Understanding financial reports and notes to the financial statements

ACCT2105_ Group 12_ Team 5_ Understanding Financial Reporting Practice

ROYAL MELBOURNE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

Understanding Financial Reports and Notes to the Financial Statements

Subject Code: ACCT2105
Subject Name: Accounting in Organization & Society
Lecturer Name: Vinh Tran Phuc
Group Number: 12 _ Team Number: 05
Group Members:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Tran Quoc Dung _ S3877059
Nguyen Tran Nhut Nhi _ S3877069
Ngo Pham Minh Nhat _ S3868762
Thai Duc Hoang Son _ S3880603

Word Count: 1430
Page Number: 10

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ACCT2105_ Group 12_ Team 5_ Understanding Financial Reporting Practice

Name

Rating

Explaination

Nguyen Tran Nhut Nhi

Excellent (5)

She tried very hard to
guide and support each
member. She is a good
leader and managed not
only time but also
workload very well.

Excellent (5)

He participated in all
discussions and
supported others’ works.
He always met the
deadlines from the leader

Very good (4)

He partially supported
others’ works and did a
decent job on his part. He
is acceptably prepared

and cooperative.

Good (3)

Teammate reminded him
to be present in class to
thoroughly understand his
work (its opportunities to
help him ask the lecturer
directly to clarify) but he
didn't go. As a result, he
had a lot of questions that
his teammates tried to
explain but still couldn't
figure out. However, he
did quite well and post his
part clearly and Show
effort in the process of
doing assignment.

(s3877069)

Tran Quoc Dung
(s3877059)

Ngo Pham Minh Nhat
(3868762)

Thai Duc Hoang Son
(s3880603)

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ACCT2105_ Group 12_ Team 5_ Understanding Financial Reporting Practice

Contents
Introduction.......................................................................................................................... 2
Understanding financial statements in detail....................................................................2
What are the principal activities of the company?.....................................................2
What is the purpose of the auditor's report?..............................................................2
What opinion did the auditor give the financial statements......................................2
What does the above opinion mean?..........................................................................3
Explain one additional type of opinion the auditor could have given the financial
statements..................................................................................................................... 3
Understanding financial statements’ items........................................................................3
Balance Sheet................................................................................................................ 3
Income statement..........................................................................................................5
Statement of Cash flows............................................................................................... 6
Statement of Changes in Equity..................................................................................7
Conclusion............................................................................................................................ 8

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ACCT2105_ Group 12_ Team 5_ Understanding Financial Reporting Practice

I.

Introduction

Chevron is an American multinational energy corporation headquartered in San Ramon,
California (McGinley 2018). Chevron was the successor company of Standard Oil founded
by John D. Rockefeller in 1879. Currently, it is operating under the direction of Michael K.
Wirth (Chairman and the CEO) (Chevron 2020). To help Chevron's investors, market
analysts, or even owners make judicious investments, evaluate company's financial
performance comprehensively, as well as track their financial health and income potential,
Chevron have published Financial reports publicly to satisfy previous expectations (Calzon
2021). They have issued their latest completed Annual report in 2020. This report will give a
detailed analysis of Chevron's financial statements (FS), and its items (Balance Sheet,
Income statement, Statement of Cash flows and Statement of Changes in Equity), mainly in
2020.

II.

Understanding financial statements in detail
1. What are the principal activities of the company?

Figure 1: Main activities of Chevron Corporation (Chevron 2020)
Chevron is a manufacturing Oil and Natural Gas corporation that has covered more than 180
countries worldwide. Its main activities are exploitation, production, transportation, and
export of high-quality refined products, marine and aviation fuels, premium base oil, finished
lubricants, and fuel oil additives. Chevron also engages in hydrocarbon investigation and
production, petrochemicals manufacturing, and power generation. Furthermore, they have
recently begun to research clean pomegranate fuels as well as biodegradable solvents
(Chevron 2020).
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ACCT2105_ Group 12_ Team 5_ Understanding Financial Reporting Practice

2. What is the purpose of the auditor's report?
The primary objective of an audit of a company's financial statements is to empower the
auditor to determine whether the entity's financial statements have been correctly prepared
based on the relevant accounting system, and to demonstrate management's confidence in
the entity's owners. (Mohamed Elborno 2019)

3. What opinion did the auditor give the financial statements
After auditing the balance sheets of Chevron and its auxiliaries, it can be concluded that the
consolidated financial statements of Chevron presented legally necessary information such
as cash flows and results of operations, which are basically accepted in American
accounting regulations, as of the end of 2020 and 2019. Therefore, the opinion of Chevron is
Unqualified Opinion. (Page 56 report 2020)

4. What does the above opinion mean?
An unqualified opinion expressed when the auditor concludes that the financial statements
have been prepared, in every material regard, as per the appropriate financial reporting
framework. The Chevron Annual Report 2020 clearly states almost everything needed in a
financial statement which is from page 53 to 100 of the report. This means that Chevron's
annual report is an unqualified opinion.

5. Explain one additional type of opinion the auditor could have given the
financial statements.
To assume that Chevron hasn’t represented inventory accurately, has kept inadequate
records in its cash accounts, and didn't give sufficient records to audit for devaluation, the
auditor could give the Qualified opinion in the Chevron financial statements. That is because
qualified opinions have been issued if a company has deficient disclosures in the
commentaries to the financial statements, when limitation of scope appears in which the
auditor couldn't accumulate adequate proof to support different parts of the FS (Davoren
2019).

III.

Understanding financial statements’ items
1. Balance Sheet

A balance sheet helps market stakeholders and investors in surveying an
organization's in general financial condition and ability to meet its working costs. It
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ACCT2105_ Group 12_ Team 5_ Understanding Financial Reporting Practice

can also be used to figure out how to satisfy the financial commitments and the best
ways to fund activities with credit.

(Source: Chevron annual report supplement 2020)
Regarding the above figure, we see that the total current asset of 2018 is higher than the
rest of the years. As for total liabilities, they prevailed in 2016 and 2017 but then decreased
significantly. In particular, the total current inventory has remained at a stable level for 4
years, showing that they handle inventory at an acceptable level.

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ACCT2105_ Group 12_ Team 5_ Understanding Financial Reporting Practice

(Source: Chevron annual report supplement 2020)
The fact that the Chevron company has increasing debt (including the final debt as well as
the Ratio of total debt to total debt-plus-Chevron Corporation stockholders' equity proves

that Chevron's The financial picture is facing a lot of difficulties in terms of debt for
shareholders, because the company's earnings have been in a loss since the pandemic,
around $5,543, which significantly affects the profit-sharing ratio with shareholders. During
the difficult period of the epidemic, if not handled properly, the debt may pile up and they
have a high risk of bankruptcy.

2. Income statement
In general, the main purpose of Income Statement is presenting revenue of an organization
and expenses, which helps the organization maintain in a specific duration (Birt et al. 2019),
to predict the changes of financial performance in the coming years based on information
from the present years.

Figure 3: The mixed graph of income statement of Chevron Corporation from 2016 to
2020.
Gross Profit is the profit of a company made after removing variable cost with making and
selling its goods and services. Chevron’s profit was at peak in FY2018 and it significantly
decreased until FY2020. The drop in gross profit, which accounted for almost 36%
compared to 2019, could be affected by the reduction in the sales and the product prices
during the period 2019-2020. To prevent the spread of Covid-19, many restriction regulations

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ACCT2105_ Group 12_ Team 5_ Understanding Financial Reporting Practice
have been approved, thus, the demand on Chevron’s products have dropped down
seriously.
Gross Profit Margin is the percentage of the total sales achieved divided by the total revenue
of the company in the same period. Chevron’s profit margin increased approximately 4%
during the 2016 - 2020 period, and was at the top in FY2019. However, it declined slightly by
around 0.7% from 2019 to 2020 due to the deduction of gross profit and the sales.

Net income is the profit of a company made after all expenses, revenue and other income
are accounted for. In the 2016-2020 period, Chevron’s Net Income was almost in the positive
range. The increase in operating expenses as well as the decrease in the income have
significantly affected the result in FY2020 that Chevron spent more money in operating but
received less due to the Covid-19.

3. Statement of Cash flows
The purposes of a Cash flow statement are to provide detailed information of the cash
inflows and outflows of an organization, as well as assist in evaluating the ability of a
company to generate cash flows, meet financial commitments, or get external accounts.
(Slides 24, Week 10, RMIT 2021).

Figure 4: The mixed graph of the changes of Chevron’s Cash flows from 2016 to 2020.
Operating cash flow (OCF) is the measure of cash produced by the working activities of a
business in a particular period (CFI 2021). Chevron's OCF in FY2018 was $30.6 billion that
was the highest level Chevron had ever achieved. Chevron tightened management on
working capital and received the highest profitability. In 2020, the Net cash ($10.6B) was an
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ACCT2105_ Group 12_ Team 5_ Understanding Financial Reporting Practice
estimated 60.17% decline in comparison with FY2019 ($27,314B) because of the price
slump, curtailed production, and profit’s sharp decline in the Covid-19 period (Chevron
2020).
Investing cash flow (ICF) addresses the amount of money utilized or created from
investment-related activities of a company (Radonovic 2020). ICF is negative over 5 years
because Chevron spent capital expenditure and purchased a large number of fuel
production machines, as an outflow cash. In FY2016, investment cash flow was deficit most
due to higher exploration expenses (Chevron 2016). However, it was the best in 2020
because Chevron reduced capital spending and fixed asset procurement by 30% in the

Covid-19 era (Foelber 2020).
Financing cash flow (FCF) is a segment of an organization's cash flow statement, which
shows the net cash flows that are utilized to endowment the company (CFI 2021). Chevron’s
FCF shows the negative figures (2017-2020) because they repurchased depository shares.
In the Covid-19 epidemic, Chevron has to pay for obligation issuance, prepayment of debts.
In general, Chevron Corp's. Net cash used for financing activities decreased from 2018 to
2019, and extended from 2019 to 2020 outperforming the 2018 level.

4. Statement of Changes in Equity
$M

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

Net income (loss)

5,543

2,924

14,824

9,195

497

Total assets

239,790

237,428

253,863

253,806

260,078

131,688

144,213

154,554

148,124

145,556

1,911,018

1,868,000

1,888,670

1,890,534

1,877,338

Total equity
Common

shares

(Thousands)

outstanding

(Table 1: Information of statement of changes in equity. Synthesized from Chevron annual report
2020 and 2018)
Equity is the residual interest in the assets of the entity after deducting its liabilities (Slide 22, week
10, RMIT 2021). The table above shows that Chevron's equity declines year on year. From the data,
it’s obvious that their total equity decreased from 144,213 million of US dollars in 2019 to 131,688
million of US dollars. In more detail, the company has reduced its investments in Petropiar and
Petroboscan in Venezuela. The effects of these impairments are included in Income (losses) from
joint stock associates on the Consolidated Income Statement. The company reported a decline for a
number of joint stock companies in 2019 mainly because of capital allocation choices and longterm commodity price viewpoint. (Chevron annual report 2020). In addition, ignoring the decline
in equity of stockholders, their outstanding shares have increased slightly over the past year.
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ACCT2105_ Group 12_ Team 5_ Understanding Financial Reporting Practice

IV.

Conclusion

Overall, Chevron has faced many constraints from the Covid 19 pandemic and as a result increased
liabilities, reduced profits and total income. However, Chevron's slight increase in share
repurchases and stable dividend payment shows that top management and investors have
confidence in the company's future growth along with a good liquidity ratio to ensure the interests
of their shareholders.

V.

References

Birt, J, Chalmers, K, Maloney, S, Brooks, A, Oliver, J & Bond D 2019, Accounting: Business Reporting
for Decision Making, 7th edn, ProQuest Ebook Central Database.
Calzon, B 2021, The Importance of Financial Reporting And Analysis: Your Essential Guide, blog,
Data Pine, viewed 15 May 2021, < >
CFI 2021, What is Operating Cash Flow?, CFI for Business, viewed 17 May 2021,
< >
Chevron 2016, Annual Report, Chevron, viewed 17 May 2021,
< />Chevron 2020, Chevron Announces Fourth Quarter 2020 Results, Chevron, viewed 16 May 2021,
< >
Davoren, J 2019, The Difference Between a Qualified & Unqualified Audit Report, Chron Small
Business, viewed 15 May 2021, < >
Foelber, D 2020, Is Chevron Stock a Buy?, The Motley Fool, viewed 17 May 2021,
< /> >
McGinley 2018, Who are the biggest energy corporations?, McGinley, viewed 15 May 2021,
< />Radonovic, G 2020, Cash Flow from Investing Activities, Financial Edge, viewed 17 May 2021,
<ining/free-resources/accounting/cash-flow-from-investing-activities/>
Tran, V 2021, ‘General purpose financial statements – further consideration of the income

statement, the statement of changes in equity, and the statement of cash flow’, lecture notes,
ACCT2105, RMIT University, viewed 17 May
2021,< />
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