Intermediate Financial Reporting
(Total word limit: 1,200 words)
- Objectives of this assignment
- Assignment Questions
The contents of this group assignment have been designed for educational purposes only.
REQUIRED:
Your Part A and Part B responses are to be presented in a short answer format.
Part A
- With specific references to the Hastie Group Limited (Hastie) financial statements for the year ended 30 June 2011 (Hastie, 2011, a) and for the period ended 31 December 2011 (Hastie, 2011, b), select one (1) account balance and explain how and why the amounts recognized in the account balance were influenced by professional.
- Referring to available information relating to Hastie, identify and describe in your own words two (2) relevant business reasons or events you think contributed to the accounting irregularities issue in the Hastie financial statements. For each business reason or event, state one (1) key fundamental ethical principle for professional accountants from APES 110 Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants that would have been at risk for members working in business and explain why it was at risk. Include technical reference(s).
Part B
Identify two (2) different financial statement user groups that were affected by the Hastie accounting irregularities issue. For each user group, explain one (1) consequence resulting from the Hastie accounting irregularities issue.
Part C
Your Part C response is to be presented in an essay format.
“The accuracy and reliability of financial reports is crucial to ensuring all who read them are properly informed” (ASIC, 2017, p 1).
Discuss whether professional accountants’ ethical decision making contributes to accurate and reliable financial statements.
In your persuasive essay response include:
- one (1) for argument point; and
- one (1) alternative argument point that considers a different factor that also contributes to accurate and reliable financial
Both argument points are to accompanied by supporting examples developed from your Part A and Part B responses and/or other sources.
Including all footnotes and references, the total word limit for Part A, Part B and Part C is 1,200 words.
The following has been provided to assist with your understanding of some terms and words used in this assignment.
| Accounting irregularities | Specific accounting practices have been adopted to intentionally falsify financial statements or knowingly affect a key general ledger account to be
materially misstated |
| Business reason or event | Transaction, circumstance, practice or expectation related to the entity’s
operations that has resulted in a particular outcome |
| Key | Most relevant, important or appropriate |
| Consequences | Current or continuing effects |
| Crucial | Of great importance |
| Contributes | To help achieve |
| Factor | An influence that contributes to a particular outcome |
3. Suggested resources
Students should refer to the resources listed below as a starting point to complete this assignment. Some additional press releases and articles are available under e Reserve on Canvas. You may wish to research other press releases and information.
All sources used in completing the assignment have to be cited according to the APA style of referencing.
APES (Accounting Professional & Ethics Standards Board):
APES 110: Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants (2010). Retrieved from: http://www.apesb.org.au/uploads/standards/apesb_standards/standard1.pdf
ASIC (Australian Securities & Investments Commission),
ASIC (2017, October 24), 17-356MR Former chief financial officer and finance manager sentenced for conspiracy to falsify accounts. Retrieved from: https://www.asic.gov.au/about-asic/media-centre/find-a-media-release/2017-releases/17-
356mr-former-chief-financial-officer-and-finance-manager-sentenced-for-conspiracy-to-falsify- accounts/
Hastie Group Limited
Annual Financial Report for the year ended 30 June 2011 (2011, a). Retrieved from: https://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20110829/pdf/420pf8wbsg7nlb.pdf
Annual Financial Report for the half year ended 31 December 2011 (2011, b) Retrieved from: https://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20120229/pdf/424qmpmt1813wg.pdf
ASX Media Release (2012, May 25). Market Update – Accounting Irregularities. Retrieved from: https://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20120525/pdf/426gnymrjmb7vx.pdf
4. Assessment Criteria
The group assignment represents 15% of your total mark for ACCT6001 and is compulsory.
| Section | Assessment guide | Mark/30 |
| Part A | a) Understanding of professional judgement and its influence on an account balance recognised in Hastie’s financial statements
b) Original description of two (2) contributing business reasons or events for the Hastie accounting irregularities issue and explanation of appropriate ethical principles for professional accountants that would be at risk |
/4
/6 |
| Part B | Explanation of consequences resulting from the Hastie accounting
irregularities issue for relevant financial statement user groups |
/4 |
| Part C | Valid discussion of required argument points in a persuasive essay. Discussion demonstrates critical thinking/reasoning and is supported with examples developed from Part A and Part B responses and/or
other sources |
/12 |
| Communication | Communication, style, clarity of expression including spelling, grammar,
punctuation and proper referencing using APA style |
/4 |
| Final mark | Converted to 15% of the total mark for ACCT6001 | /30 |
You are expected to explain in your own words rather than copying and pasting information from sources.
- Group assignment plus group work report
The group assignment is to be completed in groups of three or four students. Each student must be enrolled in the same lecture stream and sign-up to a group via Canvas. Students will sign-up to groups during their lecture in week 5.
If your group has less than 3 members or you do not sign-up to a group during the sign-up period you will be placed in a group within your stream by the course administrator. Students who are placed in a group by the course administrator will receive their group details via email. Once you have signed up to a group you can see which group you are enrolled in by clicking the Groups link on the Global Navigation menu in Canvas. The following link provides detailed instructions on how to do this: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-10661-421255565. Each group member is expected to be involved in the preparation, drafting, proofing and checking of all aspects of the group assignment.
In addition to submitting the group assignment, each group is required to prepare and submit a group work report to demonstrate effective working within your group. Two reports must be submitted, a group assignment, and a group work report.
In the group work report:
- Prepare an account of participation and contribution of each member of the team. It is assumed that all members contribute equally and any non-trivial departure from equal contribution should be identified (See example 1 below). In the event of significant, non-trivial departure from equal contribution, marks may be deducted from under-contributing group
Example 1: An account of participation and contribution by team members
| Name and Student No. | Date Joined | Brief description of role or responsibility (if applicable) | % of contribution | Explanation if not
equal contribution |
| 1) J Smith | 25/M/0Y | Took minutes of all meetings; presented outline of key issues and draft answer to Part A for group to discuss. Final cold read of all parts and word count check, submitted
group assignment and report to Turnitin. |
25% | |
| 2) A Ng | 25/M/0Y | Researched source material and prepared draft answer for Part C.
Proof read Part A draft answer, checked referencing. |
25% | |
| 3) L Zhang | 25/M/0Y | Reviewed Part A answer. Prepared
alternative answer to Part C for |
25% |
| group meeting. Assisted with final
review to ensure group assignment was within the word count. |
||||
| 4) N Chand | 25/M/0Y | Reviewed Part B answer and redrafted response to Part B for all group members to discuss. Prepared
group report. |
25% |
- Prepare a summary of meetings, showing when each meeting was held, who attended and what was decided. Minutes should be kept for each meeting to enable your group to prepare the summary. If meetings are being conducted by email circulation/instant messaging etc., the group should agree a time (e.g. Thursday 8 p.m. – midnight) within which responses are considered as participation in the meeting (See example 2).
Example 2: A summary of meetings
| Time, date, and
meeting place |
Attendees | Discussions and decisions | Other comments |
| 5 – 6 p.m.
11 September Fisher library |
J Smith A Ng
L Zhang N Chand |
Agreed to read documents and bring ideas to next meeting; agreed on who will record minutes of each group
meeting. |
|
| 12 – 1 p.m.
17 September Coffee shop |
J Smith A Ng
L Zhang |
Discussed approaches and develop plan; JS and LZ to draft answer to Part
A. AN and NC to draft answer to Part B. First drafts to be circulated by Thursday for review/discussion at next meeting. |
N Chand absent (unexpected work commitments).
Emailed ideas in advance |
| 5 – 6 p.m.
26 September Fisher Library |
J Smith A Ng
L Zhang N Chand |
Comments on first draft; discussed all suggested ideas for Part C and agreed on ideas to develop. AN and NC to prepare second draft to Part C and
circulate by Friday for review/discussion next meeting. |
- Formatting requirements
- The group assignment and the group work report are to be presented in 12 point font (either Times New Roman or Arial) and paragraphs formatted with 1 or 1.5 line spacing and with margins not less than 5cm.
- The group number and SID of all group members must be included on the first page of the assignment and the group work
- The group number must appear in the header section of every page for both the group assignment and the group work
- You are required to save the group assignment and the group work report as PDF files, using the SXXGXX filename format with the filename containing your stream and group For example, if you are in Stream 9 and your group number is 12, the filename for the assignment
will be S09G12_assignment, and for the group work report the filename will be
S09G12_workreport.
- Your group assignment should not exceed 1,200 words including any footnotes, appendices, images and a reference list. Any text exceeding the word limit will not be read or
- Your essay must be appropriately and properly referenced using the American Psychological Association referencing style (or APA as it is more commonly known).
You can also refer to Other Resources on the ACCT 6001 Canvas site for additional guidance.
7. Submission requirements
- Both the group assignment and the group work report must be submitted in electronic form (through Canvas via the links on the ‘Assessment’ page under the Group Assignment section). No submissions will be accepted via
- The deadline for submission is 10.00 am on Wednesday 3 October 2018 (Note: Please ensure you submit well before the deadline in case there are problems).
- One group member is to submit the assignment on behalf of the group. Turnitin in Canvas does not automatically email a digital receipt. Once you have successfully submitted your assignment, a time and date stamp will appear next to your submission. You can download a digital receipt by clicking on the paper icon next to your Detailed instructions can be found on the ‘Assessment’ page under the Group Assignment section on Canvas. We strongly recommend that you download and save a digital receipt as proof of your submission.
- Late submissions will be penalised 10% of the total mark per day, or part thereof, including weekends. No group assignment will be accepted after the closing date of 17 October 2018. A zero mark will be
- On the Canvas ‘Assessment’ page you will find the link to the Turnitin submission portals under the Group Assignment One portal is called “ACCT6001 Group Assignment” and the other “ACCT6001 Group Work Report.” Before you submit the work to each of these folders, please ensure that you have saved the group assignment and the group work report under the correct filename format (i.e. filename format SXXGXX_assignment.pdf for the group assignment and filename format SXXGXX_workreport.pdf for the group work report). Please ensure your group submits the correct document to the correct submission portal.
- For each of the two files to be submitted, there is only one (1) submission allowed for the group. If multiple group members submit, only the first group member’s submission will be The other submissions will be discarded. Turnitin will allow a second submission for the group before the due date, provided it is submitted by the same person who originally submitted it. In that case, the last version submitted will be marked as all previous versions will be automatically deleted and cannot be retrieved.
8. Support
- You can post questions relating to the requirements of the group assignment on the Group Assignment Discussion Forum on This would ensure all students have access to the same information, and it is assumed that each student has read the queries and comments in the Group Assignment Discussion Forum (Note: Unit of Study teaching staff will not answer individual questions and no questions will be answered during consultation times).
- You can use the following procedure to track your word count for the assignment:
- Open your assignment Word
- Use Ctrl+Shift+G to open the Word Count dialog box and insert a tick in the “Include textboxes, footnotes and endnotes”
