Posted: September 14th, 2017

Develop information gathering and communication strategies

Develop information gathering and communication strategies
You are a graduate CPA working for Stealth Trick and Associates
a public accounting firm situated at 76852 Germy Road, Surry Hills, NSW. The Manager, of
your firm, James Michelberry has asked you to follow up on two emails sent by a couple of
clients, namely;
1. Chris Topper, the manager of Topper Consultants Ltd (3%) – his email is vague and
James tells you that you will need to work out some questions that you would like Chris to
answer so that you can advise him properly – see information in Part 1
2. Edward Boucher, the managing director of Arpeggios Ltd (12%) – his email has raised
a number of issues regarding his company, and your manager would like you to research
the issues and draft a response in the form of a letter – see information in Part 2. Maximum
Length is 1000 words (excluding any calculations)
Total Technical Component (15%) – This covers the technical content of your advice and
explanation on each of the issues, the calculations and the sources used.

Communication Skills – Letter Writing and Questioning Skills(10%) – This mark covers the
generic skills of business letter writing; layout, clear meaning, structure and organisation,
appropriate tone and grammar, spelling and punctuation as well as the skills used in
summarising and formulating questions

Please make sure you follow the guidelines or instructions noted in your subject outline
especially those relating to presentation of written work, late policy and academic
integrity. You should also familiarise yourself with the assessment marking rubric (attached)
to guide you in how you can score marks.
PART 1 – CASE STUDY: Topper Consultants Ltd – 3% (technical)
Hi James,
Just thought I’d drop you a quick line to chase up on something we very briefly discussed the
other day. Yes, as you know, we have invested in a lot of plant and equipment over the last
year and we have also bought and/or leased a few warehouses. As the company we bought it
from was going into liquidation we were able to obtain these at really low prices and saved
over $2.2 million by doing this, thus earning ourselves goodwill. Did you say we could bring in
this amount as Goodwill and show an increase in profits due to our excellent skills at spotting
a bargain?

By the way, you owe me a return match so I booked the tennis court for Monday at the usual
time. Let me know if this suits you.

Look forward to hearing from you
Regards and wishes
Chris Topper
Director, Topper Consultants Ltd.
Telephone: 00 9999-3333

Required: Assignment Part 1
Identify 3 questions that you would ask Mr Chris Topper in a follow up phone call.
Note: See the guidelines below –
Carefully read the email sent by your client, Chris Topper. Mr Topper has requested advice
but appears to have little experience of working with external accountants, so he has not
given you all the information you need. It is important that you have all the information you
need to provide accurate information which addresses his specific needs.

To help you to get this additional information, first you need to summarise the information that
he has given you, then develop a checklist of the information you need to know, and then
identify the gaps in information. In order to get this information, you need to develop
appropriate questions to ask the client in a phone call. Checklist what do I need to know?

Part 1 Summary
What information has been provided? Provide a 100 – 150 word summary of the issues.
Use appropriate language which will help you to identify the appropriate AASB sections.

Part 2 Information gaps
What additional information do I need in order to provide advice on the issues?
Provide a 50-100 word summary of the information that you are missing.

Part 3 Formulate Questions
What questions do I need to ask? Write 3 questions that you would like to ask Mr Chris
Topper.

Kaplan Business School is part of Kaplan Inc., a leading global provider of educational services. Kaplan Business School Pty Ltd ABN 86
098 181 947 is a registered higher education provider CRICOS Provider Codes SA/QLD 02426B, NSW 02913J and VIC 02887F
ACCM4200/3TRIMESTER2013/MIR
-2-
PART 2 – INDIVIDUAL CASE STUDY: Arpeggios Ltd – (12% technical)

Dear James,

Thanks for your letter suggesting we meet to plan the year end accounting work for the
financial year ending 31 December 2013.

I know it is important as Arpeggios Ltd moved from being a proprietary company to a public
company on 1 January 2013. Unfortunately I will not be available to meet with you personally
by the 21 of December but have passed on your letter to the newly appointed Financial
Controller, Candy Floss.

There are quite a few issues that the board of directors has raised with me in relation to the
financial statements and I have noted them below for your response. To assist us in our
decision making process could you please make sure that any relevant sources such as the
AASBs, Corporations Act, reference books, journal articles, and/or websites are referenced
so that the accounting team here could check them out when evaluating your answer.

But, I am sure that all we need to do is to prepare the financial statements in the same way as
we did last year. Is that correct?

I will be back from my business trip the 24 January 2014 and look forward to hearing from you
by then.

Best wishes and regards

Edward Boucher
Managing Director,
Arpeggios Ltd
Suite 225, Level 8, Plaza Building
525 Charles Street
Adelaide SA 5000

 
Kaplan Business School is part of Kaplan Inc., a leading global provider of educational services. Kaplan Business School Pty Ltd ABN 86
098 181 947 is a registered higher education provider CRICOS Provider Codes SA/QLD 02426B, NSW 02913J and VIC 02887F
ACCM4200/3TRIMESTER2013/MIR
-3-
ATTACHMENT
Arpeggios Ltd
Issues raised by the Board of Directors
Issue 1:

As you know our company provides home extension construction services and the Marketing
Director Handy Mahoney introduced a new scheme, known as “Try Buy” for the outdoor patios.
This was done in the hope that we may increase are revenue as the market is fairly “sluggish” at
the moment.

Under this scheme the company will measure and construct outdoor patios for customers who are
required to pay just an initial deposit of 15% of the total selling price. The customer has a month to
try the patio out before she/he decides to confirm the purchase with the company. If he/she agrees
to keep the patio he/she then becomes liable for the outstanding cost of the patio and has to pay
the rest of the cost within a month. If however the customer is unhappy with the patio and decides
not to purchase it, the company removes it at no extra cost to the customer.

All patios have a warranty of 3 years from the completion date of construction. We have a number
of different opinions as to how we should account for this but the marketing director insists that the
correct way to account for it would be on the accrual basis. Under this method he would like to
recognise the total value of the sale as soon as the patio’s construction is complete and then deal
with each customer’s decision on a case by case basis.

Issue 2:

Candy and I were going through the last year’s financial statements (year ended 31 December
2012) and I discovered that the income tax expense account was significantly lower than the
income tax the company actually paid to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) according to the
cash book. I am not sure but is there some reason as to why we “hide” the actual amount we paid
to the ATO?

I also noticed that the current tax liability in the Statement of Financial Position as at 31 December
2012 was very much less than what we had paid for the year. Why is that and if it turns out that the
company underpaid tax how do we account for it in the accounts?

By the way I also noticed that last year’s Statement of Financial Position (as at 31 December 2012)
showed a Deferred Tax Asset and Deferred Tax Liability which we have never had in our accounts
before. Candy tells me it is because we became a public company but this doesn’t make sense at
all. Why would becoming a public company causes us to have deferred tax at all?

Could you please explain this in your response, giving examples to make it very clear to us.

 
Kaplan Business School is part of Kaplan Inc., a leading global provider of educational services. Kaplan Business School Pty Ltd ABN 86
098 181 947 is a registered higher education provider CRICOS Provider Codes SA/QLD 02426B, NSW 02913J and VIC 02887F
ACCM4200/3TRIMESTER2013/MIR
-4-
Issue 3:

A number of employees who work on our strategic management team have been with us for a
number of years – at least 12 of them have been with us since the company commenced
operations in 1988. In accordance with the Employee Bargaining Agreement (EBA) all employees
are entitled to long service leave of 13 weeks if they remain in service for 10 years. They are also
entitled to pro rata long service leave after 6 years of service.

Our usual practice is to show the long service leave expense in the income statement when the
employee actually takes leave and is paid. Of course we maintain a memorandum record of the
number of days each employee is entitled to. Candy has indicated to us that she thinks we should
consider treating this expense in a different manner, which seems complicated. The directors are
wondering why we should complicate a very simple way of calculating long service leave – why not
“stick with” recognising the expense when we pay for it? What do you think we should do and why?
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