Report

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Report

ACC00145 2018 s2

Due date: 5pm Friday 21 September 2018

Weight: 30 marks

Word limit: 1500 words

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Instructions for the submission of the report:

• This is an individual assignment.

• Word limit of this report should not be less than 10% of word limit (1,350 words) and

exceeds 1,650 words (excluding executive summary, references and appendix). A loss of

10% of the total marks will apply if you do not follow this instruction.

• You must use the electronic Assignment Cover Sheet provided, fill in details and then

make this sheet the first page of your assignment. Do not send it as a separate document.

• The file name of the report should include (in order) your surname, your student number

and the name of the company that you chose for your assignment. For example:

‘Parker1235456xyz'.

• You must submit your assignments in a Word document. If you wish to submit in any

other file format, please discuss this with your lecturer before the submission date. Please

note: you are not allowed to submit the report in PDF file.

• Unless otherwise indicated, all assignments are to be submitted online via the link for

Turnitin assignment submission provided on the Blackboard site.

• If there are any references used in the report, the references should follow Harvard

Referencing Style. The reference list should provide all materials supporting the report

including a web link of the annual report of the chosen company.

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Content of the report

This task requires you to prepare a report to evaluate and comment on information provided

in the annual report of a company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX). Your

comments or evaluation should comply with the requirements of relevant Australian

Accounting Standards (AASBs).

“Social accountability is considered in the (AASB Conceptual) Framework as part of the

objectives of general purpose financial reports (GPFR).”

In this report, you should address the points outlined below:

1) Provide your comments regarding the aforementioned statement. Explain. (6 marks)

2) Based on the analysis of Australian financial regulatory framework, explain why it is

necessary to establish and develop AASBs in Australian business practices. (4 marks)

3) Examine what types of information are provided in the annual report of your chosen

company. (6 marks)

4) Explain what are the incentives for the managers to disclose certain type of information in

the annual report. (6 marks)

5) In your opinion, from the perspective of the investors and securities market, discuss how

the investors or securities markets will react to the disclosures of certain information

provided in the annual report, which are discussed in item 3), or in other sources. Provide

appropriate evidence to demonstrate your arguments. (6 marks)

6) Demonstration effective communication and presentation (2 marks)

Assessment criteria:

The quality of the report will be assessed based on the following four areas:

1) Demonstrate and identify the accounting concepts applied.

2) Use paragraphs from related Australian Accounting Standards as guidelines to support

your discussion.

3) Provide examples or evidence from the annual report or other sources to illustrate the

concept(s) or principle(s) discussed.

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4) Demonstrate effective communication, referencing, logical presentation and integrated

evaluation.

Format of the report:

• The report should include an executive summary, a body of contents covering points listed

above, and a reference list.

• You should refer to the requirements of AASB Conceptual Framework, AASB 101

Presentation of Financial Statements or other relevant AASBs as the guidelines of your

report.

• You can find some interesting journal papers regarding disclosure, for example:

• “Information asymmetry, corporate disclosure, and the capital markets: A review

of the empirical disclosure literature” by Healy and Palepu (2001) from Journal of

Accounting and Economics, Volume 31, Issues 1–3, Pages 405-440,

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0165-4101(01)00018-0 (accessed from

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165410101000180)

• “Mandatory disclosure and asymmetry in financial reporting” by Bertomeu and

Magee (2015) from Journal of Accounting and Economics, Volume 59, Issues 2–

3, Pages 284-299, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacceco.2014.08.007 (accessed from

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165410114000482#!)

• Other references used in the report such as the annual report of your chosen company

should be included in the reference list. Remember to provide a link to the annual report in

the reference list.

• Sections extracted from the annual report or AASB to support your report should be

included in the Appendix. Also, provide specific page numbers of the annual report and

paragraph numbers of AASBs as in-text reference in your report such as note 10 of annual

report or AASB 101.26. If you choose to ignore this instruction, you will lose marks.

• Each student should choose a company that is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange

(ASX). Find its annual reports for the last five (5) consecutive financial years for your

analysis. Remember to use a complete annual report, not a concise financial report or a

half-year financial report.

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• You must reserve your company by adding a post on ‘Discussion Board’ under ‘Reserve

a company here’. Write the name and code of the chosen company in the subject line of

your post. If you add the company name in the message and NOT in the subject line, then

the reservation is void because it will not be readily visible to others.

• To ensure your choice of a company does not duplicate one already chosen by other student,

they will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.