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ACCT3011
Financial Accounting B
Semester 1, 2022

Group Assignment

General information:
 Completion of this assignment is compulsory. The assignment should be submitted
as a word document in electronic form only using the ‘Turnitin’ assessment
portal on Canvas. No submissions will be accepted via email. Please ensure
only one submission for each group.
 Due date: 4pm 12 May 2022 (Thursday, Week 11). If you submit after the due
date will incur a late penalty of 5% of the total marks per 24-hour period, or part
thereof, late. Furthermore, any assignment submitted after the closing date of 4pm
22 May 2022, will not be marked and, therefore, result in a mark of zero.
 Responses will be considered on their ability to present relevant information and
develop well supported arguments. Do not submit a series of dot points. Your
response should be presented in an extended narrative format.
 T o provide students with feedback, your assignment will be graded against
the assessment criteria included in Appendix 1 to this assignment.
Format:
 12-point font, Times New Roman, paragraphs formatted with 1.5 line spacing,
and with margins of 2.5cm. This assignment must be done in ‘Word’ or other text
format program. Do not use ‘Excel’ or other non-text programs to do this
assignment.
 Your responses are required to adhere to the provided word count guidance for each
question. You may also provide any bibliography/reference list and this will not be
word counted. Any work above the suggested word count will not be marked. You
will note that the unit of study outline specifies 1500 words in total; here we have
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reinterpreted this into a word count guidance for each question, all using the font
and spacing as per the preceding dot point. It is each group’s responsibility to ensure
these requirements are complied with.
 Your assignment must be appropriately and properly referenced using the
American Psychological Association referencing style (or APA as it is more
commonly known). The University of Sydney library provides helpful guidance on
using APA style referencing,
http://libguides.library.usyd.edu.au/c.php?g=508212&p=3476096
You can also refer to Other Resources on the ACCT 3011 Canvas site for additional
guidance.
 In the footer of your word document, you must show SID for each group member
and include page numbers. For example, ‘123456789, 123456789, …..page 1”.
Other guidance on how to submit using Turnitin is provided in the assessment folder
on Canvas. The filename of your submitted assignment should also be in the format
of “Your tutor name + Your tutorial time + Your group. For example,
“Chuan2pmGroupA.doc”.
 As a student at the University, you are responsible for taking part in your education in
an honest and authentic manner. It is therefore expected that you take extra care to
ensure that there are no breaches of academic honesty. All assignments will be
manually and electronically checked for plagiarism (copying). Any perceived breaches
of academic honesty will be referred to the Office of Educational Integrity for further
investigation and penalised if verified. You can read more information on what
plagiarism is and how to avoid plagiarism from the University link:
https://sydney.edu.au/students/academic-dishonesty.html
 All sources of support for the assignment must be acknowledged. Failure to
acknowledge such support may potentially breach the University’s academic honesty
requirements.
 If necessary, students are advised to refer to the special consideration advice contained
in the Administration Manual for Students on the Faculty website:
https://business.sydney.edu.au/students/policy.
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Grade Descriptors:
Due to the specific nature of this assignment, students are advised that generic
submissions will not score high marks. The following can at best be considered as a
general indication, assuming consistency in quality of component parts.
High Distinction The attempted solution substantially exceeds minimal requirements,
and is consistent and coherent. It excels in substantive content and demonstrates
professional communication skills. It reflects consideration of your own well developed
perspectives and is framed in your own words.
Distinction The attempted solution substantially exceeds minimal requirements across
most tasks and through effective communication demonstrates a strong understanding
of the accounting issues and relevant accounting requirements. Good development of
your own perspectives.
Credit The attempted solution exceeds minimal requirements across most tasks, but is
less well developed, less framing in your own words (e.g. dull reproduction of slabs of
text from others), some errors or omissions in application.
Pass A minimal standard is reached across various aspects of the task.
Fail The task is not completed. The solution does not reflect an appropriate
understanding of the question/assigned task. Poorly developed responses.
Questions about the Assignment:
Students are required to post all assignment queries to the Group Assignment Forum
on Canvas. This is the required form of communication as i t provides an opportunity
for all students to have access to the same information. Unit of Study teaching staff
will NOT answer questions during lectures, tutorial or in consultation times.



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Instructions, references and guidance for Parts A, B and C:
Background to the assignment:
In late 2018, Coles Group Limited (‘Coles’ hereafter, ASX: COL) became a separately
listed company after the demerger from the corporate giant Wesfarmers Limited
(‘Wesfarmers’, ASX: WES). Wesfarmers still holds a minority interest of 4.9% in Coles
by the 2021 fiscal year end. Drawing on the annual reports released by Coles and
Wesfarmers for the year ended 30 June 2021, this assignment will focus on the segment
reporting disclosed in their ‘Notes to the Financial Statements’. The purpose of this
assignment is to evaluate Coles’ and Wesfarmers’ segment performance disclosures
and critically reflect on the accounting policies for segment reporting.

Responses will be considered on their ability to present relevant information and
develop well supported arguments. Do not submit a series of dot points. Please note
Part C requires you to prepare a persuasive extended essay response. Marks will
be awarded for content as well as structure, and the quality of the communication. To
provide students with feedback, your assignment will be graded against the
assessment criteria included in Appendix I (page 10) to this assignment.


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Part A (8 marks)
Below are extracts from Section 1.1 of the Notes to Coles’ financial statements for the
year ended 31 June 2021 on page 83 (URL details are provided under References on
page 9).



Required:

a) Reflect on these recent segment disclosures, and discuss what you learn from them
about the performance of the Coles Group (2 marks);
b) Consider the disclosure requirements of AASB 8: Operating Segments paragraph
22 to 24 and other relevant accounting standards. Comment on what is NOT
provided in these disclosure extracts, and explain how that additional information
could have further assisted with your Part A (a) analysis of the performance of the
Coles Group (3 marks); and
c) Comment on how Coles might have justified not disclosing the additional
information you allude to in Part A (b), within these recent segment disclosures (3
marks).

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Part B (6 marks)
Below are extracts from the ‘Segment Information’ section in Wesfarmers financial statements for the year ended 30 June 2020, pages 132 to
133 (URL details are provided under References on page 9).


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Required:
a) Compare and contrast the segment disclosures provided by Coles and Wesfarmers,
comment on the strengths and limitations of each disclosure (3 marks); and
b) Critically evaluate the comparability of the information provided by these two
reporting entities (3 marks).
Your discussion should focus on the full segment disclosure provided by each entity
(i.e. full Note 1.2 in Coles annual report and full ‘Segment Information’ section in
Wesfarmers annual report).

Part C (14 marks)
In Australia, the first segment reporting standard was developed in 1984: AAS 16
Reporting Financial Information by Segment. The Accounting Standards Review Board
(ASRB) subsequently endorsed this standard in April 1986 as ASRB 1005 Financial
Reporting by Segments (later to become AASB 1005). That standard was then replaced
by AASB 114 in 2004, when Australia adopted International Accounting Standards.
The 1984 standard adopted ‘the industry approach’ for determining operating segments,
based on ‘risk and returns’.
In contrast, AASB 8 paragraph 5 now defines an operating segment as a component of
an entity: (i) that engages in business activities; (ii) whose operating results are
regularly reviewed by the Chief Operating Decision Maker (CODM); and (iii) for
which discrete financial information is available.
“Accounting standard setters have increasingly attempted to align external segment
reporting disclosures to a firm's internal reporting” (Bugeja, Czernkowski, & Morgan,
2015, page 310). This so called “management approach” adopted by AASB 8, has
arguably impacted the number of reported segments and extent of line-item disclosures
provided in recent years by reporting entities.

Required:
Develop a persuasive essay to critically reflect on the shortcomings of the earlier ‘risk
and returns’ approach to defining operating segment and the flexibilities in AASB 8
that allows for variable presentation of a reporting entity’s segment disclosures.

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In your response, discuss two (2) possible factors that could motivate how Coles and
Wesfarmers construct and present segment disclosures in their financial statements in
future years (apart from satisfying AASB 8 requirements). This might involve
discussion around why management seek to opportunistically draw on these flexibilities
in AASB 8 to affect a disclosure that reveals as little as possible, and/or presents a
group’s segment information in a favourable light?

Each factor is to be linked to the arguments you developed in your Part A and Part B
responses*. Furthermore, your arguments should draw on the findings of Bugeja,
Czernkowski, & Morgan (2015), along with at least one (1) other relevant academic
article(s) that you find#.

* Supporting examples developed from your Part A and Part B responses must explain in detail how and
why it supports the possible motive.
# Your references should be from papers published in peer reviewed academic journals. Not internet
sources such as Wikipedia, not ACCT3011 course materials such as the Semester 1 2022 slides and
tutorial materials, and not textbook chapters such as the Arthur et al. textbook.









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References
The following references are in addition to the references and articles included in the
course pack and referred to in the textbook. A pdf of the Bugeja et al (2015) paper is
provided in the assignment folder on Canvas. You may wish to research other journal
articles, accounting standards and relevant information.

Australian Accounting Standards Board. (2015). Operating Segments (AASB 8).
Retrieved from: https://www.aasb.gov.au/admin/file/content105/c9/AASB8_08-
15_COMPnov15_01-16.pdf.

Bugeja, M., Czernkowski, R., & Morgan, D., (2015). The Impact of the Management
Approach on Segment Reporting. Journal of Business Finance & Accounting,
April/May 2015, 42(3) & (4), pp 310–366.

Coles Group Limited (2021). Coles Group 2021 Annual Report. Retrieved on 25th
January from:
https://www.colesgroup.com.au/FormBuilder/_Resource/_module/ir5sKeTxxEOndzd
h00hWJw/file/Annual_Report.pdf.

Wesfarmers Limited (2021). Wesfarmers Limited 2021 Annual Report. Retrieved on
25th January from: https://sitefinity.wesfarmers.com.au/docs/default-
source/reports/2021---wesfarmers-annual-report.pdf?sfvrsn=9d9111bb_2.



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Appendix I. Assessment criteria

Assessment guide Mark
Part A
a) Discussion of what has been learnt about the Coles Group
performance from its segment disclosures
b) Comment on information that has not been provided in the
Coles Group segment disclosure and explain how additional
information could have assisted with analysis of the Coles
Group performance
c) Comment on justification for Coles not disclosing additional
segment information

/2


/3



/3

Part B

a) Discussion on the strengths and limitations of the segment
disclosures provided by COL and WES
b) Critical evaluation of the comparability of the segment
information provided by COL and WES
/3

/3
Part C
Valid discussion in a persuasive essay that demonstrates critical
thinking/reasoning and is supported with examples developed from
Part A and Part B responses, findings from the Bugeja et al article,
other academic article(s) and/or other sources
/14 
Communication
Communication, style, clarity of expression including spelling,
grammar, punctuation and proper referencing using APA style /2
Final mark Converted to 10% of the total mark for ACCT3011 /30

END OF GROUP ASSIGNMENT