Contemporary Issues in Accounting: A Case Study of Atlas Pearls Limited

This report analyzes the accounting process and its association with Atlas Pearls Limited. It discusses the compliance structure, fundamental characteristics, and financial reporting requirements. The report also evaluates the financial statements and accounting knowledge evaluation.

Running Head: CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN ACCOUNTING
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CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN ACCOUNTING

Running Head: CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN ACCOUNTING
Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Company Overview.....................................................................................................................................2
Compliances................................................................................................................................................6
Relevance:...............................................................................................................................................6
Faithful Representation...............................................................................................................................7
Comparability..........................................................................................................................................7
Understandability....................................................................................................................................8
Verifiability.............................................................................................................................................9
Timeliness.............................................................................................................................................10
Evaluation of the statements......................................................................................................................11
Accounting knowledge evaluation.............................................................................................................11
General Purpose Financial Reporting Requirements.................................................................................12
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................12
References.................................................................................................................................................13

Running Head: CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN ACCOUNTING
Introduction
Financial performance is the major criteria to determine how well the company is working. To
achieve the financial performance, the organization has to apply the accounting process. The
accounting process is generally the need of each public company to take care of the financial
performance of the organization. Therefore the organizations are of the idea to prepare the
reports and the guidelines to make the operations of the business easy and creative. It also helps
the stakeholders to understand the performance of the business which leads to better decision
making on their part. In this report a detailed analysis of the accounting process and its
association with the Atlas Pearls Limited has been considered (Chand, Patel and White, 2015).
Company Overview
Atlas Pearls is serving as the global leader in eco pearling and are specialists in silver and white
Pinctada maxima, commonly known as South Sea Pearl. It is founded in 1987 in Claremont,
Australia. The company has secured the direct relationship with the retailers at the global level.
The company also manufactures rings studs, earrings, bracelets, cuffs, pendants and cufflinks.
Earlier the company was known as Atlas Pearls Limited in December 2017 (MorningStar, 2018).
In case of Atlas Pearls Limited it has been found that after taking into consideration the
conceptual framework the Atlas Company has designed the annual reports of the company. The
relevant accounting standards have been followed by the company only to main a record of the
performance of the company. The financial statements are made in accordance of the rules and
regulations. The examples of the follow up of all the policies are outlined below.

Running Head: CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN ACCOUNTING
(Annual report, 2018)

Running Head: CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN ACCOUNTING

Running Head: CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN ACCOUNTING
(Annual Report, 2018)
Financial notes have been included for the ease of the shareholders to understand the financial
aspect with the financial statement. Since the uniformity and the performance of the companies
are most important factors for the shareholders all the transactions are entered on the basis of the
regulations prescribed by IFRS and according to the conceptual framework. The auditor’s report
and the director’s report are the key drivers that exhibit a relationship involved with the
measurement of the performance and opportunities (Deegan, 2014).
From the above analysis it can be concluded that the presentation of the financial statements are
satisfactory and still there is a room for improvement to survive in the competitive market.

Running Head: CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN ACCOUNTING
Compliances
A detailed analysis of the fundamental characteristics of the company has done and compared
against the compliance structure set by the authorized body. Compliance also requires the
statutory requirements and the feedback from the investors. Moreover the compliance also deals
in the preparation and presentation of the financial statements as per the relevant standards
(Loftus, et al 2015).
Relevance:
Relevant information is the core element in the conceptual framework and it helps the
shareholders in taking the decisions of the investment. It can be observed from the annual report
of the Atlas Pearls Limited that in terms of the presentation the company has improved the same.
The managers have worked in the most creative manner so that it becomes easy for the corporate
level managers to understand the data so presented. The decisions are taken in a better manner if
the recordings are in the presentable manner (Elad, 2016).
(Figure A: Description of risk)
(Annual Report, 2018)

Running Head: CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN ACCOUNTING
Faithful Representation
Faithful representation is a necessary step that requires the presentation of the financial and the
non-financial information with the most appropriate evidences so it becomes a faithful evidence
for the investors and the stakeholders. There should be a proper scrutiny of the activities operated
in the business. In case of Atlas Pearls Limited all the new projects and the ideas and workings
or transformation in the organization has been presented briefly.
Comparability
The comparable information is necessary in the annual report of the company to give an idea of
the present as well as the past year. The example states in a better manner with regards to the
comparability of the information. The information when compared with either the standards or
the past year performance of the company. In case of Atlas Pearls Limited the comparison has
been shown and recorded below (Díaz, et al 2015).
.

Running Head: CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN ACCOUNTING
(Annual Report, 2018)
Understandability
From the level of understandability it can be deduced that the information shall be organized in
such a manner that it is easy to comprehend and understand. Without the correct understanding
of the information the investors and the shareholders will fail to make the right decision.
Therefore to build the trust level for the longer duration the improvement becomes necessary for
the organization. The understanding of the financial items is necessary as without it the financial
statements cannot be understood (Cajaiba-Santana, 2014). Therefore the language of the content
in the report shall be easy to read and understand. Moreover the investors are more interests in

Running Head: CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN ACCOUNTING
the short level of presentation. In case of Atlas Pearls Limited the content is written in the
simplest manner.
(Annual report, 2018)
Verifiability
The verifiability plays a vital role in determining the financial performance of the business.
Without the verification of assets and liabilities of the business, the operations of the business
cannot move forward. The new era suggest that the introduction of the conceptual framework has
brought a great amount changes in the working style of the organization. Atlas Pearls Limited
presents all the details of the company and gets its verified with the certified auditor as

Running Head: CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN ACCOUNTING
mentioned in the auditor’s report. After the verification the final reports are prepared which can
be distributed among the shareholders (Barker and Teixeira, 2018).
. The level of the verifiability of the business can be judged by the example outlined below.
(Annual Report, 2018)
Timeliness
Lastly, the timelines describes the importance of the presenting the information at the right time.
The right time is necessary because it is capable of influencing the decisions. When the
information of the Atlas Pearls Limited was presented it was observed that almost all the
information reached to the managers and the corporate level at time. The time is an important
factor as it results in the fluctuation of the prices over a given period of the time (Macve, 2015).

Running Head: CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN ACCOUNTING
Therefore it is necessary to evaluate the timeliness factor of the company as to whether the
company is generating the reports on time and whether the invetsors are getting correct
information or not.
Evaluation of the statements
The main motive of the discussion of the financial reports is to measure that whether the
shareholders, investors, financial institutions and all the shareholders and the stakeholders to
recognize and measure the financial performance of the business so that the business decisions
can be taken. For the smooth comparison it has been observed that the reports were in
accordance and compliance with the necessary standards. The overall study on the financial
report could have been possible only because of the five factors possibly discussed above. For
some stakeholders the basic knowledge of accounting is sufficient but for some whose income
depends majorly on the investments is keen about the entire knowledge of the business. The
interest lies in the areas such as profitability, stock price. With the detailed analysis, the
comparison becomes easy and the decision can be taken at the faster pace (Spiceland, et al 2018).
Accounting knowledge evaluation
There is a debate over the fat that the stakeholders need to have a proper and the full knowledge
about al the concepts of the accounting, but the truth is different from what it has been perceived.
Most of the stakeholders are still unaware and yet make the decisions under the influence of the
other investors and the stakeholders, the level of the profitability derived by the company in the
current year as well as the present year. Through the study it has been found that now the
sufficient knowledge is required on part of the stakeholders. It would make the financial items a
bit easy for them to compare with the industry benchmarks.

Running Head: CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN ACCOUNTING
Conceptual framework is basically designed for those people who have the less knowledge about
the financial items, the accounting policies and the guidelines to identify the actual performance
of the company and form the decisions on the basis of that (Barker and Teixeira, 2018).
General Purpose Financial Reporting Requirements
The examiner's report and the executive's report are the key drivers that display a relationship
required with the estimation of the execution and openings. The basic criteria to determine
whether the financial statements are prepared in such a way that the information so deduced shall
met with the expectations of the users so that it becomes easy for them to make any decisions (St
Amant, 2014). In case of Atlas Pearls Limited the detailed analysis gave an outlook of the
performance of the company, and determines how well the company has complied with the
entire rule and regulations set up by IFRS. The report also examines the GPFR rules that have
been followed by the company to prepare all the financial statements that are to be issued by to
the investors (Macve, 2015).
Conclusion
The conceptual framework has been analyzed with the sets of the different examples and apart
from this IFRS rules and GPER rules have also been focused on and discussed about. The main
objectives of the guidelines are to follow the rules and the regulations to provide the faithful and
the relevant information to the stakeholders. To conclude the Atlas Pearls Limited annual report
is prepared keeping in mind all the standards, provisions and the conceptual framework so that
the performance can be enhanced and grown.

Running Head: CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN ACCOUNTING
References
Barker, R. and Teixeira, A., 2018. Gaps in the IFRS conceptual framework. Accounting in
Europe, 15(2), pp.153-166.
Cajaiba-Santana, G., 2014. Social innovation: Moving the field forward. A conceptual
framework. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 82, pp.42-51.
Chand, P., Patel, A. and White, M., 2015.Adopting international financial reporting standards for
small and medium‐sized enterprises. Australian Accounting Review, 25(2), pp.139-154.
Deegan, C. M., 2014, Financial accounting theory, 4th ed., North Ryde, N.S.W. McGraw-Hill
Education (Australia) Pty Ltd
Díaz, S., Demissew, S., Carabias, J., Joly, C., Lonsdale, M., Ash, N., Larigauderie, A., Adhikari,
J.R., Arico, S., Báldi, A. and Bartuska, A., 2015. The IPBES Conceptual Framework—
connecting nature and people. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 14, pp.1-16.
Elad, C., 2016. International Classification of Financial Reporting, Christopher W.
Nobes.Routledge, Abington, UK (2014),(160 pages,£ 95), ISBN: 0415736935.
Loftus, J, Luke, B, Leo, KJ, Boys, N, Daniliuc, S, Hong, A, & Byrnes, K 2015, Financial
Reporting, 1st ed., Wiley, Melbourne. ProQuest Ebook Central.
Macve, R., 2015. A Conceptual Framework for Financial Accounting and Reporting: Vision,
Tool, Or Threat?. Routledge.

Running Head: CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN ACCOUNTING
MorningStar, (2018) Atlas Pearls Limited [Online] Available from
https://www.morningstar.com.au/Stocks/NewsAndQuotes/ATP [ Accessed on 17th December
2018].
Spiceland, D., THOMAS, W., Nelson, M., TAN, P.H.N., Low, B. and LOW, K.Y., 2018.
Intermediate accounting. United States: John wiley & Sons
St Amant, R., Yazdanbakhsh, A., Park, J., Thwaites, B., Esmaeilzadeh, H., Hassibi, A., Ceze, L.
and Burger, D., 2014. General-purpose code acceleration with limited-precision analog
computation. ACM SIGARCH Computer Architecture News, 42(3), pp.505-516.
Zhang, Y. and Andrew, J., 2014. Financialisation and the conceptual framework. Critical
perspectives on accounting, 25(1), pp.17-26.