In this assignment students are required to research on environmental reporting, a contemporary issue in financial accounting and reporting. The assignment is used to assess the learning outcomes of the unit especially the learning outcome b, that is to critically analyse the requirements of accounting standards that address advanced and contemporary issues. It is expected that students use a listed company as a case to analyse the relationship between environment and reporting, more specially, how possible environment events would impact on the standards for the company’s financial reporting.
A professional presentation in the form of an essay (in a structure of introduction, topic sections, conclusion and reference) is required in this assignment. Students need to provide at least 10 references as evidence to support their arguments and opinions. The references must be chosen from quality sources such as academic databases (such as ProQuest and Google Scholar), professional journals (such as CPA and CAANZ journals) and textbooks. All referencing work must comply with the Harvard Style as advised from CIC’s website. The word count expectation for the essay (excluding references in the last section) is 1,000, allowable for 10% variances.
As a recommendation, students should form a group of two to three members to complete the assignment. When this does not work, individual assignment is permitted (Students who are doing it individually should be aware that the due date and marking criteria will not change).
All the submissions must be made through the link on Moodle. CIC’s policy for late submission penalisation applies.
You are required to:
Describe the company you have chosen, and explain why you choose this company for analysis of the relationship between possible environment events and financial reporting.
(Expected word count: 350)
(5 marks)
Identify which financial accounting standards are invoked by occurrences of the possible environment events, and analyse how accounting and reporting of these events can help improve the company’s financial accounting (using two to three examples).
(Expected word count: 650)
(10 marks)
Marking rubric
Grading dimensions F (<=49%) PA (50- 59%) CR (60 – 69%) DIST (70- 79%) HD (>=80%) Full marks Criteria
Description of company (1 mark) 0 0 1 1 1 An appropriate company chosen
Clear description of company
Explanation of relationship between environment and financial reporting (3 marks) 0 0 1 2 3 Two relationships identified appropriately
Relationships clearly explained
Points well supported by evidence (references)
Identification of relevant financial accounting standards (5 marks) 0 1 2 3 to 4 5 Two relevant standards identified
Standards clearly explained
points well supported by evidence (references)
Analysis of how environment reporting improves financial accounting (4 marks) 0 1 2 3 4 Impacts (how) analysed correctly
Two examples used appropriately to address the impacts
Examples applicable to the company
Presentation (2 marks) 0 0 1 2 2 Essay structure followed
No referencing, grammatic and spelling errors