“I embarked on the task of calculating [my firm’s] ratios with an enthusiasm I hadn’t previously known was possible prior to taking ACCT11059.

Calculations and equations have always been a difficult area for me to grasp. However, as this unit has progressed so has my confidence and enjoyment of undertaking such mathematical tasks.

Reflecting on my accounting journey thus far, I initially felt stunned in Week 1 to be challenged in my approach to learning. But Martin’s outline of the six different approaches to learning … has been evident for me … through my newfound ability and confidence in an area that has always been one I have struggled with …

I feel the way I think, understand and view the world around me has significantly changed. I have morphed as an individual and embarked on a much deeper level of learning that I didn’t know was possible.

So here I am, a previously inadequate person in respect to numbers, calculations and anything math related, to an individual excited at the prospect of performing ratios and seeing what information I can derive from numerical values.”

Thank you to everyone who has submitted your ASS#2 Steps 7-10. Quite a few people are pleased to have finished their last assignment and have felt like dancing for a few minutes before, perhaps, preparing for exams or completing assignments in other units.

Here is some general feedback on ASS#2 Steps 7-10.

Step 7

Step 7 was generally very well done.

Most people identified three products or services for their firm very well, although some people did struggle to do this.  Also, most people were able to estimate or guess selling prices, variable costs and contribution margins for each of their firm’s products or services, and to comment on the contribution margins; and also to identify resource constraints and comment on these constraints.

Some people commented on how using contribution margins could help us focus on what is relevant to decisions, although it was also important to consider qualitative factors (such as the need to keep a broad enough product range to ensure access to distribution channels).  Also some people referred to the fact that contribution margins are only as good as the numbers put into their calculation; and that these numbers may turn out to not reflect what actually happens in the future (for example, selling prices and variable costs in the future may end up being different to what occurred in the past).

Step 8

“…without Lois’ direction in the tutorial classes [in Brisbane] and Maria’s videos, I wouldn’t have been 100% confident in my calculations and anyone that has posted on MS Teams or our Facebook page that they are struggling with this stage, I directed them to the video’s on Moodle.”

“…this assignment was definitely… an interesting task. There were a few tears and emotions when it came to completing it but in the end I got there. This assignment has calculated and analysed ratios, analysed the economic profit and what drives it, developed a capital investment decision and calculated the payback period, NPV and IRR of my firm … I learnt many aspects of accounting throughout this assignment and I now feel comfortable and confident in calculating various accounting ratios.”

The first groups of ratios were based on numbers in your firm’s financial statements. The last group of ratios were based on your firm’s restated financial statements. Some people mixed this up a bit when calculating their firm’s ratios.

Quite a few people showed their dividends per share and net borrowing cost as negative numbers. We usually show them as positive numbers.

When calculating earnings per share, a few people had trouble identifying the number of shares their company had on issue. You can generally find the number of shares a company has issued in the footnote to Issued Capital in the Equity section in your firm’s Balance sheet.

Also, to find your firm’s share price, you can generally find this on Google. For example, by googling ‘Ryman Healthcare share price’.

A company’s share price is a fact. Facts are so easy to find. You can generally Google facts. There are a number of important skills to be able to search for facts. Finding your company’ share price gave you the chance to see how good you are at finding simple facts.

But what you can’t Google are judgements. And as quite a few people found in their Step 8, there are all sorts of judgements required to be made, not just in interpreting our firms’ ratios, but also in calculating them in the first place. For example, some people realised that ratios such as Return on Net Operating Assets (RNOA) could be quite different depending on whether we use opening, closing or average Net Operating Assets when calculating the ratio. So which one should we use?

Excel skills

And as we have used Excel to complete our assessments, many people have been strengthening their Excel skills as we have ‘learnt by doing’.

I’d like to think that I have adequate Excel skills, I have used it in both work and studying for many years but I have learnt many new shortcuts and skills whilst completing this assignment, so thank you Maria for your informative videos!

Commentary

“Working out the ratios was the easy part, looking into them and what they mean is the challenging part for me.  To help me to understand each of the ratios, I watched Maria’s video for a second time and got some great explanations.”

Quite a lot of the marks for Step 8 were given for the quality of your commentary on your ratios and your economic profit.

“I must admit, by conducting extensive research into [my firm] for ASS#1, I was instantly able to view how these events affected the ratios utilised.”

Some people simply stated the definition of each ratio and commented on what their ratio was, whether it had changed over the past three years, and how it might have compared with the ratios of other firms. Doing this was quite good, but to get a strong mark for your commentary you needed to communicate what the ratios told you about your firm itself: its operations and activities.

Some people (though not all) found things coming together for them quite a bit as they completed their Step 8 … and reflected on what their firm’s ratios might tell them about what is really going on in their firm.

ASS#2 Steps 7-10 was the final stage in a series of inter-connected assignments. And remember, each stage of the assignments was a realistic learning task designed to support us to look more carefully, item-by-item, at the financial statements of our (and other’s) firms, and to learn more about them. And most particularly, to experience that financial statements and accounting are perhaps not as scary and out of reach for us as we may have thought they were before we started the unit.

Step 9

“For each of the methods, there are strengths and weaknesses. 

The payback period is easy to understand and is biased towards liquidity, however it ignores the time value of money, requires an arbitrary cut off point and ignores all cash flows past this point.

NPV meets all of the desirable criteria as it considers all cash flows, adjusts for risks, is able to rank mutually exclusive projects and is directly related to an increase in wealth.  The only weakness of this method is that it’s more difficult to understand … 

Finally, IRR is the method preferred by executives as it is intuitively appealing and easy to communicate as well as considering all cash flows and the time value of money, however it can produce multiple answers and is unable to rank mutually exclusive projects.

Step 9 was also generally well done. People applied the methods of Payback period, NPV and IRR generally very well.

Almost everyone was able to generate two capital investment options for their firm and to generate/’guess’ future expected cash flows for each option. A few people struggled with the idea of including a residual value as part of the cash flows in the last year of their future expected cash flows for each option.

Also, many gave a recommendation and provided an insightful discussion about their recommendation. A number of people, however, forgot to include a brief commentary on this in their assignment.

Step 10

“As always, I found the entire feedback process extremely beneficial

By receiving feedback, I am able to gain confidence that my work is correct and that I’m on the right track.  In saying this, I can’t help but feel that people want to be nice and won’t tell me if the information is incorrect.

Although I found receiving feedback beneficial, I found (like usual) that providing feedback assisted me even more.  By giving feedback I am able to check that I understand the topics and what is actually required of us for each step of the assignment.  Through this I am also able to see what other students have included in their work, which assists me in ensuring I have covered every aspect of the assignment task. 

When providing feedback, I like to ensure that I tell the student if I think that they have missed a piece of information or if something could be improved.  Not only is this an aspect in providing thoughtful and insightful feedback, it also allows the student to increase the standard of their work and hopefully get better marks. 

I feel a sense of fulfillment when I am able to help a student to improve their work.  I also do this, because this is the type of feedback that I would like to receive from other students – in depth and constructively criticising where relevant (I hope I haven’t been too harsh!)”

Many people provided some thoughtful feedback to other people in our unit. Many people commented about how useful they had found both giving and receiving feedback to be; and that giving feedback really helped them to do a better assignment as they realised they needed to strengthen aspects of their own assignment as they gave feedback to others about their assignment:

“For Assignment 2, there has been a definite shift in the way feedback is given and also received.  Compared to Assignment 1, I (and my fellow students) would read through an assignment and offer encouragement, very mindful of only providing positives as I lacked the confidence if I was completing it correctly.  I find now though, my peers are not afraid to point out errors in my work and are happy to offer guidance on my interpretations and offer opinions on where I may be lacking.  I know, with absolute certainty, the feedback I have received from peers has gained me extra marks.

I have been fortunate to engage in many conversations with fellow students that assisted me to have a much greater understanding of the topic.  In relation to the feedback I have received for these final stages, I have found it has assisted me in fine tuning my assessment to ensure I have met the necessary criteria.  I found it constructive and used them as a checklist when conducting final reviews.  I found the feedback I received was an excellent mix of constructive and reassurance.  With the time and effort invested, it was genuinely appreciated.

Just as a side note – I never fully understood the step by step way these assignments were required to be submitted until I considered that in other units we never get the opportunity to see what other students have submitted.  It has opened my eyes to my own style and approach to not only this unit but University as a whole.  Without the necessary step of providing feedback to others, I would never have known. So thank you 😊”

F2F feedback

Some people found it easier to share detailed feedback face-to-face (which can also be done by ‘live’ online interactions):

“I felt that face to face conversations were the best way to get feedback on the areas that I had difficulty with, as the answers tended to be more lengthy and required looking backwards and forwards between my ratios and the annual reports ….  In class, my lecturer (Lois – in Brisbane) has always been extremely helpful in giving me feedback – especially when it came to the ratios and the discussion of them.  I have also received verbal feedback from [another student] in class regarding the ratios for my firm.  The feedback from these interactions allowed me to gain more confidence in my work, with more ease than if discussed through online communication methods.”

And quite a few people have found the sharing of feedback has helped to increase their confidence and improve the quality of their work and learning in our unit:

“… the ease of receiving feedback in this unit has really helped increase my confidence in my work and ensure it is of the highest quality; whereas giving feedback has allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of the topics covered and what is required for each step of the assessment.”

Adjusting to uni

Quite a few people in our unit have been adjusting to studying at university this term; and many have been experiencing the benefits of active, real learning and finding their thinking and intellectual capacities being refreshed and developed:

“This unit, while driving me crazy at times (damn you Chapter 4), has provided me with the most amazing feelings, understandings and gratitude.  I feel proud of myself (and my peers) for pushing each other to strive for the best results possible and I feel a sense of calm over my everyday life even through the turmoil.

This unit has opened up so many mind blowing experiences and has woken up the parts in my brain that went to sleep many years ago due to going through the same monotonous motions in my ungrateful job.  I feel alive again and so eager to keep using the skills and information I learnt through this unit and keep pushing to make my workplace a better place to be.”

Learning about learning

And others have been posting some comments and reactions about coming to the end of our unit; including how quite a few people have found they enjoyed learning in our unit, including interacting with others online:

“So I have spent the past few minutes taking a stroll through memory lane on my blog, distracting myself from the fact that my assignment is ready to submit but I can’t quite bring myself to push that great green submit button. It looks so intimidating right at this point, I am not quite ready for this unit to be over.

Who would have thought at the beginning of this unit … that the unit I had anxiety over because of this online communication and interaction with others would be a unit which became not a chore, not study, but I guess you could say a hobby, something I enjoyed, and looked forward to. I have enjoyed talking with like minded individuals and I hope that I continue to use my new found learning and communication skills in not only my future studies but my entire life.”

“I have thoroughly enjoyed this subject, have learned more than I ever thought I would and hope to see the lecturers as well as some of my cohorts in subjects to come throughout my degree.”

Fear of numbers

Quite a lot of people have been able to face their ‘fear of numbers’ and realise that numbers and maths are not that scary afterall. And that perhaps it is more about confidence than anything else:

“I have a confession…

I absolutely loved step 8’s calculation of ratios!

…I am quite proficient in writing, but numbers… yeah not so much.

After completing the spreadsheet in step 3, numbers, calculations and equations moved from being a nemesis of mine into the friend zone. I think I finally realised it wasn’t that I lack the ability to understand math and equations but maybe I just lacked the confidence…”

Online communication

Developing our skills and abilities with online communication, to effectively learn with and from each other from around Australia and eslewhere, has been a highlight for many people in our unit this term:”…the sharing and connecting with others has been a wonderful aid in furthering my knowledge.”

Many people experienced the benefits and value of learning with and from each other, cooperatively and effectively, as we together learnt about accounting:

“The online communication and discussions that occurred throughout the entire unit itself was both helpful in increasing my knowledge but most importantly supportive. Having such open communication in an environment where others were experiencing the same difficulties and uncertainties enabled a more constructive learning environment to be created.

This inclusive community I believe was a critical component in my learning process that allowed me to not only ask questions to increase my knowledge, but also assist others which in turn put my newfound understanding of concepts and tasks to use.

I greatly enjoyed the “online communication” component of the unit and am hopeful to undertake further units with the same communicative focus as ACCT11059.”

As you receive your mark for ASS#2 Steps 7-10, remember that all marks are provisional. All marks in our unit will be reviewed by the university’s Assessment Committee and Education Committee before grades are finalised. So all marks are subject to review.

Also, you will have noticed a big red button ‘Have your say’ has appeared on the top left-hand side of Moodle.

Thank you to those who have completed your student survey. We look forward to hearing what you have to say. The university (and I) expect everyone (and at least 50% of people) in our unit will complete your student survey. If you wish, you can simply answer the first question.

All the best for the rest of your studies this term, as many people prepare for exams and complete assignments in other units you are studying.

It has been great having each of you in our unit; and I trust everyone has gained something of value as we have learned together about accounting this term; and had the chance to reflect on whether accounting can help, or perhaps hinder, us to better connect to and understand our firms.