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1	Explain and apply the concepts that underlie the preparation of general purpose financial statements.
2	Explain the purpose of, and factors which influence the content of, a Statement of Financial Position, a Statement of Comprehensive Income and a Statement of Cash Flows.
3	Prepare a simple Statement of Comprehensive Income, Statement of Financial Position and Statement of Cash Flows.
4	Discuss the various business structures through which an entity can operate.
5	Discuss the accounting system (source documents, journals, ledgers) used to record, classify and summarise transactions.
6	Explain and apply the rules of debit and credit.
7	Record transactions using the accounting system.
8	Prepare adjusting entries and an adjusted trial balance.
9	prepare financial statements from an adjusted trial balance or using a worksheet.
10	Record transactions and prepare a set of financial statements using the MYOB computer package.
11	Discuss and account for various assets including inventory, receivables and non-current assets.
12	Account for various organisation structures including sole proprietors, partnerships and companies.
13	Analyse financial statements.
14	Participate in tutorial discussions.
15	Write analytical short answers.
16	Be aware of ethical issues in business.
17	Be aware of the changing business environment, in particular in relation to accounting procedures and developments of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).

Text Books:
Hoggett, J., Medlin, J., Edwards, L., Tilling, M. & Hogg, E., Financial Accounting, 2012, 8th Edition, John Wiley & Sons.

Accounting Practice Sets – Assignment 2 will involve practice sets and further information will be provided at a later date.

Financial press:
In this course we may use articles from the financial press to illustrate the concepts discussed. All major newspapers have a business section and many are currently on the internet. The Australian Financial Review is the most comprehensive financial newspaper in Australia.

Use of the internet:
Accounting Concepts and Methods (M) will make use of various internet sites which are accounting related. Access to the internet can be via the library or various computer pools located within the university.

• Course resources are available on the course website: :
• Course materials (topic outlines and powerpoint slides).
• Selected workshop answers.
• A sample examination with suggested answers and a sample test with suggested answers.
• Assignment and test material.
  
  

Lectures and tutorials

Each three hour session will provide students with accounting concepts that underpin all accounting procedures, and give explanations and examples of analysing, recording, and summarising accounting information in formats suitable for users to make economic decisions. The material presented will be expanded and reinforced with in-class questions and problems that can be done individually or in groups during the three hour session. This will be further reinforced with set homework that will be discussed prior to the start of the next topic.

The University expects full-time students (i.e. those taking 12 units per semester) to devote a total of 48 hours per week to their studies. This means that you are expected to commit approximately 9 hours for a three-unit course or 13 hours for a four-unit course of private study outside of your regular classes.

Students in this course are expected to attend all sessions.

Accounting Concepts and Methods (M) covers the topics outlined below. Topics include: accounting information in its decision making context; accounting systems and the accounting cycle; external financial reports; accounting for assets; different organisational structures; and financial statement analysis.

The schedule of lecture topics for the course is as follows:

WEEK BEGINNING	TOPIC	READING - TEXT
Jan 7	Accounting and decision making, regulatory framework for external reports and forms of organisation.	Chapter 1, pp. 2 – 13; Chapter 2, pp. 29 – 33; Chapter 8, pp. 341 – 344; Chapter 9, pp. 376 – 380; Chapter 10, pp. 428 – 434; and Chapter 17, pp. 716 – 720.
	Conceptual framework, Statement of Financial Position.	Chapter 2, pp. 31 – 33 and 37 - 40; Chapter 10, pp. 436 – 451; and Chapter 17, pp. 722 – 725.
	Measurement of profit, Statement of Comprehensive Income and Statement of Cash Flows.	Chapter 10, pp. 449 – 450; Chapter 17, pp. 720 – 721; and Chapter 18, pp. 748 – 768 and 787 - 788.
Jan 14	Recording financial transactions.	Chapter 2, pp. 41 – 45, Chapter 3, and Appendix Chapter 3, pp. 102-104.
	Adjusting entries and the accounting cycle.	Chapter 4 and Chapter 5
	Accounting for retailing.	Chapter 6
Jan 21	Manual and computerised accounting systems.	Chapter 7
	Cash management and control.	Chapter 11
	Accounting for receivables and Accounting for inventory.	Chapter 12 and Chapter 13
Jan 28	Accounting for non-current assets.	Chapter 14, pp. 599-616 and Chapter 15, pp 638-648 and pp.653-658
	Accounting for partnerships and companies.	Chapter 8, pp. 342 - 356 and Chapter 9, pp. 376 – 380, pp. 382 – 405.
	Financial statement analysis.	Chapter 19, pp. 826 – 849.
To be advised	Final Examination

Assessment	Due Date and time	Weighting	Related Learning Outcome
Short Answer format test Summative	Held during the session on Wednesday 15 January	5 %	1 & 15
Test Summative	Held during the session on Cash Management and Control Wednesday 22 January	20 %	1,2,3,4,5,6,7,and 8
Assignment: Part 1 Part 2 Formative and Summative	To be announced	15 %	6,7,8,9,15,16, and 17
Final Examination 3 hours	TBC	60%	All
Total		100%

To gain a pass for this course, a mark of at least 45% must be obtained on the final examination as well as a total of at least 50% overall result.
Students not achieving the minimum final examination mark will be awarded no more than 49 for the course.

The assessment components are as follows:

Short Answer format test: 5%

A 20 minute „short answer format‟ test covering Topics 1 to 3 will be held during the session on Wednesday 15 January. Students must demonstrate they can explain underlying accounting concepts and apply these concepts to practical problems using the short answer format as specified in the Business School „Communication Skills Guide‟ guidelines:


 The topic will be introduced in the first session on Tuesday 7 January. A practice short answer test will be held on Thursday 9 January during the session. Further information on the short answer format test will be provided via Myuni.

Test: 20%

A one and half hour class test will be held during the session on Wednesday 22 January. The test will cover Topics 1 to 5. A sample test with suggested answers will be available on MyUni.

Assignment 2: 15%

Assignment 2 is in two parts. Both parts require students to record transactions for a period of one month for a fictitious company, and prepare financial statements at the end of the month. Part 1 involves the manual recording of the transactions; in Part 2, the transactions are recorded in MYOB – a widely used computerised accounting package. This assignment will be required to be completed online.

Final Exam: 60%
There will be a three (3) hour examination. The examination covers all of the topics studied in the course. A sample examination and the suggested answers will be available on MyUni.

Notes on Assessment

In this course, students’ continuing assessment will be assessed using specific guidelines and marking criteria determined by the lecturer-in-charge.

Legible hand-writing and the quality of English expression are considered to be integral parts of the assessment process. Marks may be deducted in the mid-semester test and the final examination because of poor hand-writing.

Students in this course are not permitted to take a DICTIONARY (English or English-Foreign) into the examination. In this course, the use of a calculator that is incapable of storing text is permitted in the examination.

Assignment Guidelines including Referencing Details

A copy of the Postgraduate Programs: Communication Skills Guide will have been given to you at the beginning of your program. This guide will assist you structure your assignments. A copy of the guide can also be downloaded from:

This publication also provides guidelines on a range of other important communication skills including writing essays and management reports, making oral presentations etc.

In preparing any written piece of assessment for your postgraduate studies, it is important to draw on the relevant ‘literature’ to support critical analysis. Also essential is to reference the literature used. Correct referencing is important because it identifies the source of the ideas and arguments that you present, and sometimes the source of the actual words you use, and helps to avoid the problem of plagiarism. (Further information on plagiarism is provided later in this course outline.)
The Harvard system is widely used in the Business School. Guidelines for the use of this style of referencing can be found in the Communication Skills Guide.

Further assistance with referencing is available from the Faculty’s Learning Support Advisors. The contact details are provided on page 6 of the Communication Skills Guide.

Presentation of Assignments

Please retain a copy of all assignments submitted.

Please attach an ‘Assignment Cover Sheet’, which must be signed and dated by you before submission. Please read carefully the statement you are signing as it relates to plagiarism.

Lecturers can refuse to accept assignments, which do not have a signed acknowledgement of the University’s policy on plagiarism (http://www.adelaide.edu.au/policies/230).

Students must not submit work for an assignment that has previously been submitted for this course or any other course without prior approval from the lecturer-in-charge.

Late Assignment Submission

Students are expected to submit their work by the due date to maintain a fair and equitable system. Extensions will generally only be given for medical or other serious reasons.

All requests for extensions must be emailed to the lecturer in charge of the course a minimum of 5 days before the due date. Each request will be assessed on its merits. A late assignment (without prior arrangement) will be penalised by 20% of the total assignment mark for each day that it is late.

Return of Assignments

Assignments will be returned to students within one (1) week of the due date with written feedback. Students are responsible for collecting their marked assignments at the appropriate session. If assignments aren’t collected, the assignments will be available at the Postgraduate Student Hub on Level 1, Nexus 10 until the end of semester. Thereafter, the remaining assignments will be destroyed.