Accounting in

Organisations and Society

Module 1 - Organisations, Accounting and Accountability
Topic 1 What is ‘accounting’, what do ‘accountants’ do, and why?

Topic Notes

Topic 1: What is ‘accounting’, what do ‘accountants’ do,

and why?

By Craig Deegan

RMIT University
Accounting in Organisations and Society
Topic 1: What is ‘accounting’, what do ‘accountants’ do, and why?
 Accounting in Organisations and Society

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March 2017

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Accounting in Organisations and Society
Topic 1: What is ‘accounting’, what do ‘accountants’ do, and why?
 Accounting in Organisations and Society

Table of Contents
Learning Objectives ..................................................................................................... 1
So what is ‘accounting’? .............................................................................................. 2
Relationship between accounting and accountability .................................................. 2
The role of ‘accounting’ ............................................................................................... 3
What ‘accounts’ should we prepare? .......................................................................... 4
So, ‘accounting’ can be very broad? ........................................................................... 5
What are the responsibilities and accountabilities of business? ................................. 5
An accountability model .............................................................................................. 6
Why would an entity decide to disclose publicly information about its performance? . 6
Who are the stakeholders to whom the accounts will be directed? ............................. 7
What types of disclosures will be made (what are the information needs of these
stakeholders?) ............................................................................................................. 9
How should the information be disclosed (format and media of the disclosures)? ... 10
Organisational objectives influence the form of accounting undertaken ................... 10
The changing role of ‘accountants’, the ‘accounting profession’, and potential drivers
of that change ............................................................................................................ 11
Drivers of change ...................................................................................................... 11
Exercises/Review questions ...................................................................................... 13
Case Study: DC Surf Co. ....................................................................................... 13
Topic 1 Activities .................................................................................................... 14
References ................................................................................................................ 15

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Accounting in Organisations and Society
Topic 1: What is ‘accounting’, what do ‘accountants’ do, and why?
 Accounting in Organisations and Society

Learning Objectives
At the completion of this Topic students should be able to:

• Provide a definition of ‘accounting’.

• Describe the focus of ‘accounting’.

• Identify the possible audience of ‘accounts’.

• Provide a meaning of ‘accountability’.

• Explain the relationship between ‘accounting’ and ‘accountability’.

• Provide an explanation of the breadth of ‘accounting’.

• Explain who might be considered to be an ‘accountant’.

• Explain how the objectives of an organisation influence the type of ‘accounting’

undertaken.

• Explain the roles of ‘accounting’ and its evolutionary nature.

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Accounting in Organisations and Society
Topic 1: What is ‘accounting’, what do ‘accountants’ do, and why?
 Accounting in Organisations and Society

What is ‘accounting’?
• Simply stated, ‘accounting’ can be defined as the provision of information about aspects
of the performance of, and resources held or controlled by an entity to a particular group
of people with an interest, or stake in the organisation – we can call these parties
stakeholders.

• The ‘stakeholders’ can be internal or external.

• But what ‘aspects of performance’ should ‘accounting’ address?

• Financial performance?

• Social performance?

• Environmental performance?

• What ‘accounts’ are stakeholders entitled to?

• This all really depends upon judgements we make about the organisations
responsibilities and accountabilities.

• The broader perspective we take of organisational responsibilities and stakeholders,

then the broader our ‘accounts’ become.

Reflection
What kind of information do you think an entity should provide, to whom
and why?

Relationship between accounting and

accountability
• According to Gray et al. (1997, p. 334):
Accountability is concerned with the relationships between groups, individuals,
organisations and the rights to information that such relationships entail. Simply
stated, accountability is the duty to provide an account of the actions for which one
is held responsible. The nature of the relationships – and the attendant rights to
information – are contextually determined by the society in which the relationship
occurs.
• From this definition, we can see that accountability involves two responsibilities or duties,
namely:

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Accounting in Organisations and Society
Topic 1: What is ‘accounting’, what do ‘accountants’ do, and why?
 Accounting in Organisations and Society

– to undertake certain actions (or to refrain from taking actions) in accordance with the
expectations of a group of stakeholders; and
– to provide a reckoning or ‘account’ of those actions to the stakeholders.

Reflection
Can you think of the factors that influence the (changing) information required
by organisations to be successful?
Hints: These factors might include changing demands by consumers
(consumerism), globalization (access to different markets for production and
distribution of goods/services - the global hamburger; diverse cultural issues),
technology, global warming and the related environmental issues, widening
social classes.

Web resource
Wesfarmers is one of Australia’s major retail companies, headquartered in
Perth, Australia. The main divisions include Coles, Bunnings Warehouse,
Kmart, Target etc.
Wesfarmers incorporates different case studies on its sustainability website.
The case studies can be accessed via the following link:
http://sustainability.wesfarmers.com.au/case-studies/
Select any one of the cases, and find out whether and how the selected case
has been reported on Wesfarmers 2016 annual report. The annual report can
be accessed via the following link: http://www.wesfarmers.com.au/docs/default-
source/reports/2016-annual-report.pdf?sfvrsn=8

The role of ‘accounting’

• Therefore, the broad role of ‘accounting’, and of organisational reports (and corporate
reporting) is to inform relevant ‘stakeholders about the extent to which the actions for
which an organisation is deemed to be responsible (which in itself is a quite subjective
issue as people can have very different views about the responsibilities of
organisations) have actually been fulfilled.
• Reporting provides a vehicle for an organisation to fulfill its requirement to be
accountable. Such ‘accounts’ do not have to all be prepared in financial terms.
– For example, if an organisation is considered to be accountable for its water
consumption, or its greenhouse gas emissions, then such ‘accounts’ may be

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Accounting in Organisations and Society
Topic 1: What is ‘accounting’, what do ‘accountants’ do, and why?
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presented in physical (non-monetary) terms. They might be used both internally

and externally.
– If a company is considered to be responsible for the people who are making their
products in developing countries, then it might produce ‘accounts’ about how the
organisation is ensuring that factories in developing countries are safe for the
employees. Again, these ‘accounts’ might be used both internally and externally.
– Perspectives about accountability influence how we measure ‘performance’.

Reflection
In 2016, JB Hi-Fi completed its acquisition of the Good Guys with an $870
million purchase, hence becoming the electronic giant in Australia. The news
can be accessed via the following link:
http://www.afr.com/brand/chanticleer/jb-hifis-good-guys-buy-makes-richard-
murray-the-appliance-king-20160912-greusr
Can you think what type of information will be required in this business
acquisition?
Hint: all types of information will be important for business acquisition, such
as marketing, logistical, purchasing, human resources, and accounting
information.
Accounting information may take several forms depending on what is
required by management. Could be financial, non-financial and textual.

What ‘accounts’ should we prepare?

• Of course, different people will have different views about the responsibilities of
organisations, and therefore will hold different views about what ‘accounts’ should be
produced by an organisation.
– As a consequence they will hold different views about what type of ‘performance’
should be measured and reported.
o For example, should an organisation measure its carbon emissions; use of water;
employee accidents; oil spills; injuries within supply chain?
• That is, people will have different views about the extent of ‘accounting’ that should be
applied.

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Accounting in Organisations and Society
Topic 1: What is ‘accounting’, what do ‘accountants’ do, and why?
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Reflection
Residents who live close to an airport often believe they have become used
to the noise level of aircraft. However, BBC news reported that one study,
that researched 3.6 million people who live near London Heathrow airport,
had found these people have a 10 to 20 percent higher rise of suffering heart
disease, stoke and circulatory disease (Heyden, BBC news, 2016).
If you are a resident who lives near to an airport, what kind of information
would you expect the airport to report?

So, ‘accounting’ can be very broad?

• We can see that ‘accounting’ is actually a very broad activity, or discipline, which is tied
to the central concept of accountability.
• We therefore caution against narrow definitions of accounting, that appear in many
textbooks, which define accounting in terms of it simply being a process of identifying,
measuring and communicating/reporting economic information to permit informed
decisions to be made – accounting is a much richer process than just this!
• So … with all this said who could be considered to be an ‘accountant’?

What are the responsibilities and

accountabilities of business?
• Please reflect upon your own views about an organisations responsibilities.
• For example, in the case of international clothing brands, do you think they should be
accountable for the health, safety and equitable treatment of employees in the
organisations to which they have outsourced their production requirements?
• Should they provide a publicly available ‘account’ of what they are doing to ensure
workers within their supply chain are treated ethically? Why?
• This is accounting!

YouTube
What is Corporate Social Responsibility?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0NkGtNU_9w

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Accounting in Organisations and Society
Topic 1: What is ‘accounting’, what do ‘accountants’ do, and why?
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An accountability model
• We will now turn our attention to various assessments or decisions that need to be
made as part of the process of reporting aspects of an organisations performance.
Such decisions relate to the following issues:
– Why would an entity decide to disclose information (or ‘accounts’) about its
performance to the general public?
– Who are the stakeholders to whom the disclosures (‘accounts’) will be directed?
– What types of disclosures will be made (what are the information needs of these
stakeholders?)?
– How should the information be disclosed (format and media of the
disclosures/accounts)?

Why would an entity decide to disclose

publicly, information about its performance?
• The first issue—why would an entity decide to disclose information?—relates to
management’s motivations to report.
• For example, an organisation would need to consider whether it is reporting (or
providing an ‘account’) because it believes it has an accountability to various
stakeholders, or whether, it is reporting because it wants to win the support of
powerful stakeholders.
• That is, the broad objectives driving any particular organisation to generate particular
‘accounts’ can range from:
o an ethically motivated desire to ensure that the organisation benefits
society, or
o does not have a negative impact on society and the natural environment,
through to
o an economically focused motive to use reporting to protect or enhance
owner/shareholder value.
• Motivations for disclosing information (providing ‘accounts’) could include (and it could
be a combination of these):
– to comply with legal requirements;
– to forestall efforts to introduce more onerous disclosure/accounting regulations;
– to influence the perceived legitimacy of the organisation;
– to manage particular (and possibly powerful) stakeholder groups;

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Accounting in Organisations and Society
Topic 1: What is ‘accounting’, what do ‘accountants’ do, and why?
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– to increase the wealth of the shareholders and the managers of the organisation;
and/or
– a belief on the part of managers that the entity has an accountability (or a duty) to
provide particular information/accounts to particular stakeholders.

Reflection
For a large company, why do you think they produce publicly available
reports?

Who are the stakeholders to whom the

accounts will be directed?
• Once it is determined why an entity decides to report, this decision will in turn inform
the decision as to whom the information will be directed to.
• If a corporation’s reporting is motivated exclusively by managerial reasoning and
strategising (for example, they are primarily focused on increasing the wealth of the
owners and/or managers), the stakeholders to whom that corporation’s reporting is
directed to might be narrowly defined as those who hold and exercise the greatest
economic power over the corporation.
• Conversely, reporting motivated by ethical/moral reasoning will seek to address the
information needs of a broader range of stakeholders. Specifically, a broader ‘ethical’
approach to reporting (providing ‘accounts’) would direct the reports towards those
stakeholders most affected by the operations of the organisation and would focus on
issues such as ‘right-to-know’.
• For an organisation whose managers are motivated exclusively by the maximisation of
shareholder value, and who therefore might use reporting to win or maintain the
approval of economically powerful stakeholders.
• What is being emphasised is that the question about to whom the reports or ‘accounts’
will be targeted will ultimately be dependent on managers’ views about corporate
responsibilities and accountabilities, and hence dependent upon views held about the
initial issue of why the organisation has decided to produce a report.
• Again, views will vary from manager to manager.
• There are many views on the responsibilities of business. At one extreme are the
views of the famous economist Milton Friedman. In his widely cited book Capitalism
and Freedom, Friedman rejects the view that corporate managers have any moral
obligations or responsibilities. He notes (1962, p. 133) that such a view:

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Topic 1: What is ‘accounting’, what do ‘accountants’ do, and why?
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– shows a fundamental misconception of the character and nature of a free economy.

In such an economy, there is one and only one social responsibility of business [and
that is] to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits
as long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and
free competition, without deception or fraud.
– Do you agree with Friedman?
• At the other end of the ‘responsibility spectrum’ are those who hold the view that
managers should manage the organisation for the benefit of all stakeholders, not just
those with control over scarce resources.
• Taking a broader perspective on the responsibilities of business, an entity’s
stakeholders have been defined by Freeman and Reed (1983, p. 91) as:
– ‘Any identifiable group or individual who can affect the achievement of an
organisations’ objectives, or is affected by the achievement of an organisations’
objectives’.
• If we accept that an organisation has a responsibility to its ‘stakeholders’, then the
broader an organisation defines its stakeholders the greater the responsibilities and
associated accountabilities it will tend to accept.

Example
Wesfarmers listed a variety of stakeholders on its website, and it can be
accessed via the following link:
http://sustainability.wesfarmers.com.au/our-approach/stakeholder-
engagement/
Sinopec provided a chart of their stakeholders on its website, and it can
be accessed via the following link:
http://www.sinopecgroup.com/group/en/companyprofile/Stakeholders/

Reflection
Compare Wesfarmer and Sinopec’s stakeholders, and identify the
similarities and differences.
Distinguish the internal and external stakeholders for each company.
Discuss how they use different accounts to satisfy each stakeholder’s
information requirements?

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Accounting in Organisations and Society
Topic 1: What is ‘accounting’, what do ‘accountants’ do, and why?
 Accounting in Organisations and Society

• It should be noted that although an organisation might publicly identify their

stakeholders to include certain parties-this is their ‘public position’. It could be quite
different to what occurs internally. This is the notion of ‘decoupling’.

Web Activity
For instance, Wesfarmers has identified suppliers as one of the important
stakeholders. However, Coles supermarket (one of the subsidiaries of
Wesfarmers) has been criticised for low payment to the dairy farmers in
the ‘milk war’. The ABC news can be accessed via the following link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dycRVNOl_-U

What types of disclosures will be made (what

are the information needs of these
stakeholders?)
• Once an organisation has identified:
– the objectives of the reporting process (why report);
– the stakeholders to be addressed by the reporting process (to whom is the report
intended); and
– the information requirements of these stakeholders (for what issues the entity is
held responsible and accountable by its stakeholders—or what issues the report
should cover),
• Then the final stage in the reporting process is the production of an account/report (or
more than one form of report) that addresses these issues (or stakeholders’
information needs).
• This is a very broad stage which involves many more detailed stages regarding how
the report(s) should be compiled. Various reporting frameworks and conventions are
available and can address different aspects of performance, such as:
– financial performance
– environmental performance
– social performance

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Topic 1: What is ‘accounting’, what do ‘accountants’ do, and why?
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Reflection
Your friend said: “An organisation’s primary objective is to earn profit, and
thus the business should only focus on financial performance”.
Do you agree? Justify your answer

How should the information be disclosed

(format and media of the disclosures)?
• Once an organisation has identified:
– the objectives of the reporting process (why report);
– the stakeholders to be addressed by the reporting process (to whom is
the report intended); and
– the information requirements of these stakeholders (for what issues the
entity is held responsible and accountable by its stakeholders—or what
issues the report should cover), then;

The final stage in the reporting process is the production of an account/report (or
more than one form of report) that addresses these issues (or stakeholders’
information needs).

This is a very broad stage which involves many more detailed stages regarding how
the report(s) should be compiled. Various reporting frameworks and conventions are
available and can address different aspects of performance, such as:
financial performance
environmental performance
social performance

Organisational objectives influence the form of

accounting undertaken
• If an organisations primary objective is to maximise profits then the
accounting/reporting will fixate on financial measures.
• If an organisation has an objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, then the
accounting/reporting will focus on emissions, improvements in emissions, targets, and
so forth.
• If an organisation – such as a university – has a goal that research publications must
be increased then this will impact what information is collected and what accounts are
generated.

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Accounting in Organisations and Society
Topic 1: What is ‘accounting’, what do ‘accountants’ do, and why?
 Accounting in Organisations and Society

Web Activity
World Vision is a not-for-profit organisation, its annual report can be
accessed via the following link:
https://www.worldvision.com.au/about-us/annual-reports
Can you identify the main differences of its annual report compared to the
profit-making organisations such as Wesfarmers?

The changing role of ‘accountants’, the

‘accounting profession’, and potential drivers
of that change.
• Across time, the perspective of what an ‘accountant’ does has changed quite
dramatically and it will continue to change and evolve.
• Traditionally an accountant was primarily considered to have the role of managing and
reporting information about the financial performance and financial position of an
organisation – it is now MUCH MORE than this.
• As expectations of the role of the organisation changes, what the accountant does
also must change.
• An accountant’s job is actually VERY INTERESTING and requires clear, innovative
and creative thinking.
• For example as different stakeholders become more and more concerned about the
social and environmental performance of an organisation, then the accountant has
needed to develop skills in this area, and the profession needs to make sure this
becomes part of their members’ knowledge requirements.
– As an example, with growing concern about climate change many organisations
are now required to produce information about their carbon emissions and
particular accounting techniques have been developed to measure the emissions.
Years ago there was no such ‘accounting’.

Drivers of change
• In terms of the drivers of change for the accounting profession, the Association of
Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) released an interesting report in June

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2016, entitled Professional accountants – the future: Drivers of change and future
skills in which they note:
• Professional accountants must be able to meet current needs and anticipate
emerging demands.
• Expert use of analytics will enable more, better and closer to real time reporting,
increase predictive analysis, and highlight the interconnectedness of financial and
non-financial performance.
• Continued globalisation will present opportunities and challenges to those in, and
around the accounting profession.
• Adoption of cloud computing will create large impacts.
• Different aspirations and expectations of coming generations will affect the practice
of accounting.
• There will be more recognition of the conflicts/problems involved in using particular
resources in preference to others.
• There will be greater outsourcing which will create further monitoring and
governance requirements.
• Changing societal expectations and evolving scope and nature of what is
considered ‘accounting’ and the role of the accountant.
• Emergence of a cashless society will create many accounting issues.
• Increasing use of carbon taxes and other market mechanisms to encourage more
environmentally-sound behaviour.
• Integrated reporting (reports which combine information about financial, social and
environmental performance) expected to become mandatory throughout the world.
• As it becomes more holistic, corporate reporting will become less about the
numbers and more about the story of the organisation.
• The evolution of various forms of social media will impact accounting.

Web Activity
Professional accountants – the future: Drivers of change and future skills
can be assessed via the following link:
http://www.accaglobal.com/content/dam/members-beta/docs/ea-patf-
drivers-of-change-and-future-skills.pdf

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Exercises/Review questions
Case Study: DC Surf Co.
Download Video:
https://smoovivideov1.s3.amazonaws.com/11fce144-8af0-e234_7452.mp4

Background
De and Claire studied a business course together 5 years ago. De majored in
Marketing and Claire majored in International Business. They met through
the University Surfing Club.
De works full-time as a marketing Assistant for a major retailer. On the
weekends he shapes surfboards in his shed. It started out as a hobby but he
has now started selling his boards in a few local surf shops. Claire works
part-time for a graphic design firm. She also designs her own t-shirts and
sells them online. She currently ships her t-shirts to 7 different countries
throughout South East Asia as well as the US.
De and Claire surf together a couple of times a month and often talk about
starting a business together. Finally, they have decided to take the plunge
and have set up ‘DC Surf Co’ with the vision of supplying high quality surfing
equipment and apparel. They have decided to start small but have plans to
grow quickly. For now, they are operating from a small home office in De’s
lounge room.
Additional Information
De and Claire decided to set up their business as a partnership. They
employed De’s neighbour Johnny on a part-time basis to assist with setting
up the website and other administrative tasks so that De and Claire can focus
on growing the business. De already had a relationship with a few of the local
surf shops and they have agreed to stock the full range of DC Surf Co boards
and apparel. They have also started selling their goods online through their
website. They have made a few bulk purchases of materials (fibreglass,
cotton, fabric) and are storing these in De’s lounge room. They realise that
they are quickly running out of space and expect to either rent or purchase
commercial premises within the next 6 months.

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Topic 1 Activities

Activity 1:
De and Claire understand that in order to discharge corporate responsibility it
is important to understand who their stakeholders are and what their needs
are.
a) List 5 potential stakeholders of DC Surf Co
b) For each stakeholder identified in (a), identify their potential needs and
discuss how these stakeholder needs might impact on the actions and
reporting of DC Surf Co.
Activity 2:
De and Claire are trying to decide which accounts they should provide to
their external stakeholders.
Discuss the various types of accounts and include examples of what
information DC Surf Co may be able to provide within each type?

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References
ABC News 2013, Supermarket milk wars have taken a toll on Australian
dairy farmer’s. YouTube, 15 March, viewed on 24 November 2016,
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dycRVNOl_-U>.
Chartered Accountant 2017, Professional accountants – the future: Drivers
of change and future, viewed 1 March 2017:
http://www.accaglobal.com/content/dam/members-beta/docs/ea-patf-
drivers-of-change-and-future-skills.pdf.
China Sinopec 2014, About Report, China Sinopec, viewed 24 November
2016,
<http://www.sinopecgroup.com/group/en/companyprofile/Stakeholders/>.
Heyden T, 2015, ‘What’s it like to live near an airport?’, BBC News
Magazine, 2 July 2015, viewed 24 November 2016,
<http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33346507>.
Rob G., Colin D., Dave O., Richard E., Simon Z., (1997) ‘Struggling with the
praxis of social accounting: Stakeholders, accountability, audits and
procedures’, Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 10, no. 3,
pp.325 – 364.
Smith M., 2016, ‘JB Hi-Fi’s Good Guys buy makes Richard Murray the
appliance king’, Australia Financial Review, 13 September, viewed 24
November 2016, <http://www.afr.com/brand/chanticleer/jb-hifis-good-guys-
buy-makes-richard-murray-the-appliance-king-20160912-greusr>.
The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) 2016,
Professional accountants- the future: Drivers of change and future skills,
ACCA, viewed 24 November 2016,
<http://www.accaglobal.com/content/dam/members-beta/docs/ea-patf-
drivers-of-change-and-future-skills.pdf>.
University of St. Gallen 2012, What is Corporate Social Responsibility
(CSR)? YouTube, 30 September, viewed 24 November 2016,
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0NkGtNU_9w>.
Wesfarmers Limited 2016, Annual report 2016, Wesfarmers Limited, viewed
24 November 2016, <http://www.wesfarmers.com.au/docs/default-
source/reports/2016-annual-report.pdf?sfvrsn=8>.
Wesfarmers Limited 2016, Sustainability Report, Wesfarmers Limited,
viewed 24 November 2016, <http://sustainability.wesfarmers.com.au/case-
studies/>.
World Vision 2015, Annual Report, World Vision, viewed 24 November 2016,
<https://www.worldvision.com.au/about-us/annual-reports>

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Topic 1: What is ‘accounting’, what do ‘accountants’ do, and why?