You are employed in a large accounting firm which specialises in preparing general purpose financial reports for large companies that are listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).As the accounting graduate, you have been tasked with the development of a short (1-page) newsletter for staff involved in the preparation of the above financial reports. The purpose of the newsletter is to keep staff up to date on some key changes and developments relating to the following key areas:

• Accounting forleases;
• Proposedamendments to Australian Accounting Standards relating to the Disclosure of Accounting Policies and the definition of Accounting Estimates; and
• Sustainability reporting and the potential development of IFRS Sustainability Standards.

Required:

Prepare a1-pagenewsletter that analyses and summarisesrecentchangesand developments in the financial reporting environment in the above key areas . Your newsletter must contain the followinginformation:

• Awell researchedsummary of thenature of the news / change / developmentand brief context as to the reasons for these changes;
• Analysisofthese changes with the aim of providing some commentary for yourcolleagues onthe potential impactof the changes tofinancial reportingitself as well asthewaytheywill need toworkunder these new changes; and
• Your sources should be referenced,sostaffcandecidewhethertheyneedtoinvestigatefurthergiven thenatureoftheirownwork.

Guidelines for completing this task:

Yournewsletterwillrequireyoutoundertakeresearchacross a range ofsources.Youwillneedtoconsiderbothlocal(Australian)andinternationalsourcesanddevelopments whicharerelevanttoyourtargetedaudience.

Therestrictionofa1-pagenewslettermeansthatyouneedtouseyourownjudgmentasto whethertoincludeinformationaboutspecificnewsitemsandchanges/developments,and how much information to include. It is not intended that you provide complete details ofallchanges/developments(althoughyoumayconsiderthatmoredetailisneededinparticular cases).

As yourtargetaudience is your peers,itis assumedthat theyhaveaworkingknowledgeof commontermsandabbreviations(suchasAASB,IASB),soabbreviationsmaybeused in your newsletter.

Giventhescopeofthepotentialinfluencesonfinancialreporting,youwillneedtoresearcha range of sources. Below is a list of sources that may be of interest.Notethat this list is not exhaustive,studentsshouldsearchforsourcesoutsideofthese.Studentsshouldnotrelyon any one type of source, but a range of sources from eachcategory,i.e.do not just look at websites, also check journals, newspapers etc. Examples of possible information sources include:

1.Websitessuch as thoseof:

• AustralianAccountingStandardsBoard
• Financial ReportingCouncil
• AustralianSecuritiesandInvestmentCommission
• AustralianSecuritiesExchange
• International Federationof Accountants
• CharteredAccountantsAustraliaandNewZealand
• CPAAustralia
• InternationalAccountingStandardsBoard
• Websites of large accountingfirms

2.Professionalpublications:

• In the Black(CPA)
• Acuity(CAANZ)
• Accounting Futures Magazine (CAANZ &ACCA)

3. Newspapers/journals

Note only to include news item reported in 2021 not from even 2020