Accounting Financial Management 26 Accounting Financial Management Executive Summary

Accounting Financial Management 1
Accounting Financial Management

Accounting Financial Management 2
Table of Contents
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................3
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Part A...............................................................................................................................................5
Conclusion of Part A.....................................................................................................................11
Part B.............................................................................................................................................11
Part C.............................................................................................................................................18
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................23
References......................................................................................................................................24

Accounting Financial Management 3
Executive Summary
In today’s competitive business environment, business organizations are moving towards
application of uniform accounting system to fulfil their business objectives, which are also
driven by their self-interest along with society and the environment. In this context, Global
Reporting System helps the business organizations in gauging as much as they can out of
economy run by the governments and their authorities (Fonseca et al., 2014). The importance of
transparency, Accountability, and ethics in business and financial reporting have increased than
ever in the era of the global financial crisis. Professional accountants are crucial
business advisors who assist in protecting the interests of the stakeholders in every industry. The
GRI institute is at the forefront of promoting and ensuring ethical business practices in the
Australian companies. Relevant stakeholders to take effective decision, which should be guided
by the accounting principles, use the financial reports. These stakeholders include
owners, managers, investors, or analysts, who find the information relevant to understand and
manage the business. The accounting principles also help companies in filling a tax return, to
lodge on a public register such as the stock exchange, for banks, or to help with effective
management of the business.
This report examines the impact of voluntary environmental disclosure on the cost of firm value
and equity capital, while affecting the public insight about a firm’s environmental presentation.
Further, the report has found that the voluntary environmental disclosure is positively linked with
the stakeholders’ outlook regarding the Premier’s environmental performance (Jones et al, 2016).
However, there was no data found about the voluntary environmental disclosures influencing the
cost of capital of the business.

Accounting Financial Management 4
Introduction
In today’s globalized era, the Executives and Directors of organizations are emphasizing more on
an integrated and sustainable reporting system. It covers the information about all the activities
of the organizations required not only by the Accounting standards but also by the Corporation
Law and other applicable Acts. In this context, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) which is a
worldwide charity organisation has designed the world’s most valuable and voluntary
Sustainability Reporting structure.
The following report is designed to provide a brief knowledge and understanding of accounting
and financial management skills in today’s business environment. For the purpose, an Australian
firm has been taken into account named; Premier Investment Limited. Premier Investments
operate a range of retail fashion chains across Australia and other parts of the world such as
Singapore, New Zealand, the UK, Hong Kong, and Malaysia. In order to get success, accounting
financial management practices have become must for every organization. The report explains
this in three parts. In part A, this report will provide the relevance of GRI guidelines followed by
Premier to stay transparent with its stakeholders.

Accounting Financial Management 5
Part A
1. The operations of Premier Investment Limited are focussed on their vision of enhancing the
delivery of sustainable value through an effective exploitation of resources and relationships.
The company also makes commitments for creating the positive impacts of its business on the
society and environment and minimizing the negative impacts. By applying the principles of
Global Reporting System (GRI), Premier participates in the Australian Packaging Covenant
which is a voluntary agreement between the industry and the government (Lodhia, and Martin,
2014). This agreement facilitated Premier with the tools, which helped it in minimizing its
business operations, impact on the environment through recycling, reusing, product stewardship
and ecological packaging design. The company adopted the importance of energy efficient and
low environmental effect lighting system and has been applying improved lightning standards for
managing the energy usage efficiently.
In this regard, the company has also made investment in its more than 200 stores to upgrade LED
lightening. It resulted in emission of less heat, which reduced the level of overall heat load on the
stores and decreased the unnecessary expenditure on cooling tools. On the other hand, the
practices of Premier in accordance with GRI supported and promoted a number of charities,
educational programs and organizations for children (Uyar, 2017). The company has also
launched a number of society fundraising initiatives at local as well as global level to assist
schools, sports, and various academic events. The company contributed around $ one lakh in
such events.
The reporting of GRI has indicated a range of positive and negative indirect economic impacts,
which Premier’s operations have caused. These include Change in the efficiency of

Accounting Financial Management 6
organizations, divisions, and the entire economy, Economic growth in the regions of high
scarceness, Economic impact of refining or weakening social and environmental surroundings,
accessibility to products and services for those earning low incomes, Increasing skills and
awareness among a professional community in a geographical areas. The impacts were also seen
in supporting the supply chain and distribution channels by facilitating foreign direct investment
in the Australia. The negative impacts caused by Premier on the environment are:
 Heating and carbon emissions by the machines into the atmosphere increase the
greenhouse effect.
 The materials used in building business premises are made of non-renewable resources
which make their availability at stake (Lawrence, and Weber, 2014).
 A lot of waste is discharged by the company into the physical environment as they
regularly upgrade their equipment to stay competitive.
The negative social impacts are:
 The company sometimes engages in offering bribes to get work done or to gain other
financial benefits
 Also, involves in accounting fraud, and breaching regulations in their operations
 Pay low wages to the labours and charge higher prices from the customers (Ballou et al.,
2016)
2. Following are the four main GRI disclosures that are likely to be of most importance to the
stakeholders of Premier Investments:
Disclosure 102-2