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UK
Great Britains Ed McKeever celebrates gold in the mens Kayak Single (K1) 200m final during the London 2012 Olympic Games Canoe Sprint competition at the Eton Dorney rowing centre. Ed is an ACCA student and is planning to take two Professional level papers this December
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UK
Liz Johnson will be competing in this summers Paralympic Games as the defending 100m breaststroke champion. Liz will be re-commencing her ACCA studies soon
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UK
After spending 9bn to host the 2012 Olympic Games, the UK hopes to recoup 2bn in extra tourism and 10bn over four years in more inward investment
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CHINA
Jubilant Yi Siling of China holds her medal and bouquet aloft after winning the first gold of the London 2012 Olympic Games with victory in the womens 10m air rifle event
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INDIA
An Indian vegetable vendor waits for customers during a massive power failure at a local market in Calcutta. Hundreds of millions of Indians were left without electricity in more than half of the country on 31 July
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US
Food prices are expected to rise in the US, where the midwestern corn belt states are suffering their worst drought for half a century. Sunflowers, one of the most drought-resistant crops around, are still holding on in most areas
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CHINA
Beijings heaviest downpours in six decades left at least 77 dead and brought chaos to transport systems and power supplies. Major roads were flooded and more than 500 flights cancelled. Some 65,000 people were also evacuated
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GHANA
John Atta Mills, president of Ghana since 2009 and a champion of democracy, is pictured shortly before he died in July at the age of 68
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CHINA
Hong Kongs new chief executive Leung Chun-ying delivers a speech after being sworn in at a ceremony overseen by Chinese president Hu Jintao. The police officers son replaces Donald Tsang as the third chief executive
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ROMANIA
The suspended Romanian president Traian Basescu gives a speech in Bucharest regarding democracy, while politicians are busy trying to impeach him. Opponents of Basescu say he is corrupt and must be removed
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RIHANNA SUES ACCOUNTANT

The singer Rihanna and her tour agency business Tourihanna are suing US accounting firm Berdon LLP for losses of tens of millions of pounds. Rihanna claims the firm took 22% of her tour earnings under a contract that exploited her youth and naivety. She claims that arrangements such as the firm taking a percentage of tour earnings were not standard practice and earned them more than three times her own share. The lawsuit claims that Tourihanna suffered significant losses due to the defendants financial mismanagement and other acts and omissions. It also claims that the firm mishandled her tax liabilities and failed to properly monitor her song royalties. Ronald Storch, a partner at the New York and Long Island-based Berdon firm, said: This lawsuit is meritless and we will staunchly defend ourselves against it.

IIRC REVEALS TIMELINE

The outline framework for integrated reporting has been published by the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC). A prototype framework will be released before the end of 2012, with a draft framework circulated for comment by the middle of next year. Paul Druckman, IIRC chief executive officer, said: Integrated reporting is a market-led initiative, driven by business and investor needs to gain greater insights into how a companys strategy creates and preserves value over the short, medium and long term. Integration embedding value-relevant financial and non-financial information into strategic decision-making and a companys reporting cycle is gaining momentum in corporate reporting globally. It is intended to elicit from organisations information relating to their strategies, governance and performance and prospects.

BIG FOUR CHALLENGED

Chinese accountancy firms are outpacing growth of the Big Four, according to data from the Chinese Institute of Certified Public Accountants (CICPA), reported by Chinadaily.com. The report found that revenues of the top 10 domestic firms grew 38% in 2011, compared with just 6% growth for the international Big Four firms. This is consistent with a recent CICPA statement calling for domestic accountancy firms to grow bigger and stronger via mergers, take on larger clients and explore overseas business.

PWC TAKES LEAD

PwC is again the worlds largest audit firm, taking the top spot from Deloitte after the two firms grew global revenues last year by 10% and 8% respectively. According to the Accountancy Age Top 35 league table, PwCs revenues in the year ending June 2011 grew to $29.2bn, whereas Deloittes rose to $28.8bn. Ernst & Young was third, with revenues of $22.9bn, with KPMG just behind at $22.7bn.

FDI IN ASIA PACIFIC CLIMBS

Foreign direct investment (FDI) into Asia Pacific economies increased 16% to US$733bn 2011, helping to lift global FDI inflows above their pre-financial crisis level, according to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) World Investment Report 2012. The report found that APEC economies rate of investment recovery is relatively fast compared with other regions, increasing their share of global FDI inflows to 48% in 2011 from an average of 37% during the 200507 run-up to the financial crisis. While investment opportunities in the APEC region are not immune to global economic realities as we have seen, they are proving to be resilient and provide an outlet for capital that has the potential to spur growth for businesses and markets worldwide, said APEC secretariat executive director, Ambassador Muhamad Noor.
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KPMG US APPOINTS NEW CFO

KPMG in the US has appointed David Turner as chief financial officer, succeeding Larry Laughman. Turner has spent most of his career at Thomson Reuters and its predecessor companies, Thomson Corporation and Reuters. He was executive vice president at Thomson Reuters, having also been its CFO. David is a proven leader with a consistent track record of driving business and financial operations, and building organic and inorganic revenue growth, while simultaneously driving significant margin improvement, said John Veihmeyer, KPMG chairman and CEO.
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ROBERT ASHTON, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF BUSINESS WRITING CONSULTANCY EMPHASIS, GIVES A BREAKDOWN OF THE ERRORS:
First sentence: Noticable noticeable. Second sentence: There should be a comma before which. Embarassment embarrassment Third sentence: The responsibility should lie solely with her, not lay. Lay is a transitive verb, so it must be followed by an object for example: She lays the table. The question mark is unnecessary as it is not a direct question. Final sentence: There should be a comma before even if and one after problem is to denote that this clause is extra to the main idea. The first part says management does agree (singular), whereas the second part says they also have a concern (plural). Management is singular, avoid mixing singular and plural. Seperate separate Add another dash after and justified to show that this is an aside. Never use a hyphen after adverbs ending in -ly << Back to page

ACCA STUDENTS GO ONLINE

ACCA ROLLS OUT WEB-BASED SYSTEM FOR EXAM RESULTS AND OTHER STUDENT SERVICES
To increase processing speed and reliability, ACCA is launching a fully online service for registration, exam entry, exam dockets, exam results and certificates. On 1 August 2012, these services became available exclusively online and are no longer issued as paper documents in China, South Africa, Russia, Romania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Malta, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. These countries have now joined Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Ireland and the Ukraine, all of which converted to paperless status last year. Most students are currently interacting with ACCA online and this initiative reflects student demand for, and positive feedback on, our online services. ACCA has also introduced a service that lets students print out their results via the ACCA student portal, myACCA. Students in all countries can print an official notification of their results via myACCA. Paper copies of exam results will not be issued to students in the above listed locations. << Back to page

PO 8:

IMPROVE DEPARTMENTAL PERFORMANCE

In any team its important to consider more than simply your own desk or your own specific tasks; the ACCA Qualification syllabus reflects the growing role of accountants as business managers. By constantly taking a strategic view, and seeking to improve the performance of your team, department or organisation, you will demonstrate your capacity to take on wider business responsibilities. Applying management and organisational behaviour theory in practice will help you to make an impact beyond your own responsibilities. Identifying opportunities to make improvement-driven changes, reviewing how closely those changes impact on performance, and keeping relevant stakeholders informed and involved, are essential elements of the practical experience you must demonstrate to be an effective professional accountant. Youll need to ensure that your suggestions are both well-founded (piloted first if feasible) and in line with your employers vision and objectives. Being vigilant for opportunities for improvements is not something to consider only in the run-up to PER sign-off by your workplace mentor. It is a state of mind to remain in if you want to make the best contribution to your employer (and enjoy a more rewarding career). Activities to demonstrate your vigilance and initiative might include: The next step is to answer the challenge questions:

Describe an occasion when you have identified an opportunity to improve departmental performance (for instance, suggesting and planning a visit to colleagues in a spending department, such as marketing, to explain relevant procedures and encourage better use of, say, purchase orders, through explaining the benefits to the company of proper records). How did you contribute to developing the opportunity for development? (This could be as simple as setting up a weekly half-hour refresher course on different topics, with each weeks session run by a volunteer in the team, on a task at which theyre regarded as being particularly adept; or as complex as helping your FD to bring outdated departmental appraisal forms and performance review procedures into line with current best practice.) Was this opportunity fully successful, why was this? If not, why not? (So, for the refresher courses, you might illustrate how peoples skills were enhanced as a result of your initiative the technical skills of colleagues who attended the sessions and the presentation/training skills of those who volunteered to run them; for the performance appraisal, youd seek general feedback from your FD on how the new system is or isnt helping staff to see and pursue a more structured, transparent career path.)

developing and implementing accounting and business processes, or suggesting improvements to existing processes monitoring business performance and setting performance measures proactively advising managers on becoming more cost effective helping individuals improve their individual performance for the additional good of the team.

This performance objective is linked to Paper F1, Accountant in Business, Paper P3, Business Analysis, and Paper P5, Advanced Financial Management.

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PO 9:

MANAGING AN ASSIGNMENT
Its not just project accountants who deal with projects. Especially as professional accountants find their skills and knowledge called on to help achieve wider organisational goals, its likely that youll be involved in a variety of one-off assignments, either on your own or as part of a team (which could be cross-functional or cross-disciplinary). Its not just project accountants who deal with projects. Especially as professional accountants find their skills and knowledge called on to help achieve wider organisational goals, its likely that youll be involved in a variety of one-off assignments, either on your own or as part of a team (which could be cross-functional or cross-disciplinary). Whether youre in charge of the overall assignment or simply tasked with conducting a vital component, youll need to demonstrate time management, communication and planning skills in order to execute the assignment, as well as agility and responsiveness as the assignment progresses. Managing an assignment effectively will comprise agreement of scope, objectives and resources; planning how to monitor and review progress (including the use of specific project management tools); and post-assignment evaluation. You can demonstrate your competence in a host of ways, including: Remember that the assignments you focus on to achieve this objective need to fall in line with organisational and/or departmental objectives. The next step is to answer the challenge questions:

Describe your role in managing a discrete assignment: think about overall aims and expected outcomes include specific responsibilities, including those you were originally assigned and those you devised for yourself explain how and why certain responsibilities emerged as the assignment progressed. How did you apply learning from your day-to-day role in the assignment? consider competencies whose potential you stretched during the project, of which, through passing them on to others, will have developed your coaching, training or development skills also consider previous projects you may have carried out, including skills you developed as well as knowledge you acquired as a result of things that may not have gone the way you planned. What did you learn from the assignment that will help you in your day-to-day role? focus on those competencies you developed purely as a result of the project - but remember these can include skills and knowledge acquired through working alongside more experienced colleagues in finance, or colleagues in other functional teams (eg HR, marketing, sales, operations, etc) - and which will enhance your performance in your mainstream duties (or in future assignments)

managing an external or internal audit assignment from start to finish, including delegation of individual responsibilities and communicating findings and recommendations to management learning how to effectively use project management software, or adapt programs such as Microsoft Excel or Google Docs, to monitor and illustrate a specific assignment, as part of support provided to a project manager setting up a system for educating non-finance staff in essential finance-driven procedures (eg purchase orders, timesheets, etc), including identifying and prioritising relevant colleagues, agreeing parameters with your supervisor and non-finance managers, organising or delivering the coaching and evaluating outcomes against prior performance.

This performance objective is linked to Paper F1, Accountant in Business, and Paper P3, Business Analysis.

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PO 10:

PREPARE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR EXTERNAL PURPOSES

Financial statements are one of the mainstays of the accountant in business, prepared according to relevant regulations, accounting standards and other guidelines, depending on the type of organisation. However, with stakeholders increasingly including not only other finance professionals, experienced investors and business analysts but also the general public, its crucial that statements can be understood by all users. Additionally, information used to prepare final documents must be verifiable as whole and accurate. Theres more to compiling financial statements and accounts than simply arriving at the final figures. Other relevant activities might include:

Also consider any periodic reports you compile for management, or to support the FD or partners monthly or quarterly presentation to management.

How have you ensured that the statements you have prepared meet all necessary requirements?

preparing supporting schedules and notes, and statements of affairs checking that documents and files of transactions recorded in the books have been posted accurately analysing historical data to show year-on-year or month to month changes in various financial positions selecting key information and drafting relevant interpretations for cover statements for bank reports.

Reflect on how you verify that figures you use or present are whole and accurate; this could take the form of simple checklists, double-checking that previous transactions have been recorded properly or reconciling with bank accounts.

How have you used supporting (possibly non-financial) information to make these more easily understood by users?

Show how you have avoided (or explain) jargon, or used case studies to illustrate certain financial positions. Graphs and charts may provide useful illustrations of revenue or expenditure trends to managers with a lighter grasp of the financials.

The next step is to answer the challenge questions. Explain your role in the preparation of financial statements

This performance objective is linked to Paper F3, Financial Accounting, Paper F7, Financial Reporting and Paper P2, Corporate Reporting.

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Be specific about where your responsibilities sit in the overall business process, eg where you obtain information and figures from, how you decide to use them and what happens after youve posted to the relevant ledger.