency's survey of consumer preferences. How many of these are external data sources?

Two of the items are external: the government GDP growth forecast and the market research agency survey. The sales volumes from the company's own system and the customer complaint logs held by its customer service department are internally generated data.

  1. A1
  2. B2Correct
  3. C3
  4. D4

Explanation

Items (2) the government agency forecast and (4) the market research survey come from outside Delta Co, so they are external. Items (1) sales system and (3) complaint logs are generated internally. Therefore two items are external. Choosing 3 wrongly treats complaint logs as external because customers originated them, but the records are held and produced internally.

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