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Guidelines for Financial Accounting Project Reports PGP 2015

Organization

Cover page: Project title, team members roll numbers, names and email
addresses, course, date of submission. The Institutes logo or name should not be
used anywhere in the report.
Roll Number

Name (exactly as in IIMB records)

IIMB email address

Certificate: The following certificate should to be provided on the back of the

cover page:
The report represents our original work and does not contain any material taken
from any source, except as acknowledged.
This should be signed by all the authors of the report. Marks will be given only to
those team members who have signed the certificate.

Abstract or executive summary, not exceeding one page.

Acknowledgements: This is not a must. Where appropriate, the names of those
from whom the team received help and the nature of the help. Do not include your
instructor.
Content
The report should cover the following aspects.

Brief introduction to the sample firms.

Why were the firms selected? Maximum one paragraph (1/2 page)

Identify any salient features of the firms as mentioned in the proposal.
Mention if the features turned out to be different. Maximum one paragraph
(1/2 page)

A brief overview of the industry, especially competitive conditions, regulatory
issues and technology, to the extent relevant to the study. Maximum one
paragraph (1/2 page)

Study period: Mention the fiscal years.

Data sources: Specify annual reports, equity analyst reports, rating agency reports,
reports and articles from newspapers, TV reports and reports from the Internet.

The following may be organized in more than one chapter to make the material
more readable:

Analysis of the financial statements: Focus on the following, but do cover
other matters where necessary.
Sales growth over time: Comment on the trends.
R. Narayanaswamy Financial Accounting PGP 2015 Last updated June 20, 2015

Profitability: Du Pont analysis:

Where does profitability come from? volume? margin? Relate the

analysis to the firm's business and competition.

What is the cost structure? Is there a preponderance of fixed costs, to
the extent this can be understood from the financial statements? What
will happen to profits if sales increase or decrease significantly? In
other words, what are the operating risks inherent in the firm's
business?
Liquidity:

Can the firm meet its short-term obligations?

Are inventories piling up? Is this good or bad? Increase in inventories
would be good if demand is expected to pick up in the coming
quarter/year.

Are receivables moving in line with sales? Is there a change in the
percentage of receivables to sales? What does it mean?
Overall debt level of the firm:

Does the firm have excessive debt? How is the debt level related to
the nature of the firm's business? Is the debt level rising? Is the firm
unduly conservative? Can the firm meet its debt and interest
obligations on time?
Prospects of the firm's stock: Comment on the following.

P/E: What does the P/E ratio tell us? How does the firm look to a longterm equity investor? Is the firm's stock overvalued? Will this be a
good buy?

P/B: What does the P/B ratio tell us? How does the firm look to a longterm equity investor? Is the firm's stock overvalued? Will this be a
good buy?

Dividend-yield ratio

Dividend-payout ratio
Cash flow analysis: Analyze the firm's cash flow statement.

Where does cash come from and where does it go?

How does the cash flow from operating activities compare with the net
profit?

Is the firm growing or declining?

Does the firm pay excessive dividends in relation to its net operating
cash flow?

How does the firm fund its expansion or acquisitions?
Accounting and earnings quality analysis:

Are there any major issues in the firm's accounting quality and
earnings quality?

Identify accounting policy changes, one-time/non-incurring items,
regrouping of items relative to the previous year, discontinued
operations, aggressive/conservative accounting methods and so on.

Discuss any adverse observations in the auditor's report and how these
might affect your analysis.

Do not reproduce information from the annual report without analysis.
Text matter in the annual report:

R. Narayanaswamy Financial Accounting PGP 2015 Last updated June 20, 2015

3

Relate the numbers in the financial statements to the directors' report

and MD&A.

Do the directors explain the factors that affected the firm's
performance?

Do you agree with the explanation?

Are there any "earnings excuses"?

Do not reproduce information from the annual report without analysis.
Define terms used if the meaning is different from the standard definition

Recommendation: Buy, Hold, Sell. Why?

Summary and conclusions. What are the contributions and limitations of the
study?

References.

Annual reports mention year.

Websites give URL.

Other sources, such as:
- Analyst reports
- Press releases
- Media reports
give URL
The financial statement analysis reformulation work sheet used in the study
should be attached. Where the numbers in the work sheet differ from those in the
financial statements, the difference should be explained with full calculation.
While this is the recommended organization and content, there can be small variations
depending on the particular requirements of a study.
Format, Style and Presentation:

Maximum length of the report is 20 pages (excluding any relevant extracts and
analysis work sheets appended) and consecutively page-numbered from
Chapter 1 to References (both inclusive).
It should be thoroughly checked for spelling and grammar.
The report should be in Word .doc or .docx.
The report should be in 1.5 line space, Times New Roman font size 12, printed
on both sides in A4 size paper and neatly stapled. No other font or font size
should be used anywhere in the report. Thank you for not using plastic
material for binding. The report should be functional; colour and graphics are
not allowed.
All references should be cited in the text of the report and citations should
have full references. If it is a journal article, the reference should be as
follows:

R. Narayanaswamy Financial Accounting PGP 2015 Last updated June 20, 2015

The report should be in simple, non-technical language that is appropriate for

presentation to a business audience. Avoid jargon and clich: No leveraging,
scaling, reaching out, connecting the dots, core competence, going forward, or
verticals. These are only illustrations of prohibited expressions.
The report should be in Word .doc or .docx. Other formats such as .pdf and
.ppt will be rejected without any opportunity for resubmission.
The pages should be numbered consecutively.

Submission
Before the deadline specified in the course outline, one hard copy of the report should
be submitted in person to my office and the soft copy (one zip file) should be
submitted on moodle. Email submissions will not be accepted. The file should be
named as follows: firm names or topic (separated by _) followed by the first name of
all team members (separated by _).
Examples:
tata_motors_ashok_leyland_ankit gupta_subir mukherjee_praveen nair_ rupa rao.
study of receivables management efficiency_rohit makhija_k manivannan_vijaya
chowdhary_shashank jadhav.
DO NOT GIVE GENERAL FILE NAMES, SUCH AS PROJECT REPORT, FINAC
PROJECT, etc.
Checklist

The team must confirm that the report meets the above requirements. For this the
team must sign the following checklist and attach it to the proposal:
We confirm that:
1. We have used the annual reports of the companies and not any databases or
summaries of financial information.
2. The report does not exceed 20 pages.
3. The report is in Word .doc or .docx.
4. The report is in 1.5 line space. The font used is Times New Roman and the
font size is 12. We have not used any other line space, font or font size.
5. The report reads as one continuous story and not as disjointed parts.
6. The report does not reproduce information from the annual report but provides
relevant analysis of the information.
7. The pages are numbered consecutively.

R. Narayanaswamy Financial Accounting PGP 2015 Last updated June 20, 2015