A86045 Accounting and Financial Reporting

At the end of the course the student will be able to:

• read and perform a high level interpretation of the Financial Statements of companies applying international accounting standards;
• identify and evaluate the impact on the companies’ accounts of the principal alternative accounting methods;
• carry out a high level assessment of the economic-financial position of a company reporting under IAS/IFRS.

At the end of the course the student will be able to:

• read and perform a high level interpretation of the Financial Statements of companies applying international accounting standards;
• identify and evaluate the impact on the companies’ accounts of the principal alternative accounting methods;
• carry out a high level assessment of the economic-financial position of a company reporting under IAS/IFRS.

The aim of this course is

• to teach the general principles of IAS/IFRS, the structure of Financial Statements compliant with IAS/IFRS and the recognition and measurement rules provided by the accounting principles for the key balance sheet and income statement items;
• to enable students to evaluate the economic-financial position of complex organizations through the systematic use of the information included in the public financial statements.

The course is divided in two main parts:

1. the main concepts of financial accounting and analysis will be presented at the beginning of the course when the different analytical tools that the financial statements readers may use in order to extract useful information about a company economic performance and financial situation will then be covered;
2. following this, the IAS/IFRS for the major items of assets and liabilities will be presented in order to understand the scope of the standards, the definitions, rules for initial recognition and subsequent measurement and disclosure requirements.

The course is made up of theoretical lessons, classroom discussions, research assignments, cases and practical exercises.

Lectures are held throughout the entire semester. Students are responsible for learning the material before coming to class.

Students are responsible for consulting on a regular basis the website of the course on “my.liuc.it” where updates, additional material, slides and exercises for the course are posted.

There will be a  midterm test.

The assessment is based on a written exam at the end of the course. To pass the exam the student needs to achieve a grade higher than 18/30.

For attending students only, the exam is made up of two written tests (mid-term test plus final test). Sufficiency in both tests is required to pass the exam (sufficiency = grade higher than 18/30).