Students who study accounting are expected to be aware of current events that impact upon the profession and be able to interpret financial and other information that companies prepare and present to the public. This assignment will help you develop your ability to research and present information in both of these areas.
To successfully complete this assignment, you will need to:

• Locate and summarise online news articles
• Locate company annual reports and other information from their website
• Access the ASX (Australian Security Exchange http://www.asx.com.au/ ) website for up to date company information
• Use the referencing provided in financial statements to find information in the notes
• Prepare a summary of information with appropriate cross referencing between sources
• Paraphrase and appropriately reference source material (Harvard style referencing).

Access the latest available annual report for your company (Santos Annual Report 2012). Answer the following questions about the company.
Use the group/ consolidated data for your company.

1. Print the company information (for your company) from asx.com.au. Give the following information in your report:
a) Name of the company
b) ASX code
c) Office address
d) Company website address
e) The GICs industry group your company belongs to

2. Using electronic sources, find one news article reporting the company's annual profit announcement. When is it dated? In your own words summarise the information given in the article.
(two popular Australian news sites are: www.smh.com.au or www.afr.com)

3. Print the Statement of Comprehensive Income. Answer these questions:
a) What does the profit margin ratio measure in general?
b) Calculate the profit margin ratio for the last two years. Show the numbers used in your calculations.
c) Discuss the company's profit result for this year. Mention the ratios calculated and the information contained in the news article.
 
4. Print the statement of financial position (balance sheet). Answer these questions:
a) What is the largest asset on the statement of financial position in the current year?
b) How much is the balance of retained earnings in the current year?
c) Did retained earnings increase or decrease from the previous year? Why

5. Print the statement of cash flows. Answer these questions:
a) Give the amount of cashflow from operating activities.
b) Give the amount of cashflow from investing activities.
c) Give the amount of cashflow from financing activities.
d) Look at the large inflows and outflows items in each category. Give a brief overview of where the cash came from and where did it go over the period.

6. Look at the Notes to the financial statements. For each of the following, print the note and briefly describe its contents:
a) an accounting method/policy applied in the company's statements
b) additional detail about a number given in the financial statements
c) amount paid to auditors for audit services (only)

7. Sustainability report in the annual report:
a) In your own words, write a 1 page summary of the Sustainability report.
b) Briefly discuss how a specific action by your company mentioned in the sustainability report (in regard to society or the environment) may affect its future financial performance.

Important requirements:
- Your report should contain an answer to each question above. In each answer, show the question number, answer and a reference.
- The appendix should include all your reference material. You need to print the source page you used to answer the question. Using a highlighter, indicate where the information comes from. Indicate which question is being answered. Finally, attach the appendix to the back of your report.
- You must submit a soft copy of your typed answers (not downloaded material or appendix) to Turnitin before your tutorial. Use your name in the assignment name.
- What you hand your tutor must include:
1. A cover page with your name and student number and signature
2. Answers to the questions, with references to the financial statements and notes.
3. An attached appendix containing print outs showing the source for each answer. Please organise your appendix in question order.