Short Description

The course is designed to give students an introduction to the main financial accounting concepts and to develop an understanding of the interpretation of financial statements, partly through understanding the effects of core financial transactions, reading financial reports and investigating how financial accounts are prepared and the accounting figures are created. This is an introductory course that assumes no prior knowledge of accounting.

Timetable

• Lectures: 10 x 2 hours of lectures
• Tutorials: 4 x 1 hour tutorial

Course Aims

The general aim of this course is to provide a challenging and interesting introduction to the ideas and practices of financial accounting. The course will explore the form and function of financial reporting and the nature of data used in the production of financial statements and how this data is collected and processed in the preparation of financial reports, with reference to the underlying accounting concepts. The principal focus will be related to the interpretation and use of the financial data by non-accounting stakeholders.

Intended Learning Outcomes of Course

By the end of this course students should be able to:

1. Explain the nature and purpose of the three major financial statements and assess their usefulness for various purposes within the context of regulation in financial reporting in the UK, including the implications of international regulatory structures.

2. Compare and contrast the features of different types of accounting entity, and be aware of the implications of organisational form on the structure and nature of financial statements.

3. Describe, apply and explain the meaning of key financial accounting terms, concepts and ideas and be able to discuss and illustrate the implications of these in relation to accounting data and financial reports.

4. Show an understanding of the basic accounting concepts by applying them (particularly the accruals concept) in order to make adjustments to accounting figures or financial statements &/or to process bookkeeping entries related to a range of financial transactions or situations.

5. Describe the main features of the principal sources of finance available to businesses and evaluate the implications of these for the structure and content of financial statements, and be able to implement these in the drafting of extracts of or figures within financial reports.

6. Conduct a basic analysis of financial statements from the perspectives of different stakeholder groups and interpret and evaluate financial statements and the results of the analysis.

7. Discuss and evaluate the limitations of financial reports, ratios and other tools and methods of financial analysis.

*Course content subject to change