ACCT3011 Reporting on Business Groups Assignment Semester 01 2025 | USYD

Background Information for Group Assignment   

The following International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) webcast, video (in English and other languages), and publication resources are available for proposed changes to IAS 28 Investments in Associates and Joint Ventures (IAS 28) and IFRS 12 Disclosure of Interests in Other Entities (IFRS 12).  

• Exposure Draft – Snapshot
• Exposure Draft Equity Method of Accounting  
• Supplementary Document – Marked up version of [draft] IAS 28  
• Exposure Draft: Basis for Conclusions on Equity Method of Accounting  
• Webcast series: Explore the Equity Method Exposure Draft  
• Comment letters: Equity Method of Accounting—IAS 28 Investments in Associates and Joint Ventures 

Responses to the following questions will be considered on their ability to assess proposed changes to IAS/IFRS requirements and develop well-argued responses based on critical thinking/reasoning. Do not submit a series of dot points. Marks will be awarded for content as well as structure and quality of the communication.   

ACCT3011 Assignment Questions  

Required:  

Part A (14 marks in total)   

Note: You are also encouraged to use Microsoft Copilot output for required supporting examples and evidence in your Part C responses.

Your Part A responses are to be presented in a short answer format.    

(a) The current IAS 28 equity accounting treatment of unrealised profits/losses for transactions between investors and associates has been highly criticised.  

(i) Discuss whether this criticism is justified.  Include  supporting  idea(s)  from  two  (2) Exposure  Draft  comment  letters  and  explain  how  the  idea(s)  are relevant to your discussion (6 marks); and   

(ii) Use the Microsoft Copilot tool provided by the University of Sydney to summarise the two (2) Exposure Draft comment letters used in your Part A (a) (i) response. On each summary,  highlight the idea(s)  adopted in your response and attach each highlighted Copilot summary as an appendix. Hint: You have to sign in with your unikey (2 marks).  

(b)  (i) Create one (1) interest in the associate's disclosure screenshot from an investor’s financial statements.  Using the  Microsoft  Word insert textbox function,  add explanatory annotations  to the screenshot that critique two (2)  issues with the current IFRS 12 disclosure requirements for interests in associates. Describe how the proposed IFRS 12  changes  would  impact  your  chosen  investor’s  future  years'  financial  statement disclosure(s) (4 marks); and   
(ii) Referring specifically to the issues critiqued in your Part A (b) (i) response, form an opinion with a valid supporting reason(s) on whether the proposed IFRS 12 disclosure changes for interests in associates will provide more useful information for financial statement users (2 marks).

Part B (18 marks in total)

You are encouraged to use the Cogniti Agent to obtain feedback on your argument points and to also collect required supporting examples and evidence for your Part C responses. 

Your Part B response is to be presented in an essay format  

“Changes  to  accounting  standards,  like  IAS  28,  are  proposed  mainly  to  faithfully  recognise  the  underlying economic substance of transactions and events in financial statements.”  

Critically evaluate this statement. Your persuasive response should include:  

• An introduction;
• one (1) support argument point;  
• one (1) alternative point that develops a different line of argument for changes to accounting standards; and lastly  
• a conclusion that includes a final opinion and valid reason(s).   

Both argument points must be accompanied by supporting examples (s) developed from your Part A responses, evidence and appropriate academic reference(s)*#.  

*Supporting examples from your Part A responses must explain in detail how and why they support the argument point. #Your academic references should be from papers published in peer-reviewed academic journals. Not internet sources such as Wikipedia, not ACCT3011 course materials such as the Semester 1 2025 slides and tutorial materials, and not textbook chapter references, such as the Arthur et al textbook.  

Part C (6 marks in total) 

Your Part C responses are to be presented in short answer format. 

Think back to ACCT1006 and the reflection skills you learnt in that unit. As a reminder, look at the 5Rs Framework for Reflection resources on Canvas under Modules/Group assignment.

Using The Reasoning Criteria from the 5Rs Framework for Reflection

Explain how useful the Microsoft Copilot summary and Cogniti Agent tools were for developing your group’s Part A and Part B responses, and whether their output enhanced the group’s understanding of proposed changes to IAS 28. Include one (1) detailed example^ (3 marks); and  

Discuss one question response when group members initially disagreed, and what the group did to resolve the disagreement. Provide identifiable evidence created by group members (3 marks)

Detailed example(s) and identifiable evidence must be in English and have a direct connection to the group members' names. These may include annotated screenshots of posts, suggestions and peer feedback from group chats or your group’s  Canvas discussion board. Information on how to access your group’s  Canvas discussion board click here.

The group assignment total word limit is  1,800  words.  This includes all footnotes,  images and in-text references and excluding a reference and resources list and any appendices.   

Assessment Criteria  

The group assignment represents 20% of your total mark for ACCT3011 and is compulsory. To provide students with feedback, group assignments will be graded against the assessment criteria and rubric included in Appendix 1 to this assignment. Note that the group assignment will be marked out of 40 marks and converted to a mark that contributes to 20% of your total mark for ACCT3011. 

Group Assignment Plus Group Member Evaluation  

The group assignment is to be completed in groups of two or three students, enrolled in the same tutorial and who are the same students as the presentation group. You can check which group you are enrolled in by clicking the Groups link on the  Global  Navigation menu in Canvas.

The Group Member Evaluation is not included in the word limit for the group assignment. Although the group member evaluation is not graded or weighted in the marking, non-completion could result in a penalty of 20% of the maximum marks attainable. 

If there are issues with group members not contributing to the group assignment, and reasonable attempts have been made within the group to address these issues and have been unsuccessful, then the coordinator should be advised before the due date of  12 May  2025.  Please note that marks may be deducted for non-contributing students.

Formatting requirements  

• The group assignment and the group work report are to be presented in 12-point font (either Times New Roman or Arial) and paragraphs formatted with 1 or 1.5 line spacing and with margins not less than 2.5cm.  
• You are required to save and submit the group assignment as a  Microsoft  Word file,  using the presentation number_group_tutorial name filename format. For example, if your group is enrolled in the Thursday 9:30 am tutorial and allocated presentation 1 in this tutorial group, the filename for the group assignment will be 1_Group_TUT 05_group assignment.doc.  
• The presentation number and tutorial name, and SID of all group members must be included on the first page of the group assignment.  
• The presentation number and tutorial name must appear in the header section of every page for the group assignment.  
• Your group assignment should not exceed 1,800 words, including all in-text referencing, footnotes and images and excluding the reference and resources list and any appendices. The word count is based on the word count information as presented in Turnitin, based on the Microsoft Word document submitted, and this will be checked. It is each group’s responsibility to ensure that the submitted Microsoft Word document through Turnitin does not exceed 1,800 words in total. For guidance on words above the word limit.

As a  suggestion, you  can use  the following  procedure  to assist you in tracking the word  count of the Microsoft Word version of your assignment: 

• Open your assignment Microsoft Word document.
• Use Ctrl+Shift+G to open the Word Count dialogue box and insert a tick in the “Include textboxes, footnotes and endnotes”.  This function is also available under Review/Word Count. 

Your assignment must be appropriately and properly referenced using the American  Psychological Association referencing style (or APA, as it is more commonly known). This also includes the use of Cogniti and Copilot. The library resources contain examples of how to do referencing for Cogniti and Copilot.  

Submission requirements  

• The deadline for submission is 23:59 (AEST) on Monday, 12 May 2025. Please ensure you submit well before the deadline in case there are problems.
• The group assignment must be submitted in electronic form. No submissions will be accepted via email.
• One group member is to submit the assignment on behalf of the group. Consider multiple reworkings to tighten and to check your group’s assignment satisfies the 1,800 Turnitin word count. Turnitin in Canvas does not automatically email a digital receipt. Once you have successfully submitted your group’s assignment, take a screenshot of the submission details, including the date and time stamp. We 6  strongly recommend that you save this screenshot as proof of your group’s submission.  Should submission problems arise,  you should contact the  University’s  ICT  Service  Desk on  02  9351 2000  (option  2  for  ICT)
• If you submit after the due date, a late penalty of 5% per day, or part thereof, including weekends, will be applied. Any group assignment submitted beyond the closing date of 23:59 (AEST) on 21 May 2025 will result in a mark of zero.    
• Under the Canvas Assignment” link in the left toolbar on the Homepage, you will find the link to the Turnitin submission portals under the  Group assignment section. One  portal is  called  “Group assignment”, and the other “Group member evaluation – assignment.” Before you submit work to the Group Assignment portal, please ensure that you have saved the group assignment under the correct filename format.   • There is only one (1) submission allowed for the group. If multiple group members submit, only the first group member’s submission will be marked. The other submissions will be discarded. Turnitin will allow a second submission for the group before the due date, provided it is submitted by the same person who originally submitted it. In that case, the last version submitted will be marked.