HOLMES INSTITUTE

FACULTY OF
HIGHER EDUCATION

Group Assessment Details and Submission

Guidelines
Trimester T1 2022
Unit Code HI6026
Unit Title Audit, Assurance and Compliance
Assessment Type Group Assignment
Assessment Title Business Risk, Key Assertions, Going Concern and Audit Committee
Purpose of the Students are required to explain business risk, including audit risk, key assertion, going
assessment (with ULO concern and practices of audit committee from your allocated company. Students are
Mapping) required to analyses and clearly explain Business Risk, Key Assertion, Going Concern
and Audit Committee’s responsibilities by understanding the nature and the uniqueness
of the allocated company. Students are also required to specify whether their selected
company’s follows audit committee guideline as suggested by ASX guideline to ensure the
effectiveness of the audit committee.
Learning Outcomes:
• Evaluate the economic and legal basis for auditing and the applicable auditing
standards and reporting requirements
• Analyse and communicate knowledge of the auditor's professional judgement,
legal and ethical responsibilities to their clients and third parties
• Assess audit strategies including the evaluation of business risk and internal
controls
• Apply audit concepts and processes to gather evidence and formulate
judgments with respect to the underlying information
Weight 40% of the total assessments
Total Marks 40
Word limit 3,000 words ± 500 words
Due Date Group Formation: Please form the group by self-enrolling in Blackboard. There
should be maximum of 4 members in a group. Email BBHelpdesk@holmes.edu.au
forany issues with self-enrolling into groups.
Assignment submission: Final Submission of Group Assignment: Week 10, Friday
at 11:59 pm.
Late submission incurs penalties of five (5) % of the assessment per calendar day unless
an extension and/or special consideration has been granted by Student Services of
your campus prior to the assessment deadline.
Submission • All work must be submitted on Blackboard by the due date along with a completed
Guidelines Assignment Cover Page.
• The assignment must be in MS Word format, single spacing, 12-pt Arial font and 2cm
margins on all four sides of your page with appropriate section headings and page
numbers.
● Reference sources must be cited in the text of the report, and listed appropriately at
the end in a reference list using Adapted Harvard Referencing, as stated in the
below references and citation guideline:

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Assignment Specifications
Purpose

This assignment aims to enhance students’ critical thinking skills and higher order application abilities through
research and analyses of business risks including analytical procedure, assessment of audit risk, key financial
report assertions, going concern and audit committee role and governance practices.
Students will have to research relevant academic literature, including related organization websites and write in-
text citations in this assignment. Additionally, they will demonstrate understanding and critical evaluation of the
Australian conceptual framework for financial reporting and corporate governance mechanism including
regulatory framework, and recommend future directions to Australian financial reporting regulators in relation to
corporate governance principles and best practices.

Assignment Requirements – Questions

Each group has been allocated a subject company for completing this assignment. In the excel file “Find
Your Company” located under “Assessments” on Blackboard, you will find the listed company that you
have been allocated for this assignment.

Important note: You are NOT allowed to select your own companies. As a group you must complete this
assignment with the subject company that your group have been allocated. Your assignment will not be marked if
you use a different company to the one that you have been allocated, or you will be asked to resubmit your
assignment using the correct company. Students are not allowed to complete the assignment using the same
company as used by another group.

Go to the website of your subject company. Then go to the Investor Relations section of the website. This section
may be called: “Investors”, “Shareholder Information” or similar titles. In this section, find the company’s annual
report and other related reports. Download the firm’s latest annual report and other related information and
reports and save it to your computer. For example, these reports may be dated 30 June 2019 or 30 June 2020.

As a group assume that you have been appointed as the external auditors for your allocated company for the financial
year ending June 2019 or 2020, prepare a report to adequately address questions one, (1) to four (4) below which
are deemed to be important for the audit of your client.

1- Gain an understanding of the nature and uniqueness of your allocated company, its industry and the environment
in which it operates, then identify key business risks. After this is performed, critically assess where the risks of
material mis-statements could be in the financial report of your allocated company. You need to consider the
factors affecting both Inherent Risk and Control Risk. (8 marks)

2- Critically evaluate and examine key accounts of your allocated company which are likely to be materially at risk
for misstatements (indicate the key assertions at risk) and provide valid justifications for your claims. (8 marks)

3- Evaluate the going concern assumption of your allocated company and present an argument to indicate whether
it has been applied appropriately. Your argument must be supported by valid evidence. (8 marks)

4- Critically evaluate the nature and structure of the audit committee of your allocated company and outline how it
helps in enhancing the effectiveness of corporate governance mechanism. You need to critically evaluate the
audit committee with reference to the ASX Corporate Governance Principles and Recommendations. Your
evaluation should be supported by relevant literature. (11 marks)

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The assignment structure must be as follows:

1. Holmes Institute Assignment Cover Sheet – Full Name, Student No., Contribution.
2. Executive Summary
• The Executive summary should be concise and not involve too much detail.
• It should make commentary on the main points only and follow the sequence of the report.
• Write the Executive Summary after the report is completed, and once you have an overview of the
whole text.
• The Executive Summary appears on the first page of the report.
3. Contents Page – This needs to show a logical listing of all the sub-headings of the report’s contents. Note
this is excluded from the total word count.
4. Introduction – A short paragraph which includes background, scope and the main points raised in order of
importance. There should be a brief conclusion statement at the end of the Introduction.
5. Main Body Paragraphs with numbered sub-headings – Detailed information which elaborates on the main
points raised in the Introduction. Each paragraph should begin with a clear topic sentence, then supporting
sentences with facts and evidence obtained from research and finish with a concluding sentence at the end.
6. Conclusion – A logical and coherent evaluation based on a thorough and an objective assessment of the
research performed.
7. Appendices – Include any additional explanatory information which is supplementary and/ or graphical to
help communicate the main ideas made in the report. Refer to the appendices in the main body paragraphs,as
and where appropriate. (Note this is excluded from the total word count.

Group Formation and Group Assignment

To ensure that all students participate equitably in the group assignment and that students are responsible for the
academic integrity of all components of the assignment. You need to complete the following Group Assignment
Task Allocation table, relevant evidence (authenticity of your assignment) which identifies which
student/students are responsible for the various sections of the assignment.

Assignment Section Student/Students

This table needs to be completed and submitted with the assignment as it is a compulsory component required
before any grading is undertaken. Students that are registered in a solo group are not required to fill this table.

Both assessment items must be submitted on Blackboard. The written assignment must be in a report format
and submitted through safe-assign prior to final submission. The originality percentage should be as low as
possible. The written submission must be double-checked, edited and rephrased if the originality percentage
and plagiarism risk is noted as high, as per safe-assign.

Marking Criteria

Group Assignment Marking Criteria Weighting

• Executive Summary • 2%
• Introduction and Main Body of the Report • 35%
• Overall Presentation (Report presentation, Correct referencing, consistency) • 3%
Total Weight 40%

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Academic Integrity

Holmes Institute is committed to ensuring and upholding Academic Integrity, as Academic Integrity is integral to
maintaining academic quality and the reputation of Holmes’ graduates. Accordingly, all assessment tasks need to
comply with academic integrity guidelines. Table 1 identifies the six categories of Academic Integrity breaches. If
you have any questions about Academic Integrity issues related to your assessment tasks, please consult your lecturer
or tutor for relevant referencing guidelines and support resources. Many of these resources can also be found through
the Study Sills link on Blackboard.

Academic Integrity breaches are a serious offence punishable by penalties that may range from deduction of
marks, failure of the assessment task or unit involved, suspension of course enrolment, or cancellation of course
enrolment.

Table 1: Six categories of Academic Integrity breaches

Plagiarism Reproducing the work of someone else without attribution.When
a student submits their own work on multiple occasionsthis is known
as self-plagiarism.

Collusion Working with one or more other individuals to complete an

assignment, in a way that is not authorized.

Copying Reproducing and submitting the work of another student, with or

without their knowledge. If a student fails to take reasonable
precautions to prevent their own original work from being copied,
this may also be considered an offence.

Impersonation Falsely presenting oneself, or engaging someone else to presentas

oneself, in an in-person examination.

Contract cheating Contracting a third party to complete an assessment task,

generally in exchange for money or other manner of
payment.

Data fabrication and Manipulating or inventing data with the intent of supportingfalse
falsification conclusions, including manipulating images.

Source: INQAAHE, 2020

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Marking
Rubric

Excellent Very Good Good Satisfactory Unsatisfactory

HD D C P F
Executive Very Competently Synopsis is Synopsis is Synopsis is
Summary effectively composed a wellwritten clearly deficient and
written strong synopsis. with allthe written, but it poorly written.
(2 marks) synopsis with The main points expected points is brief or has Too brief.
clear are raised. some errors.
communication communicated
ofthe main well.
points ina
concise
paragraph.
Main Body Excellent. Well There are valid There are valid Some Poorly organized;
Including organised. Main points raised with points raised, organization; no logical
Introduction points are a good argument paragraphing is main points progression;
logically
(35 marks) ordered; sharp / thesis noted, and the are there but beginning and
sense of statement, points in the they are ending are vague.
structuring and paragraphing is introduction are disjointed; No structure.
arrangement of noted, and the explained in Minor Lacks substance.
key
information. points in the more detail structuring No research
Supporting details introduction are with supporting issues. noted.
are specific to the explained in more evidence.
main points and detail with
adequate facts and supporting
other evidence is evidence.
provided and
well-
articulated.

Referencing References are References are Generally Some References are

and Citation consistently consistently correct References missing or do
correct using correct using referencing are used, but not comply with
(3 marks) Harvard style. Harvard style. using Harvard not used correct
Nomissing No missing style. More consistently. referencing
citations.A citations. references Not enough style.
strong References used required. research
reference list are good, but not done.
with relevant extensive.
andcredible
sources used.
Evidence of
extensive
research.

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References and Citation Guideline:

Assessment Design – Adapted Harvard Referencing

Holmes will be implementing as a pilot program a revised Harvard approach to referencing. The following guidelines
apply:

1. Reference sources in assignments are limited to sources which provide full text access to the source’s content for
lecturers and markers.
2. The Reference list should be located on a separate page at the end of the essay and titled: References.
3. It should include the details of all the in-text citations, arranged alphabetically A-Z by author surname. In
addition, it MUST include a hyperlink to the full text of the cited reference source.
For example;
P Hawking, B McCarthy, A Stein (2004), Second Wave ERP Education, Journal of Information Systems
Education, Fall, http://jise.org/Volume15/n3/JISEv15n3p327.pdf
4. All assignments will require additional in-text reference details which will consist of the surname of the
author/authors or name of the authoring body, year of publication, page number of content, paragraph where the
content can be found.
For example;
“The company decided to implement an enterprise wide data warehouse business intelligence strategies (Hawking
et al, 2004, p3(4)).”

Non Adherence to Referencing Guidelines

Where students do not follow the above guidelines:

1. Students who submit assignments which do not comply with the guidelines will be asked to resubmit their
assignments.
2. Late penalties will apply, as per the Student Handbook each day, after the student/s have been notified of the
resubmission requirements.
3. Students who comply with guidelines and the citations are “fake” will be reported for academic misconduct.

HI6026 Audit, Assurance and Compliance