22748 Financial Reporting and Analysis
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particular session, location and mode of offering is the authoritative source
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Subject handbook information prior to 2025 is available in the Archives.
Credit points: 6 cp
Subject level:
Postgraduate
Result type: Grade and marksRequisite(s): 22747 Accounting for Managerial Decisions OR 22800 Understanding Accounting and Financial Reports
These requisites may not apply to students in certain courses.
There are course requisites for this subject. See access conditions.
Description
This subject covers the theoretical principles underlying financial reporting and the application of key current and proposed accounting standards applied in the preparation of financial statements. The subject also provides students with the skills and competencies to undertake the accounting analysis of financial statements. Accounting analysis allows students to analyse the accounting information revealed by management to determine the sources and effects of distortions on this information. This is an intermediate level financial accounting subject.
Subject learning objectives (SLOs)
| 1. | demonstrate understanding and undertake accounting analysis of key financial reporting issues in the financial statements |
|---|---|
| 2. | analyse financial statement information to identify sources and effects of estimation errors and distortions arising from the social/human dimension of financial reporting |
| 3. | identify the theoretical principles and regulation which underlie accounting practice |
| 4. | implement national and international accounting standards that govern the key items included in financial reports |
Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs)
This subject also contributes specifically to the following program learning objectives:
- Demonstrate high level technical skills necessary to operate effectively in professional accounting practice (4.1)
Contribution to the development of graduate attributes
This subject is concerned with external reporting by companies and the theoretical and practical issues relating to the formation of those financial reports. It is not primarily technique oriented, but emphasises the conceptual issues relating to the application of accounting techniques. Upon successful completion of this subject, students will have developed the ability to judge the interplay of ethics and incentives in generating financial information.
This subject contributes to the development of the following graduate attribute(s):
- Professional and technical competence
- Social responsibility and cultural awareness
- Communication and collaboration
This subject also contributes specifically to develop the following Program Learning Objective(s) for the Master of Professional Accounting:
- Communicate accounting information and decisions clearly in an appropriate form to business stakeholders (2.2)
Teaching and learning strategies
Under this subject’s model of student centered?learning, student engagement with the subject matter is the paramount driving force for learning. A variety of supporting resources is provided, including pre?released PowerPoint slides, videos, drop?in sessions, screencasts, class recordings and a student discussion board. The discussion board enables collaborative learning through discussion with peers about content. Collaborative learning is also enabled through group activities focused on a set problem. Students are thus able to select the learning strategy that best matches their individual personal learning styles. All problems in this subject are either direct or stylised real-world problems dealing with financial reporting and the incentives underlying it. The subject this authentically assesses students’ ability to deal with genuine workplace situations.
As structure is also important in a domain new to the learner, classes fill an important role for scaffolding the structure of the knowledge domain. There are five stages to the learning process for each topic.
- Student investigation. Students investigate each new topic using the ‘lecture’ slides, set readings, other readings, videos, screencasts and other materials made available via the learning management system and other sources.
- Class Introduction. The introduction takes up the second part of each class and is used to outline the ideas and concepts underlying each new topic. Illustrations of the application of these ideas and concepts are integrated into this part of the class through exercises, discussion problems and cases for each topic.
- Student foundation?building. Students work through sets of exercises in their own time, to bed down the concepts and ideas from stages (1) and (2) in preparation for the application stage. At the same time, they are undertaking stage (1) for the next topic.
- Skill Application. The first part of each class involves students working in groups through a set in?class problem(s) or case study(ies). This may involve testing technical skills, deliberating over measurement or incentive issues, or otherwise considering the topic’s concepts more broadly. Students are encouraged to test their understanding during this phase through collaboration with peers when working on the set case study or problem. In selected weeks, an in?class quiz is also set.
- Discussion and Reflection. The topic is concluded by a group and class discussion of the in?class problem and related issues.
Students have the opportunity for feedback on each week’s homework, the in?class problems (which are discussed in class) and regular in?class quizzes (providing more formal summative and formative feedback).
Content (topics)
- Financial reporting regulation and theory
- Accounting for assets and intangible assets
- Accounting for equities and liabilities
- Accounting for income
- Accounting for income tax
- Accounting for leases
- Accounting for natural resource and agricultural activities
- Accounting for foreign currency
- Accounting for financial instruments
Assessment
Assessment task 1: Group Study (group)
| Intent: | This assessment is aligned with the graduate attributes Communication and collaboration; and Professional and technical competence. |
|---|---|
| Objective(s): | This addresses subject learning objective(s): 1, 2 and 3 |
| Weight: | 25% |
| Length: | This information is provided in the assignment document available on Canvas. |
| Criteria: | This assessment will be graded on the following criteria:
|
Assessment task 2: Quiz (individual)*
| Intent: | This assessment is aligned with the graduate attribute Professional and technical competence. |
|---|---|
| Objective(s): | This addresses subject learning objective(s): 2, 3 and 4 |
| Weight: | 25% |
| Length: | Must be completed within 120 minutes. |
| Criteria: | This assessment will be graded on the following criteria:
*Note: Late submission of the assessment task will not be marked and awarded a mark of zero. Students who do not complete the mid-session online quiz will receive a zero for this assessment. However, conditional on the students submitting, receiving approval and complying with the requirements of special consideration in accordance with the UTS rules, the weighting of this assessment will be added to the final examination. If the composite mark for the final exam totals more than 50 percent and the student is in their final subject of their degree, the UTS rules on borderline result (range of 45-49) shall apply whereby students will be allowed to undertake a supplementary final examination. Where a student completes and passes a supplementary examination, the maximum mark awarded for the subject will be 50 Pass. |
Assessment task 3: Final Exam (individual)
| Intent: | This assessment is aligned with the graduate attribute Professional and technical competence. A student must achieve 50% or more of the subject’s total marks AND achieve 40% or more in the final exam to pass the subject. |
|---|---|
| Objective(s): | This addresses subject learning objective(s): 2, 3 and 4 This addresses program learning objectives(s): 4.1 |
| Weight: | 50% |
| Length: | Two hours. |
| Criteria: | This assessment will be graded on the following criteria:
|
Minimum requirements
A student must achieve 50% or more of the subject’s total marks AND achieve 40% or more in the final exam to pass the subject.
A Fail (X) Grade is awarded to a student who attains 50% or more of the overall subject assessment marks but attains less than 40% of the final exam marks. To pass the subject, the student must then attain 50% or more of the marks in the supplementary task, in which case the student is awarded an overall mark of 50P.
Required texts
Janice Loftus, Ken Leo, Sorin Daniliuc, Belinda Luke, Hong Ang, Mike Bradbury, Dean Hanlon, Noel Boys, Karyn Byrnes, Financial Reporting, 4th edition, Wiley, Sydney, 2022.
There are both hard copy and digital versions of this text available for purchase. A link to purchase the text is available on Canvas.
References
- Australian Accounting Standards Board, accounting standards available for download at: www.aasb.gov.au
- Henderson, S., Peirson, G. and Herbohn, K. Issues in Financial Accounting, 14th edition, Pearson Australia, 2010.
- Palepu, K., Bernard, V. and Healy, P. Business Analysis & Valuation Using Financial Statements, 4th edition, South Western College Publishing, Ohio, 2007.
- Penman, S.H. Financial Statement Analysis and Security Valuation, 4th edition, McGraw-Hill, New York, 2010.
- Chartered Accountants Australia New Zealand, Financial Reporting Handbook, John-Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2015.
Other resources
Self-study questions and solutions for each topic are provided on Canvas. Students are expected to work through these questions on their own time. Practice quizzes are available for each topic on WileyPlus.