5008 - ACCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL STATEMENT ANALYSIS

The course is designed to provide an understanding of financial statements and the influence of different accounting practices in the communication of financial information. Successful completion of this course should enable students to read and interpret meaningfully financial statements prepared by enterprises according to International Accounting Standards (IASs)/International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs). Therefore, the most important aim of this course is to develop students' ability to read accounting literature, to understand financial statements and to analyze them in order to evaluate the performance and the soundness of business entities. In the European Union and its applicant member countries, listed companies from 1 January 2005 are required to adopt IASs/IFRSs. The pace of change involves 7,000 companies in the EU and many more globally as Australia, the Russian Federation, Japan and other countries are introducing IASs/IFRSs. Many countries around the world already require/encourage foreign listed companies to apply IASs/IFRSs with or without reconciliation to national accounting standards.
This course is designed to reflect this new situation and its implications. A basic understanding of the requirements of the IASs/IFRSs is now essential for anyone studying financial accounting and reporting.