UNSW Business School
School of Accounting, Auditing & Taxation
ACCT3563 ISSUES IN FINANCIAL REPORTING AND ANALYSIS
GROUP ASSIGNMENT INFORMATION DOCUMENT
TERM 3, 2022

Group Research & Critical Analysis Assignment (worth 30%)
Information Document

Assume that you work for a large accounting firm in Sydney. The firm is considering
submitting a commentary letter to the International Sustainability Standards Board
(ISSB) about the sustainability accounting exposure draft ED/IFRS S1 General
Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information. The chief
partner of your firm wants to get an idea of what other submitters have said. Therefore,
the chief partner appoints your group to prepare a report (answering the requirements
of this assignment) and submit it by 11:59pm on Friday 28th October (in week 7) so it
can be considered at the upcoming meeting of the firm's partners shortly after.

Work in your allocated group of 5 students (that was assigned on the course Moodle
site in week 2) to complete this assignment. You will need to know your group number
for this assignment.


Background

Accounting standards adopted in Australia are developed first by the International
Accounting Standards Board (IASB) in London, which is part of the International
Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation. The IASB is based in London. In
2022, the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) was formed by the IFRS
Foundation. The IFRS Foundation established the ISSB in light of increasing calls for
transparent, reliable and comparable reporting by companies on Environmental, Social
and Governance (ESG) matters.

Shortly thereafter, the ISSB published two exposure drafts setting out proposed
International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) on Sustainability. The two
prototype standards released as exposure drafts are:
1) Exposure Draft IFRS S1 on General Requirements for Disclosure of
Sustainability-related Financial Information (‘ED IFRS S1’); and
2) Exposure Draft IFRS S2 on Climate-related Disclosures (‘ED IFRS S2’).

These proposed standards are intended to provide global baselines for sustainability
reporting and to increase the consistency of reporting on ESG-related matters
internationally.



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UNSW Business School
School of Accounting, Auditing & Taxation

The aim of accounting standard setters is to develop accounting and reporting
standards, as well as pronouncements and interpretations, which provide useful
information for decision makers.

When IASB standard setters are developing a new accounting standard, due process
of the IFRS foundation entails:

a) the mandatory publication of an exposure draft (ED) standard; and
b) public consultation of the ED for a minimum 120 days. (Late submissions are
accepted, depending on the ED).

The IFRS Board will collate the submissions and deliberate on the comments made to
decide whether to release the final standard, which is revised, if necessary, in light of
the comments received. The number of comment letters received varies across EDs
and more controversial EDs can attract large numbers of comment letters.

As mentioned, in 2022, the International Sustainability Standards Board (on behalf of
the IFRS Foundation) issued two exposure drafts:
1) Exposure Draft IFRS S1 on General Requirements for Disclosure of
Sustainability-related Financial Information (‘ED IFRS S1’); and
2) Exposure Draft IFRS S2 on Climate-related Disclosures (‘ED IFRS S2’).

Public comments on these two exposure drafts were called for and the deadline for
submissions was 31 August 2022.

As of 15 September 2022, 735 submissions (comment letters) were received on ED
IFRS S1, and 700 submissions were received on ED IFRS S2. There is a lot of overlap
in submissions on these two EDs and many submitters put their thoughts on the two
EDs in one submission letter.

Please note that the group assignment is only about Exposure Draft IFRS S1 on
General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information
(‘ED IFRS S1’) (available at: https://www.ifrs.org/content/dam/ifrs/project/general-
sustainability-related-disclosures/exposure-draft-ifrs-s1-general-requirements-for-
disclosure-of-sustainability-related-financial-information.pdf). Please ignore ED IFRS
S2.

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UNSW Business School
School of Accounting, Auditing & Taxation

The information you will need to download to complete the assignment:

1. Focus only on comment letters (submissions) about IFRS S1 General
Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information (‘ED
IFRS S1’).

2. Download the submissions on IFRS S1 General Requirements for Disclosure of
Sustainability-related Financial Information (‘ED IFRS S1’) and the Exposure
Draft itself from the IASB website link:
https://www.ifrs.org/projects/work-plan/general-sustainability-related-
disclosures/exposure-draft-and-comment-letters/

As of 15 September 2022, there are 735 submissions, but the IASB is adding
some late submissions, so the total may exceed 735 when you download the
list. Nevertheless, proceed as instructed (in point 3 below) to choose your 50
submissions.

3. Choose a random sample of 50 submissions. Do this by starting at the
submission which corresponds to your group number and then take each 15th
submission thereafter. For example, if you are in group 17, you will start with
the 17th submission and then every 15th submission after that (submission 32,
submission 47, submission 62 etc) until you have 50 submissions in total. For
a small number of groups, if choosing each 15th submission takes you to the
end of the list of submissions, continue choosing submissions by going to the
start of the list.

4. Comment letters about general sustainability-related information ED IFRS S1
are available at the following link: https://www.ifrs.org/projects/work-
plan/general-sustainability-related-disclosures/exposure-draft-and-comment-
letters/#view-the-comment-letters

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UNSW Business School
School of Accounting, Auditing & Taxation

Assignment Requirements

Part 1: All groups must complete and submit to their tutor a group contract, signed by
all group members. Please download and complete the group contract template
provided in the ‘Group Assignment’ section of the course Moodle site. This group
contract is due by 11:59pm on Friday 7th October.
(1 mark)


Part 2: Read through the Exposure Draft ED IFRS S1 General Requirements for
Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information.
Provide a brief outline of how the requirements of this ED would fit within the context
of financial reporting. Comment on whether and why you think Disclosure of
Sustainability-related Financial Information is an important element, or not, of the
financial statements. In other words, should we as accountants and users of financial
reports care about Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information? (About
700 words).
(7 marks)


Part 3: In a table, classify your 50 submissions by geographic location and by type of
submitter. Use as a starting point the geographic categories and submitter categories
in Table II (page 132) of the following paper:

Chapple, S., Moerman, L. & Rudkin, K., 2010. IFRIC 13: Accounting for “Customer
loyalty programmes.” Accounting Research Journal, 23(2), pp.124–145.

(This paper is available to download from the ‘Group Assignment’ section of the
course Moodle site).

However, please modify the categories if necessary. For example, if a submitter is
from the Planet Zork, they get a new category.
(5 marks)

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UNSW Business School
School of Accounting, Auditing & Taxation

Part 4: Read through your group’s sample of 50 selected comment letters to Exposure
Draft IFRS S1 General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial
Information (‘ED IFRS S1’), and provide a summary of the comments in the Exposure
Draft. (About 1500 words).
(10 marks)

When writing the summary required for Part 4 of this assignment, things you might
consider are:
(i) Is the majority of the 50 comment letters favourable or unfavourable to the
Exposure Draft? That is, does the majority of the 50 comment letters
support or not support the Exposure Draft?
(ii) Are there any major common themes within the comment letters, and if so,
what are they?
(iii) Are the types of comments aligned with who submitted the comment
letters? (e.g., academics, practitioners, professional bodies) or with where
they are based geographically?
(iv) Whether the comment letters are from industries that have a large
environmental impact, e.g., mining?
(v) Any other things that you found in your 50 comment letters that you
consider worthwhile pointing out.
(vi) Could you represent any of the above graphically?


Part 5: Identify one comment letter that raised an issue that you particularly agreed or
disagreed with and explain why this is the case. (About 300 words).
(3 marks)

Please note that there are an additional 4 marks for overall written expression and
presentation (as mentioned in the Topic 1 lecture slides).


Other Important Information
• This assignment requires you to research the topic, think about the issues raised,
synthesise the material you have collected and present it in a succinct fashion.

• This is an open-ended assignment with no “correct” answers – as is sometimes
the case with accounting in practice and where opinions are involved. This does
not mean that all answers are equally good. Good answers are answers that are
well structured, well researched, well informed, and provide a clear rationale for
what is being said. Alas, bad answers are the opposite of that.

• Your answers will be marked according to the marking rubric provided on page 7
and we have indicated the relative importance of each of the five parts of this
assignment by providing guidance on the suggested word count for each of them.

• You must follow all the instructions included in this information document to
achieve the marks for each part.
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UNSW Business School
School of Accounting, Auditing & Taxation

Submission Requirements

(i) Complete a Group Assignment Cover Sheet (available in the ‘Group
Assignment’ section of the course Moodle site) making sure that all details
are filled out including: your group members’ names and student ID
numbers, your group number and the word count. This Group Assignment
Cover Sheet should be the first page of the word document you submit for
your group assignment.
(ii) Your submission must be typed using 12-point font in Calibri or Times New
Roman, 1.5 line spacing and 2.5 cm margins on all sides.
(iii) The maximum length of your assignment is 2,500 words (excluding the
reference list and any graphs, tables, or diagrams).
(iv) Correctly reference all material taken from other sources – this includes the
Exposure Draft and any accounting standards, by name/number and
paragraph, if applicable.
(v) Please submit your group assignment via Turn-it-in on the course Moodle
site. The deadline for submission is 11:59pm on Friday 28th October (in
week 7).
(vi) In addition to the group assignment that you submit via Turn-it-in on the
course Moodle site, each group member has the option to complete a Peer
Review Form (explained below) and submit it via the “Peer Review Form
Submission Link” (available in the ‘Group Assignment’ section of the course
Moodle site)

Grading and Peer Review
The group assignment will be given an overall mark out of 30 and usually all group
members get the same mark. However, situations occasionally arise where a group
member does not perform their part of the group contract (which all group members
have signed). In that case, that group member’s mark will be reduced below the overall
group mark. Where this has occurred, each member of the group concerned should
complete a Peer Review Form (a blank copy is available in the ‘Group Assignment’
section of the course Moodle site) and submit these completed Peer Review Forms
via the “Peer Review Form Submission Link” (available in the ‘Group Assignment’
section of the course Moodle site)



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UNSW Business School
School of Accounting, Auditing & Taxation

ACCT3563 Research & Critical Analysis Assignment
Marking Rubric
Grade Assignment example
0-10 The assignment
• is not submitted, or
• contains several critical factual or technical errors; or/and
• does not address the topic or demonstrate any reasonable research
effort; or/and
• many grammatical and syntax errors that makes the assignment hard to
follow.

11-15 The assignment
• has a structure that is clear and easy to follow;
• uses basic visual aids (if needed), although not always appropriate;
• addresses most of the questions but involves some irrelevant
comments;
• demonstrates some but limited research effort; or
• is mostly free of critical factual or technical errors.

16-22 The assignment
• is well organised and well communicated and well-reasoned;
• uses concise, accurate language throughout;
• uses appropriate visual aids (if needed);
• addresses all of the questions and is free of irrelevant comments;
• demonstrates some research effort;
• maintains cohesion across the different parts of the assignment; and
• is free of critical factual or technical errors.

23-30 The assignment
• is well organised and well communicated;
• uses concise, accurate language throughout;
• clever use of visual aids (if needed) that help demonstrate complex
details;
• draws appropriate connections across the different parts of the
assignment;
• well-articulated critiques where needed;
• addresses all of the questions in depth and is free of irrelevant
comments;
• demonstrates extensive research effort to convey an excellent summary;
• maintains cohesion across the different parts of the assignment; and
• is free of critical factual or technical errors.