As a new accounting graduate you have recently joined the accounting department of an ASX listed
company. To complete this assignment you will need to select a suitable company yourself that
meets the following criteria:
? The company must be a constituent of the S&P/ASX 300 index (www.asx300list.com);
? The company cannot be in the ‘Financial’ sector;
? The company must publish audited annual financial reports in English, fully complying
with IFRS or AASB standards;
? The company must have a 30 June year end.
(USE WESTPAC)
The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) approaches you with your first task. In their last meeting, the Board
of Directors of your company discussed the importance of ensuring that their financial reports meet
the objective of general purpose financial reporting and qualitative characteristics of useful financial
information as outlined in the IASB September 2010 ‘Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting’
(CF). Board members are concerned about the company’s reputational standing in the market
relating to deviations from these objective and qualitative characteristics, specifically in the area of
Property, Plant and Equipment (PPE).
Therefore, the Board decided to have a review of the relevant disclosures in the company’s latest
annual report pertaining to PPE and whether these disclosures are aligned with the CF’s objective
and qualitative characteristics.
You have been asked to undertake some research and prepare a report for presentation at the next
board meeting, to be held on 1 Oct 2017. Your report must address each of the following:
a) Explain in your own words 1) who the primary users of general purpose financial reporting
(GPFR) are and why they are regarded as the primary users; and 2) the qualitative characteristics
of useful financial information according to The Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting
(covering OB5-OB10 and QC1-QC39) (10 marks).
b) Critically analyse to what extent the latest annual report of your company meets the disclosure
requirements for PPE as per AASB 116 (10 marks).
c) Based on your findings in part b, critically analyse to what extent the disclosures on PPE satisfy
the fundamental and at least two of the enhancing qualitative characteristics of useful financial
information (10 marks).
d) Based on your findings in part c, critically discuss to what extent the disclosures on PPE meet
the information needs of primary users of general purpose financial reporting and, as a
conclusion, recommend actions for improvement (10 marks).
Structure The report must contain the following (in this order):
? Report cover page
? Table of contents
? Executive summary
? Introduction
? Body
? Conclusion/recommendation
? Reference list
? Appendix
You should include relevant parts of the annual reports that you have used and referred to
in your report. Do NOT attach entire annual reports.
Length Total word count limit = 1,300 words.
Your word count must be included on your cover page.
Included in word count Excluded from word count
? Introduction
? Body
? Conclusion/recommendation
? Report cover page
? Table of contents
? Executive summary
? Reference list
? Appendix
Penalties for exceeding the word limit are as follows:
Word count Penalty
? 1,301 – 1,419 words
? 1,420 – 1,539 words
? 1,540 or more words
? No penalty
? 10% of total marks
? 20% of total marks
Style The report must be presented as follows:
Font: Times New Roman 12 point Spacing: 1.5 times line spacing
Margins: not less than 2.5 cm
Footer Each page must have a footer containing the following:
ACCG224 S2 2017 Your SID Page number
Referencing In text referencing is required for all sources used and a complete list of references must
be provided using the Harvard Referencing System.
A copy of the Harvard Referencing System is available under the ‘Assessment Task’ folder
on iLearn.
Please note that as this is a research assignment it is not appropriate to reference to
textbooks or lecture slides.