Identify Key Accounting Policies

Discuss about the Accounting Theory and Issues for Afterpay Touch Group.

The company Afterpay Touch Group Limited was incorporated for the purpose of merger between Touchgroup Limited and Afterpay Holdings Limited. The company came into existence on 30 March 2017. The company has experienced an incredible journey of from Afterpay to now Afterpay Touch (Annual Report, 2017). The company is driven by passion and compassion to serve its customers the best retail experience. Since its commercialization in the year 2015 there are various and rapid changes that have taken place in the company. The company has grown rapidly and its initial public offering has also been launched in the year 2016. In this short period of time the company has partnered with the most privilege retail brands of Australia and also many global leading brands that have helped the company to become the first choice of its customers. The company has become Australia leading Buy Now and Pay Later service (Annual Report, 2017).  The company has successfully created a retail community which is delivering incremental value to all its customers and key stakeholders. The report analyses the major accounting policies that has been used by the firm and the manner in which its financial statements are prepared. In addition to this to gain a better perspective, various other areas are also analyzed and assessed.

The financial statements presented by the company Afterpay Touch has been prepared in accordance with the standards and norms explained by the AASB.  The securities of the Afterpay Touch company is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange ltd. In June 2017 the company has completed its merger of Afterpay Holdings Ltd and Touchcorp Ltd.  The accounting policies of the company are in compliance with the guidelines prescribed by the Australian Accounting Standards Board and other authoritative pronouncements of the Australian Board (Annual Report, 2017).  The financial statements are prepared on the basis of historical cost. The company is also following the accounting policies discussed by the IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards).

Afterpay Touch’s major accounting policy is AASB 2014-4 which constitutes of Acceptable Methods of Depreciation and Amortization. The accounting policy has been amended, once it was called AASB116 and AASB 138.  In addition to this there are other accounting principles and standards used by the business organsation. The company is also following AASB 2015-3, which is an amendment to the Australian Accounting Standards arising from the withdrawal of AASB 1031 Materiality (Annual Report, 2017). Apart from this AASB 2015-4, amendment to Australian Accounting Standard is also implemented which requires financial reporting requirement for Australian groups that have a parent company in foreign. After adopting these standards and accounting policies the financial statement of the company has become more effective and requires fewer changes to be made.

Assess Accounting Flexibility

In addition to this there are some other accounting policies that are being use by the company such as AASB 9. This accounting policy has replaced the AASB 139. This accounting policy includes the classification and measurements of expected loss occurred through the damage of assets. AASB 15 is also implemented in the accounting policies; it is related with the revenue from contracts with the customers (Annual Report, 2017).  This accounting policy is made in compliance with the IFRS and international Accounting Standards Board (IASB). This method specifies the revenue that has been raised from the revenue contracts.

The company after merger has become more competitive and efficient in its operations. The top level management of the company has become more responsible towards their decision making power. The company has also showed responsible behavior towards its customer base. The management of the company is the one which is responsible for the implementation of the accounting policies in the company. In Afterpay Touch the task of formulating accounting policy is also done by the top management of the company (Annual Report, 2017).   Before formulating the accounting policies, the top level management analyses varied spectrum of the information and data about the accounting standards that are prevalent in the regional and in the international market. It is quite important for a business organsation to select and adopt such accounting policy that works in compliance with the international standards because it is very significant to maintain harmony in the accounting principles.

The organization Afterpay Touch has adopted various kinds of accounting policies which is popular in the international market in order to remain competitive and efficient in performance. The company is working on the guidelines of AASB and in addition to this the company has also adopted accounting policies that are in compliance with the IFRS (Annual Report, 2017).  In addition to this the company has also formulated its accounting policies in compliance with the Accounting Standards of America. This shows the company has adopted a flexible approach towards the accounting policies. However this approach is completely valid as this is a kind of consolidated approach of all the known accounting standards (Wolk, Dodd and Rozycki, 2012). This is being done in order to gain competitive edge over its competitors and achieve efficiency in its performance so that it can become more competitive in the international market.

The flexibility in the accounting policies allows the managers to plan their future courses of action in a strategic manner. The company is facing acute competition with Zippay. It is another company operating in Australia and is serving its customers with the same concept of buying before and paying for the same later period. The company has also gained a large customer base and is giving tough competition to Afterpay Touch. The accounting norms of Zippay are quite different from Afterpay Touch (Review of Buy Now Pay Later Solutions for Australian Merchants – Afterpay Vs Zippay, 2017) The company has prepared its financial statement in accordance with the Corporations Act 2001 (Annual Report 2016).  Zippay’s accounting principles are made in compliance with the AASB and IFRS, whereas, Afterpay Touch has formulated its accounting policies in accordance to both AASB and IFRS, apart from this it also has also made its accounting policies on the guidelines of Accounting Standards of America. This made Afterpay Touch more efficient and effective in the international market.

Evaluate Accounting Strategy

The company has constructed a Remuneration Committee in which a fixed remuneration and variable remuneration for short term or long term incentive is established for the managers and executive officers.  For the purpose of distributing and deciding revenue an external individual is appointed so that no bias decision can be made (Sheridan, 2016). A Share based plan is also formulated by the organsation in which the share option plan is made in order to align the objective of the firm with the individual objectives. The management of the company has identified some accounting policies for which significant judgment and estimates are made. Share based payment transactions is one area for the same. The accounting estimates and assumptions related to equity settled share based payments would have no impact on the carrying amount of assets and liabilities (Annual Report, 2017). In addition to this, estimation of useful lives of intangible assets is another aspect in which adjustments regarding the judgments and estimations are done.

The damage to intangible assets, the carrying cost of the intangible asset is analyzed against its recoverable amount. Assumptions, judgments and estimations are used in the calculation aspect. Another aspect of estimations and judgment is calculated in the taxation aspect of the firm. Differences arising between the actual results and the estimations made.  This can also make changes in the future adjustments of taxes (Annual Report, 2017). The accounting policies of the Afterpay Touch is formulated and designed by the top level management. They are formulated in such a way that they can help the company in achieving their long term and short term objective in an effective manner.

The disclosure provided is quite adequate and it has covered various aspects of the company. The financial statements have provided a detailed analysis of several aspects that can help the firm in gaining competitive edge in the market (Mintz, 2013). The footnotes have provided information about the accounting policies that has been followed in the firm. In addition to this, it has also discussed the amendments that have been done in the accounting policies. The accounting policies and standards followed in the firm were based on GAAP standard either directly or indirectly and it did not restrict the firm (Walton, 2011). The segment disclosure has covered various aspects and has explained the same in detailed manner. The segment aspect has discussed that the date for merger was decided to be 30^th June and the statements of Comprehensive Income includes only the transactions of the company (Annual Report, 2017).

The annual report of Afterpay though provides all the necessary financial information required by the end-users for making decisions. However, there are some issues of concern identified in the annual report of the company that requires more disclosure discussed as red flags in the present section. There is some unexplained changes in accounting such as the company is not yet complying with the changes made in the methods of calculating deprecation and amortization as per amendments introduced in AASB 116 and AASB 138. The company has stated in its annual report that the amendments made in AASB standards are not yet effective in the current reporting period of the company. As such, the company needs to provide more disclosure regarding the reasons for its non-compliance with the AASB standards amendments. There is also unusual increase in the revenue amount of the company in the year 2017 as analyzed from its income statement that requires proper disclosure explaining the transactions that lead to huge increase in its gross profit in the year 2017that can be depicted as follows from the income statement (Annual Report: Afterpay, 2017):

Source: https://www.afterpaytouch.com/images/APT_2017_4E_Annual-Report.pdf

TgAlso, there is unusual increase in its trade receivables of the company in the year 2017 as compared to the year 2016 depicted from its balance sheet as follows:

Source: https://www.afterpaytouch.com/images/APT_2017_4E_Annual-Report.pdf

The company has also acquired 100% voting shares of Touchcorp by merging with the company. This is done by the company for gaining advantage from the skill and product lines of Touchcorp. However, the merger has incurred an expenditure to the company of about $1,558,157 and that is mainly responsible for the increase in operating loss at the end of reporting period if 2017 as depicted from its income statement (Annual Report: Afterpay, 2017):

Source: https://www.afterpaytouch.com/images/APT_2017_4E_Annual-Report.pdf

In addition to this, the related party transactions carried out by the company can also be recognized as issue of major concern that requires more disclosure in the future financial reports developed by the company. The company has become the parent entity of Afterpay and Touchcorp in the year 2017 and thus requires more disclosures regarding the amount of transactions that incurred in the current reporting period of the related parties (Annual Report: Afterpay, 2017).

The conceptual framework is a normative theory that requires identifying the general purpose of financial reporting. It also deals with the accounting guidance which is in compliance with the current market trends. The normative theory is the one which is mostly followed in organization in present context because this theory deals with optimal accounting approaches and it helps in selecting accounting procedures that are relevant in a particular situation (Jensen, 2001). The firm has made various amendments in accounting procedures in order to remain competitive in the market (Pietra, McLeay and Ronen, 2013).

Conclusion

Thus, it can be inferred from the overall discussion held in the report that accounting policies and conventions developed by the accounting standard-setting boards need to be applied by the businesses for developing the financial reports. This is essential to promote transparency in the business operations and thus achieve the trust of shareholders.

References

Annual Report 2016. Zip Money. [Online] Available at: file:///C:/Users/user/Downloads/nASX4v6RFb_ZML_1476166439.pdf

Annual Report. 2017. Afterpay Touch Group Limited. [Online] Available at: https://www.afterpaytouch.com/images/APT_2017_4E_Annual-Report.pdf

Jensen, M.C. 2001. Foundations of Organizational Strategy. Harvard University Press.

Mintz, S. 2013. Accounting for the Public Interest: Perspectives on Accountability, Professionalism and Role in Society. Springer Science & Business Media.

Pietra, R., McLeay, S and Ronen, J. 2013. Accounting and Regulation: New Insights on Governance, Markets and Institutions. Springer Science & Business Media.

Review of Buy Now Pay Later Solutions for Australian Merchants – Afterpay Vs Zippay. 2017. [Online] Available at: https://magenable.com.au/researches-2/review-of-buy-now-pay-later-solutions-for-australian-merchants -afterpay-zippay-touch-payments/

Sheridan, T. 2016. Managerial Fraud: Executive Impression Management, Beyond Red Flags. Routledge.

Walton, P. 2011. A Global History of Accounting, Financial Reporting and Public Policy: Asia and Oceania. Emerald Group Publishing.

Wolk, H.I., Dodd, J.L. and Rozycki, J.J. 2012. Accounting Theory: Conceptual Issues in a Political and Economic Environment. SAGE.