Free Essay on Financial Accounting Reports

Elements of Longer Messages

A report refers to written or spoken account of things that an individual has observed, investigated, heard or done. Reports are said to be audience specific since it is often directed to a particular group of people (Lloyd, 2013).

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

The title page of a report should be short but catchy. It should describe clearly the purpose of the report in a nutshell. After the title page is made appropriately, the other part of the greater consideration of a report is a term of reference. This should indicate the audience to who the report is directed, the purpose of writing the report, and how the report is written. What follows the term of references is abstract. The abstract should be a summary of the whole content of the report, covering the aims, findings, and recommendations. The table of content and introduction follow after the abstract. A report should present a fulfilling discussion and conclusion of the subject matter. Some other reports will have a bibliography, appendices, glossary and many other secondary parts.

Report analysis is, however, a little different from mere reporting. It involves an intensive exploration of available data to extract meaningful information, which can then be used in decision making. Report analysis is common in companies and institutions. In report analysis, the raw data is translated into meaningful information (Lloyd, 2013).

Types of Reports

There are several types of reports. The primary divisions of reports are the formal and informal reports. Formal reports are official documents created to serve official duties. They are inclusive of analytical reports, informational reports, as well as recommendation reports. The informal reports include literature reviews, financial reports, and progress reports.

Analytical reports are designed to present an analysis of results so that its readers can understand a particular prevailing situation. For instance, a manager of a company may choose to prepare an analytical report to the stakeholders, and the general public, to explain the current state of the company. The analytical report may explain how the organization works. The difference between analytical and the other primary reports is that it only presents the analysis of the data provided. It involves more work since one has to consider the data carefully and make conclusions (Lloyd, 2013). The report presented here for the HP Company is an illustration of an analytical report.

Three-Step Writing Process

In preparing the analytical reports, just like any other report, there are three significant steps. The steps are Planning, Writing, and Completing. A writer must plan, write and complete. In planning, the audience is considered, the right medium is selected, and the information is organized. In the writing process, the message is composed by selecting appropriate words. Finally, the last process involves revising the message, proofreading, and dissemination (Lloyd, 2013).

In the following analytical report of the Hewlett-Packard Company, the three steps are evident. The report writer identifies that, despite the company being a producer of technological products, the report is directed to the business people. There report, therefore, does not dwell on the products, but rather the financial status and the business environment. Then the message is composed by using appropriate technical terms such as firms, enterprises, and workforce. Finally, the completion of the report involves proofreading and dissemination. It is due to the dissemination process that we can access the report.

Report Analysis of the Hewlett-Packard Company on the Executive Compensation

Hewlett-Packard Company, hereafter referred to as HP, separated into two independent firms. The two emerging firms are the HP Inc. and the HP Enterprise. The former comprises of the Company's printing and personal, while the latter consists of the Company's enterprise infrastructure in technology, software, and financing businesses.

HP is a leading company in technology globally. The company provides cutting-edge technology solutions to optimize their traditional Information Technology. Following the separation of the company into two independent firms, the HP Inc. is made up of Personal System, Printing, and the Cooperate Investment. The HP Enterprises comprises of Financial Services, Software, and Cooperate Investment. With the strong workforce of the company, the management embarked on a scheme to establish an effective compensation schedule. The scheme has succeeded in rewarding both the long-term and the short-term co-operate governance.

Financial Analysis

The company has invested billions of dollars in purchasing assets. Poor management in the last few years has raised concerns and liabilities in the company. For effective restoration of the customerts trust, leadership reshuffling has been done. In 2013, Meg Whitman of eBay became the manager to take over the marketing, operational and financial operations. The financial position of the company has suffered a drastic drop in the overall market value (Shaikh, 2008). The profit margins have been recorded to be resting far below those of the leading competitors, the IBM and the Apple.

Industry Analysis

HP is one of the biggest companies in the world, producing several various types of computers, scanners, servers, services, printers, and software. The size of the industry has continued to grow over the years. In the market, the industry faces challenges such us competition. The main competitors are the Dell, IBM, Apple and Accenture (Shaikh, 2008). The company also faces the challenge of the many products it has to provide the customers with. However, concerning competition, the company survives well because of the many packaged deals offered to the customers.

It can be concluded that HP is not the best company to consider investing with, especially on its current debt situation. However, due to the separation of the company into two independent firms, there is hope that the situation is going to be reversed soon. The management of the company at the moment has a vast experience to save it from the danger of being pushed out of the market by the competitors. The pullout has to be implemented with high expertise so as to avoid fatal attempts to reduce prices unnecessarily.

References

Lloyd, T. K. (2013).T Successful Stock Signals for Traders and Portfolio Managers: Integrating

Technical Analysis with Fundamentals to Improve Performance. Hoboken: Wiley.

Shaikh, J. (2008). Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) accounting for decision analysis: a case in

international financial statement analysis.T International Journal Of Managerial And Financial Accounting,T 1(1), 75. http://dx.doi.org/10.1504/ijmfa.2008.020463

The Fortune 500. (January 01, 2012).T Fortune,T 9, 161-211.