In collaboration with Staffordshire University

Module Title: Using Data for Financial Decision Making

Module Code: ACCT60306
Attempt: First Sit
Group or Individual: Individual Assignment
Assignment Number: 1 of 2
Assignment valid until: OCT 2023
Assignment Title: Company Assessment Report
Weighting: 40%
Assignment set by: Dr. Jyotsna G B
Assignment verified by: Dr. Joao Fialho
Word Limit: 1,000

Date Issued to Students: 15.05.2023

Submission Date and Time: See Canvas module homepage for submission date
Method of Submission: Canvas Submission

Learning Outcomes to be assessed:

1. Assess the financial issues that must be considered in strategic business decision making
including investment strategies. (Knowledge, Understanding, Problem Solving)
2. Evaluate working capital management policies and their impact on the firm's profitability,
liquidity, risk and operating flexibility. (Analysis, Enquiry)

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Assessment Brief:
In this element of the assessment, you shall undertake the financial statement analysis of a company
using MS Excel and prepare and submit an individual report assessing the financial performance
and working capital management policies of the company. In addition, you shall also identify and
evaluate the key underlying financial issues that might have significant impacts on the effectiveness
of the working capital management practices of the company. In this work, you are expected to
demonstrate your higher order thinking skills.

Tasks:
Select a company of your choice, listed on the Honoi Stock Exchange. Visit its official website and
download its annual reports for years 2021, 2020 and 2019. Extract and arrange the data of the
company’s (i) Statement of the financial positions, and (ii) Statement of the financial performance
for these three years from the respective year’s annual report in an MS Excel file and undertake the
financial statement analysis, adequate to assess the financial performance and the working capital
management practices of the company.
[Attention: The choice of your company must be approved by your Module Leader before you start
working on it. Therefore, please discuss about your choice with your Module Leader first and check
whether the company is available to work on. The Module Leader will fairly allocate the company
on first come first served basis.]

Required:
Prepare a report of 1,000 words (± 10% deviation excluding references and appendices) that would
be able to answer the following two questions.
A. Evaluate the working capital management policies of the company and assess their impact on
the financial performance of the company.
B. Evaluate the key financial issues in the company’s working capital management practices.

You must write your report in an academic structure, and demonstrate evidence of research,
analysis, evaluation, and critical thinking. Your work on the financial statement analysis must be
appended in the report.
For detailed marking criteria of your work, please refer to the rubrics appended in the assignment.
For any confusion, please feel free to discuss the matter with the Module Leader directly or on
email.

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Guidance Notes
a) Do not include your name anywhere on your assignment.
b) Your assignment should be written in a font size of 12.
c) You must include a correctly formatted Reference List in ‘Harvard Referencing Format’ on a
separate page at the end of your essay. This must only include references to work which you
have directly cited in your essay.
d) You must include your accurate word count at the end of your assignment.
e) Use standard margins for the assignment and 1.15 line spacing.
f) Only Microsoft Word files should be used for this assignment. Please allow time for
conversion to this format if required.
g) When you upload your file for submission you must name the file by your full student number
in the following format: ‘HANXXXXXXXXX’
h) For essays, please do not include any cover sheets, contents pages or module information in
your assignment. Your first page should consist of a title, followed by the first paragraph of
your essay.
i) For submissions requested as a report, you may wish to include a cover sheet and contents page
j) The marking scheme that will be used to mark your work is shown at the end of this document in
Appendix 1.

Submission Procedure
You are not required to print and submit a hard copy of your work, as all submissions are carried out
electronically through Canvas. Please ensure you do not wait until the last minute to carry out your
submission; computer problems can happen any time and this will not be accepted as an excuse for
late submission. This includes internet connectivity issues. When you submit your assignment, it is in
your best interests to save and/or print a copy of your online submissions receipt to prove that you
have submitted your assignment on time.

If you feel that you can’t submit your assessment on time, you should speak to your module leader
who will help you to work out how you can hand-in on time.

If unexpected circumstances which you could not have planned for have happened, you may be able
to claim for exceptional circumstances to be taken into account. There is more information here.

If you have no exceptional circumstances and you do not submit you will fail the assessment. If you
submit within 1 week of the submission deadline we will mark your work as late, meaning the
maximum mark you can achieve is the basic pass mark and this will count as your first attempt. If
you are taking a re-sit assessment, late submissions will not be accepted.

Please see the Staffordshire university regulations here for more information

The Maximum word limit is shown on the front cover of the assignment.
You must provide an accurate word count at the end of your assignment. This word count must be
placed before your reference list and should include all the written content of your assignment
excluding the words used in any cover pages, contents pages, titles, sub-titles, reference list and
appendices.

In the assignment, in addition to the word limit, you may make sensible use of tables, images of
academic models, diagrams, figures and student-created graphics such as Word-Art etc. without
penalty up to a maximum of 30% of the stated word limit of the assignment as shown on the front

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cover. In no circumstances must your overall use of words in these tables, models etc. exceed this
maximum 30% limit. If a marker feels that you have used tables simply to avoid the word count,
they may count these words as part of your word count.

A sliding scale of penalties for excess length will be imposed according to the amount by which the
limit has been exceeded.
1-10% excess no penalty
11-20% excess 10% reduction in the mark
21-30% excess 20% reduction in the mark
>30% excess the work will be capped at a pass i.e. 40%

NB. None of the above penalties will be used to change your mark that is above the pass mark, to one
that is below the pass mark. Therefore, the maximum penalty for exceeding the word limit will be a
reduction to a pass grade.
Please note that students’ work is regularly checked to ensure that the stated word count matches to
what has actually been submitted.

Academic Misconduct and Plagiarism

BUV follows Staffordshire University policy on academic misconduct and takes suspected cases of
academic misconduct, including plagiarism very seriously. The penalties are severe and can in some
cases result in a student not being allowed to continue their studies. Plagiarism can happen in any
type of assessment where you are given the questions or tasks in advance.

The Staffordshire University policy on Academic misconduct can be found here: and you are
strongly encouraged to familiarise yourself with this.

You will have committed academic misconduct if you commit any of the following:

 Plagiarism
 Self-Plagiarism
 Collusion
 False Declaration
 Fabrication or Falsification of Data
 Bribery or Intimidation
 Contract Cheating
 Examination Misconduct
Please see here for a detailed explanation of these terms or click the individual links above.

All work completed at BUV must be written in English directly by the submitting students. You
must not, for example, write your work in Vietnamese, and then use online software to translate
your completed work into English. This misrepresents the amount of effort you have put into
completing your assessment. The use of online paraphrasing tools to assist with your writing is also
forbidden. Any transgressions will be regarded as academic misconduct.

If Academic Misconduct is proven by the university, then typical punishments include:

 The grade for your assessment, being reduced to zero with the right to resubmit.
 The grade for the whole module or supermodule being reduced to zero with the right to
resubmit.
 Failure of the entire level of which you are currently studying with a requirement to re-
start the level at the next opportunity
 Failure of the award and/or termination of your studies at the University. Your ability to
reapply and enrol again at the university may also be restricted, normally for two whole
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 academic years.

BUV encourages you to refer to appropriate academic sources, as long as you reference these
correctly, and do not use too much material from the original source.
You must use the Harvard referencing system for all your assignments, unless you are told
otherwise by your Module Leader. If you do not know how to do this, please follow the guidelines
given at this web-site address:
http://www.staffs.ac.uk/support_depts/infoservices/learning_support/refzone/harvard/

BUV employs Turnitin to assess all submissions for potential academic misconduct. This software
highlights to the examiners in detail where material may have either been copied directly or
paraphrased from a source with correct citation.

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Appendix 1: Marking Rubric
Descriptors and 0-39 %
percentages Fail
Understanding and Students demonstrate poor
application of understanding of the relevant
financial theories and financial theories and
concepts concepts. The financial
(15%) statement analysis
demonstrates poor level of
understanding and
engagement in the key
financial ratios.
Financial statement Poor financial statement
analysis analysis. Computation of
(30%) only a couple of the key
ratios of profitability, and
(or) liquidity and (or)
working capital financing
and (or) working capital
investment. No evidence of
interpretation.
Evaluation of Poor evaluation of both
working capital working capital management
management policies and financial issues;
practices and OR satisfactory evaluation of
financial issues any one of them. No
(40%) evidence of wider reading.
Research and No references and no
referencing evidence of reading beyond
(10%) lecture slides.
Structure and The report lacked structure
writing and were poorly written with
(5%) inappropriate language.
Total = 100%
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40-49%
Pass (3rd)
Students demonstrate
satisfactory understanding of
the relevant financial theories
and concepts. The financial
statement analysis demonstrates
satisfactory level of
understanding and engagement
in the key financial ratios.
Satisfactory financial statement
analysis. Computation of only a
couple of the key ratios of
profitability, liquidity, working
capital financing and (or)
working capital investment. No
evidence of interpretation.
Satisfactory evaluation of both
working capital management
policies and financial issues;
OR good evaluation of any one
of them supported by evidence
of wider reading.
Some references, but not all
appropriate sources and/or not
presented correctly.
Language use satisfactory but
may contain spelling and
grammar mistakes. Some error
with structuring the report.
50-59%
Pass (2:2)
Students demonstrate good
understanding of the relevant
financial theories and
concepts. The financial
statement analysis
demonstrates good level of
understanding and
engagement in the key
financial ratios.
Good financial statement
analysis. Computation of
most of the key ratios of
profitability, liquidity,
working capital financing and
(or) working capital
investment. A couple of
ratios might be missing. May
be poor or no evidence of
interpretation.
Good evaluation of both
working capital management
policies and financial issues;
OR very good evaluation of
any one of them supported by
evidence of wider reading.
Appropriate sources used and
mostly correctly referenced.
Some evidence of wider
reading.
Language solid along with
structure. Some minor
spelling and/or grammar
mistakes.
6
60-69%
Pass (2:1)
Students demonstrate very
good understanding of the
relevant financial theories
and concepts. The financial
statement analysis
demonstrates very good level
of understanding and
engagement in the key
financial ratios.
Very good financial
statement analysis.
Computation and
interpretation of most of the
key ratios of profitability,
liquidity, working capital
financing and working
capital investment. A couple
of ratios might be missing.
Very good evaluation of both
working capital management
policies and financial issues;
OR excellent evaluation of
any one and good evaluation
of another supported by
evidence of wider reading.
Appropriate sources used and
correctly referenced.
Evidence of wider reading.
Good structure of the report
and confident use of
appropriate language.
70%+
Pass (1st)
Students demonstrate
excellent understanding of
the relevant financial
theories and concepts. The
financial statement analysis
demonstrates an excellent
level of understanding and
engagement in the key
financial ratios.
Excellent financial
statement analysis.
Computation and
interpretation of all the key
ratios of profitability,
liquidity, working capital
financing and working
capital investment.
Excellent evaluation of both
working capital
management policies and
financial issues supported
by evidence of wider
reading.
All sources appropriately
referenced, and a wide range
of sources used. Student
demonstrates wide-ranging
reading.
Excellent structure of report
and very confident use of
appropriate language. No
spelling or grammar
mistakes.
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