Intermediate Financial Accounting
Coursework requirement
For Marks and Spencer Group plc and John Lewis Partnership plc, you are required to analyse the current and previous year’s figures in the annual reports for 2013.

Your analysis, which should compare and contrast the two companies, should be presented in the format of a report to a potential investor, where your ultimate conclusion should be a recommendation on which company to invest in. Your analysis should make use of the information contained in the numerical as well as narrative sections of the annual reports of the two companies you are comparing. You are also encouraged to use other sources.

Presentation
The report must be a word document and clearly state the word count. Please use Times New Roman 12 font and 1.5 line spacing It is suggested you split the report into the following sections:

Introduction
Turnover, costs and profitability
Liquidity and asset management
Capital structure and gearing
Conclusion and recommendations
Appendices

Word Limit
The word limit is 1,500 words excluding title page, contents page, bibliography and appendices. Appendices should include all ratio calculations, trend analysis and common size statements. The word limit does however include titles, headings and quotations within the report.

The word count should be calculated using word count in Word (click tools, wordcount or review if using Windows 7). Note wordcount counts each number, percentage and ratio as one word. Thus:

The company’s profit has improved during the year by 5% to £20,000 = 12 words

The company’s current ratio is 1.5:1 = 6 words
Appendices
The appendices that should be attached to the report are the trends, common size statements and ratio calculations.
Ratio calculations
These should be shown in an appendix to your report. Include as a minimum: name of the ratio (e.g., net profit margin), the definition in words, the figures going into it, especially if you have to add or subtract elements in an Income Statement figure to get to what you need.

Example:
Ratio Definition Calculation Result
Net profit margin Profit before interest and tax/Sales x 100% £500 (accounts net profit) + £100 (interest added back)/£6,500 (sales net of VAT) = 9.23%