Task: Financial reporting implications of Coronavirus COVID-19. Due date: 22/05/2020
Length: Maximum of 2000 words.
Assessment Criteria:
This task will generally be assessed in terms of the following criteria:
1. Effectiveness of communication: readability, grammar, spelling, neatness, completeness and presentation.
2. Demonstrated competency and understanding: This will be evidenced by the student’s ability to be dialectical in the discussion of contentious issues. The marker will pay attention to the accuracy of the content, coverage of relevant issues, structure of argument, English expressions, absence of plagiarism, concise writing style, and referencing style.
3. Evidence of research – This will be evidenced by the references used and the inclusion of a bibliography. (At least 5 different references to be used).
4. The assignment is marked out of 20 marks. A mark is assigned to each question as indicated below. Also, 2 marks are assigned for the overall submission requirements, presentation, references and language expressions.
Assignment Requirements:
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has significantly affected businesses around the globe. This include interruption of production, businesses closures, reduced demands, and disruption to supply chains and to financial markets. These effects will have some impacts on financial reporting especially in the application of some IFRS/IAS/AASP standards.
In this assignment you are required to answer the following questions:
1. List Eight accounting considerations that are impacted by the Coronavirus 2019 disease. (2 marks)
2. Choose Five of the Eight you listed above and provide a brief explanation for each of these Five considerations (One paragraph for each). (Limit those Five to those that are discussed in our unit ACT 204. This means that you are not allowed to discuss those that were not covered in our unit). (5 marks)
3. Choose Two of these Five and discuss them in detail as they relate to a public company of your choice. This means, you are to choose a public company and go through its financial report to understand its operations. Then, discuss the coronavirus impact on these two accounting considerations as they apply in the chosen company. (11 marks)
For example:
Accounting for inventories: (Not to be used in your answers)
Accounting standards (IAS 2/ AASB 102) sets the guidelines for accounting for inventory. So by explaining initially how the standards apply to inventory, you then need to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on accounting for inventories for example on writing-down inventories due to lower prices, or inventory obsolescence due to lower sales of the company of choice etc
You need to remember, that each company will be in a different situation than others depending on the different risks assessment as this vary based on locations, industry, and future evaluation of the economic lockdown and performance. Hence, your explanation needs to consider the risk assessment for your chosen company and its specific operating market. In this, you may consider, the location of your company, its suppliers, its customers, prices, shipment, etc .
For Question number 2 five accounting considerations would be:
Go to https://www.aasb.gov.au/Pronouncements/Current-standards.aspx
1. Impairment of asset.
2. Employee benefits.
3. Leases.
4. Financial Instruments
5. Statement of cash flows.
