Tabulation – Parts of a Table, Specimen and Rules of Table Construction

Q. What are the different parts of a table ? Draw a specimen of a table. Mention the rules of construction of a table. 

Ans. A table is a Symmetric arrangement of statistical data in rows and columns. Rows are horizontal arrangements whereas columns are vertical arrangements.

● Parts of a Table: The number of parts of a table varies from case to case depending upon the given data. However, in general, a statistical table consists of following eight parts. 

(i) Table Number: Each table should be given a number. Table number helps in distinguishing one table from the other tables. Usually tables are numbered according to the order of their appearance in a chapter. For example, the first table in the eighth chapter of a book should be given number 8.1 and the second table of the same chapter be given 8.2 and so on. Table number can be given at its top above the title or in the bottom towards the left of the table, provided the space permits.

(ii) Title of the Table: Every table should have a suitable title. It should be short, clear and self explanatory. Title should be such that one can know, what is the nature of the data contained in the table as well as where and when such data occurred. Title of table is either placed just below the table number or at its right.

(iii) Head Note: The Head-note is a brief explanatory statement applying to all or major part of the material in table. It usually contains the unit of measurement of data. It is placed just below the title or at the right hand top corner of the table in brackets.

(iv) Caption: Caption refers to the headings of the columns. It explains what the column represents. It may consist of one or more column heads. A caption should be brief, concise and self-explanatory. Column heading is written in the middle of a column in small letters.

(v) Stub: Stub refers to the headings of rows. Stubs perform the same functions for rows as the stubs do for columns. But stubs are usually wider than the column heading.

(vi) Body: This is the most important part of a table. It contains a number of cells. Cells are formed due to the intersection of rows and columns. Data are entered in these cells. 

(vii) Foot Note: A foot note is given at the bottom of a table. It helps in clarifying the point which is not cleared in the table. A footnote may be keyed to the title or to any column or to any row heading. There are many ways to identify footnotes. One can be number them consecutively with small numbers 1,2,3,4 or letters a, b, c, d or by symbols such as *,+,@,£, etc.

(viii) Source Note: The source note shows the source of data presented in the table. Data can be verified from the source. This brings reliability and accuracy in data. The source note shows the name of the author, title, volume, page, publisher’s name, year and place of publication of the book or journal or survey or the report from which the data is compiled.

● Specimen of a table: 

Table No.

Title of the table

	Head Note
Stub Heading	Caption Heading- Column Heading
Stub Entries	Body
Footnotes

● General Rules of Tabulation: It is very difficult to lay down any hard and fast for tabulation of data. But there are some points which serve as a guide for tabulation of data. 

(i) A good table must contain all the essential parts, such as Table number, Title, Head note, Caption, Stub, Body, Foot note and source note.

(ii) A table should be simple, precise and attractive. It should not be necessary to go through the footnotes or explanation to properly understand a table. 

(iii) Rows and columns of a table must be numbered. Proper and clear headings for columns and rows should be there.

(iv) Items should be arranged either in alphabetical, chronological or geographical order or according to size, importance or emphasis to facilitate comparison.

(v) Columns and rows to be compared with one another should be brought together.

(vi) The unit of measurement should be well defined mentioned in the head note.

(vii) The figures should be rounded off to the nearest hundred, or thousand or lakh. It helps in avoiding unnecessary details.

(viii) If the observations are large in number they can be broken into two or three tables.

(ix) Thick lines should be used to separate the data under big classes and thin lines to separate the sub classes of data.

(x) If certain figures are to be given some importance, then these should be placed in a box or circle.

(xi) The total of the rows should be given in the extreme right column and the total of the column at the foot. 

(xii) Indicate a zero quantity by zero and do not use zero to indicate such information which is not available. Information which is not available should be indicated by the letters N.A. or by dash (-).

(xiii) Abbreviations should be avoided, particularly in titles and sub-titles.

(xiv) Ditto marks should be avoided in a table. Similarly, the expression ‘etc’ should not be used in a table. 

International Marketing – Meaning and Difference Between International Marketing and Domestic Marketing

Q. What do you mean by International Marketing? How it differs from National Marketing?

OR

Write a detailed note on Domestic Marketing v/s International Marketing. 

Ans. Meaning of International Marketing: Extension of marketing activities across the globe is known as global marketing. When a business unit carries on its marketing activities in more than one nation, then it is indulging in international marketing. 

According to Harold Barson, “International marketing is the process of establishing multinational physical distribution channels and undertaking various activities for selling the products and services in different nations.”

According to Van Terpestra, “International marketing is the process of planning, designing, executing marketing strategies to achieve marketing objectives in the markets of other countries.”

Difference between Domestic Marketing and International Marketing 

Basis	Domestic Marketing	International Marketing
1. Meaning	Products are sold within the boundaries of a country. So the geographic area of market is limited to the country. OR Marketing activities carried out within the boundaries of a country.	Products are sold in different nations across the world. Goods of one country are marketed across the border of a nation. So, the goods are sold over a vast geographic area. OR Marketing activities carried out across national boundaries.
2. Currency	There is no problem of arranging currency as payments are made in terms of domestic currency.	Different currencies are used in different countries. So, the problem of arranging foreign currency arises. Further, the exchange rate is always fluctuating which also adds to the problem of settling accounts.
3. Economic Policies	Various economic policies of the government regulating business and trade are uniform within the country, like fiscal policy, monetary policy, industrial policy, licensing policy, etc. are uniform within the country.	Economic polices are usually different in various nations. The economic policy of one country are not applicable in the other nations. Show the international marketer has to understand economic policies of all the countries where it intends to extend its marketing activities.
4. Socio-Cultural Environment	Within a nation, certain socio-cultural variables are homogeneous. So it is easy to analyse and understand socio-cultural environment in case of domestic marketing.	There may be more heterogeneity in socio-cultural environment among different nations. So, the analysis of socio-cultural environment of various nations is a difficult task.
5. Magnitude of Risk	It has lesser risk as goods are sold within a country. It involves less travelling time, less risk of bad debts as it is easier to analyse credit-worthiness within a nation. It does not involve risk of fluctuations in foreign exchange rate.	It has more risk as goods are sold across the boundaries of the nation. It involves more travelling time, political risk, exchange rate risk, sea-route risk, more credit risk as it is difficult to analyse credit-worthiness of customers across the world.
6. Legal and Political System	Within the country the larisrians regulating marketing activities are uniform, like Sale of Goods Act, Consumer Protection Act, Contract Act, Income Tax Act, etc. are uniform within India. Understanding these legislations within a nation is easier.	The legislations regulating international marketing are different in various nations. Further, international institutions like WTO, UNCTAD, IMF, etc, and Regional Economic Groups like SAARC, EU, SAFTA, NAFTA, etc. also affect various transactions of international marketing. So understanding legislative set up affecting international marketing is very complex.
7. Mobility of Factors of Production	Factors of production like labour and capital have easy mobility within the boundaries of the nation.	Factors of production are less mobile across nations. In some cases, these may be totally immobile due to legal hindrance, long distance, language hurdle, patriotism, customs, traditions, etc.
8. Tarrif and Non-Tariff Barriers	Within the nation, there are no tariff (import duty and export duty) and non-tariff barriers (quota, licence). So mobility of goods within the country from one state to other state is easy.	There are some tariff and non-tariff barriers on movement of goods from one country to other country. These barriers hinder the movement of goods from one nation to other nation.
9. Procedural Formalities	It involves less documentation and procedural formalities. Executing the transactions related to domestic marketing is not very complex task.	It involves very complex procedural formalities and documentation. The services of specialised staff are required to comply with official formalities. It increases the transaction cost of international marketing.
10. Language Problem	In domestic marketing, language barrier is not a serious problem. Although there may be various regional languages, but still because of common national language, the persons engaged in domestic marketing can communicate with each other.	Language problem is very serious across the nations. More than 10,000 languages are spoken in the world. Even in case of same language, the way of pronunciation is different in different nations. Services of translator/ interpreter are required.
11. Competition	The level of competition is less as marketers of one nation only compete with each other.	The level of competition is very high as marketiers from all over the world compete with each other.
12. Government Incentives	Generally, domestic traders get less incentives in comparison to exporters from government.	Government always gives more concessions and incentives to exporters so as to promote exports.
13. Market Research	Conducting market research is easier and less expensive as market area is less.	It is very difficult, costly and time consuming to conduct market research across the world. Further, global marketing environment is more dynamic in comparison to domestic marketing environment.
14. Measurement of Units and Packaging Norms	Packaging norms and measurement units are same within domestic economy. So, packaging and measuring do not pose any problem.	Packaging norms and measurement units may be different across the nations. For example, gold is weighed in tolas (10 grams) in India, while it is weighed in terms of ounce (28.349 grams) in some nations.
15. Quality Standards	Quality standards and norms are same within a nation. For example, in India, for electric appliances, ISI mark reflects good quality of product. But ISI mark is of little significance in international marketing.	Quality standards and norms are different in different nations. So international marketer will have to comply with quality norms of all such nations where it intends to market its product.
16. Market Characteristics	The characteristics of market viz. channels of distribution, advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, etc. are more or less similar within domestic market.	The characteristics of market viz. distribution network, advertising media, personal selling, tools of sales promotion, etc. across the world are significantly different.
17. Transportation	Rail and Road transport modes are generally used as the distance is less.	Sea-transport is the most commonly used mode of transport as the distance is very long. For sea transport, container packaging is used.
18. Chauvinism	Chauvinism (extreme love for one’s nation) supports purchase and sale of domestic goods. It promotes domestic marketing.	Chauvinism hinders the flow of goods across the world. For example, the slogan ‘Be Indian buy Indian’ creates hurdle for foreign marketers intending to sell goods in India.

Q. What do you mean by International Marketing? How it differs from National Marketing?

OR

Write a detailed note on Domestic Marketing v/s International Marketing. 

Futures – Meaning, Types and Mechanism of Futures

 Q. What do you meant by the term Future ? Explain in detail various types of Futures. Also provide the mechanism of future. 

Ans. Meaning of Futures: The most common type of derivatives is future contracts. In future, two parties make an agreement for rate of an asset at an agreed price on a future date. Seller in future contacts known as ‘Writer’ or ‘Shorts’ and buyer is known as ‘Longs’. These contracts are standardised contracts which contain quantity, quality (for commodities), delivery time and place for settlement. Future contracts have a maximum of 3 months trading cycle. Future contracts expire on the last Thursday of the expiry month. If the last Thursday is a trading holiday, the contracts expire on the previous trading day. Future contracts are available in 162 securities as stipulated by SEBI. The value of the future contracts on individual securities may not be less than ₹2 lakh at the time of introduction for the first time at any exchange in india. 

Types of Futures: Futures may be divided in two types:

(1) Commodity Futures: It is an agreement between buyer and seller to purchase and sell a particular commodity at a price at a given time. The price is specified on the date of agreement.

(2) Financial Futures: It is an agreement between buyer and seller to purchase and sell a particular security at a given price and at a given time. The price is fixed in advance on the date of agreement. The financial futures can be sub-divided in the following three types:

(i) Stock Index Futures: It is a contract which is based on the value of a stock index for the future payment of a sum of money. Stock index futures are used for headging, trading and investments.

(ii) Interest Rate Futures: In the interest rate futures, interest bearing securities are the underlying assets. It is an agreement which is based on the basis of interest rate of fixed interest securities. These are used to hedge against the risk of moving interest rate in the adverse direction. 

(iii) Currency Futures: It is also known as foreign exchange future. This future is a contract to exchange one currency for another at a specified date in future at a price which is decided on the agreement date. These futures are used for hedging and speculation. 

Mechanism / Mechanics of Trading: There are several basic facts that one must know to understand the futures market. This market can be easily understood if we know how the market works. The working or mechanics of Futures Trading is explained as follows:

(1) Clearing House: Each futures market has its own clearing house. This clearing house works as intermediator between the buyer and seller. All members of the exchange are required to settle their trade through the clearing house whether they have purchased or sold the derivatives. The settlement is to be made at the end of each trading session. The member has to deposit the required margin with the exchange. The deposit of amount depends upon the debit balance of the member. 

The clearing house works as other party for each buyer and seller. It means clearing house works as seller to the buyer and buyer to the seller. It is due to this reason that it is the duty of the clearing house to perform on its side of each contract. This mechanism greatly simplifies the future trading. It is almost impossible to settle the huge volumes of trade without the help of clearing house. The clearing house imposes margin requirements from members and marking to market to protect its interest.

(2) Margins: When a trade makes any position in future trade whether it is long or short, it is necessary to deposit an initial margin with the exchange. The aim of collecting margin money from the client or broker is to minimise the risk of settlement default by either buyer or seller. Margin money is like a security deposit and works as a cushion against a possible future loss of value. The payment of margin ensures that the risk is limited to the previous day’s price movement on each outstanding position. Once the transaction is settled, the margin money held by an exchange is released against the settlement liability. 

There are different types of margins like Initial margin, Variation Margin, Exposure Margin and Additional Margin. The intial margin is to be deposited to cover the largest potential loss in one day. It is to be deposited by both the parties before making any position in the futures contract. This margin is calculated by SPAN keeping in view the worst scenario. Variation or Mark-to-Market Margin is the daily profit or loss obtained by marking the member’s outstanding position to market.

(3) Marking to Market: Unlike the forwards contracts where settlement is done on maturity date, in futures trading, the valuation of assets is done at the end each trading day and the profit and loss is settled each day between the long and short position. This is known as Mark to Market or Marking to Market. It is the process of asset valuation. It directly determines what money the investor has lost on a particular day. It is also called as ‘Daily Settlement’. This procedure is conducted by clearing house daily which determines the value for the asset covered by futures contracts which is known as ‘Settlement Price’ and then the paper gain or loss is determined. For settlement price, the closing price of the stock on a particular day is taken into account. This process is undertaken to prevent the loss accumulation beyond affordability and thus helps clearing house in reducing its risk of guaranteeing the performance of contract. The amount of loss deducted out of one’s margin account is known as ‘Mark-to-Market’ margin.

(4) Price Limits: In general, there are no day minimum/maximum price ranges applicable for CNX Nifty future contracts. However, in order to prevent enormous order entry by trading members, operating ranges are kept at +/–10%. In respect of orders which have come under price freeze, members would be required to confirm to the exchange that there is no inadvertent error in the order entry and that order is genuine. On such confirmation, the exchange may approve such order. For futures on individual securities, the price bond is also +/–10% of the base price. 

Verification of Assets and Liabilities – Meaning, Auditor's Responsibility and Duties

 Q. What do you understand by verification of assets and liabilities ? How far an auditor is responsible for the verification of assets appearing in the balance sheet ?

OR

Q. What are the duties of auditor regarding verification of assets and liabilities?

Ans. Meaning of Verification: Verification is a technique of auditing in which the auditor certifies the assets and liabilities as shown in Balance Sheet by actual checking or an̈y other technique. 

According to Joseph Lancaster, “The verification of assets is a process by which the auditor substantiates the accuracy of the right-hand side of the balance sheet and must be considered as having three distinct objects: (a) the verification of the existence of assets, (b) the valuation of assets, and (c) the authority for their acquisitions.”

General rules of Verification: The auditor has to certify the truth and fairness of the financial position of a business, therefore, he should should certify the assets and liabilities , as shown in the Balance Sheet. The auditor should not issue a report unless he believes that the assets and liabilities as shown in the Balance Sheet are present in the business and are free of any charge, in case they have a charge, the same should be explained. If under any circumstances, the auditor issues a report without checking and verifying he would be held guilty for negligence.

The following rules should be followed by an auditor for verifying assets and liabilities:

(1) As far as possible the task of verification should be done by the auditor himself. He should not obtain any help from the employees of the client. In case this is not possible, then the task of verification should be assigned to the most responsible and trustworthy member of his staff and a test check should be done on his work to establish the effectiveness of verification.

(2) The title documents of the assets should be verified to establish the title and right of the client on those assets.

(3) A physical verification of assets should be done on the date of the Balance Sheet or end of financial year to satisfy any doubts as to their existence. In case it is not possible to do a physical verification of any assets then a certificate certifying its existence in the organisation should be obtained.

(4) Easily exchangeable or liquid assets (like stock, cheque, securities, cash, etc.) should be verified in one sitting only.

(5) The incomes and expenditure incurred for various assets should be carefully verified and it should be seen that expenses are incurred on existing assets onĺy.

(6) A certificate should be obtained from the client stating that the assets are free of any charge or if a charge exists the details of such charge.

(7) In case any asset has been given as security, then a certificate should be obtained from the concerned person and the relevant documents should be verified.

(8) In case any asset has been kept in custody of a person, a certificate for the same should be obtained from him.

(9) A confirmation should be received for the balance receivable from the debtors.

(10) The appropriateness of the valuation of assets should be determined.

(11) Any under-valuation of assets should be verified. Adequate provision is made for any loans which seem doubtful or recovery should also be verified.

(12) It is not possible to physical verify fictitious and intangible assets like goodwill, unearned income, prepayments, etc. Therefore the auditor should verify the same on the basis of any documentary evidence available. 

(13) A certificate should also be obtained from the client regarding the various liabilities of the organisation specifying that the liabilities for the business only and have been duly authorized. 

(14) The balance outstanding to various creditors should be verified from the confirmation letters received from the debtors.

Duties of an Auditor in relation to Verification: An auditor’s primary responsibility regarding the verification of assets and liabilities is to ensure they exist, are owned by the business, are valued correctly, and are accurately presented in the balance sheet according to standard accounting principles. 

The duties of an auditor regarding verification can be divided into the following two parts:

(1) In relation to Assets, and

(2) In relation to Liabilities. 

● Auditor’s duty in relation to assets: The auditor should verify the following points while conducting a verification of assets:

(i) The assets actually exist on the date of the Balance Sheet. 

(ii) The assets belong only to the organisation and all the assets have been clearly mentioned in the Balance Sheet. There should be no assets which are not mentioned in the Balance Sheet.

(iii) The valuation of assets is appropriate.

(iv) The assets are in the name of the organisation and the organisation has a right on them.

(v) The assets are free of any charge or lien on them, but in case there is a charge on them the same has been mentioned clearly.

(vi) Any addition made to any asset should be added to the value of the asset in the Balance Sheet.

(vii) Any expenditure incurred in the repairs and renewal of the asset should be debited to the profit and loss account.

(viii) Adequate and appropriate depreciation is charged on tĥe assets  

(ix) In case a part of any asset is sold the auditor should verify the relevant sales, counterfoil copies of receipts and other evidence in that respect.

(x) For verification of movable assets like cash, bills, stock and securities etc. the auditor should be present in the organisation on the date of the Balance Sheet is made.

(xi) Other fictitious and intangible assets which need to be written off should be verified keeping in mind the principles applicable to them.

● In Relation to Liabilities: The auditor verifies liabilities also alongwith assets and for doing so he has to keep the following points into consideration.

(i) The liabilities shown in the Balance Sheet are of the organisation only and nobody else. 

(ii) Personal liabilities of the employees should not be included in the liabilities of the organisation.

(iii) The liabilities as shown in the Balance Sheet were actually liabilities on the date on which the Balance Sheet was made.

(iv) The libabilities are shown at their correct values. 

(v) Doubtful liabilities should not be included in the actual liabilities.

The auditor will be held liable for any loss incurred due to his being negligent in his duties.