ASS#1 is the first part of your major assignment for this unit. It is made up of eight steps.

Step 1 is due at 11.00am Thursday Week 1. Step 2 is due 11:00am Friday Week 2. Step 6 is due 11:00am Monday Week 4.

You will be given your company at the end of Week 1.

This assignment will give you the opportunity to explore what your own company does and what your firm’s financial statements may have to tell you about your firm. You can also review your Excel skills (entering data, linking cells between worksheets, using formulas and formatting cells). You will also have the opportunity to reflect on the extent to which this task is easier at the end of your degree than at the beginning; and to begin to reflect on the quality of your learning about accounting at university.

The key things to achieve in your ASS#1 is to find your company’s latest annual report and to have a look at it; to get a feel for what your firm does and what you are able to understand about your firm from your first look at its financial statements.

You will also input your company’s last four years of financial statements into your spreadsheet; and then restate your firm's financial statements, carefully separating your firm's operating and financial activities. You will calculate key ratios (as well as economic profit) for your firm. 

This assignment provides an opportunity for you to review aspects of your previous accounting knowledge and to provide a foundation for your next assignment.

As well, you will have the opportunity to experience how interacting with others in the unit may be able to help you to better understand your firm.

ASS#2 is the second part of your major assignment for this unit. It is made up of six steps.

Step 1 is due at 11.00am Saturday Week 8. Step 2 is due 11:00am Monday Week 12.

In your ASS#2 you will assess your firm's business performance based on the ratios for your firm that you calculated in ASS#1. You will identify and comment on your firm's key accounting drivers. You will also identify your firm's key economic and business drivers.

For your firm, you will then forecast for the next five years the key accounting drivers of Sales growth, Profit margin, Asset turnover and Return on net operating assets and include these figures in the Key Value Drivers worksheet in your spreadsheet. You will complete a valuation of your firm using both the Discounted cash flow and Economic profit frameworks.

We will be using PeerWise as a place for you to create, share and evaluate questions with others in the unit.

PeerWise is designed to be used each week throughout the unit. Each week, PeerWise will support you to read the Study Guide (that's right, each week), write multiple choice questions from your reading (including solutions with explanations), answer others questions and rate others questions. You can also comment on people’s questions, and people can then comment on your comments and so on.

You should aim to write at least 2-3 questions each week and answer (and rate) 20 – 30 questions each week.

It is a big advantage in PeerWise to start early in the unit; and to write high quality questions (and solutions with explanations). Typically, on average, people will write about 25-30 questions during the unit and answer/rate about 250-300 questions. Some people will do much more; and others less.

Start by looking at the video "Tips on Using PeerWise": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOlYsHgXrqA&t=1s. And you can visit PeerWise here: http://peerwise.cs.auckland.ac.nz/at/?cqu_au. If you have not used PeerWise before, please click on the "Registration" link and follow the prompts. All you need to do is choose a user name and a password for your PeerWise account. If you have used PeerWise before, simply log in and then select "Join a course" from the Home menu.

IMPORTANT: You will need to follow the information provided on PeerWise in the Assessment tile in Moodle in order to access our Peerwise unit this term (there is a PeerWise 'Course ID' for our unit, which is detailed in Moodle).

As you contribute to PeerWise, you will accumulate a Reputation score calculated in the software which is composed of three parts: writing questions (Questioning); answering questions (Answering); and rating questions you have answered (Rating).

To achieve a high score it is much better to have good scores for each of the three components than a very high score in just one (or two) components. It is particularly important not to have a zero (or near zero) score for any of the three components. Answering and Rating scores at a similar level and your Questioning score at about one-tenth of your Answering and Rating scores can be a good balance. For example, a score of Questioning: 175; Answering: 1,750; and Rating: 1,750.

You can see your score in the top right-hand corner of PeerWise. We use the Reputation score (not the Questioning, Answering or Rating scores) to determine your mark for PeerWise.

You will gain a mark out of 5 for your PeerWise contribution. This will be calculated according to the Peerwise grading guidelines available on Moodle.

The Unit Co-ordinator reserves the right to adjust the mark of any student if they engage in inappropriate behaviour on PeerWise. Inappropriate behaviour might include: Bullying, harassing or being rude to any other student; Contributing questions flagged as being easy, for example as ‘Easy’ or ‘Questions for Dummies’; Marking correct answers in bold or with other marks; Copying other student’s questions and contributing them onto PeerWise as your own (although it is understood that different students may independently contribute similar or even identical questions at times, and this is perfectly alright).

Please report to the Unit Co-ordinator any inappropriate behaviour on PeerWise.