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ACCT11059- Assignment 1 ZhiFeng Lyu- 12055244
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Assignment#1 ACCT11059-Accounting, Learning and
Online Communication
Student name: ZhiFeng Lyu
Student number:12055244
Lecturer:
Due Date:
ACCT11059- Assignment 1 ZhiFeng Lyu- 12055244
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Step 1
About the Introduction
The introduction of the course ACCT11059 was in a way helping
me understand fully about what accounting was, what I should do to
improve my communication with others, and what I was supposed to
do to catch up with others during this semester’s studying. What was
essential was that I got one point or key concept that mattered, which
was interacting with others in the unit. I used to study everything
subject by myself but seldom interact with others, perhaps I would ask
the others for help when I got stuck with one difficult question.
However, after I read the introduction, I suddenly realized that my
method in the past was wrong and it was not suitable for my present
study at all. One thing I must say was that I have had to learn and
involve a great number of things since I went here and started my new
study life. I remembered what Benjamin Franklin said in the
introduction was “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember,
involve me and I learn”, which made me ruminate on my own.
Also, another concept I learned from the introduction was that
how we thought of learning was influenced greatly on our learning
at university and even our learning in the degree in the end. As far
as I am aware, learning is actually a beautiful and abstract thing that
we need to stick to. I think I should change the way I think about
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what learning is, and how I apply to life with what I learned. It
might be hard for me to change greatly in such a short time, but I am
sure I can make it and learn everything in a new way. Last but not
least, I guess I must develop my communication skills as the Internet
is so convenient that everybody uses it to communicate their thoughts
right now. I realize that business involves not only knowledge but also
communication skills with others. To make accounting decisions
properly, I must improve my own ability and gain adequate
knowledge about business.
Here are my key questions:
1, Did I ever involve with doing anything?
2, What was my study in the university supposed to be?
3, How could I understand accounting properly?
4, What was learning exactly?
Chapter 1
This chapter inspired me about the accounting area to a certain
extent. As I knew little about accounting, I read the chapter more
carefully than I used to do, and it just widened my horizon after
reading. I used to think accountant was a job that was to check the
numbers and calculate dull numbers, and it proved that I was totally
wrong.
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One key concept I get is that accounting is not just about checking
numbers, in fact, it has a great impact in the business area that
makes sense why so many people who are in superior positions in
business own accounting backgrounds. I know little about business,
except the financial crisis and currency policy. Perhaps I used to be a
nerd who would always stare at the books rather than focus on the
financial current situation. Now I have to learn it, in detail. To be
honest, I used to think it might be much easy to learn accounting
(actually it is easier than other subjects).
However, when I began my learning about accounting, I suddenly
found it hard to figure out, like I always had to wonder when, why and
how to distinguish Debit and Credit or so, which was another key
concept I got. I suppose it is going to take me a long time to figure out
debit and credit. Besides, about the equation
‘ASSETS=EQUITY+LIABILILTIES’, I just know it is like that but
I don’t know whether the equity will increase or decrease when assets
and liabilities both change. Nevertheless, I do know one thing well
that is the three types of business entities. What confused me is
double-entry accounting. It is going to drive me crazy. I thought if I
did not find it out, I might hardly catch up with the study afterwards.
All I am aware of about accounting now is that it is actually a kind
like provide us with useful information to help us make right estimates
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or judgements of value. Is that accounting decision making? In
addition, I read about the sentence “Business is always ‘on the
move’”, which in my view, it represented the current situation that
business was changing all the time with the reality.
Here are my key questions:
1, What on earth is double-entry accounting?
2, What is the difference between Revenue and Income?
Step 2
Moodle Profile: https://moodle.cqu.edu.au/user/profile.php?id=57541
Blog Link: Gladysprincess-
https://wordpress.com/plans/gladysprincess.wordpress.com
Welcome Page:
https://wordpress.com/page/gladysprincess.wordpress.com/28
Step3
ACCT11059- Assignment 1 ZhiFeng Lyu- 12055244
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My company –Noni B
Background Information
My company is called Noni B and it’s an Australian fashion company,
one of Australia’s most respected fashion retailers for women’s career wear,
bridesmaid dresses, casual wear, evening wear and plus-size fashion.
Founded in 1977, located in Roseberry, New South Wales, Australia, Noni
B has operated 217 stores across Australia. Recently Noni B has
broadened their domestic webshop to offer shipping and service to New
Zealand customers.
For the past 40 years, Noni B has designed clothing for discerning
women aged from 45 to 65 years old. Noni B has been developing its
shopping convenience and service quality in order to get better reputation,
and it does get more loyal customers indeed. The Noni B webshop also
includes the Liz Jordan brand, the designer collection, which offers
sophisticated clothing designed for “moments in time”. Both labels, Noni
B and Liz Jordan, target different customers. What’s more, Noni B buyers
often attend a great number of leading European fashion shows and visit
the global top fabric designers and producers to gather seasonal style
inspiration for the Noni B range. The styles have always been highly
praised by their customers according to the most part of the feedback being
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positive.
Challenges and Opportunities
From 2004 to 2016, Noni B has been constantly improving its brand
quality and service quality for their loyal customers, basing on its fixed
principles which are high quality and best practice manufacturing. It’s
evident that the total revenue showed an increasing trend of 0.1% to $110.5
million during the year of 2016 compared with the gross revenue in 2015
and kept rising smoothly in the period of the recent four years, despite some
slight fluctuations. Total expenses, excluding cost of sales, financing costs
and impairment declined by 1.3% compared to last year which was $73.3
million with the Group starting to see the costs of doing business initiatives
delivering results. In 2017, the business opened 25 new stores nationally
and closed 11 stores ending the year with a retail network of over 220 stores.
It’s of much value to the development and expansion of Noni B as the
Internet reaches almost everywhere. What matters most is that customers
of Noni B have full trust in them and it's of great help to its development
and market expansion. The company has received positive feedback for
several years and this helps the company to produce more satisfying
products.
Nevertheless, challenges also exist. According to the Investor
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Presentation in February 2014, the total revenue of the company got a
decline by 3.0% compared to the statistics last year. The sales revenue
fluctuated smoothly over the past 4 years, between 2009 and 2013 but after
this time revenue fell sharply due to weak consumer demand and reduced
inventory. Sales of the company in January indicated a disappointing
consequence. Although initial sales of its 2014 autumn/winter range were
encouraging, it remained challenging for the company in the women’s
fashion market. Last but not least, Noni B has to keep updating its fashion
style all the time so as to adjust to the constant changing trend of current
fashion. It’s shown in the annual reports of the recent 4 years that the
revenue was not increasing all the time and showed losses between 2013
and 2015. Over that period, Noni B did not create any new styles of
clothing which caused ongoing weak demand from consumers, and its
inventory reduced further. To satisfy consumers and expand its markets,
Noni B still needs to improve the service and production quality as well as
developing new styles to follow fashion trends.
Here’s the Investor Presentation in February 2014:
Investor Presentation in Feb. 2014
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“Our core value is Customer Service above all else.”
-------------------Noni B
Annual Reports of Noni B
Annual report for 2016
Annual report for 2015
Annual report for 2014
Annual report for 2013
Original Understandings and Thoughts
When I got to know my allocated company at first, I was quite relieved
and I felt honoured actually—my company was an Australian company!
Also, the company which was called Noni B was about women’s fashion
and I loved this subject in coincidence. However, it’s hard for me to analyse
the statements due to my limited understanding of Accounting. Therefore,
I looked through its website carefully and analysed its fashion style that
was mainly aimed at women aged from 45 to 65 years. From reading the
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annual report of the recent four years, I found its revenue kept going up
considerably but also fluctuated a bit slightly, and the latest revenue as
shown in 2016 was less than what was in 2013. What’s more, I found my
company paid much attention to the service and product quality for its
customers, aiming at making them satisfied and comfortable about the
products. That’s what a company should basically do and I loved the way
it treated the customers; highly thought of them and made them feel happy.
Key Concepts and Questions
As far as I’m concerned, the most essential parts of the report are the
financial statements and the relevant notes. After comparing the various
data with other reports in recent years, I found out that Noni B’s revenue
had not been increasing constantly. By contrast, it provided information
about the losses by showing the data in parentheses over the past three
years, between 2013 and 2015. As I also read other previous annual reports,
I noticed that the continued revenue indicated a rising tendency and profits
were made for a long time. From my perspective, the work of an accountant
is to provide useful information for the decision maker, and the profit or
loss always influences a lot when making decisions. I think investors need
the information so that they can decide the amount of money to invest and
managers need it so that they can decide what to do next so as to make the
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company operate better and more efficiently. Thus, the statistics shown in
those statements and notes are all of great value to the management.
Another key concept, which is of great interest to me is Noni B’s mission
statement: “Our core value is Customer Service above all else.” It is
obvious for me to see that Noni B always puts the customer service as their
priority and they have been trying to achieve this for years. Indeed, as I
look through the website, I see the feedback of its customers is always
positive and satisfactory, which shows those customers’ loyalty and full
trust to the company. I am quite sure that Noni B is a company that is worth
trusting. In my view, a company that always makes customer service a top
priority, is always successful, and I’m proud of having it as my company.
Finally, I still have some key questions about Noni B that are as following:
Key Questions about Noni B:
1. Why does the company only expand its market to Australia and New
Zealand instead of expanding globally?
2. What will they do in order to improve the sales of their goods?
3. What are their methods to face new challenges in the future?
Additional information about Noni B:
The Noni B Home page is as follows:
http://www.nonib.com.au/
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Video about the latest fashion of Noni B:
NoniB 2016
Articles about its expanding to New Zealand:
https://www.insideretail.com.au/blog/2011/10/28/noni-b-expands-into-nz/
By the way here are three of my favorite blogs:
Luana’s Blogging Home:
One reason I like her blog is I like the way she organises her ideas and
how she thinks. From her blog of “Step 3”, I can see that she organises
her thinking and research result about her company by taking the
sequence of vision and value. In addition, she points out the detailed
steps for “the value of company”, which is easier for us to know about
her company and how she thinks. Let’s take a visit on this blog:
https://luana96blog.wordpress.com
I Am Accounting On It!
I think this blog is pretty interesting and I am sure I can have much fun
reading those blogs created by the author. Recently I have just read all the
blogs and I think the author really has done a deep research about the
company. Now we can all get to know this company in detail and even get
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more information than just looking through the home page after reading
the blog. Strongly recommend:
https://jshazz.wordpress.com/blog?iframe=true&theme_previe
w=true
ACCOUNTING, LEARNING AND ONLINE
COMMUNICATION
This is an amazing blog! (Good job! Montana) I was attracted by
the beautiful web design the first time I visited it and I was quite
interested in reading those great blogs written by her. Logical thinking,
well-organised ideas and interesting words, these three factors make
this blog attractive to read right now. Also, I can see that she must do
enough research and analysis on her company and I like her creative
thinking about her company, which often inspires me. Hopefully it can
also make you feel it like that:
https://montanablogonline.wordpress.com/
ACCT11059- Assignment 1 ZhiFeng Lyu- 12055244
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Step 4
Here’s the company spreadsheet of the recent 4 years:
Company Spreadsheet 2017.xls
Step 5
I couldn’t believe it when I finally finished reading Chapter 2 and
Chapter 3. I must say that I gained a lot from these two chapters, not only
the basic elements of accounting but also its meaning and usage. I am
willing to tell you about my reflections and reactions to them after reading.
Chapter 2
From my perspective, Chapter 2 introduced knowledge and key terms
associated with accounting that I had been confused for such a long time,
so I considered it valuable and also interesting because I found so many
“rules of the game”.
One key concept I would like to talk about was Accrual Accounting. I
did not understand it very well at first due to my poor English and my lack
of accounting knowledge. After reading more and thinking about it more,
I thought I might get to know what it was exactly. I could often see all types
of “accrual accounting” in daily life before, but I just did not know what
ACCT11059- Assignment 1 ZhiFeng Lyu- 12055244
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they were. In my view, accrual accounting is based on subject judgements
when confirming the income or revenue and it’s hard for me to tell whether
it’s positive or negative because that depends on different situations.
Actually I know accrual accounting is basically about paying cash over a
certain period after purchasing my items. However, if I happen to
calculate this in my everyday life, I may be driven too crazy because I know
very little about it. I think now I only understand its definition but I have
no idea how to calculate it or apply the definition to my real practice.
Perhaps it’s simply because I don’t deeply understand it. I think I have to
practice it more from now on.
I also agree with the GAAP and AASB, which are also key concepts in
the readings. I was pretty sure I had never heard of them before reading
Chapter 2. I learned a bit from IASB, IFRS and knew a little about ACCA.
It's meaningful to me to get to know about GAAP because I was wondering
if there was a general principle for the global accounting. Also, AASB is a
whole new area to me, I had never heard about it before so I read it in detail
and gradually gained a deeper understanding. It might be boring to
remember such accounting rules and codes for others but not for me. On
the contrary, it’s helpful for me to enrich my knowledge about accounting
and also offers me a useful reference. To become an accountant, it’s
necessary to get familiar with these codes and comply to them all the time.
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Here are my key questions while reading:
1. What will happen if accrual accounting doesn’t exist?
2. Will it be infinite fair trade if marginal factors don’t exist?
Chapter 3
Chapter 3 exactly explained my confusion about those four kinds of
financial statements and the relationship between parent company and its
subsidiary company. I think maybe it will include the skills about how to
read those statements and calculate in the following chapters. While
reading, I found the way Richard Loth described about financial statements
was pretty interesting and easy to understand that was “the big plate of
meat and potatoes”.
One key concept that attracted me was Parent Company. I thought it
was the most difficult part to understand while reading the notes of my
company’s annual reports. I used to be confused with the shares and
dividends between parent company and its subsidiaries, and I still didn’t
truly understand what it was about. I might know some basic principles
like “Parent company owns between 51% and 100% of the shares in
subsidiary companies”, however, when it came to practical calculation, I
didn’t know where to start. It might be the reason that I had to take in too
much knowledge about accounting that I even didn’t have time for
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understanding and thinking about every concept. Those concepts like
“Non-controlling interest” often confused me. I think maybe I really need
to spend certain time on studying on it. I believe I won’t forget about the
term “Parent Company” for years.
Another key concept that I was pretty interested in was Ratio. It seems
abstract for me to understand whether in my mother tongue or in English
because I did not do very well in math. I did get the point of “Current Ratio”
which was 2:1 between current assets and current purposes, also the perfect
ratio for now. In my opinion, ratio is of great value because of its usage for
collecting data for industries and average ratios calculated for comparison
purposes. It’s not common to see in the financial statements, however, it
does make a great difference when judging about the present financial
condition or predicting the future financial trend. All types of ratio; I would
like some further time to get to know them in detail.
Here are my key questions while reading:
1. When will the ratio have little influence on the company’s financial
situation?
2. What will happen when a company only gains its equity from
shareholders’ investment?
3. What is the “Net Dividend” for?