assignment Lecturer Carol Masters
Hand out date w/c 5th October 2009
Hand in date Tuesday 8th December 2009
Weighting 15%
Suggested length Approximately 1,200 words. See note below
Learning outcome assessed
1. Understand current issues and possible future directions for financial reporting.
2. Summarise, analyse and evaluate relevant accounting standards and other regulations.
3. Apply accounting ideas, concepts and methods to specific financial reporting problems.
4. Communicate better in written form.
5. Evaluate the quality of the work of others more effectively.
Requirements
Deloitte conduct an annual survey of listed companies’ annual reports. When the last report was published they commented “The main message from this year’s survey is the realisation how much the narrative reporting requirements have grown like topsy over the years. New requirements have been bolted on and new extensions will be added in 2008/9. The result is that the narrative sections of the annual report can have similarities with the famous Ronnie Corbett monologues, namely lots of diversions. It would be nice to have that clean sheet of paper and to write from the start”
You are required to discuss the implications of this growth in narrative reporting for the ordinary shareholder. Your discussion should include the following:
• A brief summary of the current regulatory requirements for narrative reports within the annual report.
• The usefulness of these narrative reports, and whether the balance between narrative reports and financial data is appropriate.
• Examples from company accounts to illustrate the points you are making. The examples should be supported by extracts from the relevant company accounts, included within an appendix. This appendix should only be included in the hard copy, and should not be submitted electronically.
• Suggestions as to how the usefulness of narrative reporting could be increased
Further reading
Deloitte (2008), “Write from the Start” Available from:
https://www.deloitte.com/dtt/article/0,1002,sid%253D2847%2526cid%253D229437,00.html There are also copies in the Reserve Collection in the library.
Campbell, D. & Slack, R. (2008) “Narrative reporting: Analysts’ perceptions of its value and relevance” ACCA research report 104. Available from https://www.accaglobal.com/general/activities/research/reports/sustainable_and_transparent/rr_104
Holmes, G., Sugden, A. & Gee, P. (2008) “Interpreting Company Reports and Accounts” 10th ed. Prentice Hall.
Assessment criteria
Presentation including spelling and grammar.
10%
Summary of regulations
20%
Use of appropriate examples. Note that few marks will be given if your only examples are taken directly from the Deloitte report.
20%
Discussion of narrative reports and suggestions for improvements.
40%
Conclusion 10%
The mark allocation represents the effort and difficulty involved in achieving that criterion. It should not be regarded as the means to allocate the word limit.
Word limit
Ideally the length of your report should be within 10% of the suggested limit. However this limit is a guideline rather than a rigid rule. Assignments under or over the limit will not be penalised provided the question is answered adequately and material is relevant. Inclusion of irrelevant material, or unnecessary repetition of poi
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