Unit Guide

General Information

Unit convenor and teaching staff	Unit convenor and teaching staff Unit Convener (module 1) James Hazelton accg308@mq.edu.au E4A 239 For consultation hours please see iLearn Unit Convener (module 2) Leisa Henness accg308@mq.edu.au For consultation hours please see iLearn
Credit points	Credit points 3
Prerequisites	Prerequisites (39cp at 100 level or above) including ACCG224
Corequisites	Corequisites
Co-badged status	Co-badged status
Unit description	Unit description This unit has two components. The first introduces students to the principles, tools and techniques of acting as a trusted business advisor. This component builds on prior knowledge of internal controls, information systems, compliance and business strategy, and applies these skills in a real-world setting. The second component examines the framework and techniques that are used to prepare general purpose financial reports for companies, and in particular the techniques used to prepare the consolidated financial statements for a corporate group. This component builds on first and second year financial accounting units and provides students with the technical accounting knowledge to prepare and use company financial statements. Political and ethical issues surrounding recent financial reporting controversies are also considered. Both components of the unit develop graduate capabilities centred on higher order analysis and effective communication skills.

Important Academic Dates

Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

Examine and critically appraise the strategy, operations and risk of an enterprise.
Argue for appropriate solutions to business issues and communicate this advice to a range of stakeholders.
Examine the nature of accounting for business combinations in Australia.
Prepare consolidated financial statements and account for associated companies in accordance with Australian standards.
Critically evaluate accounting theories and issues underlying corporate reporting.

General Assessment Information

Expectations and Workload

Students are expected to spend 150 hours working on this unit. As a guide a student should spend these approximate amounts of time on each of the following activities:

	Activities	Hours
1	Weekly lectures/tutorials	39
2	Assessed coursework	36
3	Assignments, benchmarking reports	40
4	Class test	6
5	Final exam	21
6	Readings/self-study	8
	TOTAL	150

What is required to complete the unit satisfactorily

Students must pass the overall assessment to receive a passing grade in this unit.

Assessment Tasks

Name	Weighting	Hurdle	Due
Assignment	35%	No	See instructions
Assessed Coursework	4%	No	Weekly
Class test	6%	No	Week 11 tutorial
Final examination	55%	No	University examination period

Assignment

Due: See instructions
Weighting: 35%

There are two parts to this assessment:

1) Part 1: Business plan report (20%)

The business plan report is due at 5pm, 13 September.

2) Part 2: Benchmarking report (15%)

The benchmarking report is due at 5pm, 4 October.

Submission

Part 1 and Part 2 will both be submitted via iLearn by the due dates. Detailed submission instructions will be posted on the ACCG308 iLearn webpage.

Marking criteria

Detailed marking criteria will be posted on the ACCG308 iLearn webpage.

Preparation instructions

Detailed instructions will be posted on the ACCG308 iLearn webpage.

Extension and penalties

No extensions will be granted. There will be a deduction of 10% of the total available marks made from the total awarded mark for each 24 hour period or part thereof that the submission is late (for example, 25 hours late in submission – 20% penalty). This penalty does not apply for cases in which an application for Disruption to Studies is made and approved.

Estimated student workload

Part 1: Students are expected to spend approximately 24 hours on this task. (Much of the material will have been prepared by completing tutorials 1-6).

Part 2: Students are expected to spend approximately 16 hours on this task.

On successful completion you will be able to:

Examine and critically appraise the strategy, operations and risk of an enterprise.
Argue for appropriate solutions to business issues and communicate this advice to a range of stakeholders.

Assessed Coursework

Due: Weekly
Weighting: 4%

These are weekly written tutorial assignments based on the textbook end of chapter questions or other supplied materials. See ACCG308 iLearn webpage for further details.

The Tutor will assess three (3) out of the twelve (12) submitted weekly homework. The best two (2) out of the marked three (3) collected weekly homework will be recorded (2% x 2 = 4%).

Submission

See the ACCG308 iLearn webpage for details.

Extension and penalties

No extensions will be be granted but a successful Disruption to Studies application would mean that a later assignment would be collected instead.

Estimated student workload

Students should spend approximately 3 hours on each assignment.

On successful completion you will be able to:

Examine the nature of accounting for business combinations in Australia.
Prepare consolidated financial statements and account for associated companies in accordance with Australian standards.
Critically evaluate accounting theories and issues underlying corporate reporting.

Class test

Due: Week 11 tutorial
Weighting: 6%

You are required to sit a class test in your registered tutorial class in Week 11. The test will be 45 minutes in duration and will be based on material covered in Week 7 - 10. See the ACCG308 iLearn webpage for further details.

Submission

You MUST sit the class test in your registered tutorial.

Extension and penalities

No extensions will be be granted but a successful Disruption to Studies application would mean that a supplementary class test could be granted.

Estimated student workload

Students should spend approximately 6 hours on preparation for this test.

On successful completion you will be able to:

Examine the nature of accounting for business combinations in Australia.
Prepare consolidated financial statements and account for associated companies in accordance with Australian standards.
Critically evaluate accounting theories and issues underlying corporate reporting.

Final examination

Due: University examination period
Weighting: 55%

A 2.5 hours closed-book final examination will be held during the University Examination period. ACCG308's final examination is designed to test you against the learning objectives of the unit and will cover all materials covered during Module 2 of the unit. Details regarding the form and scope of ACCG308's final examination will be provided to you during the final lecture. In the meantime you should be aware that the best preparation for the final exam is as follows:

Attend lectures and take notes - what are the main points the lecturer has made?

Complete the required readings from the textbook each week

Attend all tutorials

Complete independent solutions to tutorial discussion questions, exercises and problems

Form study groups at the beginning of session

Use the assessed coursework to monitor your own progress against the unit learning objectives. A low score on an assessed coursework is a signal that you need to do more work on certain topics

Check your solution to the tutorial assignments against the 'self-study solutions' that are available on iLearn

Use the consultation times whenever you need extra help, not just before the exam

Formal examination conditions apply e.g. Dictionaries are not permitted; Non-programmable calculators with no text retrieval capacity are allowed, etc.The purpose of the final examination is to provide assurance that: i) learning acquired through this unit belongs to the student; and ii) the student has attained the knowledge and skills tested in the exam.

Submission

You are expected to present yourself for examination at the time and place designated in the University Timetable. The timetable will be available in Draft form approximately eight weeks before the commencement of the examinations and in Final form approximately four weeks before the commencement of the examinations. It is the student's responsibility to make sure that they have ascertained the room number for their exam before the exam day. https://iexams.mq.edu.au/timetable

You are advised that it is Macquarie University policy not to set early examinations for individuals or groups of students. All students are expected to ensure that they are available until the end of the teaching session, that is, the final day of the official examination period.

The Macquarie university examination policy details the principles and conduct of examinations at the University. The policy is available at:

http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/examination/policy.htm

Extension and penalties

Students who do not sit the final examination on the scheduled date and time specified in the University examination timetable will be awarded a mark of zero (0) for the final examination, except for cases in which a Disruption to Studies Notification is made and approved. If a Supplementary Examination is granted as a result of the Disruption to Studies process, this examination will be scheduled as per the Supplementary Examination timetable of the Faculty. The Supplementary Examination will be of a similar format to the final examination. A student may withdraw their Disruption to Studies Notification up to the point where the determination of whether it is Serious and Unavoidable has been made. After this determination, the student may not withdraw the Disruption to Studies Notification and must submit themselves to partake in the Supplementary Examination.

Students are advised to familiarise themselves with the University’s Disruption to Studies Policy available at http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/disruption_studies/policy.html.

Estimated student workload

Students should spend approximately 21 hours on preparation for this final exam.

On successful completion you will be able to:

Examine the nature of accounting for business combinations in Australia.
Prepare consolidated financial statements and account for associated companies in accordance with Australian standards.
Critically evaluate accounting theories and issues underlying corporate reporting.

Delivery and Resources

Teaching staff

Name

James Hazelton

Unit Convener & Lecturer (Module 1)

Leisa Henness

Unit Convener & Lecturer (Module 2)

Email address

accg308@mq.edu.au

Please use email as the first form of contact. Teaching staff will receive correspondence only if sent to the unit email account above.

Contacting staff

The consultation timetable will be made available on the unit’s website in Week 2. Staff members are available for two hours per week for consultation starting from Week 3.

You are encouraged to seek help at a time that is convenient to you from a staff member teaching on this unit during their regular consultation hours. In special circumstances, an appointment may be made outside regular consultation hours. Staff will not conduct any consultations by email. You may, however, phone staff during their consultation hours.

In order to gain access to staff located at levels 2 and 3 of building E4A during their consultation hours, please ring the staff member from the phones available in the lobby (phone numbers of relevant staff members will be provided on iLearn and are available next to the phones).

Students experiencing significant difficulties with any topic in the unit must seek assistance immediately.

Classes

There are two components in this unit and the teaching scheme is different for each.
Module 1 (James Hazelton), Business Planning and Advisory (weeks 1 to 6), all lectures are on-line videos, but tutorials are face-to-face in a class room.
Module 2 (Leisa Henness), Corporate Accounting (weeks 7 to 13), has 2 hour lectures per week face-to-face live in a lecture theater, plus tutorials.
Tutorials for both components are one hour per week face-to-face, starting in Week 2.
The timetable for classes can be found on the University web site at: http://www.timetables.mq.edu.au/

Timetable for face to face lectures (weeks 7 to 13)

Day	Time	Room
Monday	8 - 10 am	W6D Lotus Theatre
Monday	6 - 8 pm	C5C Collaborative Forum

Timetable for tutorials

ACCG308 also requires students to attend a weekly small group tutorial of one-hour duration. The maximum number of students in each group is thirty.

Tutors will record attendance each week. You must attend at least 9 of the 12 tutorials in order to complete satisfactory coursework requirements for this unit. For this purpose we do not accept medical certificates for missed tutorials; it is up to you to organise yourself to come to at least nine tutorials.

Tutorials begin in Week 2.

Tutorial places have been allocated by the University's on-line enrolment system. Most tutorials are already full. If you do not already have a tutorial time, then you must enrol on-line as soon as possible.

Due to the large number of students enrolled in ACCG308, changes to tutorial times are managed by the on-line enrolment system. It is not necessary to contact members of staff about tutorial changes. On-line enrolment changes will be shut down at the end of Week 2 so all changes must be made by then.

You can only attend and sit for the class test or hand up tutorial homework in your registered tutorial.

Prizes

The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants Prize is awarded to the best student in the unit ACCG308 Corporate Accounting and Reporting.

Required and Recommended Texts and/or Materials

Module 1 (Business planning and advisory)

Rogoff, E., (2007) Bankable Business Plans (2^nd Edition), Rowhouse Publishing, New York. Available on Kindle from amazon.com

Note that this is quite an old text but is excellent in the way it simply and logically sets out the key elements of a business plan. For a more up-to-date discussion on business planning and marketing in the digital era, the following additional text is highly recommended:

Kawasaki (2015) The Art of the Start 2.0: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything, Penguin, New York.

Module 2 (Corporate accounting)

Jubb, P.B., Haswell, S.M. and I.A. Langfield-Smith, Company Accounting, 5th Edition 2010, Cengage, Melbourne.

The text can be purchased from the Macquarie University Co-op Bookshop.

This text is used extensively for both lecture references and for tutorial work. Ideally students should have a copy of this text that they can access at all times. Copies of this text are available on Library Reserve.

Technology Used and Required

You will need basic computer skills to use Macquarie University’s iLearn teaching facility (refer to the detail contained below in Unit Web Page). You will need to download documents supplied in pdf format.

Unit Web Page

ACCG308 lecture handouts, notices and homework solutions will be available in full from the unit’s web page. You can access the web page on campus, at work or at home, where you can login to “iLearn” https://ilearn.mq.edu.au/login/MQ/. Please check the web site on a regular basis for notices, updates, etc.

Lectures for Weeks 7-12 will be audio recorded on ‘iLecture’ and made available on iLearn by the end of the week. 'Virtual tutorials', which provide detailed explanations for some self-study homework questions, are also made available for some topics.

Unit Schedule

Week	Discipline Specific Related Content
1	Introduction to business plans and consulting
2	Market research and strategy
3	Sales and marketing strategy
4	Operational strategy
5	Financing and financial plans
6	Business plan writing and consulting
7	Business combination
8	Purchase consolidation 1
9	Purchase consolidation 2
10	Intra-group transaction
11	Direct non-controlling interest
12	Equity accounting
13	Revision session for consolidation
	Final Examination Period: 13 November – 1 December 2017

Policies and Procedures

Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central. Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:

Academic Honesty Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/academic_honesty/policy.html

Assessment Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/assessment/policy_2016.html

Grade Appeal Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/gradeappeal/policy.html

Complaint Management Procedure for Students and Members of the Public http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/complaint_management/procedure.html

Disruption to Studies Policy (in effect until Dec 4th, 2017): http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/disruption_studies/policy.html

Special Consideration Policy (in effect from Dec 4th, 2017): https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/strategy-planning-and-governance/university-policies-and-procedures/policies/special-consideration

In addition, a number of other policies can be found in the Learning and Teaching Category of Policy Central.

Student Code of Conduct

Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/support/student_conduct/

Results

Results shown in iLearn, or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed as they are subject to final approval by the University. Once approved, final results will be sent to your student email address and will be made available in eStudent. For more information visit ask.mq.edu.au.

Student Support

Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/

Learning Skills

Learning Skills (mq.edu.au/learningskills) provides academic writing resources and study strategies to improve your marks and take control of your study.

Student Services and Support

Students with a disability are encouraged to contact the Disability Service who can provide appropriate help with any issues that arise during their studies.

Student Enquiries

For all student enquiries, visit Student Connect at ask.mq.edu.au

IT Help

For help with University computer systems and technology, visit http://www.mq.edu.au/about_us/offices_and_units/information_technology/help/.

When using the University's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use of IT Resources Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students.

Graduate Capabilities

Creative and Innovative

Our graduates will also be capable of creative thinking and of creating knowledge. They will be imaginative and open to experience and capable of innovation at work and in the community. We want them to be engaged in applying their critical, creative thinking.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

Examine and critically appraise the strategy, operations and risk of an enterprise.
Argue for appropriate solutions to business issues and communicate this advice to a range of stakeholders.

Assessment task

Assignment

Discipline Specific Knowledge and Skills

Our graduates will take with them the intellectual development, depth and breadth of knowledge, scholarly understanding, and specific subject content in their chosen fields to make them competent and confident in their subject or profession. They will be able to demonstrate, where relevant, professional technical competence and meet professional standards. They will be able to articulate the structure of knowledge of their discipline, be able to adapt discipline-specific knowledge to novel situations, and be able to contribute from their discipline to inter-disciplinary solutions to problems.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

Examine the nature of accounting for business combinations in Australia.
Prepare consolidated financial statements and account for associated companies in accordance with Australian standards.
Critically evaluate accounting theories and issues underlying corporate reporting.

Assessment tasks

Assessed Coursework
Class test
Final examination

Critical, Analytical and Integrative Thinking

We want our graduates to be capable of reasoning, questioning and analysing, and to integrate and synthesise learning and knowledge from a range of sources and environments; to be able to critique constraints, assumptions and limitations; to be able to think independently and systemically in relation to scholarly activity, in the workplace, and in the world. We want them to have a level of scientific and information technology literacy.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

Examine and critically appraise the strategy, operations and risk of an enterprise.
Argue for appropriate solutions to business issues and communicate this advice to a range of stakeholders.

Assessment task

Assignment

Changes from Previous Offering

This unit has a new module, "Business Advisory"

Program Learning Outcomes

This unit supports the development of program learning outcomes (PLO) for degree(s) delivered by the Faculty of Business and Economics. PLOs describe the educational outcomes of a degree and what you should be able to know, understand and do by the end of your degree.

Unit learning outcomes 2, 3, 4 & 5 and the Assignment and Final Exam assessments contribute to the following PLOs:

PLO1 Discipline Specific Knowledge and Skills

PLO2 Critical Thinking