PRS201 Public Relations Theory and Practice

• Review last year’s annual report and provide your comments and recommendations for improvements in line with the Annual Report Awards Handbook and Criteria.  Include a copy of the annual Report as an Appendix.
• Identifyproject team members and reason(s) for their participation.
• Prepare a ‘draft’ one example of an internal and one example of an external Annual Report brief.
• Prepare a detailed project plan, in a table format, with associated timeframes, responsibilities and sign off allocations.Identify ‘to whom’ and ‘how’ you will distribute the reports.

The annual report of the Qantas Airlines is prepared as per the Australian Accounting Standards and the Corporations Regulation, 2001. The books of the accounts of the company have been properly audited, with the basic principles of prudence, materiality and consistency followed by the company in preparation of its financial statements. The company presents its accounts in a consolidated format. The annual report has been prepared following the basic criteria, and reflects the position of the company clearly. The preparation of the financial statements and books of account require large amount of analysis and assumptions on part of the management. It is important that all such assumptions are properly disclosed by the management in the annual reports  (Dichev, 2017).

Review of the annual report of 2016

The main shortcomings in the preparation of the annual report is that are often accounting delays in the prep[ration and presentation of the financial statements, so the management must ensure that proper care is ensure that all such changes must be properly accounted for the in the annual reports. If there is any shortcoming on part of the management because of the same care should be taken by, the management to ensure that such changes does not affect the going concern assumption of the company materially. It is possible for the accountants to read the annual reports, but for non-accounts people it becomes very difficult. Thus, it is important on part of the management to make sure that they provide clear ideas in as simple words as possible. The other shortcoming is that often the statements that are presented in the annual reports fails to reflect one clear idea, through their words. The director’s report, the chairperson’s statement presents a narrative about the corporate theme in the message section. It is important that all these messages be in one line of operations, all voicing the same opinions (Prasad & Chand, 2017).

Identification of the team members

The main team members who have helped in effective study of the annual reports include the user of the financial statements like the investors and the other stakeholders. It is important to take feedback from them about the helpfulness of the annual reports for their major decisions. In addition, whether the annual report is helpful to them and what difficulty they faced in reading the statements, what is the information that they found was lacking. The other people that can help in the review of the annual reports are the employees that are working in the finance department of the company (Burke & Clark, 2016).

Drafting of the report

One example of internal brief will include how the reports are helpful to the employees of the company, as they will get an insight into the activities of the company, and can ascertain their position in the company. Thus, internal brief will include preparation of the statements in such manner that it is helpful to the employees who are not acquainted with the accounting terms. The external brief includes preparation of the reports to satisfy the needs of the stakeholders of the company, which includes the investors, as they are the main users of the financial statements of the company. Their most important investing decisions depend on the information that is provided in the annual reports. Hence, there can be reports and calculations that can be shown in the annual reports that may show the amount of profit that the investors might earn in the coming years from the company. In addition, analysis with the set industry can be done in that respect (Chariri, 2017).

 The reports, after all the analyses and statement identification will be presented to the members who are given the responsibility of forming and realising the annual statements to the press. It will also be given to the CEO and the board of directors for the company, to give their opinion on the same. After approval, the changes may be implemented and then the reports can be released to the public (Beck, Dumay, & Frost, 2017).

In case the chairperson of the company is not ready to provide the reports as per the prescribed word limit, then the report of the chairperson should be reduced as per the limits that were initially wanted. He must be asked to do the same, because in the annual reports the management is required to provide only a brief report, in case the management is not agreeing, efforts should be taken to get the same done.

If the CEO does not want to include two paragraphs that present a bad picture of the company, care should be taken to ascertain whether these reports have effect on the financial position of the company in the present year. If the company is affected then the CEO cannot avoid the same. The paragraphs must be included in the annual report of the company. The annual reports are prepared to present the correct view of the accounts of the company and hence the same must be kept in mind, while inclusion or deletion of information from the reports (Maynard, 2016).

It is not recommended to make last minute changes in the annual report because that may not be aesthetically correct. Thus if the Finance Manager wants to make some last minute changes in the annual report that might change the page order, until and unless it is very vital it should not be done. This is the main idea while making last minute changes in the books of account or the annual report. Therefore, the manager should check whether it is important to include the pie charts and the do the same.

While making comparison with the competitors and presenting a report on the same, it is important that the company should not be presented in bad light. We should see that there should be used of more affirmative tone of words while preparation of the comparison reports. No negativity should be highlighted that may bring the company under bad books of the public. The media report should not focus on highlighting the negative points of the company in comparison with its competitors. However, to make sure that the positive traits of the company that displays growth and development must be highlighted by the perpetrators of the annual report.

References

Beck, C., Dumay, J., & Frost, G. (2017). In Pursuit of a ‘Single Source of Truth’: from Threatened Legitimacy to Integrated Reporting. Journal of Business Ethics , 141 (1), 191-205.

Burke, J., & Clark, C. (2016). The business case for integrated reporting: Insights from leading practitioners, regulators, and academics. Business Horizons , 59 (3), 273-283.

Chariri, A. (2017). FINANCIAL REPORTING PRACTICE AS A RITUAL: UNDERSTANDING ACCOUNTING WITHIN INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK. Journal of Economics, Business and Accountancy , 14 (1).

Dichev, I. (2017). On the conceptual foundations of financial reporting. Accounting and Business Research , 47 (6), 617-632.

Maynard, J. (2016). Financial Accounting, Reporting, and Analysis. U.K: Oxford University Press.

Prasad, P., & Chand, P. (2017). The Changing Face of the Auditor's Report: Implications for Suppliers and Users of Financial Statements. Australian Accounting Review .