PROJECT OVERVIEW AND ADMINISTRATION

Objective

The project provides students with an important opportunity to ‘learn by doing’. You will be asked to apply most of the analysis from the first six seminars to an Australian public company.

Start working on the project early. Leaving it to the last minute will be stressful and may result in poor performance.

Company

You need to analyse the financial statements of Carsales (ASX ticker: CAR). The financial statements and notes in Excel format and the annual reports for Carsales for FY 18, FY 19, and FY 20 will be shared with you on Learn.UQ.

Deliverables

The project consists of both short answer questions and Excel spreadsheet work. Please submit answers to short answer questions in one Word or PDF document (PDF document is recommended) and answers to spreadsheet questions in one Excel workbook, as indicated in the questions.

Page Limits

I have specified page limits for the questions that are to be answered in the Word document. These are maximum page limits. I will enforce maximum page limits by simply not marking any material that appears beyond the page limit for a particular question. You do not necessarily need to write as much as the page limit if you can provide a correct, but succinct, answer.

Cover pages and references lists are not counted towards the page limit.

Formatting

Your written answers should be in A4 page size, in Times New Roman font, 12pt font size, at least single line-spacing, margins at least 2cm on all sides.

Please clearly separate and label your written answers to each question.

Your Excel file should be formatted neatly and following the conventions described in class.

Marking Guide

A marking guide is provided at the end of the document. This contains the number of marks assigned to each part of the project.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

I may issue, and regularly update, an FAQ addressing frequently asked questions about the project. Please ensure that you check the Assessment tab on Learn.UQ on a regular basis.

Submission of the Project

The project is to be completed individually.

The due date for the project is 13:00 Monday October 11, 2021.

Cover Page

Please include a cover page at the beginning of your Word or PDF document with your name and student number. This is not strictly necessary, as Learn.UQ manages assignment submissions and matches them to students, but it provides a useful backup for me to identify the author of each submission.

Please include your name and student number in the excel file as well in “Student Details” worksheet.

Project Submissions Instructions

For the project, please submit two files by the submission date/time:

• Your written answers must be submitted through the Turnitin link on Learn.UQ. Please use a format that Turnitin can accept, such as a Word document or PDF.
• Your Excel file must be submitted through the Blackboard submission link on UQ.

Note that both your written report and Excel workings must be submitted to achieve any marks. This is because I need to see your workings for financial calculations.

Retention of Submission Receipts

Please keep all submission receipt numbers provided by submission systems such as Turnitin and Learn.UQ as proof of your submission.

Email Backstop

If you encounter any problems with the submission systems (Turnitin and Learn.UQ), please alert technical support and me of the problem. (You may email me a copy of your assignment if you have trouble submitting through the normal systems and if you are concerned about incurring a late penalty due to technical problems.¹)

Late Submission of Assessment

Unless you have an approved extension, you will lose 10% of your assessed grade for the assignment for each 24-hour period (or part thereof) after the designated due date-time that your submission remains outstanding.² The assignment must be submitted by 13:00 seven calendar days after the due date-time or you will receive zero marks. Your submission time is based on the later of when your written component is submitted and when your Excel file is submitted, so please make sure to submit both on time. To be clear, you will incur a late submission penalty even if one component is submitted on time and the other component is submitted late.

Please note that the 10% penalty rate and the seven-day maximum window for submission are set by UQ policy, not by me.

¹ Note that work received by email will still be subject to plagiarism checking through Turnitin.

2  Times will be based on the submission time recorded by Learn.UQ, Turnitin, the UQ email system, or any other authorised submission system as the case may be. For the avoidance of doubt, 24-hour periods will be based on calendar days, i.e. inclusive of weekends and public holidays.

UQ sometimes grants extensions under limited circumstances. These extensions specify a later due date. The due time of day will remain the same, e.g. if the assignment is due by 13:00 on the due date, then it is due by 13:00 on the extended due date.

Some submission systems, e.g. Learn.UQ, allow students to submit multiple ‘attempts’ at an assessment before the due date. Only the most recently submitted attempt will be graded, unless otherwise agreed between the course coordinator and the student involved.

For the avoidance of doubt, in the event that a student submits the assignment on time and then submits a different version of their assignment late, I will mark the late submission applying the normal late penalty.

Applying for an Extension

I do not decide on extensions. These are decided by UQ professional staff. Please see the instructions in Section 5 of the ACCT7106 ECP.

Getting Started

To help you, I will provide my spreadsheet for JB Hi-Fi, which you can adapt to the allocated company