5008 - ACCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL STATEMENT ANALYSIS
DIEM
Department of Accounting
Course taught in English
ALFREDO VIGANO'
Course Objectives
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. |
Course Content Summary
The course addresses the following main topics:
- The framework of financial reporting: accounting standards and regulation
- Nature and purpose of financial statements: balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement
- Valuation of the main balance sheet items according to IAS/IFRS
- Accounting language and methodology: how to record business transactions
- Group accounts
- Analysis of cash flows
- Ratio analysis
- Current developments in corporate governance and corporate reporting
Detailed Description of Assessment Methods
Attending students
Either two written partial exams or one written general exam.
Non attending students
One written general exam.
In addition, both attending and non attending students are required to submit a group assignment.
Textbooks
- Textbooks and any eventual reading will be announced at the beginning of the course.
- Slides will be made available from students on the B-Learning space.