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Hello comrades!
I have two questions regarding the financial statements. Question one is more to do with a silly confusion therefore sorry about that. Question two seeks advice so please response will be appreciated.
1. The company I chose has an year end of February every year. So if I am analyzing years 2011-2013 then the year end of the final year falls on February 2014. Now suddenly I just thought since I am analyzing three years stretching 2011-2013, can I take the usual periods in the financial statements like 52 weeks till February 2014; 52 weeks till Feb 2013; 52 weeks till Feb 2012 (to represent years 2011-2013)… or do I have to take exactly Jan 2013 till Dec 2013 which would mean I will have to apportion the financial statements?
2. For calculating the ratios I am mainly using the income statement and balance sheet. Did any of you use the statement of changes in equity or the comprehensive income? What about cash flow? Have you commented on the cash flow as part of your analysis?
Thank you in advance.
Trephena is on holidays. so unless someone else steps in,.. you have to be patient 🙂
Hi Avian,
1) Assuming you are opting for topic 8, you have to use the last three years’ audited financial statements of the company. You are not supposed to follow calendar year (Jan to Dec) rather fiscal year of the company you are researching on. So if your company’s fiscal year ends on Feb 2014, it means that their fiscal year is from March 2013 to Feb 2014. You do not need to calculate 52 weeks, just use their published audited statements for last three years.
2)This depends on the ratios you want to calculate and whether or not you want to include cash flow analysis as part of your evaluation. For example if you want to calculate Dividend cover then you would need SOCIE as it lists the dividend paid for that particular year. But I assume that a well balanced evaluation should have cash flow analysis; either integrated with other ratios or as a separate analysis (but still linked to the rest of the analysis, of-course)
I would advise you to read these forums thoroughly especially the “Top Tips” thread. There are a lot of gems hidden in these OBU threads.
I hope this helps and best of luck.
@avian
In addition…
Statement of comprehensive income and changes in equity deal with movement of items in reserves. You may bother less on those.
You may compute ratios like free cash flow or operating cash margin from your The cash flow statement. These ratios are invaluable when measuring financial health and cash management and liquidity rather than the traditional quick ratio and current ratio. Research n try them out…add some quality to your RAP…that is if you are aiming for something higher than a C grade.Thank you very much for your responses and suggestions.
I’ll mark your words on the cash flow analysis bits. Indeed that would add value to the report overall; just that I’m feeling the constraint in terms of word count. Looks like the RAP is challenging my editorial skills as well lol!
I’ll look into ratios related to CFS and see how to incorporate them into my report. Thanks once more!
@isookvi
I read in another thread that your RAP was previously referred to ACO and failed then… I just wonder why does the ACO referral happen?
I’m probably worrying unnecessarily but the company I choose to base my RAP on is common so might be popular and I reckon many students may have chosen it too to base their RAP on. I’m having this illogical fear that what if some parts of the analysis coincide? Can they fail you based on such things? Or is it only when they suspect some kind of collusion or plagiarism? I’d appreciate if you can share your experience.@avian will
My first submission was referred to ACO because it was not properly referenced and the ACO suspected a case of collusion.I was allowed to make another submission, however, was told that my RAP would be scrutinized closely. So, I know very well about this fear having gone through it myself.
In my second submission, I chose a company which is extremely popular among students to prepare a RAP on and I am sure that in my submission period, many other students would have chosen the same company. But I was hell bent on using that because of my interest and the amount of information that was easily accessible. I made sure that I referenced everything properly, kept all of my notes and drafts, saved all of my emails to and from my mentor and saved anything (images, articles etc.) that might have helped me in preparing my RAP. This should be a common practice while preparing your RAP. This would serve as a back up if you find yourself in the unfortunate situation of having your result deferred. I learned this the hard way. So, my advice to you would be to do the same. If you prepare your RAP yourself and reference everything properly then you do not have to worry about anything such as using a popular company.
Just to give you an example; in the evaluation and analysis section, I referenced each graph to my appendices which consisted of the data for that graph. And in my appendices I referenced the data from financial statements back to the financial statements of the company. I made sure that I “over reference” instead of “under reference”. As a result, my list of references consisted of 90 references.My last advice would be to not look at any samples even for guiding purposes. If you have any questions or you get stuck somewhere, just post on this forum and you will get a lot of replies. Also, read a lot around these forums. There are a lot of hidden gems in these threads.
Hope this helps.
@isookvi – this is such wise advice that although I am on holiday and not officially answering any queries I have to endorse this. I am being very strict and deleting posts from students who ask for sample RAPS (to protect both parties) . You are right if you do your work yourself although an ACO investigation is an inconvenience, it is not something to be feared – OBU does not want to punish anyone who is innocent – they just want to stop students who have copied and cheated from getting the degree. Let’s face it why should you work your socks off and sweat blood and tears but someone else who has bought a RAP get the BSc? It’s only fair for honest and hardworking students that the ACO prevent the latter from succeeding unfairly 🙂
@avian
Yes…researching on a popular company raises a flag. But he sure not to re-do what others have previously done on that company.
Go in deeper in your research n ‘diversify’ your research…do something different. in this way you reduce the risk of copying what others have done on that company.
Of course keep to referencing.@trephena Thanks! I really want to raise awareness of this issue among other students. ACO investigation is a very stressful period and even if they allow you to re-submit, you might still be paranoid of it being deferred again. Its not only stressful but humiliating as well.
Everyone should realize that if you are expelled from ACCA due to cheating, it can have dire consequences on your future.
Just one example is if you ever apply to another professional organization (for example ,CPA), they will most certainly ask you “if you have ever been sanctioned by another professional body” or something of sorts. Same goes for the universities.
So please do not ask for samples. Instead ask for advice.
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