Question 1

Describe the organization in terms of:

(i) Background or history of the host company

In the mid 1980’s, a small trading company was set up by three business man who are
Datuk Wahab Bin Haji Dolah, Datuk Amar Abdul Hamed Bin Haji Sepawi and Dato Wong
Kuo Hea. Ta Ann holding Berhad was incorporated in February 1997. And also it was listed
on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia on 23 November 1999.

Ta Ann is one of the pioneers which mean Ta Ann is one of the first companies which
explore the market of forest plantation in Sarawak and place a strong emphasis in operating
its forest plantation programmes. Ta Ann starts their research and development program from
the commitment to ensure sustainability of its forest resources in order to produce the better
tree planting materials.

Ta Ann group reviewing its best practices constantly and treat it as a part of its
commitment towards sustainable development and environmental safeguarding. Besides that,
Ta Ann Group also implemented certain activities which able to minimise the ground
disturbance such like environmentally friendly terrace or zebra tree planting and logging
methodologies.

In year 2000, Ta Ann has also substantially into oil palm plantation and diversified
progressively. Ta Ann Group was planted over 40,000 hectares of oil palms across Sarawak
at 31 December 2016. It also operates two crude palm oil(CPU) mills with a combined annual
processing capacity of 1.3 million tonnes of Fresh Fruit Bunches(FFB) during the time.

(ii) Types of products or services offered

The main products produce by Ta Ann are plywood, sawmill, oil palm and furniture.
It carry quite a lot of subsidiary company such like Ta Ann Holdings Berhad, for example Ta
Ann Plywood Sdn Bhd, Ta Ann Pelita Assan Plantation Sdn Bhd, Zumida Oil Palm Sdn Bhd
and so on.

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 Each company produces different type of product such as Ta Ann Plywood Sdn Bhd
produces the plywood, Ta Ann Pelita Assan Plantation Sdn Bhd and Zumida Oil Palm Sdn
Bhd produces the oil palm for the Ta Ann Holdings Berhad.

However, Ta Ann also produces the many different type of plywood. For example,
bracing plywood, phenolic film faced plywood, etc. Besides that, Ta Ann also produce
sawmill. Sawmill is a place where lumber or wood cut into board and the sawmill range can
classified into laminated beam, sawn timber, decking, finger joint stick, etc. In the oil palm
estates, Ta Ann produce the primary product is Fresh Fruit Bunch. In the palm oil mill, Ta
Ann produces the Crude Palm Oil and Palm Kernel. Besides that, Ta Ann has produced the
furniture such as chair, bench, stool, table, trolley, shoe rack, wooden rack, etc. All furniture
are made of wood.

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Question 2

(a) Describe your job responsibilities. Explain how the knowledge you have acquired
from the degree programme (Accounting, Accounting & Finance or Finance &
Investment) fit in your position.

My job responsibilities are working as an account assistant and purchasing assistant. I

had gained important knowledge from the course that I had study throughout the year.
Especially, Business Law, business communication, ethics, Auditing and accounting related
subjects that I found it very helpful during my internship.

The knowledge I apply from my degree programme is business communication. This

subject guided me how to have the proper conversation with the colleagues and even the top
management. The most important is when having the conversations with the senior that who
teach me the knowledge. I must be patient even some of the knowledge they taught which
might already expert for me. We have to listen until the end when senior taught their valuable
knowledge to us and prove that we have the effective listening skills. I also try to use the
correct and polite word to talk with people within the organization even a normal staff of the
organization. For answering the phone, now i know how to use the proper word to answer the
on the line person. This is important as it will affect the reputation of the company.

I also behave as an ethical person within the organization. The knowledge where i
learned from the management ethic is quite useful in the workplace. It taught me what can
and cannot do in my workplace. For example, try not to use the company phone for personal
use which i learned from management ethic in the topic of misuse of company resource and
also try not to use the company computer to login Facebook or other social network if that is
unneeded. During the working hour, we must fully focused on the duty that provided by our
superior. I also learned how to identify the different manager style and try my best to meet
their requirements all the time.

Microsoft office is also one of the knowledge that I have learned from my college and
applied in the workplace. The knowledge is normally come from the subject called end user
and internet in practice. I used the Microsoft offices excel to prepare the cash book of the
company. I learned how to set the format for transaction in order to show out the updates
amount and match with the bank statement. I just need to key in the debit and credit balance

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during i received any information related to our bank and it will auto count the total balance
which need to match with the bank statement at the end of the month.

Accounting related subject helping me in building basic accounting knowledge. For

example, the subject of Financial Accounting and Management Accounting. With this
knowledge, I am able to identify all the accounting statement such like Statement of profit
and loss and Statement of financial position. Apply the related knowledge can make my job
more fluent. The knowledge can help me to understand faster on the procedure of the Estate
Management System (EMS system) to identify and classify the account without any barriers.
For example, i can easily posting account into the EMS system as i learnt much double entry
knowledge for each of the account. Through my internship, I have learned the importance of
opening balance and trial balance. If the opening balance of the month is not same as
previous closing balance, it means that there is something wrong in the account. So, I have to
find out what is the error or mistake we made. If the debit is equal to credit, it means the trial
balance is correct. But incorrect or wrongly key in the information will cause the trial balance
become unbalance. In addition, journal adjustment is one of the techniques used to adjust the
missing or incorrect value from the general ledger.

Auditing is usually conduction an official financial inspection of a company and its

accounts. The common knowledge that I learned from this subject us make sure the duty
performed is conduct in true and fair view without any fraud. This course had also taught me
a lot regarding to the attitude of being an auditor should have while performing auditing
activities. The activities that I performed regarding to audit is stock check activity in logging
camp. I have to make sure the stock balance recorded is same with the physical balance. After
that, I have to find out the reason if there is any different amount between and make the
decision without self-interest. I have also learned we should keep certain information or
document confidential. As working in account department, some of the document is very
sensitive such like salary of the employee which may influence the worker performance in an
organization.

Business law is the body of law which governs business and commerce and is often
considered to be a branch of civil law and deals both with issues of private law and public
law. Commercial law regulates corporate contracts, hiring practices, and the manufacture and
sales of consumer goods. Many countries have adopted civil codes which contain
comprehensive statements of their commercial law. In the United States, commercial law is

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the province of both the Congress under its power to regulate interstate commerce, and the
states under their police power. Efforts have been made to create a unified body of
commercial law in the US: the most successful of these attempts has resulted in the general
adoption of the Uniform Commercial Code.
Business law is important for business owners, managers, and other professionals to
have a basic understanding of business law to help them make better decisions. Just as there
are laws that apply to people, there is a huge body of law that applies to business. Businesses
need these laws for the same reasons that people do to define unacceptable behavior, to
provide certainty and stability, to protect the public, and to provide a mechanism for
businesses to resolve disputes. Throughout a business’ existence, it can do most things that a
person can do, and we need laws to control those activities. A business can buy and sell
property, sue and be sued, enter into contracts, hire and fire employees, and even commit
crimes. We need business laws to cover all of these activities so that businesses can operate
with some measure of predictability.

During my internship, I found business law providing a safeguard which I know my

rights as an employee or trainee to protect myself against uneven treatment from the
employer by understand the different of contract for service and contract of service. Besides,
I realised that Ta Ann have high sustainability around the world is because it follow the laws
I had learnt in business law and company law. In short, a company want to growth bigger
must adapt every law state by government.

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(b) What have you gained from the internship? Did you encounter any difficulties
during the internship period? How did you overcome the problems?

As an accounting assistant and purchasing assistant, I gained how to use their

accounting software Estate Management System (EMS). The EMS system is developed by
our executive director Mr. Wong Siik Onn. I basically learned how to prepare payment and
journal voucher, how to prepare payroll document for the employee in different camp,
learned the uses of Request For Quotation(RFQ), Purchase Order(PO), Invoice, Daily stock
receipt as well as Delivery Order(DO) from the duty of purchasing assistant.

What I learned from accounting side is prepare payment voucher and open cheque to
pay the amount due to the debtors. Ta Ann actually used EMS system to create Journal
Invoice (JP), Payment Voucher, Stock Voucher (SP), Receiving Voucher, Journal Voucher
(J), Stock Issues and so on. Unlike others company, they normally use handwriting way to
create those relevant voucher instead of print out from the system. As an accounting assistant,
I used EMS system to prepare the payment voucher and cheque to pay off the expenses to the
debtors each month. I had to make sure all amount are correct compare with the list that
provided by my supervisor. I must pay full attention of preparing the cheque as it cost
RM0.50 each when I made mistake. I had to make sure the company name, date, and the
amount due were correctly key in into the system before printed. What I really gain from this
part is pay more attention when doing the serious task to minimize the mistake happens as
possible.

The next thing I gain from this internship was prepared the payroll document for the
employee at the logging camp. Those employees have different role and the payment of
salary is different due to their task or job description. I need to recognize whether the salary
of employee is in monthly, daily or based on the contract (contractor). I also need to check
whether there is memo for employee increment and make sure the day of annual leave or sick
leave they take are able to claim full salary in the end of the month. The payroll document
need to be prepared by using Microsoft excel which is a software I learned in my college
from the related subject. The useful knowledge helps me to prepare the payroll very fast and
effectively. Different types of employee have different way to calculate their salary. For
example, mechanic, foreman and manager are paid as full salary with commission. The
skidding and felling contractor are paid depends on rate which based on how many tons of

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wood they perform. The more they perform the higher the rate to be calculate. The rate
normally is around RM19.00-RM23.00 each ton. Besides that, I also help to prepare the
payroll for tracking which is known as truck driver. The salary is based on the distance they
perform. The longer the distance the higher the rate to be calculate. The rate is normally
around RM3.00-RM10.27 each km.

Besides that, I also gained the knowledge of the uses of Request of quotation (RFQ),
Purchase Order (PO), Delivery Order (DO) as well as daily stock receipt. RFQ will be
prepare after received the purchase request list from the different logging camp. After we
received the price from the supplier, we will do the comparison of the price and the quality of
the product. The decision of purchase those item is made by the purchase manager or
supervisor which can match the request from the logging camp. Once the purchase decision
are made, the PO will be prepared by using the EMS system. After the goods is arrived to the
logging camp, our camp employee will sent us a Daily Stock Receipt which also need to
recorded in the EMS system.

Lastly, I also gained the experience of audit the stock balance in the logging camp
which known as stocktake. I had to counted the stock carefully which the stock balance
printed out earlier must equal to the physical balance. The reason need to be found out if the
amount not able to match the stock balance. For example, the amount is unable to be match
due to the reason of fail to record by the stock keeper but goods are taken by someone.
Another common reason was the new stocks arrived yet key into the system.

During the internship period, I feel that I am confused toward EMS system and don’t
know how to use and the way to view the overall relevant transaction. Because EMS system
is very new to me, which is different from the common accounting software that I learned
such like SQL, MYOB and UBS system. Therefore, I have to keep asking my colleague what
step need to be taken. I did spend some time to understand the company business transactions
and concepts. Because different company have their own method to recorded there account
transaction. After I done key in, I printed out the related general ledger and give to my
supervisor for review. I did make some mistake from the beginning of time but I try my best
to minimize and avoid it happen again.

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Question 3

Who are the main competitors of your company? Analyze any difficulties that your
company has in the challenging market.

The main competitors of our company are Ribunan Hijau Group(RH), WTK Group,
KTS Group, Shin Yang Group and Samling Global Ltd. Together with Ta Ann, all of these
company and better known as “big six” in Sarawak in year 2017 (Wong, 2017). All of this
company have same type of the business just like Ta Ann Berhad. For example, manufacture
of plywood and veneer, timber trading, oil palm plantation, sale logs and so on.

The difficulties faced by Taa Ann is it business are too relying on the natural
resources. Based on the research, Ta Ann is facing the shortage of log supply. The plywood
production volume fell from from 191,434 cubic metres in FY 2016 to 148,087 cubic metres
around 23 % in financial year ended Dec 31, 2017 (FY17) (Wong, The star online, 2018).
The wood is limited for Ta Ann to make the business performance more effectively. Even Ta
Ann has stepped up its reforestation programme and raised its planted forest to 35,141ha at
end-2017 (Wong, The star online, 2018). But the growing period of the forest is too long.
Unlike other company such like Ribunan Hijau group(RH), it business more diversify. For
example, RH group involved in the variety of business like hospitality, media, finance, timber,
property development, travel and so on (faeh, 2011). Diversifying into new products and
service lines can provide an effective path to fast growth, as you sell more products to
existing customers or establish new markets. But it will also increase the risk as well as the
opportunities.

Ta Ann said it sales volume of 2018 was fell by 61% while plywood products by 24%
as compared to 2017. As a result, the overall revenue from timber product was fell very bad
and it sank into red. The profit was also fall during the same period. Ta Ann group also have
another core business which is oil palm, the report shows the revenue and net profit in this
range also fall down in 2018 respectively (Wong, The star online, 2018). This result shows in
the reason of Ta Ann market in facing unstable condition or shortage of the resources.

Based on the information provided by my supervisor, the production of Ta Ann also

brings a big impact to the overall profit. As the felling activities is control by our government.
Felling can only be allow after go through the process which set by our government. The
process is take time and not easy to apply which will affect the production of our company.

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Question 4

Recommend the improvement/s for the betterment of the host company.

Based on my observation, the first improvement that I recommend to Ta Ann is

encourage staffs attend any seminar related to new change new goods tax system SST. This is
to improve staffs knowledge toward every changes in the market including new tax system,
change in accounting treatment and so on. With this knowledge, it would indirectly increase
staff overall performance.

The second improvement that I would to recommend to Ta Ann is organizing some

activities to enhance the relationships between employees. This is because Ta Ann Company
is too big and it is lack of chance to communicate if working at different department. Often
organize these kind of activities employee will be able to build a good relationship among
each other and will cooperate with one another more effectively.

Furthermore, Ta Ann should also improve the company’s infrastructure and computer
equipment. As I realised that some of the computer are still using Window Xp which now are
unable to update from the official website. The performance of the computer is quite slow
and it affects also the employee performance for wasting time to wait the loading to be
complete.

Lastly, I recommend Ta Ann go diversify to their business instead of focus on logging

industry. As diversifying into new products and service lines can provide an effective path to
fast growth, as you sell more products to existing customers or establish new markets. But it
will also weight up the risks as well as the opportunities.

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