CAS3701
Assignment 11
2024 - DUE 13
September 2024
QUESTIONS WITH COMPLETE ANSWERS
[School]
[Course title]
,CAS3701 Assignment 11 2024 - DUE 13 September 2024
QUESTION 1
1. BACKGROUND LearnCo. Limited (LearnCo.) is a top training provider that offers skills
development training solutions to businesses and government institutions in South Africa. The
company is based in Gauteng, South Africa and has a 30 June 2024 year-end. LearnCo. offers a
wide variety of courses in health and safety, leadership and managerial skills, occupational health
and even on emerging technologies like machine learning, robotics, coding and artificial
intelligence. The company conducts the training at the client’s workplace premises. LearnCo.
employs 250 facilitators permanently. The facilitators come from a diverse range of fields in line
with the courses offered by the company. The facilitators spend majority of their time travelling
to clients throughout the country and consequently, LearnCo. incurs a high amount of
expenditure related to travel claims. You have recently been appointed as the Financial Manager
(FM) of LearnCo. The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is orientating you about the company and
its payroll system. The payroll system is outlined below.
2. PAYROLL SYSTEM LearnCo. uses a payroll software called Revolve X. Revolve X is highly
advanced and is powered by artificial intelligence (AI). Revolve X automates the majority of
routine payroll-related transactions. These include screening CVs submitted online, shortlisting
candidates, performing monthly reconciliations, filing electronic reports, computing the monthly
payroll expense, and validating and processing input data for the payroll. Any valid employee of
LearnCo. has login access. LearnCo. has a limited Human Resource (HR) unit in place. The HR
unit currently consists of the HR manager and two payroll clerks. The HR manager is currently
, responsible for conducting interviews, completing the recruitment process and retirements. The
CFO explained that other than the screening of CVs and shortlisting of candidates against pre-
determined criteria, Revolve X also assists the HR manager by providing pre-populated
templates for employee contracts. The payroll clerks are responsible for capturing approved rates
for travel claims, medical aid, provident fund and other applicable expenditures. Revolve X also
houses the employee database. As the FM, you will approve and sign off the employee contracts
on behalf of the company, ensure that applicable rates are up to date and that the schedules
produced by the system are correct prior to authorisation for payment.
2.1 Dismissals and resignations Dismissals and resignations occur seldomly at LearnCo. The HR
manager is currently overloaded with his duties, so management decided to move the handling of
dismissals and resignations solely to the CFO. You were busy reviewing the payroll and noted
details of two employees, with employee numbers 452901 and 370213, who were dismissed in
September 2023 and December 2023, respectively, but were still included in the payroll.
Fortunately, no payments have been made to the employees since their dismissals. When you
followed up on this matter with the CFO, he indicated to you that he has a practice of removing
such employees from the payroll at the company’s year-end.
2.2 Employee expense Employees are paid salaries on the last working day of the month.
LearnCo. has no set salary structure for its employees. Employees can secure a higher pay-rate
upon their appointment and during their performance reviews based on performance, experience
and negotiation skills. Revolve X retrieves input data for the payroll payment from the employee
database (which contains a list of employees, their annual approved salary and benefits) and
PAYE, medical aid and provident fund tables. Revolve X is programmed to use AI to ensure that
only the latest tax rates for individuals, rates for UIF and medical tax credits are used. Revolve X