ACCT306

Course Project Overview

Financial Statement Analysis

Objectives

Analyze the financial statements of a publicly traded company.

Individual Assignment

This is an individual assignment. Each student will select a company, analyze the financial statements, and answer the questions addressed in the section below. You will be required to prepare a narrated 8-10 slide PowerPoint presentation that discusses your findings. Your professor reserves the right to approve your company of choice for this project.

Scenario and Deliverables

Obtain an annual report from a publicly traded corporation that is interesting to you. Be sure the company has property and equipment, intangible assets, and long-term debt on its balance sheet. Using techniques you have learned in the previous weeks, respond to the following questions.

What is the amount of property and equipment on the balance sheet for the 2 most recent years? What is the amount of accumulated depreciation and the depreciation expense? What amounts are on the cash flow statement for the most recent year that relate to depreciation, gains and sales of property and equipment, and purchases and sale of property of equipment? What amounts are permitted for inclusion in the capitalized cost of property and equipment?
Looking at the footnote disclosures of the company, what are the individual components of property and equipment? For example, what are the amounts for land, building, equipment, accumulated depreciation, and so forth? How do companies account for nonmonetary exchange and dispositions of property and equipment?
Does the company have intangible assets? If so, what are the types of intangible assets (patent, copyrights, etc.) and their amounts? What is the amount of accumulated amortization and amortization expense? What amounts on the most recent cash flow statement relate to the purchase and sale of intangible assets? How do intangible assets differ from property and equipment? What costs do we include in intangible assets?
Does the company have goodwill? What are the footnote disclosures relating to goodwill and the related acquisition? Please also describe the calculation of goodwill and how we account for differences between fair value and book value of assets acquired.
What are the company’s depreciation methods? What is the range of estimated useful lives used for depreciating its assets? Does the company use the same depreciation methods for financial statements and tax returns? If not, please describe the methods used for tax purposes.
What are the company’s footnote disclosures relating to impairment? Please also describe how to determine whether an impairment exists and how to calculate the impairment loss.
What are the amounts and descriptions of the company’s current liabilities for the most recent year? Does the company have any contingent liabilities? If yes, please describe them. Does the company have any subsequent events disclosed in its footnotes? If so, please describe them.
What are the amounts and descriptions for all of the company’s long-term liabilities on its balance sheet for the 2 most recent years? What is the interest expense for the 2 most recent years? What amounts are included in the cash flow statements for proceeds from issuance of debt and repayment of debt for the most recent year? For each note payable discussed in the footnotes disclosures, what is the interest rate, total amount borrowed, and maturity date?
Does the company have bonds payable? If so, what are the amounts? Please also describe how bonds payable differ from notes payable and how to account for the issuance of bonds at par, at a discount, and at a premium. How is the discount and premium amortized? What is the effective interest method?
Does the company have finance/sales-type leases? If so, what are the amounts and terms of the leases? What are the criteria for a lease to be considered a finance lease?

Guidelines

Narrated PowerPoint presentation should be 8-10 slides plus cover slide and Works Cited slide(s). Use a 12-point font, with double spacing, and include a cover page, table of contents, introduction, body of the report/main slides, summary or conclusion, and works cited.
Even though this is not a scientific-type writing assignment, references are still very important. At least three authoritative, outside references are required (articles and web pages with anonymous authors are not acceptable). These should be listed on the works cited page.
Appropriate citation is required.
All DeVry University policies are in effect, including the plagiarism policy.
The PowerPoint presentation is due on Sunday of Week 7 of this course. The presentation should be 8-10 slides in length, plus slides for the cover page, table of contents and works cited slides.
Any questions about this paper can be discussed in the course Q and A Forum in the Introduction and Resources module.
This PowerPoint presentation assignment is worth 160 points. The assignment will be graded on quality of research topic, quality of paper information, use of citations, grammar, writing and oral narration. See details in the grading rubric below. Additional grading criteria is available in the Week 7 Course Project page.

Sample Outline

See more details in the Best Practices section below.

Cover Page
Table of Contents
Introduction and Company Background
Main Slides – Body of Report
Summary and Conclusion
Work Cited

Milestones

The project is due at the end of Week 7. However, you should be working on a portion of the project each week to ensure that you will be able to meet this deadline without any problem.

Grading Rubrics

For additional grading criteria, please refer to the Week 7 Course Project grading rubric.

Section	Criteria	Points
Company Background	The presentation includes accurate information for the following items: When did the company start?; What industry does the company compete in?; What products or services does the company sell?; Where is the company headquartered?; How many employees does the company have?; What is the fiscal year-end for the company?	14
Property, Plant, and Equipment (PP& E)	The presentation includes correct amounts for the following items for the most recent two years: PP& E, the amount of accumulated depreciation and depreciation expense, the amounts on the cash flow statement that relate to depreciation, gains and sales of PP& E and purchases and sales of PP& E.	14
Property, Plant, and Equipment (PP& E) – individual components from the footnotes	The presentation includes correct amounts for the following items by category for the most recent two years: What are the amounts for land, building, equipment, accumulated depreciation, etc.	14
Depreciation Methods	The presentation includes correct information with regards to the company’s depreciation methods and the range of estimated useful lives by asset category.	14
Intangible Assets	The presentation includes correct amounts for the following items for the most recent two years: What are the types of intangible assets (goodwill, patents, copyrights, etc.) and their amounts?; What is the amount of accumulated amortization and amortization expense?; What amounts on the cash flow statement relate to the purchase and sale of intangible assets?	14
Current Liabilities	The presentation includes correct information with regards to the amounts and descriptions of all of the company’s current liabilities for the most recent two years.	14
Long-Term Liabilities	The presentation includes correct amounts for the following items for the most recent two years: long-term liabilities, the amount of interest expense, the amounts on the cash flow statement that relate to the issuance and repayment of debt.	14
Long-Term Debt (Footnote Disclosure)	The presentation includes correct information with regards to the company’s interest rate, total amount borrowed, and maturity date for each note payable listed in the footnotes.	14
Conclusion	The presentation accurately answers each of the following questions: What amounts are permitted for inclusion in the capitalized cost of PP& E? How do companies account for the non-monetary exchange and disposition of PP& E? How do intangible assets differ from PP& E? What costs are included in intangible assets? What causes goodwill? How is goodwill calculated? How is impairment of intangible assets calculated? What are contingent liabilities? What is bonds payable and how does the discount and/or premium of a bond get calculated? What are the four criteria that pertain to a capital lease?	15
Professionalism	The presentation is well organized, contains correct spelling and grammar, has relevant narration, and has properly formatted references in APA.	25
Outcome BSAC.PLO-1: – Generate, understand and interpret financial statements and information.	Excellent: The presentation includes clear evidence the student can generate, understand and interpret financial statements and information.	4
Outcome BSAC.PLO-4: Analyze and clearly communicate accounting information as part of business decision making.	Excellent: The presentation includes clear evidence the student can analyze and clearly communicate accounting information as part of decision-making.	4
Total:		160

Best Practices

The following are best practices in preparing this presentation.

Cover page: Include whom you prepared the paper for, who prepared it, and the date.
Table of contents: List the main ideas and sections of the paper and the pages where they are located. Illustrations should be included separately.
Introduction and Company Background: This will indicate that you are introducing the paper. The purpose of an introduction or opening is to
1. introduce the subject and why the subject is important;
2. preview the main ideas and the order in which they will be covered; and
3. establish the tone of the document.

Include in the introduction a reason for the audience to read the paper. Also include an overview of what you will cover and the importance of the material. (This should include or introduce the questions you are asked to answer in each assignment.)

Body of the report/Main Slides: State the main ideas, give the major points of each idea, and provide evidence. Show some type of division, such as separate, labeled sections; separate groups of paragraphs; or headers. Include the information you found during your research and investigation.
Summary and conclusion: Summarizing is similar to paraphrasing but presents the gist of the material in fewer words than the original. An effective summary identifies the main ideas and the major support points from the body of the report; minor details are left out. Summarize the benefits of the ideas and how they affect the subject.
Works cited: Use the citation format specified in the Syllabus.

Additional hints on preparing the best possible project follow.

Apply a three-step process to writing: plan, write, and complete.
Prepare an outline of the presentation before going forward.
Complete a first draft and then go back to edit, evaluate, and make any changes required.
Use visual communication to further clarify and support the written part of the report. Examples include graphs, diagrams, photographs, flowcharts, maps, drawings, animation, video clips, pictograms, and tables.

Adding Narration to PowerPoint

Adding audio narration on a PowerPoint slide is very simple. Go to your first slide that you’ve already completed, and on the top ribbon selections click:

Insert -> Audio -> Record Audio

This will open a little recorder icon that you’ll see sitting over top of the slide. Then, click the red record button on the recorder icon and “talk to your slide” to explain the content that’s on it, just like you’re explaining the slide to a room full of people. When you have completed your narration, click the little stop button on the recorder icon on the slide to save that slide’s voice recording. For each additional slide, repeat the process to record the voice-over for that slide, and so on. Be sure to save your presentation after you have added the narration to each slide.