ACCG224: Financial Accounting and Reporting

S2 2017 ACCG224 Page 1 ACCG224: Financial Accounting and Reporting Session 2, 2017 Individual Assignment Financial Reporting Disclosures in the Australian Corporate Sector Part I - Research Based Report (15%) Due: Tuesday 3 Oct, 5pm Word limit: 1,300 words Part II – Video Oral Presentation (5%) Due: Monday 9 Oct, 5pm Time limit: 4 minutes S2 2017 ACCG224 Page 2 Part I – Research based report (15%) As a new accounting graduate you have recently joined the accounting department of an ASX listed company. To complete this assignment you will need to select a suitable company yourself that meets the following criteria: ? The company must be a constituent of the S&P/ASX 300 index (www.asx300list.com); ? The company cannot be in the ‘Financial’ sector; ? The company must publish audited annual financial reports in English, fully complying with IFRS or AASB standards; ? The company must have a 30 June year end. The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) approaches you with your first task. In their last meeting, the Board of Directors of your company discussed the importance of ensuring that their financial reports meet the objective of general purpose financial reporting and qualitative characteristics of useful financial information as outlined in the IASB September 2010 ‘Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting’ (CF). Board members are concerned about the company's reputational standing in the market relating to deviations from these objective and qualitative characteristics, specifically in the area of Property, Plant and Equipment (PPE). Therefore, the Board decided to have a review of the relevant disclosures in the company's latest annual report pertaining to PPE and whether these disclosures are aligned with the CF's objective and qualitative characteristics. You have been asked to undertake some research and prepare a report for presentation at the next board meeting, to be held on 1 Oct 2017. Your report must address each of the following: a) Explain in your own words 1) who the primary users of general purpose financial reporting (GPFR) are and why they are regarded as the primary users; and 2) the qualitative characteristics of useful financial information according to The Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting (covering OB5-OB10 and QC1-QC39) (10 marks). b) Critically analyse to what extent the latest annual report of your company meets the disclosure requirements for PPE as per AASB 116 (10 marks). c) Based on your findings in part b, critically analyse to what extent the disclosures on PPE satisfy the fundamental and at least two of the enhancing qualitative characteristics of useful financial information (10 marks). d) Based on your findings in part c, critically discuss to what extent the disclosures on PPE meet the information needs of primary users of general purpose financial reporting and, as a conclusion, recommend actions for improvement (10 marks). Assessment of report The research based report represents 15% of your total mark for ACCG224 and is compulsory. Your assignment will be marked out of 60 as shown in the Report Marking Rubric on page 6 of this document and will then be converted to a mark out of 15 percent. S2 2017 ACCG224 Page 3 Report submission instructions Where to submit The written report must be submitted in electronic form using Turnitin (through iLearn via the ‘Assessment Tasks’ folder). Detailed submission instructions are provided on iLearn. Please ensure that you are familiar with these instructions and submit before the deadline in case of technical issues. A hardcopy submission is not required. When to submit The deadline for submission is 5pm Tuesday 3 October. No extensions will be granted. There will be a deduction of 10% of the total available marks made from the total awarded mark for each 24 hour period or part thereof that the submission is late (for example, 25 hours late in submission – 20% penalty). This penalty does not apply for cases in which an application for disruption of studies is made and approved. How to submit The report can be submitted either in a PDF or word format. The filename of your report must be as follows: ACCG224_XXXXXXXX (where the crosses represent your eight digit SID) S2 2017 ACCG224 Page 4 Report Format Before you start writing your report, it is recommended that you undertake the following (both of these can be accessed through the ‘Assessment Task’ folder on iLearn): 1. Watch the e-lecture on business report writing 2. Take a look at the sample Business Research Report provided on iLearn. Structure The report must contain the following (in this order): ? Report cover page ? Table of contents ? Executive summary ? Introduction ? Body ? Conclusion/recommendation ? Reference list ? Appendix You should include relevant parts of the annual reports that you have used and referred to in your report. Do NOT attach entire annual reports. Length Total word count limit = 1,300 words. Your word count must be included on your cover page. Included in word count Excluded from word count ? Introduction ? Body ? Conclusion/recommendation ? Report cover page ? Table of contents ? Executive summary ? Reference list ? Appendix Penalties for exceeding the word limit are as follows: Word count Penalty ? 1,301 – 1,419 words ? 1,420 – 1,539 words ? 1,540 or more words ? No penalty ? 10% of total marks ? 20% of total marks Style The report must be presented as follows: Font: Times New Roman 12 point Spacing: 1.5 times line spacing Margins: not less than 2.5 cm Footer Each page must have a footer containing the following: ACCG224 S2 2017 Your SID Page number Referencing In text referencing is required for all sources used and a complete list of references must be provided using the Harvard Referencing System. A copy of the Harvard Referencing System is available under the ‘Assessment Task’ folder on iLearn. Please note that as this is a research assignment it is not appropriate to reference to textbooks or lecture slides. Plagiarism All assignments will be manually and electronically checked for plagiarism and it is extremely important that you are familiar with the policy on Academic Honesty. A link to the policy is available in the ‘Assessment Task’ folder on iLearn. S2 2017 ACCG224 Page 5 Part II – Video Oral Presentation (5%) The CFO was impressed by your report and has asked you to prepare a video presentation to be played to the Board Committee at the next meeting on 1 October 2017. Your video presentation should: a) Explain the qualitative characteristics of useful financial information according to The Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting; b) Highlight four key areas of disclosure requirements for PPE as per AASB 116 and explain whether the annual report of your company meets these requirements; c) Identify two issues related to the disclosure for PPE in the annual report that you believe the company can be improved. Assessment of video The research based report represents 5% of your total mark for ACCG224 and is compulsory. Your assignment will be marked out of 40 as shown in the Presentation Marking Rubric on page 7 of this document and will then be converted to a mark out of 5. Video format and submission instructions will be available by the end of week 5. S2 2017 ACCG224 Page 6