Contemporary Issues in Financial Reporting for Complex Entities

Module Convenor: Dr Libon Fung
Assessment: A two-hour, formal unseen examination (75% of the overall mark) and coursework of 2,500 words (25% of the overall mark) – the deadline is 30th March 2012. The Absolute Cut-Off deadline is the 20th April 2012.

Aims

This module builds on the materials covered in Principles of Financial Reporting and aims to provide students with a full understanding of the current issues relating to financial reporting for international entities with complex organizational structures.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this module, students should be able to:

• understand and critically assess the different approaches to income and asset value measurement, and to accounting for changing prices;
• understand and critically assess the regulatory framework for financial accounting;
• prepare and understand accounting for the following transactions;
• Share capital, distributable profits and reduction of capital
• Off balance sheet finance
• Financial instruments
• Employee benefits
• Taxation in company accounts
• Property, plant and equipment
• Leasing
• R&D; goodwill; intangible assets and brands
• Inventories
• Construction contracts
• foreign exchange transactions
• understand, apply, and critically assess the calculation of earnings per share
• understand and critically assess the increasing scope of financial reporting as reflected in environmental and social responsibility accounting.

Background Reading

• Elliott, B and Elliott, J (2011), Financial Accounting for Decision Makers, 14th Edition, FT Prentice Hall. ISBN: 978-0-273-74444-3
• Bill Collins, John McKeith (2009), Financial Accounting and Reporting, McGraw Hill Higher Education, ISBN: 9780077114527