Discuss about the Accounting Professional and Ethical Standards Board.
The essay is based on the discussion of revenue recognition on Slater & Gordon Lawyers as well as reviewing the article “The Undoing of Slater and Gordon” by Melissa Fyfe which was published in “the Age”. The essay will be discussing the issue which will be faced by the company in the identification of accounting policy on the revenue recognition of the work-in-progress. Further, the company there will be reporting of the capital market expectation on the growth of the firm, with the help of given article. Discussion will be also done on the fall in share price of the company by 50%. Analysis will be done on the recognition of IAS 18 – Revenue with that of newly accounting standard “IFRS 15 Revenue from contracts with customers. The revenue of IFRS 15 will be meeting the accounting treatment in identified revenue under work-in-progress as mentioned in the article. Further, there will be reviewing and analysis of the annual report of the year 2013, 214 and 2015 as well as identifying the significant drop in the value of revenue of the respective year. In consideration of the article identify the relevant accounting research on the factor which will be influencing the companies accounting policy and give reason for choosing new revenue standard IFRS 15.
It has been observed that in 2015, there was huge drop in the value of revenue because of the early adoption of IFRS 15, in regard to that what are the factors recognized. Finally there will be identification of there will be identification of breaches in the principles of accounting ethics, that needs to be also identified in the discussion. The above essay should have clear and transparent discussion of all the point mentioned above. The essay will be written by the consideration of acts and section on the respective field.
As per the article, it has been analyzed that company begun with goof strategy of buying all the law firm and consultancy of providing services, which made huge growth in the revenue of the company (Han et al., 2013). Next strategy adopted by the company was undervaluing the figures of work-in-progress by 20%. Initially Slater & Gordon had started well by purchasing the entire law firm which made him increasing earning abundant revenue for the company, with the help of this strategy Slater & Gordon got recognition in the ASX as in year 2007as first law firm. This helped the company in getting increase the revenue of the company. VGI’s approach of shorting the approach of multi-million dollar for positioning the market had turned to be fall in the share price (Slater and Gordon Lawyers.2016).
According to the article, Slater & Gordon had share price was $ 1 in 2007 but by the 2016 it had increased up to $ 8. This was because it had bought the undervalued work-in-progress of certain companies, which had increased the revenue as well as the profit of the company (Fyfe,2016). After that in March 2015 the company bought the share of Quindell with $ 1.6 billion, which had been reported to be a bankrupt company in later. Qunidell haveserved to be failure for Slater & Gordon and had given loss as well as strategy of loss for the company, with the help of strategy. Every year the company was purchasing the share of the big law firms for having high growth and increase in the share price of the company (Savage et al., 2013). Suddenly the government announced the crackdown on the UK’s “damaging compensation Culture” this made a fall in the price of Slater & Gordon and gradually the market of the company decreased. Due to this effect Slater & Gordon price had fallen by 50%.
IAS 18- Revenue will be outlining the accounting necessity for identifying the revenue from the “sale of goods”. Revenue will be valued in the consideration of fair value or receivable, and identified, whenever the given conditions are met will be decided by the nature of the revenue (Iasplus.com.2016). The aim of the act was to include the accounting treatment of revenue which will be affecting the specific events and transaction. Revenue in this context will be known as the gross inflow from the economic advantage arising from the activities of the operations. Revenue under this will be measured in the consideration of the fair value and on the amount receivable. Goods and service of the similar nature and price is not considered to be as transaction for generating the revenue, but the exchange will be considered in generating the revenue (Ifrs.org.2016). Moreover, IFRS 15 will be identifying the revenue from contract with that of customers coming under all the classification of leases. IAS 17- Leases will be including the financial instrument as well as other contractual rights which will be under the obligation of IFRS 9. There are various steps for converting IAS 17 into IFRS 15. For transforming the act first the there will be identification of the contract in relation with the customers. Second the obligation of the performance in regard to the contract will be identified. IFRS 15 will be proving and beneficial for the company. Transaction price needs to be determined. Allocation of the price during the transaction will be performed in obligation to the contract. Finally, recognition of the entities’ revenue will be performed in the obligation of IFRS, because of the above mentioned reason (Fasb.org.2016).
According to the recent annual report it has been observed that company will be following “AASB 15 Revenue from contracts with customers” because earlier the company was following “AASB 118 Revenue” because of which company WIP was balances was 15-20% lower than the usual price. Inclusion of the AASB 15 as new accounting standard will help the company giving correct valuation in relation to the work-in-progress. This adoption of the new standard helped the company in earning arise in course of company’s ordinary activities. “IFRS 15 Revenue from contracts with customers” is similar to the standard of “AASB 15 Revenue from contracts with customers”. WIP stands to be a major criteria for calculating the revenue of the company. IFRS 15 will help in generating the economic benefit for the accounting period in terms of inflows or will be expanding the assets or will be decrease in the liability which is effecting with increase in equity, except for those which will be contributing the participants of equity (Aasb.gov.au.2016).
In 2015 August, Slater and Gordon had made several changes in the accounting policies, with enhancement in the financial reporting system. AASB 15 had been adopted too early as part of the revenue recognition. The new standards will be identifying “No Win – No Fee” technique because of the high probability of no occurrence of the revenue. Before the adoption AASB 15, the company was using AASB 118 which was identifying the probable revenue under the economic benefit. Later the operating and financial reviewing was reflecting the necessity of new standard, with this company will be adding the accounting and actuarial advises will be refined in the methodology for identifying the work in progress. The new standard is filled with more data which will be help in valuing the WIP approach and particularly will be determining average fees per item and chances of success. There has been consistency in the earlier method, where the revenue was identified over a long period of time, through the basis of relating to particular claim relating to the objective of every client. The company has adopted the new standard on the basis of retrospective (Deegan,2012). Balance of WIP in AASB 15 is comparatively much low than the existed method AASB 118. Finally the outcome is reached the, earlier method was inheriting the necessity of the increase in level of management judgment. Instead it will be giving the outcomes of the low probability in the threshold to that of earlier method. Due to all this there has been significant decrease in the amount of the ordinary activities which will be attributable to tax has given as loss (Rahman,2013). Moreover, because of this loss no dividend was given. Further, there is existence of negative balance in the net intangible asset. Adoption of IFRS 15 had taken place in the year 2016, which had decrease in the figure of revenue of services. Now it can be said that applicability of AASB 15 will be giving higher consistency as well as systematic approach for generating values which will be reported as revenue and WIP (Deegan,2013).
Moreover, the reason for adopting the IFRS 15 as the new standard includes many factors. There are numerous reasons for adopting a new term which in term has many advantages. But for the before explaining it, let us consider some factor which will be influencing the firm can be given by the approach of Positive Accounting Theory. Positive accounting theory says that there should be changes in the accounting policies timely. There should be proper timing for adopting the new framework of accounting standards (Tarca,2012). As per the research it has been found that there will be various effects on the adoption of IFRS 15. It will be introducing a wide change as well as challenge faced by the company will be very difficult. Few of the companies will be widely getting affected because of the new rules of revenue recognition will be minimized, and there will be simple continuation of identifying the revenue as earlier (Giner & Arce,2012). Challenges faced after incorporation will be of time, whether the identified revenue is over the period or at the particular time. The revenue from the offers of bundled and is there any necessity for the company getting split. Modification of the contract by the company will be done or not. Next, the identified revenue over the time, need to measure the success after the completion. Identification of the contract cost will be will be included in the contract of not. Finally, due to the presence of financial component, will there be any value given to time. Finally, the disclosure needs to be made about the appropriate and relevant information available. The above mentioned factor will be helping company, if IFRS is adopted, the company position can be increased effectively with profit (Aiken et al., 2013).
Due to implementation of IFRS and various other factors, there was significant decrease in the revenue of the company (Daske et al., 2013). This can be clearly seen in the financial report of the company that there has the been wide decrease of PAT (Earnings before interest and tax) which in term has turned to be negative. Further, the impairment to the intangible asset has significantly increased tremendously (EY,2015). Work-in-progress had turned to be negative in the current year. Next, there has been decreasing in acquisition cost, because of the Quindell’s acquisition has turned to be bankrupt. The company also faced loss regarding exchange in the foreign operation, which has occurred due to deflation in the value of USD, because of which loss hedging caused due to fair value consideration has been noticed as well. There has a been significant decrease in cash (May,2014). Fair value consideration has also decreased the overall amount of total current asset. The company is running in huge loss because of the WIP which has been prepared by following the guidelines of IFRS. IFRS 15 has also lead to a decrease in the overall value of the company regarding asset as well as liabilities. The major factor influencing the financial position of the company is adoption of AASB/IFRS 15 and fair value measurement concept is applied to all the assets and liabilities of the company (AASB,15).
Yes, there was the occurrence of breaches in the financial reporting. Breaches occurred in the financial statement will be considered under the “APES 110 Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants”. APES 110 are stating the code of the ethics is established under Australian statutory body AASB. Under section 226 “Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 1989” is still in the continuing process by section 261 of “Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001” (Dakis,2016). Further, the AUASB will be explaining ASA 100 which under the preamble of AUASB Standards. As per section 110, it will be stating the principle of integrity for imposing the obligations on every member of the company. Integrity will be implied as dealing in fair value and honesty with integrity (Azimi & Naim,2015). The sections between 290 and 291 of “APES 110 Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants” will be having certain rules that in term each and every accountant of the organization should follow are given as follows:
For acting about the ethics, the code is needed to be divided into three parts namely:
Codes of ethics generated by the APESB (Accounting Professionals and Ethical Standards Boards) will be providing IESBA (International Ethics Standards Boards for Accountants) of (International Federation of Accountants) IFAC (Apesb.org.au.2016). Each and every accountant should make the accounts of the company by taking into consideration given standards of rules and regulation in the coverage of the accounting standard. A Chief Financial Officers (CFO) is the person responsible for fulfilling the all the obligations of the company regarding the financial objective (Martinov et al., 2015). An accountant of the person of Financing is the person responsible for taking the decision related to the relevant standards of the accounting frameworks. By following the code of ethics, company will be making accounts accordingly. The obligation of the company should be fulfilled by maintaining some accounting rules the as well as concept for accounting (George et al., 2014).
The essay has fully discussed the concept of revenue recognition on Slater & Gordon Lawyers as well as reviewing the article “The Undoing of Slater and Gordon” by Melissa Fyfe who was published in “the Age.” The essay has further discussed issue of the company in the identification of accounting policy on the revenue recognition of the work-in-progress. Further, the company has reported the capital market expectation on the growth of the firm, with the help of given article. The discussion has been done on the fall in share price of the company by 50%. Analysis has been done on the recognition of IAS 18 – Revenue with that of newly accounting standard “IFRS 15 Revenue from contracts with customers. The revenue of IFRS 15 has meeting the accounting treatment in identified revenue under work-in-progress as mentioned in the article in the current year. Further, there has been reviewing and analysis of the annual report of the year 2013, 214 and 2015 as well as identifying the reason for a significant drop in the value of revenue of the respective year. In consideration of the article identification of the relevant accounting research and its factor which will be influencing the companies accounting policy and give reason for choosing new revenue standard IFRS 15. It has been observed that in 2015, there was huge drop in the value of revenue because of the early adoption of IFRS 15, regarding that there has been identification of factors. Finally, there has identification of breaches in the principles of accounting ethics with “APES 110 Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants”, which an accountant will be following. The above essay has made clear and transparent discussion of all the point mentioned above. Acquisition of the Quindell has been one of the major reasons for the downfall in the company’s position. Form the overall discussion of the essay it has been observed that after taking in to consideration the IFRSB 15 Slater & Gordon has faced huge loss. The company also faced loss regarding exchange in the foreign operation, which has occurred due to deflation in the value of USD, the value of exchange will be widely effecting the loss, hedging caused due to fair value consideration has been noticed as well. But as the company took the consideration of relevant accounting standards it has maintained the ethical decorum of the accounting frameworks and managed the books of accounts. The conclusion has been drawn that company will maintains its ethicality of the accounting shortly it may not face any slash down of the share, which stands to be the major component is accessing the position of the company.
Reference list
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