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
Yes @kann23 , if you are submitting for period 32 then you have to select your company from the given industry sectors.
I'll quote what trephena has mentioned:
@trephena said: The industry sectors for P32 are: - pharmaceutical companies or those in biotechnology - mobile telecommunications - air transport Personally I do not recommend doing a T15 on the latter (the cash management and working capital element of airline operations is VERY complex) and suggest that a T15 for any of these is NOT a soft option. Other topics are unaffected so as always I recommend T17 on the basis that we have a proven track record for our students using the T17 forum and achieving great results.And also check this pdf file issued by learning luminairum which gives a good insight to the industry sectors! https://learningluminarium.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Topic-8-Three-New-Industries.pdf You could also look at this page for more details! https://opentuition.com/topic/topic-8-new-rules-as-of-may-2016-submission/
@darkangel5 - thank you for your input it is most appreciated. :-)
(I shall address the question you have raised on the AIRLINE forum but I have a very limited amount of time right now and it may be a day or two before I can get back to you on this)
@darkangel5, thanks so much for the reply, very grateful, can I just confirm that T15 & T17 are topic 15 & 17? Thanks again
Yes!
@trephena, thanks to you! and other mentors who are doing their best in helping us in this journey :)
I' am grateful to you for your help..
@Handsome
You may compare PIA against other international airlines of any other country.
Regards,
Hammad Ahmed Qureshi - OBU Registered Mentor.
Hello. I just want to ask a simple question. As we have to upload three years financial statements of our primary company, is it necessary to upload three years F/S for our competitor also or should i just upload the latest one year competitors F/S?
Another question is that what should we upload e.g. only Balance sheet and Profit and loss account or Is it necessary to upload statement of cash flows also?
If I want to analyse three years then how many year’s figures should I take? e.g. 2014, 2013, 2012 and 2011 or just 2014, 2013 and 2012?
Whether we should use comparative figures (restated) or should i take the figures from individual annual reports?
Hi,
Can someone help. My main company is a multinational mobile telecom operator(topic 8).The industry generally presents EBITDA rather than Gross Profit on the income statement. The Cost of sale figure is absent. I am told l must calculate GPM rather than EBITDA margin,or my RAP will fail. Its difficult to get an accurate cost of sale ,given the information in their I.S.l found figures of GPM for the same company on Wall street Website. l am wondering if l could use them
I am so dam worried at the moment, because i have no idea what type of explanation the examiner required. For example, i have write the reason behind the bad gross profit margin because material prices increased due to exchange rate and company paid more money for petrol and power etc.. I have mentioned references and everything. Now i am not sure what to write in current and quick ratio. Because there is no reference for the changes in current liabilities and assets available any where else than financial statements only.
Yes Handsome. You are right. Same question here
Hi,
Maybe this is a silly query... The title of Topic 8 as per the Information Pack is
An analysis and evaluation of the business and financial performance of an organisation over a three year period.
However, I have been advised to use either "analysis" or "evaluation" in the title. Is this advice correct? Or should I make the title as per Information pack by just replacing the company name and specifying the period.
Thanks!
Regarding the current ratio and finding how to discuss it, it might be useful to take a look at the cash flow funds statements and look at the shifts and changes in the components and why. Any major loan redemptions or share issues? There will normally be few if any external references for this section. If the liquidity ratios are steady then there is little to dwell on so don't force yourself into writing waffle - just save the words for more useful comments elsewhere
@trephena i have written that companies current ratio improved because they has repaid the loan while its bad again because of the payment of taxation. But i am still confused that what type of external reference we can write here as these are companies internal issues and newspapers does not publish these stuff. I am facing the same issue with receivable days and payable days ratios :/
Is this ok to write the EPS is good because the sales of company has been increased and overall profit increased due to deduction in cost of sales, i have mentioned so many reference about these things in gross profit, do i need to write down those refrences again?
I have chosen Topic 8 as my rap project, now it come to the point that need to analysis the ratios, i have chose GSK company as my project target.
it come out one question, GSK is a pharmaceutical organization combing pharmaceutical, vaccine and consumer health product, as requirement, all of them is under pharmaceutical topic 8. the financial statement is the consolidated three of the above area.
my questions is, since GSK did not provide detail cost figures separately for 3 diversion, only revenue is individually mentioned, could i use the consolidated financial figures to calculate the ratios?
(my competitor company financial statement is half separate financial statement which including a diagnosis department) separate part are only income and cost of pharmaceutical branch
@chang - it looks like you have no choice but to use the consolidated results since there is no way to isolate them individually.
The key principle would be to try to compare like-for-like. Hopefully, your competitor has the a similar business portfolio as GSK. If not, it is not a reason for failure but you should recognize that as a limitation.
I have a question , is it necessary to use gross profit margin ratio for ratio analysis . I am calculating PBIT margin , Net profit margin , Asset turnover , current ratio , debt equity ratio and interest coverage ratio
thanks for reply, the competitor which consist a little branch that is inrelevant to pharmaceutical industry which is a research department, i think i am pretty clear to recognize that as my limitations thanks
9y ago#138hi
how many comparators are students allow to use aside the main casestudy chosen?
@chebirr said: hi how many comparators are students allow to use aside the main casestudy chosen?1 comparator is enough, but if you want to use more than 1 then no issue given that you incorporate your analysis smoothly. But, 1 comparator is what mostly used, won't have words to do with more than 1.
Hello.
I was wondering if i can select primary company with dairy products and secondary with dairy and other food related profucts. I need help i dont know if i can conduct my researchon them. Although both companies are food producers, one of the indusrty provided by OBU for Nov 17 submision.
HI Trephena,
As I am considering the topic 8 in alternative to the topic 6 (if I wont be able to get the authorization from my company).
For topic 8 the OBU provide the industry sector where the company case study need to be selected from.
Then, I was wondering if I won t pass my RAP in May 2018 Submission period 36, do I have to change the company in my next submission to align it with the new industry sector requirement for the submission period 37 or can I still use the same company as case study.
Thanks and Regards
Gabriella
If you submit on a particular topic and fail you are normally allowed to resubmit on the same company (the only exception being if your work has been given a zero grade because of academic misconduct). There you would be able to stick with the company you originally selected.
However as regular readers will know, I think the current industry sectors are extremely difficult (unless you happen to have, say, some local hotel groups that you can use). I certainly would not choose this Topic myself now, so I hope your organisation will grant you permission to do Topic 6 as I think you will find it more inspiring than Topic 8
@qq419850428 said: i also have some doubts in referencing Annual Report for many times , for example: AA company in text citation i put corporation author and pages (AA 2016, P10) in reference list i will put AA 2016, AA Annual Report 2016. About us. p.10. Available at: https://www.aa.com/. am i doing correctly by indicate pages that i used ? or should i just put in text citation as (AA annual report, 2016) for every single use of annual report and one reference list reference which one is correct one ??? thanks for your adviceKindly check referencing forum, you will get valuable inputs. Regards,
Hi Trephena,
Thank you for your response.
I hope my company can provide the authorization, however in the meantime I am considering another options in case I wont get it.
With regard to topic 8: Can I use Boeing Company and compare with Airbus?
Do you think would it be too difficult?
Thanks and Regards
Gabriella
Hi Trephena,
Sorry for following up.
I was wondering if you could guide me to decide with company to choose for topic 8 if my company wont allow me to access to the info for topic 6
I was thinking of use Boeing company as case study for RAP and company with Airbus. Do you think that it would be too difficult?
Thanks and Regards
Gabriella
In many respects Boeing and Airbus are a good match however as with many of the companies in the specified sectors you will find the companies use different reporting standards e.g. US GAAP v. IFRS. It is for this reason (among others) that I have now declined to recommend particular companies that are suitable for this topic as I am not sufficiently knowledgeable of each company's intricate operations to feel that I can make a reliable judgment of this.
HI Trephena,
Thank you for your reply
Best Regards
Gabriella
@trephena
Hi,
When I read info pack it's stated there that everything from the start of the title page to the end of conclusion including chart, graphs included in the word count. But when I am looking at the Wordcount in MS word, chart, graphs not included in the word count so my question is does the marker have any software that will count the chart and graph and do I need to leave around 100 words as spare?
payables in consolidated statement including trade payables and other payables.
when i caculated the ratios ( payable days) which figure should i use ??
currently i caculated the ratios using only trade payables , result show up trend in 3 years .
but if calculated by the consolidated figure which including trade and other payables , it will show down trend and this trend is mention in annual report .
am i correct by using the trade payable separately > ? or could i talk trade payable and other payable separately ?? thanks for you advice
@trephena
Hi
I read in info pack that reference list should be preferably in alphabetic order. I read in this forum some students saying its time consuming to make it in alphabetic order. Cant, we do that with ms office sort option?
Thank you so much for your help.
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