COURSE OVERVIEW:

An annual report is a comprehensive report detailing a company’s activities throughout the preceding year. Its purpose is to provide users, such as shareholders, potential investors and other stakeholders, with information about the company’s operations and financial performance.

Annual reports provide a significant amount of information for its readers who will be able to get a good overview of the company’s overall performance in the preceding year. It is important to note that many annual reports are not traditional reports with large amounts of text; many companies often incorporate a lot of graphics and images, resulting in a visually appealing document.

Annual reports are often publicly available and cater to a large external audience, including shareholders, potential investors, employees and customers. The general community can also be an audience, as some companies or non-profit organisations will likely go through another company’s annual report to better understand the latter’s values to see if a partnership or other collaborative efforts are feasible.

While annual reports are primarily used to convey financial and performance-related information, they are also used as an advertising tool to highlight some of the company’s key initiatives or goals that were recently achieved.

Information found in the annual report includes material required by statutory and regulatory requirements including:

• the directors’ report
• the corporate governance statement
• the financial report
• the auditor’s report on the financial and remuneration reports

Additional non-compulsory reporting which supports good corporate governance is normally reflected in reports from the chairman and the chief executive of the company.

Shareholders and other stakeholders use annual reports to get a better understanding of the current position of the company in order to make investing decisions. The annual report helps potential investors decide whether or not to purchase stock. It also gives insight into the future plans of the company, along with its goals and objectives.

Employees often use the annual report to understand some of a company’s different focus areas. Many employees are also shareholders of a company due, in part, to stock option benefits and other schemes, which provide employees with incentives in being shareholders.

Customers of a company use annual reports to get an overview of different companies and help them decide on which one to build a relationship with. Customers are interested in working with high-quality suppliers of products or services, and an annual report enables companies to emphasise its core values and objectives.

They also make good use of the financial information contained in the annual report, which gives them a good idea of the financial position of the company.

This course will assist existing shareholders, potential investors, employees, customers and others, without expertise in accounting, to interpret financial statements and to further their understanding of listed company annual reports, using a fictitious Australian company as a practical example.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

By the end of this course, you will be able to understand:

• What is an Annual Report?
• What is included in an Annual Report?
• What is a Directors’ Report?
• What is a Corporate Governance Statement?
• What is a Financial Report?
• What is an Auditor’s Report?
• The auditor’s ‘Opinion’ section
• The auditor’s ‘Basis for Opinion’ section
• The auditor’s ‘Key Audit Matters’ section
• The auditor’s ‘Opinion on the Remuneration Report’ section
• When does the auditor’s issue a Modified Opinion?
• What do the four primary financial statements show?
• Why is the Statement of Profit or Loss and Other Comprehensive Income different from the Statement of Cash Flows?
• Why are the figures in a Financial Statement subject to judgement and interpretation?
• The features of the Statement of Profit and Loss and Other Comprehensive Income
• The features of the Statement of Financial Position
• The features of the Statement of Changes in Equity
• The features of the Statement of Cash Flows
• How to read Financial Statements?
• When are Annual Financial Reports prepared?
• When are the Financial Reports published?
• The opportunities for shareholders during the AGM to ask questions about the Annual Report
• A sample of the Statement of Profit or Loss and Other Comprehensive Income
• A sample of the Statement of Financial Position
• A sample of the Statement of Changes in Equity
• A sample of the Statement of Cash Flows
• The Notes to the above Financial Statements samples

COURSE DURATION:

The typical duration of this course is approximately 2-3 hours to complete. Your enrolment is Valid for 12 Months. Start anytime and study at your own pace.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

You must have access to a computer or any mobile device with Adobe Acrobat Reader (free PDF Viewer) installed, to complete this course.

COURSE DELIVERY:

Purchase and download course content.

ASSESSMENT:

A simple 10-question true or false quiz with Unlimited Submission Attempts.

CERTIFICATION:

Upon course completion, you will receive a customised digital “Certificate of Completion”.