Advanced Financial Accounting

N1509 Advanced Financial Accounting

 COURSEWORK ASSESSMENT 2014-15

 The coursework requirement is to form groups of 3 (exceptionally 4) members and to write a 2000 word report to the management of the company (excluding Appendices and references).  Groups of two or five are not permitted and there will be no adjustment to the mark to reflect the numbers in the group.  Procedures apply where unequal contribution across group members is an issue.  Any such issue should be recorded in the learning log and communicated to the module convener no later than two weeks before the date of submission.  The membership of groups should be communicated to the module convener by Thursday 6 November.  One member of the group is required to email the names and student numbers of the group members to John Forker by the due date.

If your group is short of members or you are unallocated then inform John Forker as soon as possible.  Templates of the learning log and assessment criteria will be available in the coursework folder on SyD.

SMALL GROUP ESSAY

Study the papers by:

‘Beattie, V., Edwards, K. and Goodacre, A.  (1998), ‘The impact of constructive operating lease capitalisation on key accounting ratios’, Accounting and Business Research, Vol. 28, No. 4, pp. 233-254, Autumn Issue.

Imhoff, E. A., Lipe, R. C. and Wright, D. W. (ILW, 1997), ‘Operating leases: income effects of constructive capitalization.’ Accounting Horizons, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp 12 – 32.

Obtain a set of financial statements from the web.   Ensure that you select a company that has good disclosures for their treatment of leases.

Write a report to the management of the company measuring the impact of the capitalisation of operating lease rentals on the key accounting ratios using the ILW methodology where appropriate.  Discuss possible reasons for the delay in revising IAS 17.

NOTE: tests of significance between the accounting ratios pre and post capitalisation are not required though an analysis and explanation of the potential effect of the percentage change in each ratio is required.

In addition to complying with the requirements of the specific question the following will influence the mark awarded.

1. Evidence of independent research ie reference to other research papers that have dealt with this issue (it is recommended that one other paper to the two mentioned above s obtained and a 100 word summary placed in the appendix to the report with reference in the discussion of the main body of the report)
2. Form, layout, clarity and presentation of the report.
3. Harvard style referencing and relevance of the references that are cited.

Note: Use UK spelling.

The small group essay will contribute 25% of the total mark.

The completed essay must be submitted by 16.00 Thursday 11 December 2014.