Business Decisions Sustainability Accounting and Accountability

Question: Discuss about the Business Decisions for Sustainability Accounting and Accountability. Answer: Introduction Boral limited company is the global construction and manufacture material firm, which head office in the Sydney, Australia. Due to the competitive position, it has a leading market position in construction and building material in Australia. It is a joint venture Company which ties with the USG Boral in the USA. It is the largest construction building supplier that operates in all states and territories. In the Australia country, Boral resources include the material, mine goods, blacktop, cement, roof tiles, bricks, plasterboard, timber and building material to construct infrastructure, housing creation, and business construction. In Australia, Boral had 8,356 permanent corresponding human resources who work over the 550 construction plants (Boral Limited, 2015). Boral mainly focuses on dealing with its customers in the building and construction industries. There are different geographical market where Boral operates named Australia, the USA, and Asia. There are distinct competitors of Boral limited in building and construction industry such as CSR Limited, Aggregate Industries plc, RMC Group plc, Fletcher Building Limited, James Hardie Industries Limited, and Holcim Ltd (Financial times, 2016). This report presents the financial condition of the Boral limited. This report evaluates the different types of financial statements that are used to analyze the financial strength of the company. These financial reports are statement of financial position, profit and loss statement, and cash inflow and outflow report. This report also provides the recommendations to improve the financial position of the company. Comparative financial analysis of the Boral Limited Statement of Financial Position A statement of financial position is defined as the financial report that reviews the resources, debts, and investors equity of the company at the particular time period. Three segment of balance sheet provides the information to investors regarding the company like what the firms possess and be obligated together with the fund that is spends through the investors. Further, statement of financial position highlights the financial position of a company at the fiscal year (Amiram, et al., 2015). The following table represented the comparative analysis of Boral limited: Current assets are the liquid assets of the company that can be converted within the one year and within the operating cycle period. Current assets (CA) involves the cash and cash equivalents, stock, prepaid expenses, marketable securities, account receivables, and other liquid resources which are quickly turn into liquid form (Zadek, et al., 2013). Furthermore, non-current resources are durable investments of a company, which generates economic benefits over long periods but, they must be depreciated over their useful lives. Noncurrent resources included investments in other corporations, intangible resources like goodwill, brand recognition, and intellectual possessions, and land, place, and equipment (Baiman, 2014). It is demonstrated on the company's balance sheet. On the other side, current liabilities are the liabilities of the company, which owe within a accounting period and also show in statement of financial position of the firm. It includes the temporary liabilities, accounts owed, accumulated liabilities, and other amount overdue. Moreover, noncurrent debts are durable financial debts or liabilities, which are demonstrated on a company's balance sheet and to be paid in more than one accounting year (Ma, et al., 2016). These non-current debts are durable loans, bonds owed and long-standing lease debts. Besides this, stockholders' equity is another element to the statement of financial position that shows the companys funds that obtained by its shareholders from issuing the shares. This part of balance sheet includes the paid-in capital, contributes capital, and retained earnings (Maher, et al., 2012). It depicted stake equity that presently detained on the account through the company's ordinary shareholders. The above table shows that total current asset has increased from -9.09% to 4.61% in the year of 2014 to 2015. It indicated that Boral limited has sufficient amount of capital such as cash with additional equivalent resources, which turn by company into liquid form within a accounting period. Moreover, total non-current assets are also increased from -13.17% to 5.89% in the year of 2014 to 2015. It indicates that Boral limited has an adequate amount of capital that provides long-term benefits to the company as compared to the previous year. Moreover, total current liabilities has decreased from -0.35% to -21.11% in 2014 to 2015. It indicates that company is more willing to pay its debts within the one accounting period as compared to past year. At the same time, long-term liabilities has increased from -43.37% to 36.25% (Boral Limited, 2014). It shows that Boral limited is unable to meet its noncurrent liabilities as compared to the preceding accounting year. Further, above table depicted that total stockholders equity has risen from 1.33% to 5.26% in 2014 to 2015. It exemplified that Boral limited had received much amount of capital from its equity shareholders as compared to an earlier period. Thus, it is stated that companys financial condition is sound because it has sufficient amount of current asset and noncurrent asset. Further, the company pays its short-term obligation on the given time period but, Boral limited need to make effective policy to accomplish the noncurrent liabilities. Stockholders Equity Stockholders' equity is the owners' residual claim after the debts have been paid. Shareholder equity included the paid-in capital, retained earnings, common stock; add other wide-ranging earnings, and reserves stock. Paid-in-capital is the amount, which company has obtained when issuing the common share (Henderson, et al., 2015). Besides this, retained earnings are the surplus amount of net income that the company has earned from the time. But, it has not distributed to shareholders as dividends. The company cannot be paid dividends to its common stockholders until all preferred stock dividends are paid in full because they are the owners of the company. Additionally, treasury stock is the amount that spent by the company to repurchase but not withdraws its own shares of capital stock (Horngren, et al., 2012). Below table demonstrated the % increases or decreases in stockholders equity of Boral limited: According to the above table, it is evaluated that common stock of the company has declined from 2% to -5% in 2014 to 2015. It is unfavorable for the company. It indicates that companys equity shareholders are not interested in investing the capital in its common stock. Further, it is stated that companys retained earning has increased from 9% to 15% in 2014 to 2015. It illustrated that company gets more surplus income from its assets. Statement of Profit and Loss Profit and loss report is defined as the financial report of the company which shows its financial performance over the particular accounting period. This statement states the business summary such as its revenue and expense that obtained by the working and non- working actions. This income statement also demonstrates the net income and losses that gained by the company over the particular accounting period (Flamholtz, 2012). There are main five elements of the profit and loss report named overall working revenues, the COGS, total operating expense, non-working gain or losses, and EPS (Bebbington, et al., 2014). Total operating revenues define as the revenue (sales) that is generated from the day-to-day business activities of the company. It means revenue is created by the company from selling its products and services. This is the essential for every organization to expand its business because these sales are carried on from one year to the next year (Weygandt, et al., 2015). Moreover, the cost of goods sold is the expenses that are a feature of the company to construct the goods sold. These costs are the material costs and direct labor costs, which are used by the company to sale of its goods in inventory. Total expenses are another element of the income statement that is the total amount of the COGS and working costs (Edwards, 2013). In this way, operating expenses include all costs associated with the company operation. In addition to this, non-operating activities expenses (extraordinary item) are the material expense or revenue item, which is characterized by both its extraordinary nature and irregularity of event. For instance, an extraordinary gain or extraordinary loss obtained by the company from selling its building. On the other side, non-operating profits are segment of firms income, which has incurred by those actions that are not associated to its core business process (Cao, et al., 2015). This income is included as the share profits, profits and losses from investments, gains or losses that are incurred due to foreign exchange, asset write-downs and other non-operating revenues and expenses. Moreover, earnings per share (EPS) is the another element of the income statement. It shows the dollars of net income which has earned by the company in a specific accounting period (Cortesi, et al., 2015). It demonstrates the companys per share of its common stock and is also known as ordinary shares. The following table illustrated the % increase or decrease in different segments of the income statement of Boral limited: From the above table, it is determined that total operating revenue has declined from 4% to -1% in 2014 to 2015. Because the company is less efficient to sell its product and services as compared to an earlier period so, it obtains less revenue from business operating activities. Further, the cost of goods sold has declined from 3% to -3% in 2014 to 2015. Because the company uses cost reduction tools in manufacturing and construct the design (Needles and Crosson, 2013). Further, company eliminates the wastage from manufacturing process such as overproduction, waiting time, and transportation costs, excess inventory, and unnecessary activity. Additional, the above table depicts that total expenses have shown a fall of 5% in 2015 as compared to 2014 (Boral Limited, 2015). In contrast to this, total expenses show the negative balance of 7% in 2014 as compared to 2013 which shows that the company has tried to cut down its expenses in 2015 (Boral Limited, 2013). Additionally, non-operating income has reduced 81% in 2015 as compared to 2014. In oppose to this, the income of non-operating activities has increased 10% in 2014 as compared to the earlier year. Because, the company obtains less dividend and losses from investment so, income has declined from extraordinary items. On the other side, earning per common share has declined from 36% to 20% in 2014 to 2015. It indicates that net income of the company has decreased in 2015 as compared to 2014 which shows that the profitability of the company was good in 2014. Statement of Cash Flow The cash flow statement (CFS) allows shareholders to understand the companys operating, financing and investing activities. Cash flow from operating activities (CFO) is the first element of CFS which represents the amount of capital that carry out by the company in ongoing activities, ordinary business activities like manufacturing and selling commodities or providing services. It does not entail the long-term capital and investment costs (Drury, 2013). CFO mainly measures the companys ability to generate the cash from its core operations excluding the ability to raise capital and purchase assets. CFO activities consider the cash inflows and outflows of the company that generates by main business activities like to buy and sell goods, and provide services (Collier, 2015). It also involves modification in WC like rising or declining stock, temporary debt, accounts receivable and accounts owed. On the other side, cash flow from financing activities is another element of CFS that accounts for external activities. This activity allows the company to boost the funds and repay shareholders like issue cash dividends, change advances and issue more stocks (Beatty, and Liao, 2014). This activity helps investors to understand the financial strength of the company. Moreover, Cash flow from investing activities is the another item on the CFS, which states the cumulative modification in the cash flow of the corporation like any gains (or losses) from investments in the monetary markets and operating subsidiaries (Demski, 2013). Further, cash position changes due to investments in capital assets like plant and equipment. Additionally, cash flow is the total amount of cash and cash equivalents that move into and out the business. In this way, favorable cash flow statement shows the liquid asset of the company has increased and also the company is enabled to settle its debts (Entwistle, 2015). Further, the company can reinvest in its business, the return to the shareholders are increased, pay expenses and get the buffer to overcome the future financial challenges. In oppose to this, unfavorable cash flow represents that liquid assets of the company have declined (Crosson and Needles, 2013). Cash flow is used by the investors to assess the quality income of the company. It also shows the liquid or solvent position of the company. From the above table, it can be depicted that net cash inflow is declined 18% in 2015 as compared to previous year. On the other side, net cash inflow has increased 64% as compared to 2013. It shows that company generates less cash inflow from operating activities in 2015 as compared to 2014. Furthermore, net cash inflow from financing activities has declined from 216% to -52% in the year of 2014 to 2015. It indicates that companys ability has declined to generate cash flow from financing activities in 2015 as compared to an earlier period. Moreover, cash flow from investing activities is negative (i.e. -121%) in 2015 which shows that company is less efficient to obtain the cash from investing activities. Besides this, net cash flow has declined -50% in 2015 as compared to 2014, which shows that company is less profitable, and also unable to maintain the liquidity position. Conclusion From the above interpretation, it is concluded that companys financial position is sound because it has sufficient amount of capital to run the operation cycle. It is stated that company enables to pay its short-term obligations. Further, it has a non-current asset but it is less efficient to pay its noncurrent liabilities. On the other side, it is summarized that companies retain earning has risen but still, it was unable to pay more dividend to its shareholders. Besides this, it is concluded that Boral limited is less profitable because its revenue is less and expenses are high. Furthermore, it is said that Boral limited unable to generate the cash inflow from its operating financing, and investing activities. As a result, its cash position or liquidation position is not good as compared to previous year. Recommendation It is recommended that company should improve its operating cycle period that takes the time to turn inventory into the cash. It can be an effective policy to pay long term debts or noncurrent liabilities. Additional, it is suggested that company should reinvest its retained earnings in other business to obtain the profit. Through this, it can distribute the more dividends to their shareholders. Further, the company should decline its expenses by making the effective policies that will be effective to increase the profit (Weil, et al., 2013). Additionally, company should sell their inventory in cash or decline the credit period to increase their profitability. On the other side, companys cash inflow is less and cash outflows are high. Hence, the company should adopt effective marketing strategies to sell their goods and services. This strategy includes the sales promotion, discount, and online and offline marketing strategy (Zaimah, et al., 2015). As a result, the company can increase its cash inflow from operating activities. Moreover, the company should borrow the fund from capital and money market (bond, notes, and mortgage) to increase their cash inflow (Warren, et al., 2013). Furthermore, the company should sell its old machinery to increase its cash inflow. 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