FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
- Overview
- Assessment methods
- Learning objectives
- Contents
- Full programme
- Delivery method
- Teaching methods
- Contacts/Info
No prerequisite. However, it is advisable to correctly know the skills of the Management course (I year) in order to understand the topics explained during the lessons.
The exam is written on the topics covered during the course and in the reference materials (see below).
The exam can be taken in two ways: i) at the first session at the end of the course where the assessment will be based on the assessment of the assignments for 30% and on the test carried out for 70%;
ii) in the exams following the first, the evaluation will be based entirely on the written test.
The test, which lasts 1 hour and 30 minutes, consists of open questions and exercises aimed at verifying the acquisition of the basic concepts and their correct application, even quantitatively.
More in detail the exam will be
divided into four parts:
I: multiple choice test
II: Recording entries in the general journal OR recording adjusting and closing entries (starting from a trial balance)
III and IV: questions and practical exercises
The total points obtainable in the written test is 31/31, a score which corresponds to the mark of
30/30 + Lode.
The examination structured in this way allows to verify if the student knows, from a theoretical point of view, the general principles of preparation of the balance sheet, the evaluation criteria of the main balance sheet items and the analysis of the balance sheet by indexes and flows. In addition, the exercises allow to evaluate whether the student is able to put these theoretical notions into practice having acquired the technical features of general accounting, drafting the financial statement and analyzing it.
The course aims to offer the methodology and fundamental tools of general accounting and to analyze the civil law that governs the preparation of the financial statements for publication. The examination of the legislation is supplemented by the due references to the precepts of the economic-business theory and to the provisions of the national accounting standards (OIC).
The course provides the basic elements of financial analysis and assessment of company performance through the reclassification of the financial statements and the analysis by indices and financial flows.
EXPECTED LEARNING RESULTS
At the end of the course, the student will be able to:
I) understand the logic of the accounting method
II) make the bookkeeping of the main management operations of an industrial, commercial and service company
III) evaluation reasoning the main elements of income statements and balance sheet
IV) apply the methodologies of the financial statement analysis by indexes and flows,
V) illustrate the management phenomena that generated the book values
VI) assess the company's aptitude for pursuing and maintaining the income, financial and monetary balance.
The course’s partition in sessions is pointed out in the course's detailed syllabus published on the e-learning
platform. In the detailed syllabus, the student also finds learning materials and bibliographic references
related to each session.
The Course contents are the following:
- Introductory notions on accounting process;
- Financial accounting: The double entry book-keeping process; recording entries in the general journal of a set of typical transactions; recording adjusting entries; recording closing entries; recording opening
entries;
- The preparation of financial statements in accordance with Italian generally accepted accounting
principles: general principles; asset recognition and measurement criteria; liability recognition and
measurement criteria;
- Financial analysis.
FORM I: FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING (18 hours + 20 hours)
• The accrual basis of accounting
• The double entry book-keeping process
• The rules of debit and credit
• Recording entries in the general journal of a set of typical transactions (purchases, sales, receipts and payments, lending and borrowing, etc.) for manufacturing, commercial and services companies.
• Posting to the general ledger
• The preparation of a trial balance
• Recording adjusting entries
• Recording closing entries
• The preparation of financial statements
FORM II: THE PREPARATION OF FINANCIAL STATEMENTS IN ACCORDANCE WITH ITALIAN GENERALLY ACCEPTED ACCOUNTING PRINCIPLES (10 hours + 17 hours)
• The accounting regulation: the rules of the Italian Civil Code (Articles from 2423 to 2435bis) and the Accounting Standards issue by the Italian Standards Setter “Organismo Italiano di Contabilità (OIC)”
• The scope of financial statements: the “true and fair view” of company’s assets, liabilities, financial position and profit or loss
• The general principles:
o going concern principle
o prudence principle
o prevalence of the substance over from principle
o realization principle
o matching principle
o separate valuation of assets and liabilities items
o consistency principle
• Balance sheet form and contents
• Income statement form and contents
• Statement of cash flows (refer to form IV)
• The function and the minimum contents of the notes (in brief)
• Financial Statements in the abridge version (in brief)
• Assets and liabilities recognition and measurement:
o inventories
o Trade and other receivables
o trade payables, loans, provisions and employees severance indemnities
o fixed assets
FORM III - FINANCIAL ANALYSIS (10 hours)
• Basic elements of financial analysis and performance valuation by the means of:
o balance sheet and income statement reclassification
o calculation of the main financial ratios
o preparation of the Statement of cash flows
For more details see the analytical programme published on the e-learning page of the course
The course comprises 38 hours of face-to-face lectures and 37 hours online.
38 hours in the classroom with:
- face-to-face lectures,
- exemplifications,
- seminars
in which the topics of the programme will be covered through theoretical framework sessions and through the resolution of numerical exemplifications.
Through the discussion of cases and seminars on specific topics, the lecturer stimulates the active and critical participation of the students in the lessons.
Classroom lectures are supported by the projection of slides.
37 hours online:
for the online sessions, an assignment is provided for the verification of learning. The assignment may consist of:
- open questions
- exercises
- business cases.
Assignments must be handed in by the deadlines announced in the course calendar.
Assignments will be assessed for students who hand them in on time.
The lecturer uses the e-learning platform for posting course slides and numerical examples
The teachers are available at the indicated reception hours, and regularly updated, on their respective homepages. The reception of students by appointment is to be agreed by e-mail