ACCT602 - Financial Accounting and Reporting

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

ACCT600 Accounting for Decision Making

Teaching organisation

Unit rationale, description and aim

The Accounting Professional Bodies classify financial accounting and reporting skills as a core competency area for accountants. This unit has been designed to extend your technical knowledge of financial accounting and reporting issues within a contemporary global reporting environment. The unit has also been designed to provide you with the opportunity to develop an understanding of the relationship between accounting and the economic, social and natural environments. This unit aims to provide you with the ability to prepare financial reports in line with statutory requirements. It will also provide you with the opportunity to focus on the concept of accountability and to what extent conventional accounting discharges the public interest commitment of the accounting profession.  

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

LO1 - Promote and demonstrate compliance and stewardship of ethical accounting using the new standards of reporting in sustainability such as Triple Bottom Line reporting (GA2, GA5).

LO2 - Master autonomous and collaborative working skills through evaluating the accounting code of ethics (GA5, GA7).

LO3 - Recognise various accounting conceptual and regulatory frameworks, including the Corporations Act of Australia that underlie accounting practice and, using professional judgement, validate the appropriateness of accounting policies used to prepare financial statements (GA4, GA5).

LO4 - Construct and present general purpose financial statements and cash flow statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) or other relevant national standards (GA5, GA6). 

LO5 - Record a range of complex financial accounting events for various business structures drawing on IFRS and other relevant national standards and disclose that information in general purpose financial statements (GA5).

Graduate attributes

GA2 - recognise their responsibility to the common good, the environment and society

GA4 - think critically and reflectively 

GA5 - demonstrate values, knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession 

GA6 - solve problems in a variety of settings taking local and international perspectives into account 

GA7 - work both autonomously and collaboratively 

Content

Topics will include:

• Stewardship, ethics and sustainability including the triple bottom line
• The conceptual framework and regulatory frameworks of accounting including the Corporations Act of Australia
• Assets including inventories, property plant and equipment and intangible assets, amortisation, depreciation, revaluation & impairment and their associated accounting standards
• Liabilities, provisions and contingent liabilities and their associated accounting standards
• Share capital and reserves and their associated accounting standards
• General purpose financial statements and cash flow statements in accordance with IAS1/AASB10 Presentation of Financial Statements and IAS7/AASB107 Statement of Cash Flows, IFRS and other relevant national standards
• Revenue recognition issues
• Accounting for basic companies
• Accounting for employee benefits
• Accounting for financial instruments and share-based payments
• Working collaboratively in the financial accounting context

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

ACU’s teaching policy focuses on learning outcomes for students. Our teaching aims to engage students as active participants in the learning process while acknowledging that all learning must involve a complex interplay of active and receptive processes, the constructing of meaning for oneself, and learning from others. ACU promotes and facilitates learning that is autonomous and self-motivated, is characterised by the individual taking satisfaction in the mastering of content and skills and is critical, looking beneath the surface level of information for the meaning and significance of what is being studied.

The schedule of the workshop is designed in such a way that students can achieve intended learning outcomes sequentially. Teaching and learning activities will apply the experiential learning model, which encourages students to apply higher order thinking. The unit ensures that learning activities involve real-world scenarios that in turn assist with ‘real-world’ preparedness. The unit also uses a scaffolding technique that builds a student’s skills and prepares them for the next phase of the learning process.

This unit is structured with required upfront preparation before workshops, most students report that they spend an average of one hour preparing before the workshop and one or more hours after the workshop practicing and revising what was covered. The online learning platforms used in this unit provide multiple forms of preparatory and practice opportunities for students to prepare and revise. It is up to individual students to ensure that the out of class study is adequate for the optimal learning outcomes and successes.

Mode of delivery: This unit is offered in different modes. These are: “Attendance” mode, “Blended” mode and “Online” mode. This unit is offered in three modes to cater to the learning needs and preferences of a range of participants and maximise effective participation for isolated and/or marginalised groups. 

Attendance Mode

In a weekly attendance mode, students will require face-to-face attendance in specific physical location/s. Students will have face-to-face interactions with lecturer(s) to further their achievement of the learning outcomes. This unit is structured with required upfront preparation before workshops, most students report that they spend an average of one hour preparing before the workshop and one or more hours after the workshop practicing and revising what was covered. The online learning platforms used in this unit provide multiple forms of preparatory and practice opportunities for students to prepare and revise.

Blended Mode

In a blended mode, students will require intermittent face-to-face attendance determined by the School. Students will have face-to-face interactions with lecturer(s) to further their achievement of the learning outcomes. This unit is structured with required upfront preparation before workshops. The online learning platforms used in this unit provide multiple forms of preparatory and practice opportunities for students to prepare and revise.

Online Mode

In an online mode, students are given the opportunity to attend facilitated synchronous online seminar classes with other students and participate in the construction and synthesis of knowledge, while developing their knowledge. Students are required to participate in a series of online interactive workshops which include activities, knowledge checks, discussion and interactive sessions. This approach allows flexibility for students and facilitates learning and participation for students with a preference for virtual learning.

Assessment strategy and rationale

Assessments are used primarily to foster learning. ACU adopts a constructivist approach to learning which seeks alignment between the fundamental purpose of each unit, the learning outcomes, teaching and learning strategy, assessment and the learning environment. In order to pass this unit, students must demonstrate competence in all learning outcomes and are required to achieve an overall score of at least 50%. Using constructive alignment, the assessment tasks are designed for students to demonstrate their achievement of each learning outcome.

For assessment, students will be required to evaluate data and information from a variety of sources and perspectives through research, integration, and analysis. Students will also need to apply critical thinking skills to identify and solve problems, inform judgments, make decisions, reach well-reasoned conclusions and make recommendations where applicable. Students are expected to communicate clearly and concisely when presenting, discussing, and reporting knowledge and ideas in formal and informal situations.

Assessments are the same regardless of whether teaching mode is attendance, blended, or online. This is indicated in overview of assessment table below.

Overview of assessments

Representative texts and references

Australian Accounting Standard Board 2019, The standard-setting process, <https://www.aasb.gov.au/About-the-AASB/The-standard-setting-process.aspx>.

Barth, ME, Li, K and McClure, C 2021, ‘Evolution in value relevance of accounting information’, (March 2, 2021). Stanford University Graduate School of Business Research Paper No. 17-24, <http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2933197>

Cooper, C, Coulson, A & Taylor, P 2011, ‘Accounting for Human Rights: Doxic Health and Safety Practices – The Accounting Lesson from ICL’, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, vol 22, no.8 pp.738-58.

Deegan, C 2019, Financial Accounting, 9th edn, McGraw Hill, Sydney. (prescribed textbook)

Financial Reporting Council 2020, Financial Reporting Council annual report 2019-20, <www.frc.gov.au>.

Lehner, O, Leitner-Hanetseder,, S & Eis, C 2019, ‘The whatness of digital accounting: status quo and ways to move forward’, ACRN Journal of Finance and Risk Perspectives 8 Special Issue Digital Accounting (2019), pp. I -X, < http://www.acrn-journals.eu/resources/editorial_si.pdf>

Loftus, J, Leo, KJ, Daniliuc, S, Boys, N, Luke, B, Ang, HN, & Byrnes, K 2020, Financial reporting, 3rd edn, John Wiley & Sons, OLD.

Scott, WR 2019, Financial Accounting Theory, 8th edn, Pearson Education Australia.