Research in accounting and Finance

Topic: Group accounting and finance management report
Order Description
TASK OBJECTIVES
• Apply theory in practice.
• Conduct an analysis of financial statements to a real world company.
• Experience report writing skills.
INTRODUCTION AND GUIDELINES
Your group is a team of research analysts employed by a publicly listed organisation on the Australian Stock Exchange. Your group is responsible for analysing quantitatively and qualitatively the past performance of the organisation with a view to improving for the future. Once the analysis is complete you will then (as a group) be required to write a report that interprets and critically evaluates the analysis and provides recommendations for the business moving forward. Your interpretation and recommendation must be justified.
Your first task is to form a group of up to four students. Once you have formed a group you need to exchange contact details, formulate and agree on a Pre-Project Action Plan (Appendix 1 in the course outline). The Pre-Project Action Plan details problems and issues that may arise and how the group will manage them. This is to be completed, signed by all group members and emailed to the lecturer by week 5.
The second task will be to view the Australian Stock Exchange website and choose one listed company. Once you have chosen the company it needs to be approved by the course coordinator/lecturer after which you can commence the group project. You cannot choose the same company as another group and company choice will be on a first come, first served basis.
Once you are in a group and have selected a company you can then begin your analysis. The final report (excluding tables, formulas and a reference list) should not exceed 3,000 words in length and your audience is the board of directors of your chosen company.
Your group must also complete a group diary (Appendix 2 in the course outline). The group diary will then also be submitted with the final report. Within 24 hours of the due date individual group members are required to complete a self and peer assessment through SPARK (see Appendix 3 of the course outline).
The project must be attempted and completed on a group basis. Whilst this is a group project, you are not permitted to copy the analysis of another group. Your submission will be checked for plagiarism using Turnitin and/or manual means and any suspected cases of plagiarism will be sent to the SACO (Student Academic Conduct Officer) for investigation.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINE
• Arrange the first group meeting and submit Pre-Project Action Plan to the lecturer in class or via email by week 5. A late submission penalty will be imposed if this is not received by due date.
• Final Assignment and Group Diary Due Date: Week 10.
• Submission: Turnitin (electronic copy of report with cover sheet, including the Group Diary)
• Submit only one group project per team on Turnitin
• Individual group members are required to complete a self and peer assessment through SPARK within 24 hours of the due date (Details of SPARK can be found in the course outline, see Appendix 3).
The proper Faculty cover sheet for group assignments must be used and must be signed by all students in the group.
First, the group mark will be allocated the same to everyone within the group. Then, the mark will be moderated according to each individual group member’s contribution using evidence from SPARK and the Group Diary.
REQUIREMENTS
Required:
1. Visit the website of your chosen and approved company and obtain the annual reports for the previous three years (2011, 2012 & 2013). Note: Financial statements are contained within the annual reports. Read the Director’s and/or Chairman’s report as well as other qualitative information about your chosen company. This will give you an idea about the background of the company as well as any highlights. It may also be useful to see if your company is being followed by the media. The financial reports will give you an internal perspective and any media reporting will give you an external perspective from the media’s point of view.
2. Prepare a 3 year trend analysis for the income statement for 2011, 2012 and 2013. Perform the analysis in Microsoft Excel.
3. Perform a horizontal analysis for the balance sheet for 2011, 2012 and 2013. Perform the analysis in Microsoft Excel.
4. Perform a vertical analysis for the balance sheet and the income statement for 2011, 2012, and 2013. Perform the analysis in Microsoft Excel.
5. Perform a complete ratio analysis for the financial statements for 2011, 2012 and 2013. Perform the analysis in Microsoft Excel.
6. As a result of your analysis and research on the company write a report in Microsoft Word which brings all of the above analysis together in a professional format. Your audience is the board of directors of your chosen company.
Your report should be structured and include the following:
– Cover Sheet (signed and dated by all group members)
– Table of Contents
– Executive Summary
– Introduction
– Body of the Report
– Information about the company and industry and other relevant background information
– Trend Analysis, Interpretation and Recommendation
– Horizontal Analysis, Interpretation and Recommendation
– Vertical Analysis, Interpretation and Recommendation
– Ratio Analysis (profitability, efficiency, liquidity, market performance), Interpretation and Recommendation
– Overall Analysis, Interpretation and Recommendation (Note: In the overall analysis, interpretation and recommendation you need to bring the individual parts of the analysis, interpretation and recommendation together as a summary of the business and its performance overall)
– Limitations of your analysis
– Conclusion
– References
– Appendices (all the calculations conducted in requirements 2.to 5. should be included in the appendix)
Please note your report must be referenced. (APA referencing style is to be used).
Note: Your report should be typewritten, double-spaced and page numbered.
As a guide you should include (but not be limited to) the following in the body of the report:
• Discuss the nature and overall strategy of the business.
• Discuss any challenges or opportunities the business faces as a whole moving forward. As an example there may be external factors of the business such as economic factors, social trends etc. that may be present as a challenge or an opportunity moving forward.
• Identify any areas that you consider to be strengths or weaknesses for your company from its operations based on your analysis of the financial statements. Explain why you have identified these areas as strengths or weaknesses and interpret them. If you identify strengths and weaknesses discuss how the company could improve on the weakness or build on the strength by providing a recommendation. You must be specific in your discussion, do not generalise.
For example, this may relate to a growth in debt, an increase in expenses relative to revenues etc. Also look outside the area of accounting as you may find strength is in the growth of customers due to a new marketing campaign. It is the group’s responsibility to look at all aspects of performance and identify what is appropriate for your company. Every company is different and each company will have its own strengths and weaknesses.
• Your analysis needs to be a critical evaluation, rather than a report that merely restates the results of the analysis. The written report and interpretation needs to be justified with reference to the analysis. Your comments should be specific to the company you have chosen, not generalisations.
As an example it would be insufficient to state that the current ratio increased as there also needs to be an interpretation and recommendation associated with the analysis. For example, the current ratio may have increased due to an increase in inventory, and the reason for the increase in inventory may be a slowdown in sales. In this example the increase in the current ratio does not necessarily mean that liquidity has improved as inventory may not be liquid. Adding the separate elements together you may conclude that given the reduction in sales the recommendation to the business may be that it needs to reduce its levels of inventory by producing less or if a retailer analysing what is and is not selling and work out which types of inventory it needs to hold less of.
• You also need to critically evaluate the limitations of your analysis. The limitations should be discussed with reference to your company, not generally.
• Do not include the calculations in the body of the report; they should be included in the appendix by cutting and pasting each part of the analysis (in Microsoft Excel) into the Microsoft Word document.

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