IAS (International Accounting Standard) 7 Statement of Cash Flows recommends the “direct” and “indirect” methods of presenting the Operating Cash Flow section of Cash Flows Statement. Explain, with examples, the difference between the two methods, including the layout of each. (Note: Numerical data is not required) (6 marks) Task 3 (Total 60 marks)
You are required to choose two Public Limited Companies in the same sector or industry and carry out the following tasks based on their recent Cash Flow Statements published in their Annual Reports:
a. Compare and contrast, over two consecutive operating periods, the respective net cash flows from Operating Activities of the two companies. (16 marks)
b. Explain how each company has managed its working capital over the two accounting periods? (18 marks)
c. Analyse and explain the Financing Activities of each company in the two consecutive operating periods. State with reasons which of the two companies faces lower risk for their long-term funding policy in the most recent year. (14 marks)
d. Review the Investment Activities of the two companies in two consecutive operating periods and state with reasons which of the two you consider having a more prudent investment policy in the most recent financial year?
(12 marks)
Task 4 (Total 10 marks)
Comment on the overall strategy being observed by the two companies based on their cash inflows and outflows over the two consecutive periods you have analysed in previous tasks. As part of your answer, consider which of the two companies is able to manage its cash flow better. Give reasons in support of your views.
(10 marks)
NOTE:
Referencing (Harvard Style) and: (5 marks)
? References (Harvard System) and Bibliography: 5 marks
? Language, Scholarship, and Presentation: 5 marks
You can find companies’ Annual Reports from several sources such as libraries and Company’s House. An online source where Annual Reports can be downloaded quickly is www.FT.com (search under Annual Reports and look on the right hand side of the screen for “Annual Report Service”), or from the companies’ own websites, usually found under ‘Investors’ relation’.
Instructions:
• The assignment is a report, and should be written in a report format that includes all the tasks.
• The assignment should be between 900 and 1,300 words (Excess writing will be disregarded).
• Assignment must be typed in Arial, font size 12 with double line spacing.
• Pages should be stapled together (top left hand corner).
• All workings, extract of the annual report (statement of cash flow etc.) must be included in the appendix.
• The report contributes 20% of your final grade.
• The FINAL version of the report MUST be handed in at INTO reception and a signature obtained for its submission by 15.00 on Thursday 27th February 2014.
• The coursework must also be submitted through Turnitin. The Turnitin Originality Report must be attached to the submitted hardcopy
• Any student who fails to hand in the work by this time will lose marks. (See below).
• You will also need to KEEP an electronic copy of your essay.
What to include:
The report should include a cover page with your English and/or native name, the title of the essay and the date that you hand it in.
The Report Structure Must Include:
• Table of Contents with page numbers
? Introduction – a short introduction to give a brief overview of your report
? Main Body of Report – Includes analysis and evaluation of each of the tasks. So you could structure your report into sections which will contain an analysis and evaluation (with relevant examples) of each of the tasks.
? Conclusion (your final evaluation that flows from your work)
? References and Bibliography – The report must be fully referenced using the Harvard System of Referencing taught in your English classes. Students who failed to adequately reference their reports will have their work referred to our plagiarism officers. Severe penalties will be imposed for any incidence of academic misconduct with dire consequences for your ability to pass this module and progress to university. (Please see below)
? Appendix – Excerpts of Annual reports and other financial statements must be included in the appendix to your report. We will not mark any reports without the cash flow statements you have used as we will have no way of verifying the figures used for your calculations and analysis.
Details for late submission of assignment:
Assignment handed in before 15.00 hours on Thursday 27th February 2014 – NO Penalty.
Time report submitted
Mark Deducted
On The Due Date After 1500 Hours But Before 1700 Hours
5%
On The Day Following The Due Date Up To 1700 Hours
10%
On Either The 2nd Or 3rd Day After The Due Date Up To 1700 Hours
20%
On The 4th Day After The Due Date Or Later
All marks deducted
Drop Box Submissions
Coursework should be submitted at the Drop Box near the Welcome Desk. You will need to fill in the relevant coursework coversheet at the Drop Box, where it will be time and date stamped. Students will be penalised if they pre-date submission sheets and will be asked to attend a disciplinary meeting with the Programme Management Team
All coursework should be printed on A4 paper, on one side of the page only, page-numbered, and double-spaced with wide margins to allow for marking and comments unless instructed otherwise by the tutor. Students are encouraged to submit coursework in advance when possible.
Coursework deadlines are firm. All course work must be submitted by 3pm on Thursday’s. Students are required to keep copies of the top sheet of the submission receipt as well as all feedback forms from the assessed work.
Turnitin Submissions
Coursework should be uploaded to Turnitin through your subject Moodle page. You will need to be logged in as yourself, and to upload your work to your specific subject and your teacher. It is very important not to upload to another subject or another teacher.
The Turnitin submission page will be open at least two weeks before the coursework submission deadline, in order to give you an opportunity to review the similarity report, proofread and edit. You can, and should, edit your submitted coursework as many times as you like before the submission deadline.
We encourage students to do this to ensure that the final piece of work is properly referenced and not plagiarized. If you have any doubts as to what constitutes plagiarism, please refer to the Plagiarism Moodle page and the plagiarism guidelines in this handbook.
Turnitin does an originality check and generates a similarity report and index within 24 hours but resubmission always takes 24 hours. Students must submit their final draft though Turnitin at least 24 hours before the submission deadline, for their similarity report to be available. During this period, the similarity report will show as pending on Turnitin. When the similarity report is available, print a copy and staple it to the back of the final draft. You then need to complete a coursework submission form (obtained from the welcome desk) and attach it to the front of the coursework. So, in summary, each piece of submitted work should include the following
1. A Coursework submission form
2. The coursework
3. A similarity index report (from Turnitin)
Academic Misconduct in Coursework
The following are all types of academic misconduct. But remember that this is not an exhaustive list, and there may be other behaviour that may be seen as misconduct:
1. Plagiarism: passing off the ideas or words of someone else as though they were your own. It applies equally to the work of other students as to published sources and can include:
• Submitting as one’s own an assignment that another person has completed.
• Downloading information, text, artwork, graphics or other material from the internet and presenting it as one’s own without acknowledgment.
• Quoting, summarising or paraphrasing material from any source without acknowledgment.
• Taking ideas, or the way in which you think about an issue, from one or more sources without acknowledgment. If the ordering of evidence and argument, or the organisation of material, reflects one or more particular source(s), then this must be stated and a reference given.
• Contributing little or nothing to a group assignment and then claiming an equal share of the marks.
The University takes a serious view of plagiarism and will act to ensure that students found breaching its guidelines are dealt with severely. This action can lead to expulsion from the University. This is in the interests of the vast majority of students who work hard for their degree through their own efforts, and is essential in safeguarding the integrity of the University’s awards.
2. Cheating: either by copying from other students or using unauthorised notes or other aids.
3. Collusion: this means students working together to create and submit a similar or identical assignment or assessment without authority from their tutor or School. Students who plagiarise other students’ work and students who allow their work to be plagiarised will both be subject to penalties.
This does not include those times when students are asked to undertake group-work and may legitimately work together. Please ask your tutor if you are unsure.
4. Impersonation: where a person assumes the identity of another person with the intention of gaining unfair advantage for that person.
5. Falsification or fabrication: inventing or altering data or references.
6. Duplication or self-plagiarism: preparing a correctly cited and referenced assignment from individual research and then handing part or all of that work in twice for separate subjects/marks, without acknowledging the first assignment correctly.
7. Ghosting: submitting as your own work that has been done in whole or in part by another person on your behalf, or deliberately making or seeking to make available material to another student for it to be used by the other student. Investigating the possibility of using another person’s work can also be counted as academic misconduct.
8. Disruption: preventing an assessment from being conducted in an orderly and appropriate manner.
How to avoid plagiarism
Quoting
Never copy anything (including the work of other students) without explicit acknowledgement. Quotation directly from a book or paper is entirely acceptable provided that it is referenced correctly.
This means that:
• All quotations must be clearly identified either by enclosure in quotation marks (inverted commas) or by paragraph indentation.
• Sources must be identified using one of the prescribed formats.
• Sources used must be listed in a bibliography or reference section at the end of each piece of work.
The quoted section should not be too long. For short pieces of work (under 5000 words) it is better to quote a short phrase or a sentence to illustrate your point. It is also a good idea to comment on/interpret the quotation to show you understanding the author’s meaning.
Paraphrasing
Paraphrasing means putting someone else’s ideas into your own words. Paraphrasing is entirely acceptable provided that it is referenced. It does NOT mean copying whole sentences or phrases and replacing some words with others of similar meaning. A general rule for acceptable paraphrasing is that an acknowledgement be made in every paragraph. There are many ways in which such acknowledgements can be made (e.g. “Smith goes on to argue that…” or “Smith provides further proof that…”). As with quotation, full details of the source used must be given at the end of the text.
Plagiarism can occur through laziness or poor note-taking. It is not enough to just cite an article once and then continue to use it throughout the rest of your work without proper references. If you do not make a correct citation every time you refer to or quote someone else then you are plagiarising. It is also unacceptable to just list material you have read at the end of your work and not in the body of the text itself – you must provide full referencing (in-text referencing) within your work.
Note: any student who is unclear about the rules regarding the use and referencing of other people’s work or ideas should seek advice from their Personal Tutor.
Penalties
The INTO Study Centre and the University actively pursues all cases of suspected academic misconduct. This safeguards the integrity of its awards as well as the interests of the majority of students who work hard for their award through their own efforts. Decisions on the severity and extent of misconduct are matters for academic judgement. Tutors and examiners will routinely look out for any indication of plagiarised work and if appropriate may make use of specialised software that detects plagiarism. Where plagiarism is suspected, this will be investigated and may constitute academic misconduct.
The penalties for plagiarism are as follows:
Coursework and projects
A substantially plagiarised coursework or project will be given a mark of zero. If permitted, a satisfactory resubmission may allow continuation on the programme. It may be necessary for the resubmitted coursework or project to be on a different topic or to comprise different questions from the original assignment.
Cases of repeated plagiarism
These will be dealt with more severely. Their case may be brought before the Disciplinary Committee, which may result in the student being withdrawn from the college.
Finally
Please check your similarity report to ensure that your similarity index is within an acceptable level. Reports with indexes higher than 15% will be flagged up to ensure that they are not plagiarised.