Question 4
- List five means of payment in home trade.
- Explain to a seller of motor vehicles, five ways computer could be useful in his business.
Observation
Many candidates attempted this question and their performance was very poor. In part (a), some listed means of payment in general when the question specified in home trade. In part (a), some candidate could not relate the question to seller of motor vehicle.
The expected responses are.
(a) Means of payment in home trade
- Bank notes and coins
- Cheques
- Inland bills of exchange
- Bank transfer
- Credit/ debit cards
- Point of sale (POS)
- Vouchers
- Money order
- Money order
- Bank draft
(b) Ways computers could be useful to a motor vehicle seller
- He could use a computer to communicate with his suppliers and customers through email.
- He could use word processing software to write letters and memos to his customers or document business activities rather than writing them manually.
- The use of spread sheet and accounting software could help him to keep his accounts better than doing it manually.
- He could search for cars available for sale as well as potential buyers on the internet. This reduces the cost of travelling to specific destinations to view cars being offered for sale.
- Information about suppliers, debtors and potential customers could be kept in a database which could be retrieved easily compared to searching for such information recorded in books.
- Diagnostics of the state of vehicles he purchases could be done using a computer system. This reduces the chance of purchasing vehicles whose value may not be worth the amount of money he may pay.
- He could use computers to manage his level of stock to arrive at stock levels.
- He could use computers to prepare and issue receipts and invoices.
- He could insert his training manual into the system for his operational staff and customers.
- He could monitor the business from anywhere with the installation of CCTV.
- He could use computers to provide catalogue.
This is cheap compared to making phone calls and faster than sending letters.