The Business School BUACC2606 – Corporate Accounting Semester 1, 2013 RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT Assessment weight: 25% Due Date: Week 10 Length: 2000 words Group Assignment: 2 people “International accounting standards are ‘unusable” from an investor’s viewpoint and make ‘global allocation of capital more complex instead of simplifying it”. Chief financial officers at large listed entities say. Millions of dollars have been spent adopting international financial reporting standards to help investors make like-for-like comparisons between companies in global capital markets. But CFO’s say they are useless and have driven financial disclosures to unmanageable levels…… Investors don’t open the 60-70 pages of IFRS account, they rely on investor reports and management briefing to understand a company’s numbers……. The criticism comes as the United States, the world’s largest capital market, decides whether to retire its domestic accounting standard (US GAAP) and adopt IFRS”. Australian Financial Review, 6/2/2012. In the light of the above statement; 1. Describe the IASB Conceptual Framework’s perspective of users and their decisions. 2. Which qualitative characteristics of financial reporting, as per the IASB Conceptual Framework, appear not to be satisfied by current reporting practices as per IFRS. 3. In your opinion, do corporate financial reports satisfy the central objective of financial reporting as identified in the Conceptual Framework? Discuss and give example to support your opinion.
Assessment criteria 2000 words max. Excellent (HD) Very Good (D) Good (C) Satisfactory (P) Unsatisfactory (F) 1. Introduction (10) 2. Body/Discussion (40) Critical evaluation of topic 3. Recommendation/s (10) Conclusion (5) 4. Examples (10) 6. Referencing, citations (5) 7. Evidence of reading, quality and quantity (10) 8. English expression, coherence, grammar and spelling. Logical flow of ideas (10) 100/5 = 25%