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ACCT11059 ASS#1 Paul Feasey

ACCT11059 Assignment #1

Paul Feasey

STEP 2 – Moodle Profile and Personal Blog

Blog: Being Held to Account

Personal Moodle Profile: Paul Feasey

STEP 3 – My Company

First Impressions

There was something about this company that seemed familiar, though initially I couldn’t put my finger on it. When I looked at their website I found they are the owner of Linden Homes, a housebuilding company that were building an estate a few k’s from where I lived in the UK before coming back to Queensland. GallifordTry are a big concern.

Formed in 2000 from the merger of the Try Group and Galliford Plc they are headquartered in Uxbridge in the South of England and listed in London on the FTSE 250 (Financial Times Stock Exchange). They are one of the UK’s largest housebuilding, construction and regeneration companies. The group is involved in private and mixed-tenure housing, regeneration projects with local governments and investors and major infrastructure works with Government and Private Public Partnerships. These major projects include, airports, universities, roads, bridges, hospitals and defense projects. In this blog post I cover off the history of GallifordTry and my initial findings on the company.

What I learnt about the company, before I learnt from the company

Before I went looking at the corporate website, I wanted to see what the markets and the press had to say about them. I found a number of articles from the UK’s Financial Times that gave me a flavour of what they’ve been doing. It was an interesting read.

In May 2017 it was reported that the group was required to set aside £98million ($181million). This was to cover the costs of legacy contracts arising from significant infrastructure projects on roads in Aberdeen and the Forth Road Bridge.

This exceptional charge caused shares to drop by 10% and analysts to predict a significant drop in pretax profit from £144milion to £46million. GallifordTry had entered into these projects as part of a consortium three years previously. Delays in meeting the completion date in the summer of 2017 had resulted in the reappraisal of costs leading to the extraordinary charge. GallifordTry then changed their approach to large construction projects, which are no longer entered into on a “fixed price basis”. The FT report is below. Though be aware the FT doesn’t like to share unless you answer some questions first.

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https://beingheldtoaccount.home.blog/2019/03/18/why-do-you-build-me-up/

https://moodle.cqu.edu.au/user/view.php?id=93604&course=11667

https://beingheldtoaccount.home.blog/


https://www.ft.com/content/ab823c68-2ffb-11e7-9555-23ef563ecf9a

After reading that initial report I was left thinking that £46million profit is still a pretty good result and the company is still very much viable. I was wondering what the next year was going to bring? This brought me to my next snippet, again from the Financial Times.

https://www.ft.com/content/b30f9060-1174-11e8-8cb6-b9ccc4c4dbbb

In February 2017 the group had another consequence of the aforementioned legacy projects, with the collapse of one of the partner companies Clarillion. The collapse of Clarillion is considered to be “the largest ever trading liquidation in the UK", with liabilities of almost £7billion. If you want to see an example of accountants not doing it right, go dig into the details of their collapse, it’s quite fascinating.

With the collapse of a key partner, GallifordTry lost 20% off their share price and was required to raise £150million in new equity. Reading the article, I was unable to discern how this was possible. The CEO’s comments were mainly on the performance in other areas of the business and not on the equity. I was hoping to be enlightened when I got to the annual report.

But before I got to the annual report, I found one more article, again from the FT, published in September 2018.

https://www.ft.com/content/6307cb0a-b656-11e8-b3ef-799c8613f4a1

Apparently at year end 2018, GallifordTry had rebounded and reported pre-tax profits of £143million, up from £58million the previous year! How could this be? Without knowing the full details, I was struggling to work this one out. I know I’ve only started my accounting journey but even I can see that two hits of £150million and £98million does not equal £143million profit. How did they manage this? Here’s a company worth looking into.

Before I get into the fuller details of how GallifordTry achieved this turnaround in 2018 and what I’ve learnt from it, there are two more articles that I’ve found recently.

This I found on the BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-47458498. Essentially first-time buyers are buying what they believe to be their new home only to find that they don’t own the “freehold” for that property. They only own the leasehold. A leasehold is when you own the right to live in a building but don't own the bricks or the ground it sits on. Therefore, these home owners are required to pay ground rent and service fees to the leaseholder. In addition, because of poorly worded legislation that applies to apartments and not houses, instead of being able to have the first opportunity to buy the rights to the freehold, some developers have sold the rights to other investors. The home owners are understandably not happy.

Of course, I wanted to know if GallifordTry was involved and searched for similar issues. It appears that there have been concerns with GallifordTry as indicated in this link

https://www.leaseholdknowledge.com/protestors-gather-outside-another-housebuilder-galliford-try

However, it appears to have been managed by the board of directors to a degree of satisfaction for all parties. Though I was unable to find out exactly how this was so.

In another article from December 2017, it indicates that leaseholds on new builds was to be banned https://www.ft.com/content/0107b0c6-e5a2-11e7-8b99-0191e45377ec. I am curious to see how this and the factors around house building are represented in the report.

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https://www.ft.com/content/0107b0c6-e5a2-11e7-8b99-0191e45377ec



https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-47458498

https://www.ft.com/content/6307cb0a-b656-11e8-b3ef-799c8613f4a1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carillion

https://www.ft.com/content/b30f9060-1174-11e8-8cb6-b9ccc4c4dbbb

https://www.ft.com/content/ab823c68-2ffb-11e7-9555-23ef563ecf9a


Finally, having worked in areas around the world where just getting to work can be an adventure, health and safety is a very important part of what I do, so I wondered what the GallifordTry OH&S position was.

The first thing I found was this £1.4million claim that has just been settled following an accident in 2015, where a worker lost his toes in an auger. Once again, I want to see how this is represented in the report.

https://www.ioshmagazine.com/article/costain-and-galliford-try-hit-ps28m-after-worker-loses-toes-sewage-plant-incident

Let’s skip to the good bit.

GallifordTry 2018 Financial Report

GallifordTry website https://www.gallifordtry.co.uk/

The full year report for 2018 can be found here.

This is a big glossy brochure, over 130 pages with lots of pictures. The question is what is it selling? When I was an employee and shareholder in various breweries, (shares now all spent sadly ☹) when the report landed on the doormat I either ignored it or opened it up and skipped to the good bit. The good bit being how much am I getting in that dividend cheque? As most of the time we’d have had a company update from the CEO I generally knew what was going on around the business.

My most recent experience with Carlsberg in 2016 was that I didn’t need to read an annual report to know things were not going to plan, I’d just been required to decide who was being made redundant from the brewing team.

Things are somewhat different now. If I want to be successful in accounting, I’m going to need to know more than where the dividend details are. I’ll need to sift through hyperbole and the glossy images and discern from the summaries and the spreadsheets what’s happening in GallifordTry. With that in mind I started to look, but what to look at?

I’ve already seen that there are some key areas I would like to understand. The impact of the significant charges already mentioned and how they recovered. But what I also want to know is how the business is structured, what the critical areas are and how successful are they in meeting these critical areas? Essentially what is the strategy of GallifordTry?

As Julie Andrews sang in The Sound of Music, “Let’s start at the very beginning”, with the financial summary on page 1.

There is a lot of positive numbers in that box! The only step back is a 10% decrease in the dividend payout. You will recall in February 2017 the company incurred a 20% drop in share price and needed to raise £150million, so the profit seems to be an incredible turnaround. I will come to that, but only after I work out how the company is structured and where the money comes from.

Under the group governance of GallifordTry there are three business units all led by a separate management team.

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https://www.gallifordtry.co.uk/~/media/Files/G/GallifordTry/reports/2018/Annual%20Report%202018.pdf

https://www.gallifordtry.co.uk/




Linden Homes is the house building operation of GallifordTry. It built over 3000 homes in the 2018 financial year and has an extensive landbank. This is vacant land they have purchased at competitive pricing and allowing for the planning process, is ready to build upon. House building is cash intensive with upfront capital outlay, which is only recovered once the house is sold, however margins are the highest in the group. An average selling price of £134k ($248k) for “affordable homes” and private homes £367k ($681k) to me indicates that Linden Homes cover a range of markets and provide a decent contribution to the group. Revenue for Linden Homes was up 1% to £947million in 2018.

Linden Homes provide good quality, “standardized” homes, of similar designs and layouts. As 84% of the homes are from standardized layouts, this keeps costs under control and increases margins. Unfortunately, the outcome is an area of very similar homes with not a great deal of character.

However, as the target market is the first home buyer, who would be benefiting from the UK Governments “Help to Buy” Scheme, very favorable mortgage rates and a significant shortage of affordable houses, these are selling very well indeed.

The houses and the inducements to buy were not around in 1996 when I purchased my first UK house in Slough, which happened to be a leasehold. These factors would have been quite handy and made life less stressful mortgage wise.

With regards to the potential challenges facing Linden homes. According to this report in the Independent:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/housing-homeless-crisis-homes-a8356646.html.

The UK requires over 300,000 homes to be built each year to meet demand. In 2018 Linden Homes completed sales on 3,342 homes and had land available to build upon until 2020. As a housebuilding group they are in a very positive position. The impact of removing leaseholds from new builds does not appear an issue as it doesn’t get a mention in the report.

I can understand the challenge of finding an affordable property in the right location. In 1996 my first house was £52k and it was a struggle to raise the mortgage, my second was £98k to buy in 1998, and was sold in 2006. After 9 years in Australia when we returned to the UK in 2014, we bought for £297k, however wage rates did not go up in line with house prices, so I have first-hand experience of trying to find an affordable house to accommodate six people.

To understand the Partnerships and Regeneration part of the business I need to pull straight from the report

It took me a while to work out what this part of the business is actually about. What is a mixed-tenure development anyway?

Turns out mixed-tenure housing is where social

and private housing are located in the same area. This link gives a pretty good explanation as to the development and issues associated with mixed-tenure.

https://www.buildingcentre.co.uk/remakingthestreet/mixed-tenure

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https://www.buildingcentre.co.uk/remakingthestreet/mixed-tenure

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/housing-homeless-crisis-homes-a8356646.html

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/housing-homeless-crisis-homes-a8356646.html


By strategically choosing the area of investment, the financial investment group i.e. registered providers of affordable homes, or investors in private rental, and by managing the risk, the Partnership and Regeneration group has increased revenue by 44% to £475million. This part of the GallifordTry group requires less up-front investment, receives regular income as projects progress and releases more revenue as properties are sold. One of the key focus areas for this part of the group is building and investing in aged care homes. As 18% of the UK population is over 65, aged care and retirement villages are a growth market.

With Linden Homes and Partnerships & Regeneration GallifordTry have a comparatively low risk, consistent high margin cash flow business model.

The third part of the group is the construction arm, which is a major national contractor. This part of GallifordTry is involved in considerable infrastructure projects. These projects include road, rail and airport infrastructure, defense, health and additional Public Private Partnerships.

The construction arm of the business has generally lower margins but does benefit from regular cash injections in the form of progress payments throughout the life of the various projects. The group uses the cash flow generated through construction to help fund the higher margin activities in other parts of the group. 2018 was a good year for construction with revenue of £1,687million up 11%. This is incredible when taking into the context of the major fixed price projects that caused the financial impact of the previous year. However due to those legacy contracts profit in construction did incur a loss for the second year in a row.

To summarize each of the business units, I’ll draw straight from the report

Without reading any further into the annual report I could just stop here and think that this is a company that’s doing well, there’s no red flags and if I had the money I should be investing. But as I have seen there’s more going on than meets the eye in this report. I can see that the business units are making healthy revenue. What I want to know next is what’s the strategy that enables this?

The group strategy set by the board, which is then taken on by the three business units. The groups responsibilities are

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Set Strategy Allocate Capital Deliver centralized services Mitigate risk Embed Culture Govern effectively

The report sets out the responsibility of each of these areas very clearly and it can be seen how this flows through into the way each business unit makes money as I have already described.

Having experience of working for big companies in the past, (Diageo, SABMiller, Carlsberg, CUB, Lion) I was looking for the vision statement and the values of GallifordTry.

In my industry experience (in drinks companies) these Vision and Values are usually highlighted to give investors a warm and fuzzy feeling, after all alcohol helps people have a good time. With

GallifordTry I wasn’t seeing the vison and values called out in the same way. I did find them on the top of page 3. This is the only time in the report I could see

reference to the vision. The values are mentioned in the Embed Culture description for the role of the group. My interpretation of this is that GallifordTry know that this is an important part of what a business needs to be sustainable and successful, but it’s not what the shareholders and future investors want to see.

In order to learn more and answer my questions on how the business rebounded from 2017, the next place to look is the various board statements. What are the leaders of the business prepared to share?

From reading the Chairman’s report, it appears the board are comfortable with the performance in 2018. The standouts are the performance of Linden Homes and the Partnerships and Regeneration Group. The Construction group is mentioned in that it is improving with a disciplined approach to bidding as it is working through the legacy contracts.

As I’ve seen the reports in the FT and previous comments, I know this means GallifordTry were no longer considering fixed price contract projects and that the projects that impacted the group in 2017/18 are being managed effectively. Thereby acting as a risk mitigation strategy for construction.

Further down the Chairman’s report the cost overruns and the failure of Carillion gets mentioned. GallifordTry had sufficient capital to cover these costs, however funding these issues from cash would have restricted investment in other parts of the business and prevented growth. To avoid this and to honor a commitment to shareholder return, the board “announced a rights issue on 14 th

February 2018, which raised gross proceeds of £157.6 million”.

This is beginning to answer my question of where did the money come from? It was a “rights issue”. Which then prompts another question, what is a rights issue? Fortunately, Google is my friend and from Investopedia I have now learnt that a rights issue is:

“an invitation to existing shareholders to purchase additional new shares in the company. More specifically, this type of issue gives existing shareholders securities called "rights," which, well, give the shareholders the right to purchase new shares at a discount to the market price on a stated future date”. Source Investopedia https://www.investopedia.com/investing/understanding-rights-issues/

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https://www.investopedia.com/investing/understanding-rights-issues/

https://www.investopedia.com/investing/understanding-rights-issues/


In order to avoid dipping into the company cash reserves and maintain investment in the company operations, in March 2018, GallifordTry offered the existing shareholders the opportunity to invest further in the company.

https://www.miningcapital.com/companies/news/193876/galliford-try-rights-issue-targets-157mln-to-cover-shortfall-from-carillion-joint-venture-193876.html

For every three shares that were owned there was the opportunity to buy one share at a discounted price. A total of 27,741,204 shares were offered at £5.68. This was a 32% discount on the closing share price on the 26th March, the day before the shares were offered for sale. This was an underwritten offer, which I am assuming means that the major banks were providing security on the process. I don’t quite understand this part of it and will need some research.

The fuller details of the announcement are in this link.

https://www.miningcapital.com/companies/rns/3623/LSE20180327070005_13582154

On April 16th2018 it was announced that this rights issue had closed on the 13th April with the confirmed sale of 25,385,074 New Ordinary Shares. As this did not represent the sale of the full number of shares on offer -

“In accordance with their obligations as Joint Bookrunners, HSBC Bank plc, Peel Hunt LLP and Barclays Bank plc will use reasonable endeavours to procure acquirers for the remaining 2,356,130 New Ordinary Shares”

I’m not certain what “Joint Bookrunners” are? To me it sounds like something dodgy at a horse race. I will assume that it’s legit and means the banks as underwriters of the process will actively seek existing shareholders to take up the offer of the remaining shares. The press release from the London Stock Exchange is below:

https://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/news/market-news/market-news-detail/GFRD/13604822.html

With some rummaging around on the internet I have been able to find out how a company experiencing some extraordinary costs is able to raise over £150million. This is kept very low key in the annual report. Now I know where the cash came from, I wanted to know where it was shown in the balance sheets. This was a challenge.

From the Consolidated Statement of Changes in Equity I can see that there is a big number added in in 2018 from the issue of shares.

But £153.2million is not the same as the publicized £157million, so what’s the explanation? To the footnotes! And there are a lot of them. The one I’m interested in is #27 and this is what it says:

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https://www.miningcapital.com/companies/rns/3623/LSE20180327070005_13582154




Initially I couldn’t work out how 27,741,204 shares sold at £5.68 to raise £157million, less costs of £7.6million was represented on the SOCIE as £153million and £13.9million in the footnotes. Then as I was about to give up, I had an epiphany! The issue price of an ordinary share is actually £0.50, which would be an initial value of £13.9million, as shown above.

When they were offered for sale the price was £5.68 and selling raised £157million. Take away the selling costs gives, ~ £150million. Still doesn’t add up!

Until the final line in the footnotes that indicates GallifordTry has a Save as You Earn share option scheme where employees purchased 398, 192 shares adding £3.3 million to the company equity. Which now balances with the SOCIE. That was fun!

Two things I’ve learnt here, one that I never realized I could enjoy myself with an in-depth examination of the balance sheet and two I don’t understand how a share is created that initially costs £0.50? This will need working out at a later date.

Having dwelt long enough on how the equity was raised I should really look at the remainder of the report and see what else is going on?

It does look like having three separate businesses in the group mitigates a lot of risk for GallifordTry. With the construction side having a far lower profit margin and the exceptional charges from the legacy contracts, the group was being held up by the profits of home building and partnerships and regeneration. These are the definite power house profit makers of the group.

It also appears that the decision to raise equity was sensible one. GallifordTry was able to cover the costs of the exceptional items, while allocating the capital required to continue to invest in the cash cows of the group and then return £76million in dividends. In March 2017, shareholders were informed that the dividend payment would be reduced. From what I have seen in the financial notes, it seemed to be accepted by the shareholders without issue.

I’m pretty sure that when I did some simple calculations of all the profit the group made less the dividend payout, I also reached the declared profit of £118million.

Other areas of note that I found interesting were in the areas of human resources, safety and cash management. As I mentioned earlier in 2015 there was an accident at a waste water treatment plant. In the 2018 financial year GallifordTry were found liable. This does get a mention in the annual report, though very briefly. I’m not sure if the regret was for the accident or for being found liable?

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The company does appear to have a strong focus for training and employee well-being with some effective policies in place. There is also a strong focus on improving Equality, Diversity and Inclusion aspects of the group as well.

There is a strong requirement in the group for managing cash and ensuring shareholder return. From this snippet from the Financial Directors report it’s clear that a lot of effort goes into managing the cost of borrowing. Having in the past spoken to the Diageo team who handled this in London, I understand that this is a hugely complex area, which ultimately, I may learn a lot more about as the accounting learning continues.

With regards to risks, two are touched upon. The first is the need for an increase in the speed of the process whereby planning approval is granted. It is considered at the current rate of release there will be significant issues meeting the governments planned target of 300,000 new homes each year.

The second more uncertain challenge is the effect of Brexit on, well everything! This is from the Guardian from February 14th, 2019. Essentially the CEO is saying that Brexit uncertainty is bad for business and delaying projects.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/feb/13/brexit-delaying-public-and-private-projects-says-galliford-try

What is called out in the annual report is the need for skilled and experienced labor and the potential affect Brexit will have on this pool. As a mitigation strategy GallifordTry are increasing their apprenticeship numbers and encouraging more movement into the construction industry.

There is considerably more information contained in the annual report and I could continue at great length, however I think I have dealt with the key highlights of 2018.

If I return to the group responsibilities of

Set Strategy Allocate Capital Deliver centralized services Mitigate risk Embed Culture Govern effectively

I would be inclined to think that the board of GallifordTry is maintaining its commitment to the employees and shareholders. GallifordTry is a company that has acknowledged the effects of less favorable circumstances and implemented mitigation strategies to enable these to be overcome. They have recognized where the cash is generated within the business and where the risks are. By managing cash flow and raising equity this firm have continued to provide capital to the operational units and provide effective share holder dividends.

I have one final KCQ for this part of ASS#1. On 26 th March it was announced that Peter Truscott CEO of GallifordTry was stepping down to take up the position of CEO of rival firm Crest Nicholson in September. Truscott will be paid a base salary of £650k rising to £1.4million of options and bonuses.

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And he get’s six months off work to boot. It will be interesting to see how they go and who steps up. The full story is here.

http://www.cityam.com/275264/housebuilder-crest-nicholson-poaches-chief-executive

As a final word for this part of ASS#1. I’ve really enjoyed this part of the assignment. I wasn’t sure what to expect, then I started to look around the company and began to understand the balance sheets. I really enjoyed working out from the SOCIE and the footnotes where the equity had come from and how it was represented. I honestly think I could pour over every page of that report and have a KCQ and something to say about it. But as I would like some feedback and my peers have only so many hours in the day I will stop now.

ASS#1 STEP 4 – GALLIFORDTRY Company Spreadsheet

Studiosity

What a great resource. I submitted my first set of KCQ’s and got the feedback I was expecting in about 24 hours. My colleague, our project team accountant, also a CQU student is currently doing her MBA, was unaware of this service. She is now converted and a big fan. Why you wouldn’t take advantage of this resource is a mystery to me. I will certainly be using it in the future.

ASS#1 Step 5 – Key Questions and Comments on Chapter 2 and Chapter 3

The intro and chapter 1 were all fairly straightforward, no surprises apart from the requirement to blog and interact in order to succeed. I acknowledged the need for KCQ’s, and used the process, knowing that as we move on there will be a lot more opportunities to use this tool to learn and demonstrate understanding. As I write this, we’re in week 2 and the chapters are getting more in-depth in the mechanics of accounting and finding our way round the company balance sheet. This is where I will be using KCQ’s as I’m now heading into areas outside of my area of expertise. What follows is my KCQ’s from chapter 2 and chapter 3

Chapter 2 – understanding the rules of the game. A great reminder that business and working in a business is a game, which has both written and unwritten rules. This has been a concept that I’ve seen in action many times over my career, I’ve seen many people rise to senior positions in company’s and I’ve wondered why? It took me a while to realize that they knew “the rules of the

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http://www.cityam.com/275264/housebuilder-crest-nicholson-poaches-chief-executive


game” on how the business operates far better than I did. Once you understand the rules, it levels the playing field and makes it easier to navigate. Which is the same with financial information.

I had to chuckle early on in chapter 2 with the revelation that a manager can ask for whatever financial information they want from a firm. In my previous firms it never occurred to me to ask for more information than I needed to run my department and know where I impacted on the immediate operation. There was no need to ask for more as the company results were always published to the shareholders in the annual reports.

I asked our team accountant about this in relation to my current firm, a family owned business. Her response was that until only recently, no financial information was shared with anyone! Managers couldn’t even see their departmental budget. This is quite incredible and would make running a department a real challenge. The business has moved on considerably since those days, however as it could be career limiting, I will not be asking the CEO for any more financial info than I have. This certainly reinforces the fact that there are no rules within a company on what can be shared with a manager.

It was very interesting to read how the need for financial reports and disclosure had evolved over what is relatively recent history, all from a need of managers being separate from the owners’ equity and increased banking power. Which in turn gave rise, initially in the US in the 1930’s, to increased legislation forcing firms to disclose their financial statements. I’d heard of the term’s management accounting and financial accounting and I know people in these roles within the same firm. I had never thought to ask them why or what they do? I know understand that a firm only wants one set of accounts but presented in different ways for different reasons; the management accounts are for internal consumption and the financial accounts are for external parties.

With chapter 2 I’m heading into areas that I had vaguely heard of, but previously didn’t really need to know. What I am finding that already I’m in a better position to more clearly understand what the accountants at work are talking about.

The rules of the game in preparing financial statements are governed by the Generally Accepted Accountancy Principles. They vary from country to country and are not required for internal communication. These are the minimum standards that apply to listed companies when preparing financial information for external parties. Generally, business and government entities are legally required to follow these accounting standards. Members of the CPA Australia, CAANZ (which I’d never heard of) and the Institute of Public Accountants take the steps required to ensure compliance.

The AASB, ASIC and ASX all have a hand in ensuring that GAAP rules are kept up to date and remain vast and complex. The AASB adopt the IFRS which in turn are regulated by the IASB in London. Australia and another 140 countries adopt these standards, apart from the USA.

I did wonder why this was so. Thanks to the wonders of Google I discovered that the US GAAP is more rules based and, I assume has fewer grey areas. The IFRS being more principle based. There is an argument that IFRS provides better representation of transactions than USA GAAP. But at the moment as I simply do not know enough, I’m not in a position to determine what is better and why. As my current firm is global with offices in the US and with a major US partner, I might ask the question of the accounts team and see what they have to say.

I wasn’t surprised to find that there are not enough accounting rules to cover every eventuality, firms can be big and complicated. It appears that when preparing a financial statement there can be

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an element of judgement, estimate and assumption required. Fortunately, the IASB and AASB have created a conceptual framework to support this process. As the AASB is considering how to adopt the new IASB revision of the conceptual framework I imagine it will be in place before I get too involved in it and I’ll wait for the update.

Given the complexity of the rules it’s good to see that not everyone needs to comply with the all the accounting rules. Only those entities that produce a general-purpose financial statement are expected to comply, though any firm can produce a general-purpose financial statement if they wish. How those reporting entities are determined looks like a minefield as it is not just the private sector these reporting rules are applicable to, parts of government can also be entities and would be required to comply. This area will take a bit of getting used to.

Further on the chapter we consider accrual accounting. Recording the transaction before the cash changes hands. I’m familiar with this from departmental budgets where I’ll predict when I’ll spend in particular cost centers over the year and where the savings to budget will be. Usually it’s a process for me to demonstrate where I’m saving rather than spending.

As with most areas of life “garbage in = garbage out” and that goes for financial statements as well. Information needs to be a faithful representation i.e. dependable the information accurately reflects reality and relevant i.e. what the reader needs to know. Without both of these, the information contained is meaningless and unlikely to give a clear picture of what’s going on in the firm.

Both of these qualities need to be backed up with consistency. It is very hard to see how a firm is performing if the method of reporting and calculation changes year on year, or to compare the performance of two firms. This is where the footnotes come in. Footnotes provide the explanation to the accounting policies, changes, exceptional items etc. and allow the financial statement to neatly fit on one page, they also help us to verify the information provided.

There is a huge amount of information in chapter 2 with a lot of new concepts; once you know and understand the rules, it makes it a lot easier to play the game.

Chapter 3 introduces us to Financial Statements. Now I’ve been a shareholder of some major companies in the past. Only because of their very generous renumeration packages that have gifted me with shares over the course of my employment.

As a shareholder I’ve received lots of glossy company reports and to be honest I really haven’t paid much attention. My focus was are we (the company) doing well and how much are my shares worth? We’d usually get an internal company update shortly after the results were presented to the stock exchange so there wasn’t a need to look at the annual report. As a result, I’ve generally skipped through the brochure or simply ignored it. On reflection I’ve probably missed a lot by not looking closely at the financial statements, but then I didn’t know what I was looking at.

From Chapter 3 I am now properly aware that there are four financial statements, with no set layout. I was familiar with the balance sheet, which demonstrates assets, liability and equity at that one point in the year and income statement, showing profit and loss or revenue less expenses, the bottom line. The statement of cash flows is exactly what is says it is and can be worked out by the headings. What was interesting was the confirmation that “cash is king” and if a firm has cash, it can’t go bankrupt. I had wondered how bankruptcy actually happened, it’s all about running out of cash.

How these relate to the extended fundamental accounting equation of Assets + Expenses = Equity + Revenue + Liabilities is now a lot clearer.

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Statement of Change in Equity, this is a new one. I knew that company performance relates to share payouts, I used to get the cheques after all, I didn’t know how it worked. The SOCIE shows how the shareholders equity has changed over the financial period. It has an opening and closing balance and shows the change in equity in form of shares and dividend pay outs. I’m still not entirely clear on this process, but looking at the 2018 GallifordTry SOCIE, if the number at the bottom is bigger than the number at the top, it’s been a positive year. There’s plenty more in chapter 3 and I’m looking forward to applying these concepts in ASS#2.

ASS#1 Step 3 (part 2) Top 3 Blogs and Step 6 Feedback

The full details of how I chose my top 3 blogs and why can be found on my blog

It was a difficult choice as there’s some great content there in the group, so my top three are here.

Claudia Turiano

I came to Claudia’s blog via Shannon Pengelly . Shannon’s blog is well worth a look btw. Claudia’s blog is very well laid out, I like the style, the content and the level of self-reflection. I appreciate a good meme and a good quote and Claudia has a good balance so far in the blog.

Lisa O’Neill

I reckon Lisa’s just warming up. She’s got a dry sense of humor and I’m getting a feeling that if she really let’s it rip it’ll be a doozy. I like her style, honesty and can relate to her challenges of study and managing life with teenagers. Her content is good and she’s on track with the requirements.

Sonia Elizabeth Lopez Gomez

I think Sonia is doing a cracking job. Again, I like the style and layout of her blog and she’s put some great content on it. I like the way she laid out her company profile nice and clearly. What put Sonia in the top 3 was the time she took to go through the ASS#1 requirements and break it down nice and easy for everyone. This is great leadership and support behavior and sets a great example to others on what good looks like.

ASS#1 Step 6 Feedback

Feedback is a gift and it’s also a learned skill. In over 20 years in industry I have had a lot of feedback, some of it constructive and some downright rude. “what does small boy know?” is not what you want to hear from the operations director of Kenya Breweries in Nairobi mid-way through a presentation.

I’ve learnt to accept feedback with grace and take look at the context, how it was delivered and what can I do with it.

With the vast range of students, we have on the unit, I think we can safely assume that there will be a vast range of experiences with giving and receiving feedback. To support those that are unsure I wrote a short blog post on feedback to try and help.

In other attempts to help I posted on Facebook the importance of giving time to the process and a peer feedback sheet that I knocked up. I see that another one was posted a couple of days after in response to another request for a feedback sheet.

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https://beingheldtoaccount.home.blog/2019/03/30/feedback-is-a-gift/

https://cafecocolo.wordpress.com/

https://imaccountingonyou.home.blog/

https://shannon11059.home.blog/

https://claudiamtblog.wordpress.com/

https://beingheldtoaccount.home.blog/2019/04/01/the-mind-bloggles/


When I give feedback, I try to use the BOOST model. Balanced, Observed, Owned, Specific and Timely. This does mean I go line by line through each paper I’ve reviewed. It takes time, but demonstrates I care to do it properly and adds more value than a surface skim read. I think it’s been appreciated by the recipients.

I have been surprised at the amount of feedback I have received. I didn’t expect quite so many people to provide me feedback, especially as half of them did it without being requested. I have felt obliged to reciprocate full feedback to everyone who has provided me with their time and consideration.

The feedback has ranged from really positive in what I have written, to folk taking what I have written in my Step 3 as inspiration to change theirs. All this gives me a nice, warm fuzzy feeling, but does have the risk of making me look less critically at my work. What is important to remember that feedback is not a substitute for proof reading. I went back to my company report and found a number of errors that shouldn’t have been there.

Some of the best feedback has come from Mel Sergiacomi, who spotted spelling, grammar and formatting I missed and Sharne Roby, who gave some excellent feedback on referencing, style and a reminder to keep to the point. This type of feedback is gold. Feedback from others can be found in this embedded document.

To circle back to the point giving and receiving feedback is something I am comfortable with and I would like to think reasonably practiced and skilled at. My feedback to others is below, I’ll let you be the judge.

Feedback given to others

Feedback From Paul Feasey

Feedback to DAYANARA LOPEZ

My commentsStep 1 KCQ’s

A great start some really nice reflection and linkage back to your experiences in the Philippines, what learning means to you and what your expectations are. Some good KCQ’s in there around what accounting means to you and relating it back to experience, noting that you are already aware of some aspects, but then following with the questions that you don’t quite understand was good. I consider this a good start.

Step 2IntroductionPhoto & DescriptionLinks your blog/set up blog

Your introduction in your Moodle profile is good. Though you haven’t added a picture in your description which is a requirement I inferred from the Step 2 notes.I like the into on the blog, no picture of you there as well. Though you have one on your Facebook page.

Step 3Background on the companyCompany KCQ’sComments on other’s blogs

I liked the way you posted on the blog the background of your company. There was a good general description, a video to back it up and some initial thoughts. I see you’ve noted

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the health and safety aspects. A good thread to take forward to the main KCQ’sWith your main KCQ’s these are my considerations.The initial descriptors of the subsidiary companies is good. I would consider giving more info for example why are these minerals so important and how does that fit with the company strategy? An example of PIHA, world leader, let’s show the reader?Your study into the company is one big paragraph. This is a challenge to read and to be honest a bit light on in terms of KCQ’s. You mention to mining resource tax, there is lots of information on this just a google search away. I would suggest you dig deeper into the company, along the lines of

Relationship with the industry Strategy Performance Key challenges Environmental impact and responsible operations

o What do they give back to the community? Health and safety is a big one, do they have any

outstanding claims or cases against themI think there are many opportunities for you to expand on what you’ve written and really examine the company in relations to the financial data. I do like the way you’ve set out your blog. I like the banner you’ve used at the top of the page and I like the way you’ve set the posts and links up. Far more skilled than I am.Thank you for putting me in your top 3 appreciating my blog. Glad you enjoy it and it’s helpful.

Step 4Input company’s financial statement

Spreadsheet seems to ok, as far as I can tell the numbers all add up. Feedback that I got was to add in hyperlinks to the financial sheets to enable checking to be a bit easier. I’d look to do something to make the formatting more consistent across the whole sheet.

Step 5 KCQ’s

Some good reflections and KCQ’s here. I like the way you linked back to the Philippines and your consideration of why the US is different. Some of these KCQ’s can be solved with a quick google. Learning is about research and finding out stuff for yourself. Some good insights into accrual accounting and what a going concern is. I do feel that the KCQ’s of Chapter 2 could be a bit more in-depth.Chapter 3 KCQ’s may benefit from some expansion, you do link nicely to your experience and your company spreadsheet

Step 6 Individual feedback with others

Not provided at this stage

Overall ASS#1 Overall I think you have a great blog set up, a good level of prior learning that is helping you with these early chapters. There are a number of new areas for you and you are recognising these areas. You have a number of KCQ’s, I would suggest with each area of KCQ you dig a little bit deeper. You have done a good start on your company, and again digging deeper into the company will

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increase your understanding and benefit. You have made a really good start in this unit and I’ve enjoyed reading and providing feedback.



Feedback to Lisa-Maree O’Neil


No link available, unable to comment


Nice blog intro, really good reflection on what you’ve done to date, starting to study, the challenges and then going back again. All very relatable and written in an engaging humorous style. Moodle is set up well and the links work. No idea how you managed to get the previous and next bit at the bottom of a page, perhaps you can share that with me?


Company background given in a blog post on 20th March. A great summary in a short piece, well done. Good acknowledgement that you’ve been a poor blog friend, you can probably be forgiven under the circumstances of 4 units and life in general, when you do comment on blogs it is insightful and witty. Thank you for including me in your top 3.From your step 3 document. Great summary and questioning to help you understand the firm.Good to see the linkage between movement and operations and the environments. How the firm is structured and what the firm gives back to the community. Good to see you paying attention and remembering to add back a couple of zero’s to the financial numbers. Good to see you going into the financials with confidence.Really good to see that you didn’t take the company report at face value and did some additional research. Interesting comments on the storm water and the link with the local government ownership, a detected a slightly cynical and suspicious note in that paragraph which I agree with. There is a definite area worth a heap of KCQ’s in its own right.While I enjoyed the piece on the company I do feel that there is an opportunity for more investigation of the company through how their strategy is related to profitability, is there a disconnect between their environmental outlook and reality, what their key challenges are (though they seem protected) and if there is anything that you can personally relate to in the report. You do note that the firm is complex with outside factors of influence, expanding on this point would be great.

Some great evidence on how you’ve interacted with other blogs and what you’ve gained from it. I’ve enjoyed your comments on my blog and I’m pleased that we have a

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rapport.


Spreadsheet looks good, looks like the calcs all work. Just check over the formatting to ensure consistency

Step 5 KCQ’s

Really enjoyed this part of the assignment. Your comments on financial statements and personal experience with club financials is very astute. Good personal reflection on GAAP and how that relates to you learning and how you wish to go forward. The Q’s in this section I thought were very good and particularly how you circled back in referencing the footnotes in relation to your firm. I would suggest spending a bit more time in explain the Key Concepts, the questions that follow are a very high standard, circle back to the K and C’s and you’ll have it nailed.


I have seen some level of interaction on others blogs and we appear to have a good rapport is cool. I have you rated in my top 3 and think your interactions when they occur will add value to the recipient

Overall ASS#1 Overall this is a very promising first draft of Ass#1, all the salient points are contained within. A bit more digging into the company to expand the key concepts, provide the explanations and it’ll be a winner. The blog content is engaging, enjoyable, honest and contains great self-reflection and insights to the life of Lisa and I look forward to continuing to read throughout the unit.



Feedback to Sonia Elizabeth Lopez Gomez


Started really well with good reflection on learning and personal learning style and how hard it is for lessons to stick. Then relating it to task in hand and the challenge ahead with a new degree. Good reflection again on understanding the basic accounting concepts and then the self questioning on blog set up and the acknowledgement of a new style of learning and how that sits with your peer group at work and study. Good examples of your persistence and determination to work hard and deliver a good result in your comments on your blog learning. This level of reflection and relating learning and the topic to your experiences was really good, it gave me an introduction into understanding Sonia and was good to read. You have some good questions about the main accounting concepts, I would suggest in future digging a little bit deeper and providing the reader with an explanation of the concept, what it means/relates to you and then following it up with a question. You’ve certainly identified the concepts, trying to explain them to someone else in your text

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will help you get to grips with themStep 2IntroductionPhoto & DescriptionLinks your blog/set up blog

I like your blog. I like the you way you’ve set it out and I enjoyed the introduction to yourself and your first blog post. Though I didn’t find out you had daughters until your first assignment post. I did have to go to your Moodle Bio to find the details as I could not find a link on your blog. Moodle is set up well.


I note you gave a brief blog post to introduce Hays. That was eye catching. From the main report. Good opening focus on getting Hays as you knew the company and the recognizing the challenge of the currency. Good overview of their global reach backed with visuals and relevant figures. The quote on page 2 does need to be attributed to someone. It’s important but a little out of place as it’s not quite linked into the body of the text. Good explanation of the specialist recruitment that they do and the links all work. I would suggest at this stage putting some explanation around the picture to give it more relevance and help the reader.Good history summary and recognition of the relevance of social media and globalization. In the Strategy section I see your KCQ’s coming in as you search for the relevant important concepts. You raise some good questions on the “conversion” rate, perhaps a google would help?A big section on how they “buy, sell and invest” and competition, lots of information here and opportunity for some KCQ’s on how this works. You mentioned the challenged of in house HR, how would that affect the business? Good summary of the financials and some questions on how this is was achieved. Looks like there is a quote in there that will need parenthesisGood summary of the challenges, defiantly an area for KCQ’s. Possible area for relating back to personal experience? There’s really good summaries of the Hays Report, would really benefit from some digging into the areas highlighted, how they make money, the challenges, the global reach (which part makes the most money?) You raise a lot of questions in the Financial statements section relating that back to the performance figures in the actual financials will help the reader.To wrap this up. You’ve provided a really good summary of Hays to demonstrate what the company does and where it operates (I didn’t know a lot of what you’ve put here) what I would expect is more KQC’s on the summary, where the money comes from, how it moves around the group, where the major challenges are. You really start to raise questions at the end, if you put them throughout the piece with explanations of the concepts it’ll help you and the reader.


Unfortunately, I can’t find a link to look over your financial statement

Step 5 Step 5 was really well written. You have covered a lot of key

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KCQ’s concepts provided the explanation and a level of relationship with your own experience and asked a lot of questions. I particularly like the way you circled back to chapter one and referenced the learning style of the lone ranger. Good honesty in what you understand/don’t understand and reflection when something did click (financial statement as a marketing tool). I get a sense from your writing that you are enjoying the experience of ACCT11059, and it is a challenge. But what I also get is a sense of determination to keep going back to review and understand. This is great. To me a really good attempt at step 5 well done.


I particularly liked the way that you provided the group with a summary of how to do part 3. And thank you for the feedback on my assignment. I’ve seen a couple of blogs you’ve commented on and I like your positivity and support in these comments.

Overall ASS#1 Overall, you have made a good start, the blog is good, support for others is good, a very good summary of your company. You give good self reflection and honesty in your comments. To take it to the next stage I would suggest looking at each of the concepts mentioned, explain in your own words, make it relatable to your own experience or that of the audience and then follow it up with questions. I think you have a huge amount of personal experience you can draw on with the KCQ’s. With the firm I would be looking for anything in the media on company performance, the market place they operate it and the challenges they face. I’ve enjoyed reviewing your work and wish you good luck moving forward with the unit.



Feedback to Mel Sergiacomi

My commentsStep 1 KCQ’sStep 2IntroductionPhoto & DescriptionLinks your blog/set up blog

From your blog, the Moodle link works and from Moodle the blog link works. Can’t see the photo in Moodle, which is a bit odd. I like the blog set up nicely laid out.


You started well with a really good explanation of your company. They have quite the range of brands, as you realsied you knew them without knowing, some pictures would break up the text and engage the reader at this point. Good explanation on the farming methods for almonds and relating that back to personal experience, nice touch. How big is the global market for almonds? Sounds like almond flowers are pleasing to the eye, a picture perhaps? Good note that planning is a key part of the company, worth exploring as part of strategy or challenges?

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There’s a lot of info covered in the body of the piece about your firm. You mention, weather, Coles, China, tariffs etc. There’s a lot of stuff here all worth unpacking into manageable chunks for the reader. Why are there tafifs for US and China? A $3million hit from Coles is a big dent, how was that reported? In the opener you mention other products as well as almonds, how do they fit into the company strategy and risk mitigation?

Good reflection on the benefits of the Pepsi deal and the Chinese focused campaign with a good question to follow.

Good linking profit with reduced operating costs. Worth expanding on this to see how they did it, is it better efficiency, lower waste or reducing overheads and people costs? I’m always suspicious on this. Operations only have so many levers to pull to reduce costs.

I like how you attacked the financial statements with a calculator, though excel is one big calculator, good reflection on how you worked your way through it and worked it out.

SOCIE – that’s interesting, why did they pay a lower dividend and how did they communicate it? Dividends are all shareholders get, how did the board convince them to take less? There will be an explanation somewhere.

Having had a quick look at the company report there are some key challenges, values and other areas that you could have brought out in your report. I’ve never seen a People, Profit, Planet diagram like that before

Overall a good appreciation of your company. Some key areas covered and linking back to the study guides as well. Some good links to outside resources indicates you’ve read around the subject, though there are some questions that potentially could be answered with a bit of digging. Overall engaging, demonstrated a number of concepts, some great reflection and a good variety of questions to circle back onto the concepts and your understanding

Good explanation on your experiences with Studiosity. Thank you for considering me in your top 3 blogs that is appreciated and good explanations on why you made your picks.


All the calcs seem to add up and the numbers are in line with your report. With regard to you low dividend. I’d check the footnotes. There was a share issue that raised $86k and a dividend pay out of $4k. Were the shares sold or given in lieu of dividends? And why issue the shares in the first place.

Step 5 Really good opener to this section, good reflection. I like the

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KCQ’s way you’ve taken to the “rules of the game” and linked it in. Small point of correction, there are only one set of accounts, one set of numbers. The diferance is how they are presented, either financial or managerial, it all depends on the audience. Good to link it back into the rules and linking GAAP to your firm and interesting observation about only one set of accounting information. Good understanding regarding accrual accounting and I like the personal reflection on the “extra responsibility”. Really underpins that you have thought about the concept here. I enjoyed the way you reference your firm into the concepts of chapter 3 and how you felt about it. You got the big one, that a firm can’t run out of cash. Good explanation of the various financial sheets and what they meant to you when you put them in the spreadsheet. I think you demonstrated a good grasp of the key areas of these chapters.


You have provided me with excellent feedback, spotting some errors that escaped me, much appreciated. I also appreciate that you instructed me on how to hyperlink my blog in moodle, thank you. You’re definitely getting more comfortable being in PASS sessions and I can see your confidence growing as you become more confident with the process and the materials. Really good to see.

Overall ASS#1 Overall I can see you starting to get to grips with the subject matter. Your blog is good, your feedback and interaction in PASS sessions is growing each week and you’re getting to grips with the mechanics of the subject. You’ve given a good overview of your firm and asked some pertinent questions that relate back to the study guides and accounting principles. I would encourage you to dig a little deeper into the company reports and read the footnotes, there is gold in that information and will help you answer some of your questions. I enjoyed reading this draft and appreciate you allowing me to provide feedback.



Feedback to Erica Borer


Unable to review


Unfortunately the Moodle link to your profile isn’t correct, it sent me back to mine. Go to you personal Moodle profile page and copy link from there. Yours is belowhttps://moodle.cqu.edu.au/user/view.php?id=85186&course=11667

Your blog has the basics. As they are a personal reflection and you can spend as much or as little time on it, they are all about you. As a reader to be engaged I would have appreciated a little more in the intro to engage me with the blog. Your moodle profile gives a little bit more and you should put your blog link on it as well. There’s a

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https://moodle.cqu.edu.au/user/view.php?id=85186&course=11667


couple of areas in the study guide, regarding the set up of blog and moodle profile to take note of that will tidy up this part.


I enjoyed the background to your company as presented in your blog. I hadn’t heard of them directly but did know the MRI was invented in the UK. I would’ve followed a link to find out more on this subject and any other breakthroughs they’ve had in their sector. I can also feel your sense of relief when you note the annual report is only 23 pages (mine was 136 as you now know) and is without all the puff. Unfortunately I must have accessed the pharma website in the past as the only way I was going to get to see the link was to get a subscription (same situation with you and the FT). If there’s any doubt that the link may not give up it’s secrets I would suggest a brief summary of the main points contained.A tidy summary of the financials, possibly could do with an explanation of oncology etc, not everyone would be familiar with medical terminology. As there are two products you single out for licensing revenue I would suggest a link or an explanation as to what these actually are and the benefits. A potential KCQ here would be how is there growth in pharamacuticla? Is it linked to these particular products or something else?There’s a lot of information in the opening paragraph of under operating review, I suggest breaking it down and identifying the players involved so the reader knows where they interrelate to your firm and the impact they have. The good thing is you do go on to expand on the litigation and it does appear long and complex, no idea what the product was though. I agree that the conduct of you firm was decidedly shadey. How would this make you feel as an investor or share holder? Your comments on the outlook for 2018/19 look good. Any thoughts on what the rest of the industry outlook is and how it relates?Good conclusion and reflection on what you’ve complied from a very short company report. I appreciate that this part of the assignment takes time, I do feel that there is some scope to expand on the areas you’ve touched on with some more KCQ’s, and giving some examples of your understanding of the company it’s financials and how you can relate to them. There was some good personal reflection at the beginning and the end, expanding this throughout the document would be a suggestion


Unfortunately, I was unable to review this part, however from our previous correspondence I would imagine that you are comfortable with this part.

Step 5 KCQ’s

Unfortunately unable to review.


We have shared some communication and I have really appreciated the interaction and your feedback on my assignment. You have been active on the facebook page as wellUnfortunately, I have not seen your top 3 blog picks yet and cannot comment on that area of your feedback and interaction

Overall ASS#1 This is a good start, all the fundamentals are there for a really good step 3 and ASS#1. A couple of areas to tidy up around links and moodle set up.

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Your firm is interesting and I think has more scope to expand the KCQ’s. I’ve enjoyed our interaction and enjoyed reading your submission to date. Good luck with the rest of the process.



Feedback to Gayle Black


There are some good questions, comments and personal reflection in your Step 1 and I enjoyed reading. I would suggest you dig a bit deeper into the key concepts of the chapter, explain what they are and what they mean to you and follow up with questions. KCQ’s are a tricky concept to grasp, I’ve struggled to wrap my head around the purpose of them. Once you get the idea the reader then benefits from them by you demonstrating more understanding of the concepts which would further enhance the details shared from your personal reflection. Some great stuff in this and an enjoyable read


I like your blog, I like the way it’s set out and I like the way you’ve set the scene about you, family and business. The link worked to you Moodle profile, but I couldn’t see the picture.


Good opener to your company, so really interesting areas to explore around modern slavery and background. I’m wondering how much effort when into the vision and mission statement to sound so inspiring yet be complete puff at the same time. Good questions on the structure and relationship with Ironbridge and good personal reflection on the software side as well.A short and sweet appraisal of the company report. You’ve highlighted the directors and the profit and loss for the last couple of years, people KPI’s and 21 subsidiaries. There are some good questions in that piece, I feel you could have delved deeper into the report and look at the strategy and vision into action, which of the 21 is making the most contribution, what market they play in and what risks they face?

You mention exchange rates. When I worked for Carlsberg the Rubel dropped we were selling tanker loads of beer, but not making enough money as a result, the other European breweries in France and the UK where I was were forced to cut costs and people to recover more benefit to the group as a whole. Russia didn’t lose anything. Exchange rates are tricky. Worth checking the footnotes on these subjects

Also consider how you can related the company performance back to the details in the study guide. Martin is the audience

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you need to tell him what you know and have learnt


The embedded link in your document took me to a blank spreadsheet so I couldn’t check it over.

Step 5 KCQ’s

You’ve touched on a number of concepts and raised questions, what I wasn’t getting was the explanation and understanding of the key concepts. You did a good personal reflection with the concept of accrual and how that relates to the business and answered Martins questions. I do like the personal reflection on how you’re going to engage with your accountant armed with your new knowledge from Chapter 3, I feel that you could expand a bit more to demonstrate to the reader what that knowledge is. Overall a bit more digging into the concepts with some explanation of what you’ve learnt and it will demonstrate to the reader that you know the stuff. I did enjoy reading it, thank you


Some good examples of feedback and thank you for the comprehensive feedback on my ASS#1

Overall ASS#1 Overall impression, some good points raised and some insightful questions. There is benefit in expanding the points raised, linking them back into the study guides and explain the concepts, how they relate to the company and to your personal reflection. Your personal reflection is great and as a small business owner I’m sure you’ve more to drawn on that can relate to the subject matter. An enjoyable read with great potential. Thank you for allowing me to provide you feedback


Feedback to Shannon Pengelly


Unavailable for comment


Nicely set out blog with a great title. Unable to find your profile (as you were unable to find mine) possibly because you are full time. Going to assume it’s all good. Only three posts, but quantity does not equal quality, so not a concern


I enjoyed your background to the company calling out it’s youth and the amount donated to charity. Really good questions about what constitutes success and then following up with reflection on your question. Nicely doneYou’ve picked out the strategy and related that to the 2019 goals with some great questions. Good research into Neuro -Insight, might want to rework the paragraph to lead into it, rather than opening with it. The link works and I almost went down the rabbit hole to dig deeper myself into itYou’ve circled back to the strategy and related that the

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composition of the board. Good summary of board members and linking it back into company performance. You gave me a really good summary of the firm, it appears that they are successful and looking at innovation and technology, and have a solid board. What I didn’t get was a feel for how they make money, what are their key challenges and risks and what their performance is for their shareholders. The essence is all there I feel you can expand it more and really get some deep KCQ’s relating back to the study guide to demonstrate deeper learning. Really well written, good use of pictures, links and media and good to read.


I had a look at the company report and it all appeared to tally with your spreadsheet which all seems to add up the right way. I did not like the way your firm laid out it’s report, extremely loud (as would be expected from a firm) like this. Well done for getting stuff out of it

Step 5 KCQ’s

A lot of questions in the first two paragraphs of this part. Good insight into legality and ethics and what the impact might have been when the rules changed. You’ve got some of the key concepts out there and related it back to personel experience with your mum (sorry she didn’t win, know that feeling) With KCQ’s the aim is to identify the concept, explain it in your own words, provide examples that relate to you to aid your understanding and then questions as appropriate. You’ve identified the concepts, and put in a lot of questions, I’m not getting a full sense of the explanation of those concepts for the reader. In your piece on Chapter 3, it’s well written and good to read and again identified the concepts, you put in lots of questions but not much in the way of explanations and answers to those questions. I do like the way you ended the piece with some good personal relfectionl.


Thank you for providing me with excellent feedback, that is appreciated. From what I can tell you have been active in writing and commenting on blogs. As you are a fulltime student and from some of your blog comments I am assuming you are active in commenting and participation with your peers on camp

Overall ASS#1 A great start to the unit. I like the blog and the style, quality over quantity. Your feedback has been focussed and insightful. In attempting part 3 of the assignment you have done a very good job of summarising the firm and asking a number of insightful questions. I would suggest expanding on these questions to dig into the key money making activities of the firm and how they relate to the balance sheet. They have been very successful in a short time, how was that so. For the KCQ”S of chapters 2 and 3 you have provided some very insightful questions and good personal reflection. To fully demonstrate your understanding I would suggest expanding the explanation of the concept more. I did enjoy the questions, there were a couple I had not considered, especially around the ethics. A couple of areas to work on to give the piece some more depth and really demonstrate your understanding. In summary a really good start and a draft I

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enjoyed reading. Thank you for allowing me to support you with this feedback.



Feedback to Caitlin McCarthy


I really enjoyed your step 1. The reflection and metaphor of driving was excellent. I would not have thought of that. You have some great KCQ’s in there around learning, journals and ledgers etc. There are some additional areas like the fundamental accounting question and measuring value that you could have touched on as well. Great read, really enjoyed it.


Moodle – needs a description and a photo, as required by the assessment task. Blog links all work. I like the way you’ve laid your blog out, but I did have to click around to find what I was looking for to take me to Step 3


Great blog post and introduction to your company. Honestly never heard of them before. I do like how you put all the subsidery companies in the intro as well. All the links worked and were very interesting.Step3 opens well with good reflection on the company, and moves nicely into company history, covers application and services (extensive range, interesting) and into shares. I like the way you’ve gone off range to find out information and checked out their social media. Good investigations.There is a lot of information covered in your analysis of the company report particularly regarding Vasco. A bit of a challenge to digest, you could break it into smaller chunks would be easier and would make your questions and reflection stand out more.With the P&L the footnotes are gold. Good to see you looking around for information. I would be looking at how do they continue to operate with such large negatives and relating it back to the capital raising mentioned earlier. I did appreciate how you linked it back to your papaw farm. Nicely done. Step 3 was well written, though could spread out some of the paragraphs, with some good research and additional sources. There were some good insightful questions with some additional areas that could have led to some more indepth KCQs’. Sorry I’ve come to your blog quite late in the piece and I am unable to comment on your comments on other blogs. Thank you for your comments and making me your top blog.


The spreadsheet in your draft wouldn’t work, but worked fine from the blog.Link cell 21 and 7 in SOCIE, otherwise it all seems to add up

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Step 5 KCQ’s

Chapter 2, well written and good KCQ’s I like the way you’ve linked in personal reflection, your firm, the study guide and Big Mummy and Big Daddy into the piece. What then threw me out was your reflection on chapter 3 moved into a continuation of your company. As I read down this part I found you had looked at the footnotes and had expanded a lot more on your firms performance. Great content, however I would’ve preferred it in with your company report.

You are demonstrating that you are getting the concepts but in wrapping it up in the company details , its leading to more questions on your company than KCQ’s on the chapter, which was the task.Overall summary – great content and personal reflection (500k for a horse box?), company info from alternate sources, evidence of understanding the concepts, but wrapped up in the company details for me isn’t quite to the task requirements, though the details in that piece show lot of reading of the annual report in an attempt to make sense of it and relate it back to the chapters, I enjoy your writing style and there are some great questions in there.


Unable to comment

Overall ASS#1 Overall I enjoyed your Step 1, great writing style unique in step1, lots of information in step 3, possibly reorder, and great questions. All done with tiny humans making noise in the background. Great job.

Feedback Given to Ashley Warburton 30/03/19

I sat at Brisbane airport on Saturday morning and did Track Changes to Ashley’s first draft.

I have also been active on blogs and Facebook providing support and feedback. Examples are found in this document. This document contains feedback given and received via blogs.

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