FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING A - L

Title of the course:  Financial Accounting

Knowledge and understanding:  The course aims to provide the student with the theoretical and practical knowledge of accounting methodology. The contents will deal with the accounting logic in order to be able to represent and understand the management facts and read the financial statements, acquiring the specific language and criteria for interpreting and evaluating the related items.

Applying knowledge and understanding: The knowledge acquired in accounting matters will lay the foundations for developing the student's technical-accounting skills and competences related to the use of of the double-entry accounting method to understanding the economic, financial and equity dynamics that take place within the company. In particular, the student will acquire the ability to observe the management facts under certain observation aspects and will be able to understand the systematic nature of the accounting records, arriving at the determination of the net income and of the connected working capital.

Making judgements: The course will enable students to develop autonomy of judgment in understanding business phenomena. The student will be able to analyze, interpret, evaluate, detect and represent management facts by understanding the dynamics of financial accounting and commenting on the related results shown in the financial statements.

Communication skills: Based on the knowledge gained, the student will develop communication and relational skills, for business consulting and other job positions linked to the accounting function in private and public organizations.

Learning skills: The learning process will allow the student to understand the business dynamics on a unified and coordinated vision and to read and interpret business phenomena, in order to know the connected dynamics that generate the accounting results.

The teaching program is divided into 3 parts (whose contents can be traced back to the macro-areas methodology - applications-reading and representation) and contains the accounting tools and methods in order to acquire the keys for reading and interpreting accounting and company Financial statements. The lessons are frontal (all lessons are two hours, the last one is three hours for a total of 63 hours) and during the course there will be some seminars. The teaching method will lead to the acquisition of knowledge related to the discipline and, in order to develop the applicative capacity of such knowledge, exercises and case studies will be carried out.

The course’s contents are articulated as follow: The concept of firm. Corporate balance. Business Economics and Accountancy. Logics and methods of financial accounting. The double-entry method. Year’s entries: purchases and sales, the cost of labour, property pans and equipment, owners’ equity, loans and investments. Year-end closing entries, the financial statement. The general conditions and principles for the preparation of financial statements. Principles of Evaluation. Financial statement evaluation.

For students there is a written test (lasting 60 minutes) and an oral examination to be taken in the sessions foreseen in the official diary of the exams for this discipline. The written test will therefore be supplemented by an oral examination and focuses on the contents developed during the lessons and reported in the syllabus. The date of the written test and that of the oral examination do not coincide and the relative time span between one and the other (in any case not exceeding 20 days) will depend on the number of students invited to take the exam. In any case, the student who does not pass the written test (whose result, which takes the form of Admitted/Not Admitted/Admitted with reservation, will be published with a notice on the website DEI CdL in Economia - Teacher notices) will not be able to take the oral examination. Furthermore, the negative outcome of the oral interview compromises the possible positive outcome of the written test. Note that any positive outcome of the written test is valid only for the specific exam to which it refers. The final grade, in case of passing the written test and the interview, expressed in thirtieths will depend on the evaluation obtained in the written test and the outcome of the oral examination.

For attending students there will be a specific final written test (unique for each academic year - lasting a maximum of 3 hours) on a date close to the first official exam session fixed after the end of the lessons and whose positive outcome will allow access to an oral interview which will mainly have as its object the topics of the written test and which does not compromise the outcome of the written test. The modalities, structure and times of the attending final exam will be also communicated and described (even with a simulation) during the course. Those who therefore pass this written test will carry out an oral interview within 20/25 days subsequent to the date of writing. The student who has not completed the final exam (whose outcome is expressed in thirtieths and published with a notice on the website DEI CdL in Economia - Teacher notices) by attending can regularly take the written test (and possible oral interview) on one of the exam dates foreseen by the official calendar according to the above procedures.

Structure and evaluation methods of written tests

- Written test for ordinary exams: n. 4 exercises on accounting records and closing accounts.

- Evaluation methods of the written test for ordinary exams:

The evaluation of the written test for ordinary exams will be overall and will be based on: presence of at least 50% of the correct solutions and answers, technical language used, form, clarity, order, correctness of the logic and structure of the accounting records and accuracy in the explanation of the exercises.

- Final written test for attending students: n. 5 exercises on accounting records and closing of accounts (application part) and n. 2 open questions on the topics covered (theoretical part).

- Assessment methods of the final written test for attending students:

The evaluation of the final written test for attending students will be overall and does not provide specific measures for the different parts and will be based on: presence of the theoretical part and the application part (failure to deal with one of the two parts does not allow students to pass the final written test),  presence for each part of at least 50% of correct solutions and answers, completeness and depth of the requested topics, technical language used, degree of critical analysis, form, clarity, order and correctness of the logic and structure of the accounting findings and accuracy in the exercises explanation.

Evaluation criteria of oral examination:

The evaluation of the oral exam focuses on the following criteria: relevance of the answers to the questions asked (evaluation of the degree of knowledge and understanding of the topic), quality of the contents (evaluation of the degree of analysis, synthesis and presentation of the topics), ability to connection between the parts of the program (evaluation of the degree of use of relevant links and references), ability to report examples, technical language and expressive ability.

Equal opportunities guarantee: in compliance with current legislation, students can request a personal interview to plan any compensatory and/or dispensatory measures based on the educational objectives and the indications of the CInAP contact person.

Sample questions (exemplary and non-exhaustive)

• The principle of prudence and examples of application
• Accrual principle and the definition of operating costs and revenues
• The double entry method and its operating rules
• Income and financial accounts
• The concept of income and capital
• Inventories
• Definition of rate
• Structure of the income statement
• Current assets
• Valuation criteria for tangible fixed assets