Reference no: EM132280791

Accounting, Learning and Online Communication Assignment -

Find Your Firm's Annual Reports and Spreadsheet -

This assignment is the first stage of your major assignment for this unit. It is made up of six steps. This assignment will give you the opportunity to explore what your own company does and what your firm's financial statements may have to tell you about your firm. You will also have the opportunity to experience using Studiosity. The key things to achieve in your ASS#1 is to find your company's latest annual report and to have a look at it; to get a feel for what your firm does; and to see what you can understand about your firm from your first look at its financial statements. You will also input your company's last four years of financial statements into your spreadsheet. As well, you will have the opportunity to experience how interacting with others in the unit may be able to help you to better understand your firm.

Step 1 -

Step 1 involves you writing down some of your ideas, reflections and reactions to reading the Introduction and Chapter 1 in the Study Guide.

Step 2 -

Step 2 involves you setting up your personal profile on Moodle and your blog. This will help others in the unit to get to know you, as we all work together to learn and gain our own personal insights into the (possibly) exciting world of accounting.

Step 3 -

Step 3 involves you identifying your own company, posting on your blog some background information on your company and its industry, and commenting on other people's blogs.

Find your Firm's Annual Report and Spreadsheet

Go to the list of companies in attached file 'Find Your Company'.

Find the company you have been given and click on its URL. This will take you to your firm's website, where you should be able to find your firm's annual reports under the Investors or Investor Relations section. This section might also be called Shareholders' Information, Financial Information or something similar. For some companies, in the 'Find Your Company' list there is a comment in the Notes section to help you navigate your firm's website. Save a soft copy of the Annual Report for your firm for each of the last three years. For example, if your firm's latest Annual Report is for the year ended 30 June 2018, save your firm's Annual Reports for 30 June 2018, 30 June 2017 and 30 June 2016.

Only save your firm's Annual Reports. Do NOT save its interim or half-yearly reports; also, do not save its concise annual reports. You can ignore these. Only save its full Annual Reports (with its full financial statements) for each of the last three years. I also suggest you have a quick browse through your firm's website. This will give you some initial insights into your firm's operations and activities.

If you have any difficulty finding your firm's Annual Reports, or would like to check you have the right ones, please ask your lecturer or tutor for assistance (if you are studying at one of our locations). If you are studying by distance, please ask the lecturer who has been assigned to you (which may be me).

A key thing for you to achieve in your ASS#1 is to make sure you have got hold of your firm's Annual Reports for the last three years. As each Annual Report will have two years of financial statements, this will mean you will have the financial statements for your firm for the last four years.

Read Your Firm's Annual Report: Identify Clearly What Your Firm Does

Carefully and thoughtfully read through your firm's latest Annual Report. For example, your firm's latest Annual Report may be for the year ended 30 June 2018. While you do this, note down key concepts and questions (KCQs) that occur to you. Identify areas of your firm's financial statements you are having difficulty understanding, areas of its business that seem most important or critical to you, key challenges the firm appears to be facing, how successful it appears to be in meeting these challenges and its apparent strategy. Some people's companies may have very long annual reports. There is no need to read every word (or page) of your Annual Report. Simply seek to gain an initial familiarity with your firm and its latest Annual Report.

Discuss your KCQs with other people in the unit, for example with those at your own location, or online on the ASS#1 Steps 1-3 forum on Moodle, or through our various blogs, or by email, or on Facebook with other students. You can click on the link to our unit's Facebook page in the Communication section in Moodle and ask to be given access. What similarities or differences are there between your firm and the firms of other people and in the way they present their financial statements? Are you happy with the firm you have been given, or would you have preferred to be given a different company? What concerns, if any, do you have at this stage?

Know Your Firm

Find useful news articles, blogs and videos about your firm, its industry and some of the opportunities and challenges your firm is facing. Provide links to these resources on your blog. Also, comment on some other students' blogs about their firms. My company is Ryman Healthcare. Here are links to two videos produced by groups of residents in two of Ryman Healthcare's retirement villages. They are quite a bit of fun: 80-odd Years of Happy and 80-odd Years of Disco. And they give some insights into Ryman Healthcare's business and customers. The first video, 80-odd Years of Happy, has gone viral with over 8 million views. There is also a great video on the launch of the myRyman app in 2016; another on the launch of a new staff uniform and the work that went into the design of the new uniform; and another on a singer Rebecca Nelson who has performed at many Ryman villages. What do these videos suggest about the culture management are seeking to support at Ryman Healthcare?

Discuss with others, perhaps f2f, through our blogs, Facebook, Moodle forums or email about what you learnt about each other's firms. Also, discuss with others about how discussing with others helped, or did not help, you to understand more about what your firm does and about aspects of its business performance.

Go to Studiosity. When in Studiosity, click on Upload your document and submit your draft KCQs and information on your firm for Step 3. This is 24/7 online support. You can submit draft work and ask for feedback from one of the Writing Specialists. For example, this can help you further develop your English writing and communication skills. You will receive a turnaround within 24 hours for your requests. Comment on how you found the support you gained from Studiosity on our unit Facebook page or in ASS#1 Steps 1-3

Forum on Moodle or through other online interactions (for example through your blogs). Did you find the support useful, or not? How did others find it? Would you use the Writing feedback support of Studiosity again? Why or why not?

Step 4 -

Step 4 involves you inputting your company's financial statements into your spreadsheet. You can find your company's spreadsheet by clicking on 'Company Spreadsheet' in the top centre section on Moodle.

Listen to the video ASS#1: Getting Started. You can also find this video in the Videos section on the left-hand side of Moodle. This will tell you what you need to do to tailor the Company Spreadsheet to your firm. If you have any questions or difficulties with doing this, please ask your lecturer or tutor for assistance (if you are studying at one of our locations). If you are studying by distance, please ask the lecturer who has been assigned to you (which may be me).

You will see your company's spreadsheet has four worksheets: 'Financial Statements', 'Restated Financial Statements', 'Ratios' and 'NPV & IRR'. We will use the 'Financial Statements' worksheet in our ASS#1 and the 'Restated Financial Statements', 'Ratios' and 'NPV & IRR' worksheets in our ASS#2.

Open your firm's Financial Statements worksheet by clicking on the Financial Statements tab in your company's spreadsheet.

You will find in this worksheet some space for you to enter your firm's Statement of Changes in Equity, Balance Sheet and Income Statement. Carefully enter in each of these statements for your firm for the past four years. You will notice that your firm's Annual Reports will each contain financial statements for two years. So even though you have downloaded three years of Annual Reports in Step 3, this will give you four years of financial statements.

Check out the video "Entering your Financial Statements" which gives some great tips on how to enter your firm's financial statements into your spreadsheet. This is also available in the Videos section on the left-hand side of Moodle. Also, if you find difficulties in entering your firm's financial statements into your spreadsheet, go to Studiosity. When in Studiosity, click on Connect live. This is a real- time service, which is usually available from 5 pm to midnight Sunday to Friday (ie not Saturday night). They will be able to help you with specific questions you might have.

Tip: Your firm's financial statements may be called a range of different names, such as Consolidated Statement of Financial Position (which is your firm's balance sheet) and Consolidated Statement of Financial Performance (which is your firm's income statement).

Tip: Your firm's Statement of Changes in Equity may contain a series of columns showing changes in various sub-categories of equity. You can ignore these columns. For your Statement of Changes in Equity, simply enter the total column in your spreadsheet.

Step 5 -

Step 5 involves you writing down some of your ideas, reflections and reactions to reading Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 (Sections 3.1 and 3.2) in the Study Guide.

Read Chapter 2 ('Understanding the Game') and Sections 3.1 and 3.2 in Chapter 3 ('Introducing Financial Statements') in the Study Guide. Read it like you would a novel or any book, actively seeking to engage with the author (who is me) and to understand what you are reading. What is the author trying to say? Let the author take you on a journey: go with him and see what you think of some of the key ideas and concepts being discussed.

And while you do this, note down key concepts that occur to you. That's right; just write them down as you go along. Write them in your own words. Also, include any questions that occur to you as you are reading. What do you find confusing, difficult to understand or believe, boring, exciting or surprising? Include some of your key concepts and questions (KCQs) in your Step 5.

Your personal engagement with the reading is what I am interested in. Do not simply summarise the readings. I will say it again, do not simply summarise the readings. I am interested in your reactions, understanding, and questions from the readings. I know what the readings say, as I wrote them. So simply giving me a summary of the readings will not be telling me anything I do not already know.

Use the words "I" and "me". Different people will have different reactions to the readings. Tell me what your reactions are. This is what I am interested in. Do not tell me what you think I might want to hear. Be genuine and honest in your reactions to the readings. Give me something of yourself in your Step 5.

There is a great exemplar for all the assessments of Danielle Bradley, a past student in our unit. These are available by clicking on 'Exemplars: Danielle Bradley' in the Feedback section on the right-hand side of Moodle. When you go to this link, you can check out Danielle's 'ASS#1 Steps 2-6' which may give you some ideas about how you could approach your Step 5. Please note: some aspects of the assessments may have changed.

Step 6 -

Step 6 involves you providing (and receiving) feedback to three other students in our unit on their draft ASS#1.

The main benefit for you of Step 6 is in you giving quality and thoughtful feedback to others in our subject. The process of thinking about the feedback you give to others will help you greatly with your own assignment as you think about what the assignment requires and how others have addressed these requirements for their own companies.

Note - Do From 3rd to 6th part only here.

Attachment:- Assignment Files.rar