Bachelor level Accounting case study
FA2 FAQ Annual Report Assignment Page 1 of 12 Frequently Asked Q uestions & Answers on an nual report assignment This document includes s ome common questions (and answers ) that students often ask about this assignment . A general comment is that many questions from students (and many poor results in thi s type of assignment) are due to: • Not reading the assignment information and instructions. You need to read these carefully and a number of times – especially before you begin and before your final submission. The assignment has particular requirements a nd these must be followed! • Not understanding basic accounting procedures/entries from initial accounting courses . This is prerequisite knowledge so will not be ‘re -taught’ in this course . It is also important that you have worked through all of the mater ials for the first 5 topics (up to and including Liabilities ) in this course BEFORE you finish this assignment. There are a number of topic review questions/activities that provide examples of the statements with only required line items in (on the front) the statement and recordings include example s of many of notes . QUESTION Can I include notes required by accounting standards other than those studied in first 5 topics . ANSWER The answer is no. Whilst is it pleasing to see students considering more stan dards you are required to only consider those standards in those topics identified in the assignment instructions and should not consider other standards (even those in later topics) - so you should not add in notes relating to for example, AASB 112 . Havin g said th is you should note that , for example , AASB 101 has some requirements that do not specify exactly what items need to be disclosed, however these do indicate that additional information that is required - for example look at AASB 101 para 77 which r equire s further sub classifications ; AASB 101 para 97 which requires disclosure of material items of income/expense... so although we may not consider other standards you need to consider whether the standards that we are applying (such as AASB 101) would require disclosure of (for example) sub - classifications of particular items . I have restricted the standards to consider to ensure that the assignment is not too much work for students and also to ensure that I am fair to all students. To be fair in markin g this assignment I need to ensure that all students have considered the same standards. Also a key purpose is to determine if students can read and apply the requirements of particular standards. By restricting the standards considered this allows me to b etter assess this. If you are looking at real or ‘model’ financial reports to assist you in this assignment, you should be aware that these will consider all of the accounting standards – many of which we do not consider at all in this course. I would sug gest that to determine the notes required in this assignment you ‘work though’ the standards that are specified for this assignment to see what notes are required (given the information in this assignment ) and then , if you wish, refer to actual or model re ports for an example of how to prepare notes (although there are alternative formats for notes as accounting standards specify what needs to be disclosed but not necessarily ‘how’ in terms of format) . You should not use the real or ‘model’ financial report s to determine what to include in ( on the front of) statements or which notes are required for this assignment as these (as noted above) will consider other standards and have made FA2 FAQ Annual Report Assignment Page 2 of 12 choices about where to disclose information that do not follow the instruct ions for this assignment. Further these may not consider the version of standards we are applying. Remember - for each note that you include you need to identify the particular accounting standard (and the paragraph number) to justify the inclusion of that note. The standards you need to apply (and reference ) in this assignment are AASB 101, AASB 108, AASB 110, AASB 1054 and AASB 137. QUESTION I am confused about what to adjust for – I am not sure what items I need to adjust in the trial balance . ANSWER It can be confusing. You need to read the information carefully. Remember in additional information it states : Note: Unless otherwise indicated the events and transactions outlined below have already been accounted for in the balances above . So unless it is in dicated that NOT adjusted these events/transactions would have already been accounted for (and reflected in balances in the trial balance) . However you may need to 'work' back to calculate the balances of some items (such as share capital and reserves) at the beginning of the period. Further you may need to adjust as particular events may not have been accounted for ‘correctly ’ (e.g. not accounted for as required to be recognised or disclosed in accordance with the standards we are considering) in the trial balance . F or example, think about how any sales of non - current assets need to be accounted for /presented in the financial statements. You need to take care about which items have already been accounted for and which have not. QUESTION Is the amount of ex penses incorrect as these do not seem to add up? ANSWER The assignment says that the amount of expenses in trial balance ‘includes ’ the following items (such as auditors fees etc). You are correct - these amounts do not 'add up' to the total as the informa tion in the question does not give details of all of these expenses but only some. So you have been given details of SOME of the items included in this but not all – so will have some ‘left’ that you can just say are ‘other expenses’ . A simple example woul d be say had case where had $100 for expenses and was told that $40 was COGS and $20 salaries and $10 electricity - this would mean that have $30 of expenses that you do not have details of which you could call 'other expenses' or ‘miscellaneous’ expenses . Remember the assignment also requires an appendix showing the calculation of the amounts on the statements QUESTION I am confused about preparing directors reports etc – should I just copy what is in actual reports? ANSWER When you are preparing directors report etc it is useful to look at actual annual reports . However for the purposes of this assignment you are only required to include the minimum information/requirements for such reports as outlined in the text - so for example, Section 14 .2.3 lists min imum requirements for Directors report - this includes names of directors so would need to include this – but you would not be FA2 FAQ Annual Report Assignment Page 3 of 12 required to include in this assignment information about the experience of directors etc (although this usually included in actua l annual reports). However, if you include extra information in the Directors report you will not be penali sed (and some information like this is often useful to users). Further the quality of your reports is affected by how you set out these reports , inte grate case facts into these and discuss items –so marks here are also awarded for the quality of these reports. Whilst for the auditor’s report and directors declaration it could be acceptable to copy most of these (assuming referenced) as the directors re port requires you to consider the information in relation to this particular case for its requirements simply copying this from actual reports would not be appropriate - although you may find it useful to refer to some examples. Remember if you do copy will need to reference (with in text references including quotation marks where necessary etc). QUESTION Should I present the analysis of expense by nature or function? ANSWER You will need to decide this – but it is doubtful whether you have enough informati on to present this analysis by function , so it is strongly recommended that you do this by nature and not function . Remember as per assignment instructions this analysis must be in the notes (and not in, on the front of, the statement). QUESTION The expen se is different than the related provision/allowance. Is this a mistake? ANSWER No mistake - You need to think about the difference between the expense and the provision or allowance - go back to your initial accounting and look at the entries . You may also find it useful to look at the file under Topic 7 that provides some revision on calculating cash amounts (although we are not considering topic 7 in this assignment, this revision may help you understand how to calculate changes in provisions). QUESTION Our group needs clarification relating to minimum requirements. In one of the topic review questions the statement of profit or loss and other comprehensive income needed to be prepared with minimum requirements but additional line items have been added i .e. profit before tax and expenses excluding finance costs. Does this mean we should do the same for the assignment or just prepare those lines items listed under AASB 101, para s 81A to 82 ? ANSWER You may need to add items in addition to those specified ( that apply to this case) in para s 81A to 82 . Para 85 says to include additional items needed to understand - obviously to understand the statement of profit or loss and other comprehensive income you would, for example , need to include a line for expenses (other than tax finan ce costs) and if you have income items that are not revenue but are ‘other income ’ could not include these in line item of revenue so would need to add separate line item . However given the assignment instructions this must be limited to only those minimum needed to understand – so for example, information about individual or specific expenses (such as analysis of expense s or material items) that are not required to be included in ( on the front of) this statement must be disclosed in the no tes for this assignment. FA2 FAQ Annual Report Assignment Page 4 of 12 QUESTION I cannot get the statement of financial position to balance – is there a mistake in the question/case study ? ANSWER No – it should balance – you need to go back and check any adjustments you have made . As a hint in my e xperience often problems with balancing relate to errors in equity amounts (although not always). I will not comment on figures being right or wrong - remember it can still balance and have mistakes but if it doesn't balance you know you have a problem . QUESTION Is there a word limit for this assignment? ANSWER These is no specific word limit for this assignment as the nature of this assignment makes it difficult - I don't want students to spend time counting words particularly as this assignment will hav e lots of numbers -no penalties will be applied regardless of word count . QUESTION Do we need to consider AASB 132 in relation to issue costs? ANSWER You do not need to apply disclosure etc requirements of AASB 132 although any share issues costs will ne ed to be accounted for (if these apply to case study) as is outlined in the related topic - but other than the paragraph referred to in the study guide there is no need to apply AASB 132 . QUESTION I am confused about materiality? Should I compare all amoun ts to profit to consider if items are material? ANSWER Re materiality - Remember you would not normally just consider profit -and you also need to consider the nature in determining materiality . As you do not have previous periods figures you will need to make some assumptions - if in doubt then assume material - we will use some discretion in considering this obviously when m arking - if you wish you can add in appendix what you have assumed if you believe needed to understand what you have done but remembe r the nature can mean material even if the amount is not significant. QUESTION Do I need to only consider the AASB 101 and AASB 1054 paragraphs that were speci fic ally covered/discussed in the topic review questions ? ANSWER AASB 101 is a standard that we are considering so even if a particular paragraph was not considered in a specific topic review question (the purpose of these is not to go through every paragraph of every standard considered) then you still need to consider . If the disclosure required is one that does apply to this case then you need to disclose ; if the disclosure required is one that does not apply to this case (such as AASB 1054 para 13 that relates to imputation credits) then you do not need to include. However if would apply to any c ompany then should include (either indicate the specific information required and that this is not available or can make it up). FA2 FAQ Annual Report Assignment Page 5 of 12 QUESTION If I have included information that is required to be disclosed by an a ccounting standard in the other reports –such as the directors declaration or directors report - do I still need to disclose this information in the notes to the reports ? ANSWER Yes - you do still need to disclose in notes . Paragraph 48 of AASB 101 (see below) makes it clear that unless specified to the contrary disclosures required by accounting standards are required in the financial statements (or notes). (AASB 101). 48 . This Standard sometimes uses the term ‘disclosure’ in a broad sense, encompassing items presented in the financial statements. Disclosures are also required by other Australian Accounting Standards. Unless specified to the contrary elsewhere in this Standard or in another Australian Accounting Standard, such disclosures may be made in the financial statements. Paragraph 50 of AASB 101 makes if clear that the accounting standards only apply to the financial reports (which includes the notes). AASB 101 (para 50 ) Australian Accounting Standards apply only to financial statements, and not necessarily to other information presented in an annual report, a regulatory filing, or another document. Therefore, it is important that users can distinguish information that is prepared using Australian Accounting Standards from other information that may be useful to users but is not the subject o f those requirements. AASB 101, p ara 10, lists the components of a complete set of financial statements . This does not include items such as directors’ reviews/reports. So normally if an accounting standard requires disclosure this must be in the financial statements or notes (even if the information is repeated in ‘other’ reports such as the directors’ review). QUESTION What would be included in finance costs for AASB 101? ANSWER Finance costs that apply here are normally assumed to be restricted to those costs related to borrowings by the company (these would include for example, application and other fees and interest associated with company borrowings). These would not include the range of items that you may have considered or classified as ‘financial ex penses ’ in internal profit and loss statements in earlier courses – such as doubtful /bad debts expenses. QUESTION I am unsure of what format to use for the statement of changes in equity? ANSWER There are alternative formats that are permitted. For the state ment of changes in equity for this assignment I would recommend a simple format such as that used in the answers to topic review question s for the related topic. Remember the specific instructions for the assignment in relation to this statement . You do n ot need comparative columns/rows or figures for this statement for this assignment (comparative columns are only required for the statement of financial position & statement of profit or loss and other comprehensive income in this assignment ). QUESTION Ar e we required to refer to standards in the appendix or is the appendix purely for calculations? ANSWER FA2 FAQ Annual Report Assignment Page 6 of 12 The appendix is p urely for calculations so no need to refer to standards . T his appendix is required so that markers can see how you have arrived at the n umbers in your statements if they cannot determine this from your statements/notes - so can be quite simple . You do not need to worry about presentation here, so please do not spend too much time formatting etc. This will not be marked and will only be referred to by markers if necessary. QUESTION I was wondering do we have to include a reason (explanation) for the inclusion of each note, along with the standard and paragraph reference? Or will the reference be enough? ANSWER Just include the reference - not the reas on (so you do not need to explain in words why the note has been included apart from showing the appropriate standard and paragraph reference) - no arguments /explanation needed - just the standard and paragraph number . F or example , if have a note being ‘analysis of expenses ’ you would just prepare the actual note o f analysis of expense s and indicate reference (AASB 101, para 99 ).This reference needs to justify inclusion of the note itself. This reference needs to specifically relate to the particular infor mation that you have disclosed – e.g. AASB 101 paragraph 112 (b) requires notes to disclose information required by Australian Accounting Standards..; this is too general to justify a particular note inclusion. You would need to reference the specific stand ard and paragraph number (not paragraph 112 ) to justify the inclusion of note disclosures. Likewise a reference to materiality is ‘too general’ to justify a specific inclusion /note – e.g. AASB 101 paragraph 97 requires material items of income /expense to be separately disclose d. To justify the inclusion of note disclosures for these you would refer to AASB 101 para 97 (not materiality). You should realise that marks will be awarded for justifying EACH note by an appropriate AASB and paragraph reference – each AND every time you fail to justify in this way, or incorrectly justify , then you will be penalised. QUESTION 1. I've noticed while looking at actual financial reports that almost all line items have a note. Do I need a note for every line item? 2. Also in the standards we are considering I cannot find a reference that requires inclusion of some of the notes that I have found in actual annual reports – should I just include these notes anyway? ANSWER 1. You may not need a note for all line items - or you may -this will be up to you to decide given the requirements of the accounting standards that we are considering . You do not need notes to justify inclusion of an item in the financial statements (for example, you do NOT need a note against the profit figure to indicate that AASB 101 para 8 1A requires this to be included in - on the front of -the statement of profit or loss and other comprehensive income ). T he notes are to provide an explanation or more details of the financial statements as required/needed by users and as directed by the standards - so for example, you need to do an analysis of expenses . You would include a note number for this in your statement and the note referred to would include analysis of expenses - you do not need to justify why these items are expenses or why expenses are included in statement of profit or loss and other comprehensive income . 2. NO – the purpose of this assignment is to determine if student s can apply the requirements of a range of accounting standards (so to assess if you can decide FA2 FAQ Annual Report Assignment Page 7 of 12 what notes are required by the standards we are considering) . Simply including information because you think it might need to be disclosed but cannot justify by reference to one of the standards we are considering is not appropriate . Rememb er: marks will be awarded for justifying EACH note by an appropriate AASB paragraph reference – each AND every time you fail to justify in this way, or incorrectly justify, you will be penalised. Further if the notes are not required by the accounting stan dards that we are considering then further penalties would be applied. QUESTION I'm a bit confused because our assignment is supposedly meant to be "publishable" so does that mean it should resemble actual financial reports in that all items have a note? ANSWER Re 'publishable' - this is referring to the quality of presentation, format etc -given the restrictions of the assignment . C learly in practice companies , to publish a report would need to cover all of the accounting standards and would have a lot mo re information than we have in this very simple case study . Further, as this is an assessment item you will need to include in -text references including quotation marks as required (as per the Harvard author -date referencing system) which would not normall y be found in an actual annual report. QUESTION Do we need to create a company name for our assignment? ANSWER Yes – this is part of the information that you need to ‘make up’. QUESTION Some of the requirements in the standards relate to a ‘group’ of co mpanies. Do we need to consider these? ANSWER No. You can assume that this company is a single entity and is not part of a group of companies. You will consider accounting for groups in Financial Accounting 3. QUESTION Is a good way to approach this assig nment to obtain a ‘real’ annual report and follow what that company has done in relation to the financial statements and notes? ANSWER No. There are very specific instructions for this assignment. These are to ensure that we can assess whether students the mselves can understand and apply the requirements of the standards that we are considering. If you simply ‘follow’ what is done in an actual annual report there will be problems as: These ‘real’ reports will generally apply a much larger range of accountin g standards that you are allowed to apply for this assignment . These ‘real’ reports will not follow the instructions required for this assignment, especially in relation to the financial statements. For example, in many ‘actual’ income statements companies may split ‘sales revenue’ and other revenues into separate line items. However given the assignment instructions you can only show 1 line item for revenues in ( on the front of) the statement of profit or loss and other comprehensive income for this assign ment. Given the accounting standards we are considering , some of the actual reports you will find may not be based on the version of standards that we are considering. FA2 FAQ Annual Report Assignment Page 8 of 12 ‘Real reports’ may be useful for helping you with ideas about how to format notes (once you have determined that the note is required for this assignment) and for ideas about the wording of the ‘other’ reports/declaration . QUESTION I am confused about justifying notes? What is it that I need to justify? ANSWER You need to include the standa rd and paragraph reference that justifies why you have included this actual note disclosure. For example, if you have a material non - adjusting after reporting period event then AASB 110 para 21 requires that this be disclosed in the notes. You would need t o prepare the note required and record AASB 110 para 21 against this note to justify its inclusion as this is the paragraph of the standard that requires this disclosure. You could not justify this note via AASB 110 para 3 or para 10; these paragraphs just ify why/how you have determined that this is a non -adjusting event and why you have not adjusted but do not justify of themselves inclusion of a note disclosure about this event ( rather these justify the underlying accounting treatment). QUESTION Do I als o need comparative information/columns for notes and statement of changes in equity? ANSWER For this assignment you only need a comparative column for each of the statement of financial position and statement of profit or loss and other comprehensive incom e – these are not required for other statement/notes - although if included will not be penalised. QUESTION What date is the annual report supposed to be for? ANSWER The information in the assignment instruction booklet specifies the date that the report is for (and this also indicated by date of trial balance). The other date in the case study refers to date of authorisation as this impacts on AASB 110 . QUESTION When referencing, do I have to go to the line item detail of putting a reference to AASB 101 para 82( d) next to income tax in the statement of profit or loss and other comprehensive income ? ANSWER You only need to refer to standard paragraphs to justify notes – you do not need to include these references in the statements (although if you do include you will not be penalised) . QUESTION I would like to ask if you could provide any guidance on referencing notes as I wonder if we need to put a reference if we use the format or titles of notes for a specific company's annual report. ANSWER If just using from actual or model reports titles and basi cally following the general format of these notes , no reference is required - however if doing more than this (e.g. for significant accounting policies many students use quotations or paraphrasing from actual or mode l report) then do need to put references (including quotation marks). However it is not appropriate to ‘copy’ format in sense of electronically cutting and pasting and then just changing for case details & it is NOT appropriate to use other FA2 FAQ Annual Report Assignment Page 9 of 12 students work f or basis for these – have a look at overview of assignment and information about this in next question . Remember we are assessing your ability to prepare and for mat the statements and notes. QUESTION The assignment instruction booklet states: Therefore it is required that the statements and notes are prepared and formatted by you (or your group ). Some students may have access to software/computer programs or other templates that prepare annual reports (or part of these) . It is not acceptable to use any source as a ‘template’ to format your statements or notes (whether this is from other stu dents or from any source). In other words, for the statements and notes you need to begin with a blank electronic document and format and write these yourself!! I am confused about this given that you said we may wish to refer to actual or model reports f or ideas. Could you please explain this further? ANSWER Some of the things we are trying to assess in this assignment are: Can YOU prepare financial statement s in accordance with the standards that we are considering? Can YOU determine what note disclosure s are required and prepare these in accordance with the standards that we are considering? If students simply ‘download’ (or cut and paste) from a document (or part of a document) provided from another source (be this model/actual reports or other students work) and simply adjust for this case study this is not demonstrating the student s ability to apply the accounting standards to prepare their own statements and notes. It is more like using a template then and fil ling in the blanks! This is why this is no t acceptable. As outlined in the study guide the objective of this course is not for students to learn how to use provided templates. I would also remind you of the consequences of using other students work as a basis for your own assignment as outlined in the assignment instructions . You should note that in previous study periods a number of students received ZERO for this assignment as they had used other students work (from the same or previous study periods) as the basis for their own assignment. If you use another students assignment (e.g. from previous study period) as a basis or ‘template’ for some/all and change for this case study you should expect to receive ZERO as a minimum penalty . QUESTION I have included notes for all line items in the st atement of financial position as I believe it creates a better understanding for users. I have included notes for items such as cash & cash equivalents . However I have only one item which is cash at bank as has been listed under the note. I believe that this note provides additional information than what has already been provided in the statement, however will I be penalised for including notes whereby one item is listed? ANSWER You need to think about whether the note really does provide additional infor mation – if there is only one item for cash and cash equivalents why wouldn’t you just use the title cash – then no note would be required as the note would not add any additional information. If notes are included that are not required ( i.e. do not provide additional information) then these will be penalised. I wonder also what reference you have used to justify this note – you could not use AASB 101 para 77 as this is not a further sub -classification. A good way to think about it , is that you would , for th is FA2 FAQ Annual Report Assignment Page 10 of 12 assignment , need a specific standard reference to justify inclusion of a note . You should not refer to ‘general ’ para graphs ( such as AASB 101, para 112 ) or general requirements (such as materiality ) to justify inclusion of a note for this assignment. QUESTION Are there particular ways we should show/format notes? ANSWER There is no specified ‘format’ for notes . The standards specify what information is required to be disclosed but not how – and it will depend on the information that you are providing (some information may be more usefully presented in a table, other as narrative) – so this is up to you . You need to think about which one is easier to read/understand and the ‘way’ you present notes would be considered in presentation marks . Y ou may find it useful to l ook at ‘real’ or ‘model’ reports (not to identify notes required but for ideas about how these are formatted - but will find differences between these anyway) QUESTION I am confused about how to make up information ANSWER In such cases where you do not h ave information required and need to disclose , as the assignment instructions suggests , there are 2 ways to do this - either indicate what information is required or make it up : Where the accounting standards indicate that a note is required but all of the informati on required to be disclosed is not available from the case study information, students need to either ‘make up’ the information, or indicate the specific information that needs to be included if the information were available. What I would suggest is wher e information is not available (such as beginning balance etc) then where you would put information (such as an actual amount of say $432,000) put $x and where you do have information then put actual amount in . Having said this students will do in various way s (some will just have statement saying "need also to include x,y, z for this item as per AASB X para x but information is not available and so has not been included" - or something like this). But remember if you DO have information available then is not appropriate to make up information – you do need to use the information provided. QUESTION I am confused about the provisions and how to calculate relevant amounts? ANSWER Look at this topic and examples in the study guide which includes entries to recog nise (or increase) provision and entries when use. These entries are similar in principle to how you account for allowance for doubtful debts - which you did in first year. You may also find it useful to look at the file under Topic 7 that provides some revision on calculating cash amounts (although we are not considering topic 7 in this assignment, this revision may help you understand how to calculate changes in provisions). QUESTION I am confused about what order or how I should organise the notes . I have looked at various annual reports and the order seems to vary. ANSWER The require ments and guidance in relation to the order of n otes are outlined in paragraphs 113 and 114 of AASB 101. Paragraph 114 provides some examples of systematic ordering of notes, but there is no ‘one ’ correct order. Previously the guidance recommended a spe cific order of notes ( consistent with what is now included as one example in paragraph 114 (c)) and as most companies followed this FA2 FAQ Annual Report Assignment Page 11 of 12 guidance , the order of notes was largely consistent between companies. However, now companies are organising notes in alternative ways (for example, some include sign ificant accounting policies altogether in one note , others disclosure these policies with the note relating to the particular financial statement item. You will need to decide how best to organise your notes. QUESTION I know I need to disclose any significant accounting policies and have looked at examples from actual annual reports. These vary. Some have these listed in one long note . Can I just copy one of these from an annual report? One companies have in different places throughout notes, so I am not sure what to do. ANSWER The require ments and guidance in relation to notes and to accounting policies have changed. See FAQ above re notes in general. Further the standards previously required a ‘summary ’ of accounting policies ; whereas now the standards require disclosure of significant accounting policies (basically those account ing polici es – remember this includes measurement bases - important for users to know about to be able to understand the reports). Paragraphs 118 to 121 provide some guidance about how to d isclose if significant . This includes considering the nature of the entities op erations – so you need to think about this in the context of your company . It would not be appropriate to simply copy this all of the disclosures relating to accounting policies from an actual report. This is because it is extremely unlikely that in our simple case study that we would have as many or all of the same events/transactions and related accounting policies as an ‘actual company’. For example, an actual company may have construction contracts, fin ance leases etc or may measure some assets at fair value that we do not have in our case study. You should only be including information about significant accounting policies that apply to our case study so your disclosures will be much shorter /less than for most ‘actual’ com panies (as actual companies will have a much wider range of events/transactions) . You will find that many of these disclosures are similar as they often restate the requirements from the accounting standards. For example, many may say ‘a provision is recognised when…’ and then include the definition and recognition criteria for a pr ovision. For this assignment it is acceptable in this particular note for students to copy such extracts from actual/model reports but remember that these must be adequately referenced (including in text references and quotation marks). Although this refe rencing is not in actual reports this is an assignment for university purposes so in text referencing is required. QUESTION I am confused about the audit report required. Should I include an audit independence report? ANSWER The auditors report required for this assignment in as discussed in section 14 .2.4 of the text. This effectively states the auditor’s opinion about whether or not the auditor believes the financial statements present a true and fair view, and are in accordance with accounting standard s and relevant legislation. An audit independence report or declaration is required by section 307C of the Corporations Act . This requires auditors to formally state their compliance with its independence requirements. An independence report/declaration is not required to be included in this assignment FA2 FAQ Annual Report Assignment Page 12 of 12 QUESTION I am confused. The instructions state that the electronic submission must be in a readable forma t so that it can be processed via Turnitin. Until a readable document is submitted late penalties wil l be applied. This means that you cannot ‘scan’ any significant parts or all of this assignment or insert statements, notes or reports as pictures or the like (if necessary, you can insert graphics, for example on the title page, as pictures and can scan the appendix only). I can read my document so is this OK? ANSWER All assignments need to be submitted to Turnitin. This checks assignments by using text matching. So the text of your assignment must be ‘readable’ by the Turnitin software. If you r text or par ts of assignment have been scanned or saved in particular ways then it may not be able to be processed by Turnitin. To check , open your assignment document and use the ‘search’ function ; say search for words such as ‘revenue’ or ‘company’ – words that ar e used throughout your document. If the words cannot be found by the search then it is not readable via Turnitin and you will need to change this (or the parts that are not searchable). I know that sometimes students scan their assignments as they wish to include their signature on the cover sheet. A signature is not required.