Ok so I am doing my RAP T8 on GlaxoSmithKline, a pharmaceutical company. I have a list of Qs that I need to clarify.
1. Can a single reference be used twice in RAP?
2. If not, how it should be referred to. For e.g: my findings in SWOT relate to financial analysis (ratios), how and where should I link them together, within SWOT or in financial analysis individual ratio?
3. Does the commentary of ratios be equally given importance when using a comparator?
4. I have mentioned in section 2 that I will be conducting Financial analysis with both ratio analysis and horizontal analysis. What is the best approach to do this given the word count limit?
5. I read somewhere that its a good way to include limitations of business models used at end of discussion of business analysis relating to the case (not general cons/drawbacks of the model). Any tips?
6. Some of my ratios are slightly different from those mentioned in annual reports. I have referred to notes, restated financials but nothing seems to narrow down the gaps. Should I continue with it or is it suppose to be accurate as Annual Reports?
(Differences are with: Debtor days, Payable days, Inventory days & turnover, Fixed asset turnover)
7. Also, I have mostly read here that SWOT works best with PESTEL or PEST, my mentor suggest Porter's 5 forces. Although a lot of material I already mentioned in SWOT can be used in PEST. Whereas I am not getting many ideas on Porter's. But at the same point I do not want to be repeating my words I used in SWOT. Any tips?
I will be adding Qs as I progress with my RAP.
Thanking in advance for your comments on this thread.
Other Accountancy Qualifications
General Queries Topic 8
Oh now I see, I understand your point now Maryam. I believe what obu is trying to achieve by separating spreadsheet file and appendices (eg financial statements pdf file as in the case of topic 8) is to ensure the student has shown the use of functions and/or formulas (which can not be shown from pdf), and can work with different document types perhaps, among other things.
From an overall perspective, Appendices are all just additional information to support the rap, be it in the form of excel spreadsheet of pdf statements.
Here’s what worked for me. Multiple organised sheets in my spreadsheet workbook. I had one for the financial statements of my main company and comparator, I had another that comprises of a neat table where i compiled my calculated ratio figures, the next and final sheet was kept for graphs which I later exported as images to my rap document. By all means, feel free to add more information as per your research direction, i have read of a student adding a swot analysis of the comparator on this forum.
I appropriately labelled the sheets with their respective headings, providing any additional descriptions where necessary, referenced the fs to their respective annual reports, and systematically designated each piece of information with an appendix number or letter.
Where I referenced the graph figure in the rap, I was directly referencing the ratio data i had calculated (which can be traced back to the fs figures sheet from the formulas) and not the graphs themselves.
To fulfil the requirement of my “appendices”, I just exported my fs sheet to pdf and submitted that. You will notice the obu information pack said to include only the relevant pages of the fs, In my work for example cash-flow statements as well as some other fs info was not relevant so I didn’t include them.
Like I said in my earlier posts, the aim of referencing is to find stuff easily, there is no best way, but there are best practices.
Hanne thank you so much for helping me with all my doubts. I have submitted my project!
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