BUS103-Accounting for Managers

Assessment Description

This assignment is designed to get you to locate the Annual Report for a company and become familiar with its contents, particularly the financial statements and the notes to the financial statements. While we have looked at very basic formats of the financial statements, the financial statements for a company contain much more detailed information much of which you have not been introduced to as yet. Pay particular attention in the Annual Report to the information provided in the notes to the financial statements as you will find a lot of useful information in them that may help with some of the assignment questions. 

Required

Your instructor will assign you one of four Australian retail companies that are listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) as follows: Harvey Norman, Myers, JB Hi Fi, Metcash. You are required to obtain the 2016 Annual Report for your group’s chosen company. Answer the following questions in Part A and Part B using the 2016 Annual Report of your company. 

Question 1 

Describe the principal activities of the company?

Question 2 

Define the revenue recognition criteria of the company and identify the page number and note number where this is stated in the annual report?

Question 3 

Describe how the company values all classes of property, plant and equipment? Identify the page number and note number where this is stated in the annual report? 

Question 4 

Name the Audit firm responsible for performing the audit of the financial statements of the company. Explain why the auditor must declare their independence, and also explain why the financial statements must be audited by an external party. 

Question 5 

Provide any evidence of the company’s initiative or commitment to business sustainability practices. Why are businesses concerned about sustainability?

PART B - Anaysis of Financial information

Question 1

(A (2) + B (4) + C (2) + D (4) + E (2) + F (4) = 18 marks) Using the company financial information, analyse and compare their 2015 and 2016 financial data by answering the following questions (you should analyse 2 ratios for each question): 

A.) Calculate the efficiency of the company by identifying and calculating two efficiency ratios. You need to calculate the two ratios for 2015 and 2016 .

B.) You must also explain what the efficiency ratio results tell us about the company performance occurring between the 2 periods.  Has the company’s efficiency improved or  deteriorated? 

C.) Analyse the profitability of the company by identifying and calculating two profitability ratios. You need to calculate the two ratios for 2015 and 2016 .

D.) You must also explain what the profitability ratio results tell us about the company performance occurring between the 2 periods. Has the company’s profitability improved or deteriorated? 

E.) Analyse the company debt position by identifying and calculating two ratios. You need to calculate the two ratios for 2015 and 2016.

F.) You must also explain what the debt ratio results tell us about the company performance occurring between the 2 periods. Has the company’s debt position improved or deteriorated? 

Assessment Description

Required: This assignment is to be completed in teams of five students. All questions, must be attempted. The assignment must be submitted before the above due date to avoid any late penalties. Please make sure you follow the usual assignment presentation guidelines especially those relating to presentation of written work, late policy and academic integrity. Forming Teams: You must discuss the selection of teams with your lecturer, who may decide to allocate you into teams or he/she may decide to form teams using a random process. Any work which has been copied or shared between teams will result in a Fail grade for all students concerned. So please make sure that the answer to this team assignment is your own work and not copied from any source.

Please note that a word limit exists for all questions. You must indicate your word count at the end of each question. Submissions that exceed the word count by more than 10% will cease to be marked from the point at which that limit is exceeded.