Caitlyn von Nieda

12015720

ACCT11081

Blog: https://caitlynvee.wordpress.com/

Step 3:

What is my company?

My firm for this term is Aeris Environmental. Aeris Environmental Ltd also goes by simply Aeris, or the Company. Their financial year ended on 30 June 2016. Aeris is a technological company that is trying to use more ‘green’ technology to help the environment. They are based on validated, green, Cleantech solutions. Aeris has a ‘whole of system approach’ that ensures systems will perform better and last longer, as well as cost people less to run them. They believe that this will help building owners and managers create a more sustainably built environment. Aeris delivers healthier and cleaner air using patented anti-microbial technology. They also deliver energy reduction with an integrated approach to HVAC&R system optimisation. I was unsure what an HVAC&R system is, and it stands for heating, ventilation and air conditioning, and this is one of the most important factors for maintaining acceptable indoor air quality in buildings. They also deliver cost savings such as reduced operating costs, less maintenance and an expected longer life of the asset being used, and trusted performance. The technology they provide and environmentally safe and OH&S compliant with independent validation and certification from NATA, CSIRO, USA EPA, HACCP, NSF and TGA.

Technology that Aeris provides are AerisGuard, the Aeris SmartHUB, AerisVIEW and AerisCoat.

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Links to video for Aeris Environmental:

- ‘Aeris Environmental’ from the Why Invest In Channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIFhci4ajXA

- ‘AERIS Environmental Technologies’ from the UABResearchPark channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LcKpnH597I

While reading the annual report, Aeris states that during this financial year, their company has assembled and integrated a range of outstanding assets and capabilities, positioning Aeris as an emerging leader in energy efficiency and green building technologies.

At 30 June 2016, Aeris had a cash balance of $5.4 million. Their income has more than doubled from the previous year. During this financial year Aeris has seen an improvement in their company as well as forming relationships with leading Australian and international wholesalers, helping them with their profits and supply their range of products to a wider range of customers.

From what I have seen and read in the annual report, Aeris seems to be doing very successfully with their company. Their income is increasing and they are forming relationships with more companies to be able to provide more of their technologies

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both across Australia and internationally. It also shows in the consolidated statement of financial position that their assets overpower their liabilities.

I found my company’s financial statements to be very similar to the financial statements of others in the way that they are presented. Many of the financial statements of the other companies looked similar to mine and so I found it easy to navigate through the annual report and see how their statements compared to mine. For a few of the other companies, I was a little confused while reading the statements because I did not at first notice that they presented the numbers differently from Aeris. Aeris gives the full number of their dollars whereas some other companies presented theirs differently, such as hundred thousands or millions.

I prefer the company that I have this term rather than the one that I had in ACCT11059. Last term I had been given the company Alterra. Alterra dealt with carbon and was also in the dairy industry. I like that Aeris is dealing with ‘green’ technology because it will be of better help to the environment. I also find the financial statements for Aeris to be much easier to read. Last term I had a difficult time with my financial statements because they had already been restated. Because of this I had a harder time reading them and when doing the spreadsheet work, it was difficult trying to figure out which numbers were the correct ones to use and would have all my numbers balance out. I also think that the financial statements for Aeris are set out more clearly with all of the different headings and titles. When looking through the statements for Alterra I found myself regularly confused by what I was reading but I do not feel that way with the statements for Aeris. Although I do think that by this point, I have more knowledge about financial statements in general than when I did my first assignment for ACCT11059, and so this has helped me understand the statements of Aeris in a more productive way. I also found Alterra’s financial statements to be confusing because apart from the statements being restated, they had also paid off all of their debts and entered the dairy industry so they were not only dealing with carbon anymore. This caused the numbers to change dramatically and it was hard to tell just how well the company was really doing when they had changed what it is their services provide, but Aeris seems to be improving.

Step 4:

I do not have any questions when it comes to this step. I feel that I found it quite easy to do and did not run into any difficulties. The assignment from last term for Accounting, Learning & Online Communication definitely helped when doing the Excel spreadsheets because I learned then how to link things in Excel and use formulas to find totals. I think that in the future when I am older, I may look back on this and record my personal transactions like this, to track my spending and income and compare the money I have lost to what I make.

For this step though I created a fictional chart of accounts and income statement. I did not use my own transactions.

For my chart of accounts in comparison to the one in the textbook, I only have Income and Expenses in it, rather than also having Assets, Liabilities and Equity. I

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also did not classify my chart of accounts the same way as in the textbook. I classified my chart of accounts similarly to the example that is on Moodle. I included some of the classifications, such as Private Health Insurance, Income Protection Insurance Expense and Vehicle Expense, although I did not actually have these in my own chart of accounts. We were told in our tute that this would be okay to include these things as they could be possible transactions that we have, but they may not have occurred in that specific month and to just include an explanation like this when we are doing our step 4. I also added more onto my chart of accounts to better classify my own transactions that I made up. I did not use the one in the textbook because I think that a classification system as that would be better suited for businesses because they have many more things that they will need to classify and it is a more flexible way for them to add on things to be classified. For example, how assets are shown to be classified with the numbers (100-199), it makes it very easy for more transactions to be added with such a wide range. I do not think I would need to use such vast numbers for my personal one as there is not much to include.

The level of detail that I think can be changed for the chart of accounts for this activity is more of a description of the type of transaction that occurred. I also think that more specific classifications could be used for transactions that happen often. For example, instead of having things like groceries and petrol purchases put under ‘general living expenses’, there could be a classification for just groceries and petrol separately. I think that for transactions that happen often like these and for example if someone regularly goes to the hairdresser, that could also be its own classification. It is just up to the individual and what their transactions are like and how often they occur.

For this chart of accounts that I made up, there was no loss for the month of July. There was a profit made of $504.01. The income for the month was enough to be able to take care of the expenses. In real life, that much money would not be donated to charity because I do not think I would be able to afford it, and the income is of course also made up. I put a transaction of $100 for charity to take up some of the expenses because I did not think there was enough expenses of a higher amount. I think I could have included a vehicle registration cost or something else instead, and so the ‘profit’ for the month would have been much less than it already is. Maybe around $100-$200 rather than $500+. I think that this exercise has been useful to me because now I know how to usefully record my transactions and be able to tell whether I am spending more money than I can afford to every month. I think in the future this will prove to be even more useful when I will have more bills to pay for myself such as vehicle expenses like registration and insurance, and rent or a mortgage. Budgeting is something that I think is very important and everyone should be able to do, and making a chart of accounts and income statement is a very easy way to learn how to budget in my opinion.

Step 5:

When I first learned that we would be creating a trial balance, I was very nervous. I thought it would be difficult and I would have a hard time completing it, but I was glad to realise that it was actually simple and easy to do! I think that I am familiar with

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Excel, and so maybe I had an easier time with it than others, but I found the process to be quite simple. Although, I did come across an issue while doing my trial balance, because mine did not balance. I thought I was using the incorrect numbers or putting them in the wrong place, but when talking to my tute teacher and the other student in my class, I had been doing it correct so we did not understand why it is that mine was not balancing whereas other peoples was balancing. The numbers were only off by a mere $2 and it was really frustrating me that I could not get it to balance. My tute teacher discussed it with Martin and we learned that there was a $2 difference because there was a difference in the annual report that was probably from rounding the numbers differently. This was such a relief because I did not know how there could be a difference of such a small number.

When first starting this step, I had done it incorrectly and when going through our work in the tute, I realised my mistake. I had started out by putting all the numbers in the trial balance section instead of inputting them into their respective balance sheet and income statement sections, and then linking them back.

Step 6:

Feedback from: Caitlyn von Nieda

Feedback to: Nathan Grant

My CommentsStep 3Background information on companyComments/KCQsDiscussion with others

- Did not include for feedback

Step 4The recording process

- Good job with your chart of accounts and income statement

- Sums used for the totals done correctly, good job

Step 5Trial balanceDiscussion

- Be sure to include your company’s name and the balance date in the titles at the top of your trial balance

- Your totals balance, good job - Your ‘other revenue’ values do

not seem to be linked. Is there a reason why the values are different?

Overall Overall you have done a good job on your spreadsheets. You should also consider including your discussions and step 3 in your feedback to also be checked. A few things are missing such as the titles from your trial balance and I am not sure why you have summed the value for the ‘other revenue’ in the trial balance rather than linking it like we are told, check this. Overall good job.

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Feedback from: Caitlyn von Nieda

Feedback to: Katherine McGill

My CommentsStep 3Background information on companyComments/KCQsDiscussion with others

- Your way of explaining your process is very personal and enjoying to read

- Included a lot of information on the background of your company to explain what it is that they are and do

- Good job including many links to check out the things that you were talking about

- Good comparison to another person’s company in comparison to yours

Step 4The recording process

- Good job linking in your chart of accounts to get your totals for everything because this is important to ensure that the totals are correct

Step 5Trial balanceDiscussion

- Your totals balance, good job- Your values for the income

statement and balance sheet should be linked to the trial balance column, check this

- Your discussion with others was good to be able to understand where you were going wrong with your trial balance and how to fix it to get it balance in the end

- What is the 76 under the totals? Was this put there by a mistake? If there’s a reason for it you may need to include a note at the bottom and make sure it’s noticeable if that is the case

Overall Overall you have done well in your explanations and discussions with others. You have done well with the linking in your spreadsheets because this was something I think was important to make sure you do in this assignment.

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Feedback from: Caitlyn von Nieda

Feedback to: Yitong Wang

My CommentsStep 3Background informationComments/KCQsDiscussion with others

- Good explanation of the background of your company and explanation of what they do

- It may be good to include some videos or links to articles or blogs to give further insight into your company from other sources

Step 4The recording process

- Wow there is a very large loss!- It’s good that you find this process to

be helpful to you in the future to track your transactions

- The chart of accounts is quite small, but as this is based on your real life transactions that’s okay

Step 5Trial balanceDiscussion

- Be sure to link your values for your income statement and balance to your trial balance column

- You used the sum formulas for your totals well, good job

- Good job talking about your ‘trial and error’ process with doing the trial balance and the help that you got to succeed in completing this

- It also balances, good jobOverall Overall you have done a good job. Just

check on the linking in your spreadsheets. I think the step 5 discussion could also be a little bit longer if you are able. Also good work with calculating your totals with formulas in your spreadsheet. You’ve done a good job.

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