S2 2019 ACCG224 Page 1
ACCG224: Financial Accounting and
Reporting
Session 2, 2019
Individual Assignment
Accounting Policies and Estimates on
Property, Plant and Equipment
Part I - Research Based Report (15%)
Due: Tuesday 1/10/2019, 5pm
Word limit: 1,200 words
Part II – Video Oral Presentation (5%)
Due: Tuesday 8/10/2019, 5pm
Time limit: 4 minutes
S2 2019 ACCG224 Page 2
Part I – Research based report (15%)
“In a perfect world, investors, board members, and executives would have full confidence in companies’ financial
statements. They could rely on the numbers to make intelligent estimates of the magnitude, timing, and uncertainty of
future cash flows and to judge whether the resulting estimate of value was fairly represented in the cu
ent stock price.
And they could make wise decisions about whether to invest in or acquire a company, thus promoting the efficient
allocation of capital.
Unfortunately, that’s not what happens in the real world, for several reasons. First, corporate financial statements
necessarily depend on estimates and judgment calls that can be widely off the mark, even when made in good faith…..”
(Sherman and Young, 2106, p.1).
The above clearly shows how crucial it is for accountants to apply their professional judgment in
a
iving to the most reasonable/appropriate accounting choices/estimates which can be quite a
challenging process. There is not necessarily one co
ect answer in most cases and therefore
accountants need to be vigilant while dealing with accounting information.
As a student intern and future accountant, you have recently joined the accounting department of an
ASX listed company. As a future accountant, and to demonstrate your understanding of the application
of professional judgment, you have been asked to look into the company’s annual report, undertake
equired research on the company’s choices relating to the accounting estimates and policies on
property, plant and equipment (PPE), and prepare a report for presentation to other accounting team
members and the audit committee.
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 must publish audited annual financial reports in English, fully complying
with IFRS or AASB standards and
• The company must have a 30 June year end.
Your report must address each of the following:
a) Provide a summary of the criteria for selecting and changing accounting policies according to
AASB 108 (you may refer to Paragraphs 7-14) and discuss how professional judgment can impact
accounting policies and estimates. (10 marks)
) Identify and provide a detailed explanation of the accounting policies and the estimates your
company uses to measure PPE for the year ended 30 June XXXXXXXXXXmarks)
c) Based on your findings in parts a and b, critically evaluate whether the professional judgment
applied in accounting estimates and policies of PPE has been reasonable/appropriate. You may
efer to relevant information sources to answer the above question (e.g. compare to the norms in
the industry). (15 marks)
d) Based on your findings in part c, recommend actions (if any) for improvement in the accounting
estimates and policies in PPE for your company. (5 marks)
http:
www.asx300list.com
S2 2019 ACCG224 Page 3
Assessment of report
The research-based report represents 15% of your total mark for ACCG224 and is compulsory. Your
assignment will be marked out of 60 as shown in the Report Marking Ru
ic on page 7 of this document and
will then be converted to a mark out of 15 percent.
Report submission instructions
Where to submit The written report must be submitted in electronic form using Turnitin (through
iLearn via the ‘Assessment Tasks’ folder). Detailed submission instructions are
provided on iLearn. Please ensure that you are familiar with these instructions and
submit before the deadline in case of technical issues.
A hardcopy submission is not required.
When to submit Due: Tuesday 1/10/2019, 5pm
No extensions will be granted. There will be a deduction of 10% of the total
available marks made from the total awarded mark for each 24 hour period or part
thereof that the submission is late (for example, 25 hours late in submission – 20%
penalty). This penalty does not apply for cases in which an application for
disruption of studies is made and approved.
How to submit The report can be submitted either in a PDF or word format.
The filename of your report must be as follows:
ACCG224_XXXXXXXX (where the crosses represent your eight digit SID)
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Report Format
Before you start writing your report, it is recommended that you undertake the following (both of these can
e accessed through the ‘Assessment Task’ folder on iLearn):
1. Watch the e-lecture on business report writing
2. Take a look at the sample Business Research Report provided on iLearn.
Structure The report must contain the following (in this order):
• Report cover page (You can design your own cover page)
• Table of contents
• Executive summary
• Introduction
• Body
• Conclusion
• Reference list
• Appendix
You should include relevant parts of the annual reports that you have used and refe
ed to
in your report. Do NOT attach entire annual reports. You can include the relevant parts of
annual reports as screenshots rather than copying and pasting content, since it can impact
the TurnitIn similarity percentage
Length Total word count limit = 1,200 words.
Your word count must be included on your cover page.
Included in word count Excluded from word count
• Introduction
• Body
• Conclusion
• Report cover page
• Table of contents
• Executive summary
• Reference list
• Appendix
Penalties for exceeding the word limit are as follows:
Word count Penalty
• 1,201 – 1,319 words
• 1,320 – 1,439 words
• 1,440 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 XXXXXXXXXXSpacing: 1.5 times line spacing
Margins: not less than 2.5 cm
Footer Each page must have a footer containing the following:
ACCG224 S2 2019 XXXXXXXXXXYour SID XXXXXXXXXXPage number
Referencing In text referencing is required for all sources used and a complete list of references must
e 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.
Plagiarism All assignments will be manually and electronically checked for plagiarism and it is
extremely important that you are familiar with the policy on Academic Honesty.
S2 2019 ACCG224 Page 5
A link to the policy is available in the ‘Assessment Task’ folder on iLearn.
Part II – Video Oral Presentation (5%)
The accountant was impressed by your report and has asked you to prepare a video presentation
to be played to the Audit Committee at the next meeting.
Your video presentation should:
a) Explain the criteria for selecting and changing accounting policies according to AASB 108.
) Identify the accounting policies and the estimates your company uses to measure Property,
Plant and Equipment (PPE) for the year ended 30 June 2019.
c) Discuss if the professional judgment applied in accounting estimates and policies of PPE has
een reasonable/appropriate and recommend actions (if any) for improvement.
Assessment of video
The research based report represents 5% of your total mark for ACCG224 and is compulsory. Your
assignment will be marked out of 40 as shown in the Presentation Marking Ru
ic on page 8 of this
document and will then be converted to a mark out of 5.
Video format
Before you start recording your video it is recommended that you view the two YouTube videos by Vlog
Brothers and Idea Channel. Both of these can be accessed through the ‘Assessment Task’ folder on iLearn.
Length Time limit = 4 minutes
Penalties for exceeding the time limit are as follows:
Time Penalty
• Up to 4:29
• 4:30-5:29
• 5:30 or more
• No penalty
• 10% of total marks
• 20% of total marks
Slides The use of slides (eg Powerpoint/Prezi) is not mandatory as you will not be marked on your
slides, but on your communication skills.
If you do wish to use slides please use a screen capture rather than a projected image.
Physical
presence
Students must actually appear in their video – you must be visible as well as able to be
heard.
Audibility It is your responsibility to ensure that we can hear your presentation clearly. If we can’t
hear it then we can’t mark it!
If you are recording using screen capture technology consider using speaker and
headphones.
Technology You can record your video using one of the following:
• Your mobile device or tablet – it editing is required iMovie can be used.
• Screen capture technology such as Windows 10 Screen Recorder, Cyberlink or others
These are suggestions only and you are free to use another method.
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Video submission instructions
Where to submit The video must be submitted in electronic form using the Oral Presentation
Submission Guide link (through iLearn via the ‘Assessment Tasks’ folder). Detailed
submission instructions are provided on iLearn. Please ensure that you are familiar
with these instructions and submit before the deadline in case of technical issues.
A hardcopy submission is not required.