Financial Interpretation Assignment -

Learning Outcomes -

• Assess the financial standing of an entity by examining relevant financial information and identify how disclosure techniques can support business decisions.
• Evaluate scenarios involving ethical decisions in financial accounting.
• Collaborate with peers to present and defend financial information and decisions.

Requirements: This assignment is a team task which involves self-learning, some 'real world' research and team-work skills.

Step 1 -Team formation

All groups must consist of five (5) members.

Students will be allocated into groups by the Unit Chair. Where possible Cloud students will be allocated with other Cloud students, and on campus with on campus. Students will be advised when the groups have been allocated and will need to check on the Cloud Deakin site for who they are working with and make contact accordingly.

A student is not able to withdraw from the team he or she has been allocated to in Cloud Deakin unless the student decides to withdraw from the unit. In that case the withdrawing student must inform the unit chair so the team impacted by the withdrawal can be informed.

Each team will be assigned a company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) for the group assignment. Each team will have its own 'private' discussion forum set up in CloudDeakin to facilitate team discussions. It is compulsory to use CloudDeakin 'private' discussion forum which enables the Unit Chair to assess each team member's participation and contribution in case there are any disputes between students in a team. The Unit Chair can also participate in the online discussion by providing necessary guidance if off-track discussions/activities are observed. If a team chooses to use communication applications such as Whatsapp and Skype etc. in order to facilitate online meetings or conversations, the team must be prepared to provide screen shots of the communication in the event of member disputes.

Step 2 - Self-Learning

Read chapter 10 of the prescribed textbook and:

1. Be able to calculate financial ratios;

2. Understand the meaning of each financial ratio; and

3. Understand and be able to use financial ratios to assess a company's financial performance, financial position and market performance.

Step 3 - Financial analysis

You are required to calculate and analyse all relevant ratios for a five year period. Each group member must calculate one years of ratios (ensuring same formulas are used) and evidence of this participation must be included in your group discussion area.

Analyse the changes in the following ratios of the company based on your five year calculations:

1) profitability

2) operating efficiency

3) liquidity and solvency and

4) market performance

Other information relevant to your analysis:

To enable a comprehensive analysis of your company there will be additional relevant information including, but not limited to, performance of, and existence of competitors and regulatory and/or environmental factors influencing your company/industry. When undertaking your company research, you must utilise current financial press (such as The Age, Financial Review, The Australian, or appropriate relevant on-line business sites*). A minimum of five articles relevant to your company (or industry sector) over the period of analysis must be incorporated into your report discussion. You are encourages to use more than five to support your discussion where required.

Step 4 Writing up group report and submitting the group assignment

Your report must adhere to the structure set out below:

Section 1 Title page:

Section 2 Introduction (maximum 250 words):

Section 3 Trend and cross-sectional financial analysis (maximum 2,000 words):

Section 4 Conclusion (maximum 500 words)

Section 5 References:

Step 5 Write up a Self-reflection and submit it to the Dropbox created for it

Step 6 Submission.

Attachment:- Assignment File.rar