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Accounting for Management M 5011
SP2 2023
Problem solving assignment
Learning Objectives addressed in this assessment:
CO1: Apply basic accounting principles and concepts in order to understand what accounting
information is, what it means and how it is used;
CO2: Explain the significance of accounting information in the business environment;
CO3: Read and interpret financial reports and apply knowledge to critically analyse
corporate financial and non-financial information.
Graduate Qualities developed by this assessment:
GQ1: You need to operate effectively upon fundamental accounting practical knowledge;
GQ2: You are prepared for lifelong learning and professional practice;
GQ3: You are working to be an effective business related problem solver;
GQ4: You can work autonomously and independently;
GQ5: You are committed to ethical action & social responsibility for business activities.
GQ6: You can communicate effectively in written language.
This assessment involves two parts: 1) a written business consultation report (80%); 2) an oral
presentation of your consultation report to Company A (20%). Your total marks for this
assessment will be based on the successful completion of both tasks.
This assessment can be completed individually, or in a group of no more than two students
(These two students must enrol in the same class so as to complete the oral task together).
Context:
You have recently joined Business Smart, a finance and business consultation firm. Your
manager Mr. James Brown will be taking family leave. He has asked you to prepare a
consultation report for an important client, Company A, before he returns on 21 April 2023.
Company A sells food and household products, many of which are essential products for
consumers’ daily life. Company A recently announced the appointment of a new Chief
Executive Officer (CEO) – Ms Alice Lee. Alice reviewed the recent annual report and raised
some questions on both financial and non-financial performance of the company. To obtain a
fuller picture of the company’s financial health, Alice decided to conduct a comprehensive
investigation and analysis on the company’s financial performance and risk in the past three
years. In particular, this review aims to provide a better understanding of how Company A’s
financial performance is benchmarked against other rivals with similar profiles in the food
industry. Company A considers this analysis very important and timely in assisting the new
CEO to set out new plans for its future performance development.
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In addition, Alice noticed that Company A has recently gone through increasing public
scrutiny on its non-financial, especially sustainability, performance. Investors and
shareholders constantly query the company’s social and environmental related impacts and
the potential financial implications associated with these impacts. As a response, several
board members proposed to increase and improve the company’s reporting on sustainability
performance at recent board meetings. However, a few board members disagreed because
they were concerned about the risk associated with the negative impact of providing such
reporting. Given the current economic downturn, high energy cost and low consumer
confidence caused by the Pandemic, they argued that the company should focus on business
and profit growth in this difficult time. The issue is pending for Alice to resolve.
Required:
1. Write a consultation report for Company A
(1) Choose two companies from the list of Selected ASX Listed Companies, which is
provided as a separate file under Assignment on the course website. One company will be
Company A and the other will be used as a benchmark for analysis against Company A.
a) The name of the company selected as Company A should begin with the same letter of
the alphabet as your first name (or your fellow student’s first name should you do the
assignment in pairs), e.g. if your first name is Alpha, you can use Alterra Ltd or
Australian Vintage Ltd.
b) The name of the company selected as the benchmarking company should begin with
the same letter of the alphabet as your surname (or your fellow student’s surname should
you do the assignment in pairs), e.g. if your surname is Beta, you can use Bega Cheese
Ltd or Broo Ltd.
Note: If you cannot find an appropriate company when following the above selection rules,
you may randomly select a company from the list. However, you need to clearly state the
reason for the selection you make in your assignment.
(2) After selecting the companies, go to the company information database DatAnalysis
Premium via the UniSA Library website. Under Company Reports, search for the companies
you selected according to their ASX Codes or part of the companies’ names. Next, go to
Financial Data to review these companies’ financial statements for the financial years from
2020 to 2022 (If 2022 data are not available for the companies chosen, you can use data from
2019 to 2021).
(3) Based on the available data, calculate three years’ (2020-2022) financial ratios of
Company A and the benchmarking company selected. Based on these ratio results, analyse
and compare the financial performance of these two companies. Your calculation and
comparative analysis should focus on any two of the following four points (provide an
explanation on why you choose these two):
a) Which company is more profitable and generates healthier returns?
b) How well are the two companies managing their resources? Do you think Company A
is efficient in managing its assets compared with the benchmarking company?
c) Can Company A meet its short-term debts? How is its liquidity compared with the
benchmarking company?
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d) Do you think Company A will stay in operation in the long term? How is its long-term
financial stability compared with the benchmarking company?
Your answer should be supported by sufficient evidence (i.e. financial statement data and/or
ratio results) and analysis. You can also review the annual reports of the two companies for
the last three years (Annual Reports are available to download in DatAnalysis Premium), and
use the information disclosed in these reports to complement your answers. For example,
whether there are issues of concern mentioned in the annual reports that can have an
implication on Company A’s financial health and risks and how this might influence your
comparative results.
(4) Go to the benchmarking company’s website and investigate whether and how it reports
information about sustainability issues, such as carbon emissions, energy consumption, or
community contributions, in its annual reports or stand-alone sustainability, CSR (corporate
social responsibility), or environmental reports. Do you think Company A should follow what
the benchmarking company is doing? Has Company A reported sustainability information?
Do you support the view to increase sustainability reporting by Company A, or do you think
the company should prioritise profit growth? Explain your views.
Report format:
a) Your consultation report must be presented in a clearly structured format, including a
title page, a short executive summary, an introduction, the main body of text, a
conclusion, a reference list, and relevant appendices. The report should contain correct
grammar, expression and in-text referencing. Please read the Writing Reports Guide, and
Good and Bad Examples of writing ratio analysis on the course Learnonline website
before submission.
b) The word limit for this report is 2400 words (including all tables, figures, diagrams,
references and appendices). Please show the word count on the cover page.
c) Please note you are expected to present only the summary of the ratios in the main body
of the text. Detailed workings and calculations of ratios must be presented in the appendix
of this report.
d) You are required to use APA 7 referencing style (Referencing style information is
available here). The minimum number of references for this report is four (excluding the
textbook and reference to annual reports). The references used must be based on proper
scholarly sources (books, book chapters, journal articles, etc.). Internet sources, such as
Wikipedia or Investopedia, are not scholarly, and thus deemed to be unacceptable. If you
are not sure about the referencing style, please read the Referencing guide on the course
Learnonline website.
Report submission:
a) This report must be submitted online. Hard copies are not accepted.
b) This report can be completed individually or in a pair of two students. If the report is
completed by two students, only one student needs to make the final submission. This is
to avoid a high similarity result in Turnitin if two submissions are identical. The selection
of companies can follow any student’s name in the team.
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c) Please submit one single Word document only (any pdf file is not acceptable). On the title
page, clearly indicate student name(s) and ID(s).
d) You may ask your lecturer/tutor for help while completing this report, but they will only
answer general questions and will not ‘check’ your answers. You may only discuss this
assignment with other students at a general or conceptual level, that is, you may talk
about the issues, not the details.
e) You should not prepare your report together with other students or teams, nor should you
compare your final answers with other students or teams. It is not acceptable to share files,
templates, or electronic versions of assignment questions with other students or teams. To
ensure Academic Integrity, all submissions will be checked through Turnitin databases
which include online publications, internet resources and past student submissions.
f) Remember, your report must be all your own work. If you present material that is not all
your own work, you have engaged in academic dishonesty which is taken very seriously
and dealt with very severely. Please refer to the Academic Integrity section on the
Learnonline course website.
g) Report submission due date: Friday, 21 April 2023 @ 11am
2. Present your report to Company A
(1) Attend a simulated Board meeting of Company A which will occur in class in Week 7 and
brief the CEO and the Board of Directors (a role play) your key findings and
recommendations from your written report.
a) The brief should be concise but precise. In no more than 3 minutes, you need to
summarise what you have done and found for Company A, and what main issues you want
to raise or what recommendations you want to make to the Board of Directors.
b) Presentation slides or handouts are not required. If you decide to use them, please keep
them as short as possible in order not to divert the Board’s attention away from your key
points.
(2) Based on your report, the CEO and the Directors may ask you 2-3 questions, seeking
some clarity either on the main points you presented, or on your analysis in the report.
The focus of this Board meeting is on your report to Company A. All questions asked will be
on the report that you have submitted and nothing outside of this. Therefore, you are expected
to thoroughly know your report and be confident in presenting and answering questions about
it.
If the report is written individually, you will present and answer all questions during this oral
defence process. If the report is completed by a pair of students, you can decide who will do
the briefing (either one or two of you can do this). However, each student will be asked
questions and therefore needs to prepare for answering questions on your report.
Please read the marking rubrics to understand the criteria used to assess this assignment.
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