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Well Tuesday night I set aside the time to start my step 4. I started off by watching Maria’s video and decided it would be easiest if I completed my spreadsheet with Maria. I actually really enjoyed this step and dealing with all the numbers.

When I was up to entering the last statement everything seemed to click for me. I had remembered the fundamental equation of accounting from chapter one, assets = equity + liabilities, but this was memory only and not much understanding, until I entered in my financial statements. Seeing all the common numbers between the 3 statements helped me to understand how they all work together.

I think after a couple hours my spreadsheet is complete, however I will go over and check I haven’t missed anything before saying yep all done.

Hope everyone else enjoyed this step as much as I did, otherwise I’m the crazy one by myself!

Thanks for reading, I have attached my spreadsheet and any feedback is much appreciated.

Step 3

Select Harvests is the firm I have been given for my assessment for this unit. I was excited when it was time to find out which firm I would receive, and I was really hoping for a firm that I had heard of and therefore hopefully could relate to. When I saw Select Harvest beside my name, I straight away thought what is this firm? What do they do? Where are they located? Am I going to be interested in what they do? After some research this is what I discovered.

About My Firm

Select Harvest are in Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales, with their head office in Victoria, Australia and they are a leading manufacturer, processor and marketer of nut products, health snacks and muesli. Select Harvest have several market leading brands; Lucky, Sunsol, NuVitality, Soland, Allinga Farms in retail; Renshaw and Allinga Farms in wholesale and industrial markets. It wasn’t until I looked at my firm’s website and saw these brands that I realised that I purchase on of Select Harvest products, Lucky, and I didn’t even know. I had no idea Lucky was part of Australia’s second largest almond orchards and one of the largest globally. Having multiple brands focuses on different products allows Select Harvest to target a very large range of consumers.

More background information about Select Harvest in my blog entry

https://melsergiacomi.home.blog/2019/03/20/select-harvest/

Annual Report and Challenges for Select Harvest

http://selectharvests.com.au/documents/SHV_Annual-Report-2018_DIGITAL.pdf

After getting to know a bit more about my firm I found that the annual report was a little easier to read and find the information I want to find. When I first opened the Select Harvest Annual Report for 2018, I was slightly overwhelmed, it is 84 pages and contained a lot of information.

One of the first things I noticed in the report was in the performance summary they reported results that showed lower revenue in 2018 than 2017 even though both almond crop volume (MT) and almond price (A$/g) where higher in 2018. How does this happen? Further investigation revealed this is a result of lower branded Food Division volumes. This is likely because of challenges of the Food Division heavily impacted by Coles significantly expanding their Private Label brand in domestic cooking nut category against Select Harvest brands like Lucky. This challenge saw $3million EBIT decreased from FY2017 to FY2018. Is Coles going to be the only one that has then negative effect on Select Harvest?

The Chairman and Managing Directors report stated how 2017/18 has been a transformative year for Select Harvest, as they delivered strong profits despite the testing climate conditions. I further researched the testing conditions and discovered Select Harvest installed 77 frost fans, which will protect a further 364 Ha (900 acres) of almond trees. Select Harvest managing director Paul Thompson said “Last years frost affected orchards have rebounded strongly”. The reason for this is because of the installation of these frost fans and the use of plant health monitoring system Select Harvest invested into, which have made for a favourable almond growing season. The plant monitoring system was rolled out across 60% of their mature trees. This shows Select Harvest has risk mitigation plans that have a positive impact on their production, which is desirable as the interest in the Australian market is growing following the challenges with US and China due to higher tariffs. I would think that to further help combat climate issues, Select Harvest will need to invest in more frost fans as well as look to cover closer to 100% of their mature trees with the health monitoring systems.

The report also goes on to talk about expanding into the Asian market and how this is an important step in creasing Select Harvest focus on the high growth Asian Market. By signing a trade agreement licence and distribution agreement with Chinese company PepsiCo Foods, Select Harvest have stepped up their commercial efforts. After researching this agreement further, it was revealed that this deal greatly benefits both Select Harvest and PepsiCo; Select Harvest via expanding its sales footprint in one of the most rapidly-growing consumer nations and PepsiCo promoting a Chinese-focused campaign that plays up to patriotic sensitivities in China. Is this going to be a long-term positive trade deal for Select Harvest? It seems to me to have great potential but clearly needs to be strategically planned for success.

Select Harvest have had several challenges this year as I have mentioned, from Coles expanding their private label, the climate including frost and the trade agreement with PepsiCo. Even with these challenges they were still able to deliver strong profit in 2018 ($20,371,000) that is most than double what it was in 2017 ($9,249,000) for profit attributable to members of Select Harvest Limited, as stated in the income statement. This profit surprised me as the total revenue is significantly lower in 2018, however I discovered this is offset by the fact that the expenses, in particular cost of sales, is noticeably lower in 2018 than 2017. This shows to me that Select Harvest are a firm that are forward thinking and strategically plan their focus on reducing the cost per kilogram of production and continue to invest in the firm, which I believe is a very important part in running a successful firm.

I found the best way to read and understand the financial statements was to use a calculator and add up and minus totals and then it helped to work out the statement. For the income statement it made sense for me that if I add all the revenue and other income then minus the expenses it would equal the profit. But on the statement, there is no total expenses section and the profit is in the same section as the expenses and made me think I had it wrong, thankfully I didn’t and was glad to have a little win at the number’s games.

Looking at the Balance sheet and Statement of Changes in Equity was more confusing for me to analyse. The balance sheet I tried to use the fundamental accounting equation of Assets = Equity + Liabilities. One the second attempt this equation worked, I used the net assets the first time instead of the total assets. Although I was able to work out the equation, it didn’t make sense to me that the net assets are in the same section as the liabilities instead of either at the bottom after the equity or with the assets at the top part of the Balance sheet. This is one area which I am hoping after I watch the videos on how to enter the numbers into my spreadsheet I will understand more. The Statement of Changes in Equity was the last financial statement I read and there were a few common numbers which made me feel I could understand it a little better. The balance at 30 June 2018 was the same number as the total Equity on the balance sheet and same with a couple other numbers. However I notice the equity or balance number as it is on this statement was quite a bit higher than the year before which I thought to mean that it was worth more or made more profit and I still think it is, correct me if I’m wrong, but my question is why is the number of dividends paid or provided very significantly lower than the year before? It is five times less in 2018 than 2017 and I’m not sure the reason for this.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated and would be happy to return some feedback to others

Thanks for reading

I have started to put my research of my firm together for step 3. This is just a bit of information about my firm, Select Harvest, and who they are and what they do. Let me know what you think

Select Harvest are in Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales, with their head office in Victoria, Australia and they are a leading manufacturer, processor and marketer of nut products, health snacks and muesli. The almond portfolio for Select Harvests includes more than 7,677Ha (18,970acres) of company owned and leased almond orchards and suitable land for planting. With a state-of-the-art almond processing facility at Carina West, near Robinvale, Victoria Select Harvest have the capacity to process 25,000MT of almonds in peak season. Also, they can process 10,000MT of product per annum at their value-added processing facility at Thomastown in northern suburbs of Melbourne. It wasn’t until I research more into the firm that I understood that value-added processing is where the almonds are processed and supplied as slivered, sliced, diced, split, left whole or ground for almond meal/flour.

Another interesting fact I learnt was that almonds trees are deciduous trees, meaning they shred their leaves annually. Thanks to google for teaching me what deciduous means. A big factor I discovered is that almonds trees are only able to be processed between February and April and they lay dormant over the colder winters period of May to July, in Australia. This season is relatively short when compared to many other crops, my family are hydroponic farmers and with the hydroponic setup in hothouses they can harvest small-crops all year round if they wish to (and do), which in terms of income coming through all year round is greatly beneficial. The almond tree has beautiful white/pale pink flowers with five petal and does not reach full bearing until five to six years after planting. This extended time between planting and harvesting almonds for the first time would require great planning and judgement/assumptions of what product they will need in the years to come so they can plant in time for the trees to bear when required.

After getting to know a bit more about my firm I found that the annual report was a little easier to read and find the information I want to find. When I first opened the Select Harvest Annual Report for 2018 I was slightly overwhelmed, it is 84 pages and contained a lot of information. I knew I didn’t have to read all of it, but I needed to read the right parts to gain the information I needed. After also reading chapter 2 I realised that quite a few pages of my firm’s report were notes to the financial statement and independent auditors reports, so that was a relief.

Now I am going to get into the financial statements and see what I can discover.

Thanks for reading

Well Accounting, Learning and Online Communication here I come! When I first enrolled in the unit, I was excited to do a unit about Accounting and didn’t really think about the learning and online communication part. My excitement soon turned into nerves and doubt whether I should do this unit in just my second unit of university while working full-time and having a young daughter. Seeing what the assignments entailed and the way of learning concerned me, so I typed up an email to withdraw from the unit. Then I thought no, lets embrace this change and get out of my comfort zone and maybe it will help in further studies. Its only week one but I am so glad I did decide to stick with the unit. Learning is about having confidence to learn; do I have the confidence I need to succeed? Have I made the right decision? Time will tell. I am keen to start early with the tasks and stay on top or even slightly ahead by spending the suggested time on study to thrive in this unit.

I found Martins welcome email was so reassuring and sound a lot less dauting then I thought. Martin saying that this unit is after all just an introduction to accounting and its not as complex as people think it will be (me, for sure) and if I spend the time recommended I would do just fine. After reading the introduction chapter I realised that I am a “rote” learner 100% and made me question do I want to continue that style of learning? No, I don’t. Learning about the six ways of learning was a good explanation of how I can change as a person. But to do that I need to work on all five of the previous levels to achieve my goal of changing as a person, to put me in a better position for myself and my family in the future. Getting out of my comfort zone and interacting with others in the unit is going to be the biggest step for myself but as I continue in the unit, I think I can improve my communication, and this will help greatly not only in this unit but in future units and outside of my studies.

PeerWise was very new to me beginning this unit, but after a week of answering questions and writing a few of my own, it really has become a bit addictive. I found it a great way to answer all different types of questions about the unit without the added pressure of answering within a set time. Having people comment and rate my questions is such a great way to boost my confidence. Having people say that it was a great question or that it made them think really made me feel like I was on the right track and I can do this. Although I am struggling to come up with what I think would be great questions. Sometimes I can think of a good question with the right answer but wording it and having good multiple-choice answers is where I struggle. I hope to improve on this as we progress.

Starting up my blog was another completely new way of communicating for me. I like to think I am fairly tech savvy but what do I write? Are people going to think I have no idea what I am doing? Why would they even read my blog? I think this will take me a bit of time to work out but having access to read other people’s blogs will get me on the right track. Maybe that’s why someone else will read mine? Hope I can do a good entry then!

Accounting in my mind before starting this unit was always numbers, numbers and more numbers. Putting expenses and sales into a spreadsheet or software and then working out how much profit or loss is made. After reading chapter one I learnt there is a bit more to it then what I thought. Accounting is a powerful way of looking at a company’s economic and business realities. Learning about the difference between bookkeepers and accountants, journals and ledgers, what a trial balance and double-entry are mostly new to me and I am keen to learn more about these elements of accounting. Although I did do a subject at high school on accounting, I has been 17 years since I did that subject in year 10, so not much knowledge was retained unfortunately.  Another new concept to me, which I hope to learn a lot more about, is the fact debits are represented as a positive number and credit as a negative, this took me a bit to get my head around I must regrettably admit. This reading and learning about these excited me and made me think what else am I going to learn in this unit? I am studying Bachelor of Business, majoring in accounting to hopefully one day be an accountant, so for me learning the basics is so stimulating and I can’t wait to learn more. Learning that half of the CEO’s across Australia have accounting backgrounds surprised me but also made me feel the opportunities are endless with my choice of degree. At present I don’t have aspiration to become a CEO, but in years to come who knows what opportunities may come across my desk.

After reading both the introduction chapter and chapter one I actually felt like I can do exactly what Martin is asking me and that is to read the study guide like a novel. The chapters to me feel like they are written in context that I can understand and follow (most of the time). It feels like a more of a story, not that I am reading a text book chapter, which for me is good as my mind likes to wonder when reading. The explanation of how the keyboard on my laptop is set out the way it is was a great piece of knowledge that although isn’t really going to help me in the professional world, it was a great way to explain that it is important to understand how things were done before computers did it all the background for us. What other great fun facts am I going to learn in this unit? I love fun facts.

To conclude my reflection, I am already so glad I decided to stick with this unit and am ready to embrace the challenge of learning how to focus on learning for understanding and not just to reproduce “clear cut facts” but have my own understanding and thoughts on accounting. Also getting out of my comfort zone for the online communication will, although be a big step, be a step in the right direction. I’m excited to really get into ACCT11059 and learn new aspects of accounting, learning new ways to study to develop my own understanding and keen not to be a lone ranger by embracing working with others studying this unit. If I want to succeed in life, business and work I need to be good at both face-to-face and online communication and remember ideas are powerful and confidence is key.

Hi and welcome to my first ever blog. My name is Melissa, most people call me Mel, and I am currently studying Accounting, Learning and Online Communication ACCT11059 with CQU via distance education. Studying is still relatively new to me with this only my second unit. Blogging however is extremely new, but I am ready to embrace the change.

I will be using this blog to reflect how my learning for this unit is going and also to post my progress as the unit goes on. I look forward to reading other students blogs and I’m sure reading that I am not alone in the juggle of family, working and studying.

If you would like to click on my “About” page to learn more about who I am, how I intend to do this juggling and why I chose to study Bachelor of Business majoring in Accounting.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to reading any comments left by any readers

Cheers, Mel

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton