TaskComplete the question given below. All workings, when appr.docx

Task
Complete the question given below.
All workings, when appropriate, must be shown to substantiate
your answers.
Question 1 [35 marks]
The regulatory environment for financial reporting
You are a member of a large accounting firm which is
responsible for preparing financial reports, including statements
and notes to the accounts; and for advising staff in client firms
who are responsible for preparing financial reports. The firm
only deals with large Australian companies listed on the
Australian Securities Exchange. One of your key tasks is to
monitor the changes and developments in the financial reporting
environment and summarise them in a regularly published
newsletter.
Required:
Prepare a 2 pagenewsletter that identifies and summarises
developments and changes in the financial reporting
environment for the period January - March 2016, inclusive.
Detailed guidelines for completing this question:
1. Monitoring of changes and developments
This will involve regular monitoring of a number of sources
over the required period. The sources should be varied in range,
as you will need to identify and consider developments/changes
relating to:
· Technical issues such as issue of new accounting standards,
exposure drafts or other pronouncements or interpretations.
· Regulation and monitoring of financial reporting.
· Political influences or other potential developments (such as
identification of any reporting failures) that could impact or
may be of interest to staff (such as Enron or Parmalat failure).

'Political' does not only mean action from politicians – it would
also include lobbying/actions by other groups to promote their
own interests – for example there may be articles about
companies, or particular interest groups such as Group of 100,
saying that if certain accounting standards are introduced this
will disadvantage or have a negative impact.
You will need to consider both local (Australian) and
international sources and developments. A section on
'international' items/developments must be included in the
newsletter.
2. Potential sources
Given the scope of the potential influences on financial
reporting you will need to monitor a range of sources. Below is
a list of sources that may be of interest, note that this list is not
exhaustive, you should search for sources outside of these. You
should not rely on any one type of source, but a range of
sources from each category, i.e. do not just look at websites,
also check journals, newspapers etc. Examples of possible
information sources include:
(i) Websites such as those of:
· Australian Accounting Standards Board
· Financial Reporting Council
· Australian Securities and Investment Commission
· Australian Securities Exchange
· International Federation of Accountants
· Chartered Accountants in Australia and New Zealand
· CPA Australia
· International Accounting Standards Board
· Financial Accounting Standards Board
· Websites of large accounting firms.
(ii) Professional publications:
· In the Black (CPA)
· Acuity (CAANZ)
(iii) Newspapers/journals

3. Contents
The restriction of a 2 page newsletter means that you need to
use your own judgement as to whether to include information
about specific changes and developments and how much
information to include. It is not intended that you provide
complete details of changes/developments (although you may
consider in particular cases that more detail is needed). The
purpose of the newsletter is to alert staff to changes and
developments that may impact on their work and provide
enough information about these changes/developments to satisfy
the following:
· For staff (the intended audience) to understand the nature of
the development/change and its potential impact (so staff can
decide whether they need to investigate further given the nature
of their own work),
· Provide sufficient information for staff to be able to obtain
further information on the development/change if they wish to,
· The newsletter should where possible be in your own
words with sources adequately referenced using the appropriate
referencing system.
· Some examples of significant items to be considered include:
· Revised or reissued accounting standards or interpretation
(both national and international),
· ASIC reviews on financial reporting,
· New ASX disclosures for listed companies.
Given the target audience, it would be assumed that they have a
working knowledge of common terms and abbreviations (such
as AASB, FASB) so abbreviations may be used. Don't be afraid
to be creative. The effectiveness of a newsletter is impacted by
how interesting the readers find it.
What not to consider?You need to take care that the
developments and the changes considered and included in the
newsletter are relevant to the objective, in particular the
issues/developments that directly relate to the preparation of

financial reports for large companies listed on the Australian
Stock Exchange. The newsletter SHOULD NOT consider areas
only INDIRECTLY related to the preparation of financial
reports such as (and this is not an exhaustive list):
· Fraud,
· Auditing,
· Taxation,
· Other disclosures by listed companies such as:
· Industry disclosures required by peak organisations,
· Voluntary disclosures in the area of corporate social
responsibility,
· Voluntary Environmental disclosures.
4. Format
The newsletter should be in the following format:
· The top of the newsletter must include the title (you need to
decide on what to call your newsletter) and details of the period
the newsletter is considering.
· The newsletter should not read as one continuous 'essay'. It
must include headings and sub-headings that assist in
identifying the nature of changes/developments and help to
guide the reader, and also enable the reader to distinguish
between items of interest and the relative importance of
changes.
· You must refer the reader to specific sources so that they are
able to obtain more detailed information of the
development/change.
· The newsletter must be printed in minimum font size of 11
points (You may wish to use larger fonts etc for headings etc).
You may wish to set your newsletter out using columns but this
is optional. Apart from minimum font size, there are no specific
requirements in relation to line spacing, margins etc. However,
you should note that simply reducing line spacings, margins to
'fit more in' may impact on the presentation and effectiveness of
the newsletter.
· There is no specific 'word limit'. The newsletter must be no
longer than 2 pages. In cases where the newsletter exceeds the 2

page limit, only the first 2 pages will be marked.
Do not attach actual articles/printouts of web sources etc to
your assessment. You are only required to include details of
these in the bibliography.
5. Bibliography and referencing
This assessment must include a bibliography rather than a
reference list (this should not be part of your newsletter and
to be given on a separate page). A bibliography includes all
materials used in the preparation of your assignment, not just
those referenced within the paper. The reason a bibliography is
required (rather than a reference list) is that this will provide an
insight into the range and regularity of your monitoring
activities (not just those specifically referenced within your
'paper') which is part of the criteria for assessment. It is
expected that the bibliography will be quite long. The
bibliography needs to include specifics of what you have
actually accessed and read that is related to the area - not just a
general link to a website or newspaper etc. Therefore if you use
a source such as the AASB website, please reference every
article that you read separately. Assessments without a
bibliography will not be accepted or marked.
When citing electronic sources, please include the date
accessed. If you are unsure how to cite electronic sources check
the referencing guides that are available from the library or
online at the student services site. APA referencing style should
be used for all citing format.
Please be reminded that plagiarism is regarded as a serious
issue within the University system with severe consequences for
students who have been found to have deliberately plagiarised,
the minimum penalty being zero for the assignment. You should
ensure that they are familiar with the plagiarism policy and
referencing requirements before commencing assessment.

Rationale
The purpose of this assignment is to help you further develop
some of the skills and knowledge required and valued by the
accountancy profession. The task that you will be required to
undertake is similar to the tasks required of a professional
accountant working within the financial reporting field.
Accounting professionals need to ensure they are aware of
current developments and that their knowledge is 'up to date'.
They need to be able to identify changes that have occurred that
may impact on their work and to know where they can obtain
information about these changes. In this assignment you are
asked to provide a summary of recent developments relating to
financial reporting.
As such this assignment aims to:
· Develop the student's ability to identify and source changes to
financial reporting requirements so as to update professional
knowledge required for practice;
· Assist students acquire an awareness of current developments
and changes (both locally and internationally) that may impact
on current and future financial reporting rules and regulations;
· Develop the student's ability to provide written material
appropriate to the accountancy profession;
· Help students appreciate the limitations of the currency of
knowledge in a technical financial reporting area;
· Allow students to understand the relationships between
technical issues and community attitude to financial reporting.
This assignment will assess your ability to:
· prepare basic financial statements for reporting entities; and
· discuss critically and comprehensively the statutory and
professional requirements upon which published financial
statements are based.
Marking criteria
You will be assessed on the following:
QUESTION 1: Newsletter

The newsletter will be assessed in relation to the criteria
specified in the following marking guide:
Element
Criteria
HD
D
CR
PS
Technical content
Local reporting news [25%]
Correctly identify and report a large range of news relating to
changes in local financial reporting environment.
Correctly identifies and report most of the news relating to
Correctly identify and report some of the news relating to
Correctly identifies some relevant local news. Provides some
level of detail but newsletter has major omissions or incorrect
reporting.
International reporting news [25%]
Correctly identify and report a large range of news relating to
changes in international financial reporting environment.
Correctly identify and report most of the news relating to
Correctly identify and report some of the news relating to
Correctly identifies some relevant international news. Provides
some level of detail but newsletter has major omissions or
incorrect reporting.
Effectiveness
Detail of discussion [15%]
Provides a high level of detail for all news.
Provides effective summaries and directions to staff to access

further information where appropriate for all news.
Discriminates between significant and minor news.
Provides detail for all news.
Provides detailed summaries and further information where
appropriate for all news.
Discriminates between significant and minor news events.
Provides appropriate level of detail for most of the news.
Provides effective summaries and further information where
appropriate for most of the news.
Accurately identifies significant and minor news.
Provides some level of detail for most of the news.
Provides effective summaries and further information where
appropriate for some of the news.
Identifies significant and minor news.
Creativity [15%]
Titles/headings provided attract attention.
Design of newsletter is highly creative, memorable, easy to read
and exemplary.
Titles/headings provided attract attention.
Design of newsletter is creative, well structured, and is easy to
read.
Titles/headings provided sometimes attract attention.
Design of newsletter is original not based on a standard
template.
Titles/headings provided sometimes attract attention.
Design of newsletter is simplistic but effective.
Academic writing skills
The newsletter meetsacademic standards of syntax, vocabulary,
spelling and punctuation and reflects an awareness of audience
needs [20%]
Accurate use of syntax, spelling and punctuation.
Correctly refers to an extensive variety of sources to support
arguments, including prescribed texts and a broad range of
additional readings.
Bibliography lists an extensive range of resources used,

correctly formatted using APA style.
Accurate use of syntax, spelling and punctuation.
Succinct and effective use of vocabulary.
Correctly refers to a broad range of sources to support
arguments, including prescribed text and a variety of further
readings.
Bibliography lists a broad range of relevant resources used,
correctly formatted using APA style.
Accurate use of syntax, vocabulary, spelling and punctuation.
Correctly refers to more than the minimum requirement of
sources to support arguments, including prescribed texts
and recommended readings.
Bibliography lists a limited range of relevant resources used.
Reference list formatted in APA style, with minor errors.
Mostly accurate syntax, spelling and punctuation.
Correctly refers to minimum number of sources to support
arguments, including prescribed texts.
Bibliography lists a limited range of relevant resources used.
Reference list used, formatted in APA style, with some errors.
Presentation
It is essential that presentation of assignments adheres to
acceptable standards in relation to neatness and layout, as you
are practicing to present material in a work situation. Correct
formatting and referencing procedures following the APA
referencing style should be strictly adhered to for all assignment
tasks. For further information about referencing, please refer to
the CSU referencing website
at: http://student.csu.edu.au/study/referencing-at-csu
Requirements
You must submit your assignment via TURNITIN in word
format. Any submissions in other file types (such as
excel, PDF or publisher) are not supported by turnitin, and
hence will not be marked.

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