FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING - 2019/0

Module Overview

Financial Accounting is concerned with recording business transactions, producing financial statements of business entities from the accounting records in accordance with the regulatory requirements, accounting standards and accounting concepts. The statements are then interpreted by users of accounting information for economic decision-making in business. The module is focused at FHEQ Level 4 students, who will be equipped with the basic knowledge and skills required to record financial transactions, prepare simple financial statements of an organisation and how to interpret them for making effective decisions.

Module provider

Surrey Business School

Module Leader

MILLIGAN Victoria (SBS)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 4

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 1

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None

Module content

Indicative content includes:

• Users of accounts and their objectives;


• The Accounting system – Source Documents to Financial Statements;


• Ledger accounts and double-entry bookkeeping system;


• Balancing Accounts and the Trial Balance;


• Accounting for Value Added Tax (VAT);


• The Regulatory Framework and Accounting Concepts;


• Accruals, Prepayments and Drawings;


• Depreciation of Fixed or Non-Current Assets;


• Bad debts and provision for doubtful debts;


• Preparation of Financial Statements for Sole Traders and Companies;


• Accounting adjustments to Financial Statements;


• Interpretation of financial statements.

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

Not applicable

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge in recording various types of business transactions in an organisation’s books of accounts, to prepare the main financial statements of a single entity (sole traders and companies) and reporting to management through interpretation of accounts.

Students’ understanding will be assessed on an ongoing basis through the weekly homework and tutorial questions set. Students will be challenged with questions when deemed appropriate and constantly encouraged to ask questions. In answering certain questions, students will sometimes be drawn into discussions either individually or in groups. Elements of self-assessment are also built into the questions for students to take ownership of their studies. This will enable the tutor to assess whether the students have achieved the required level of understanding and achieved the learning outcomes.

The summative assessment for this module consists of a 50 minute class test (30% of final grade) and 2 hour final examination (70% of final grade). Both assessments are designed to test students’ understanding of the accounting system in recording transactions, application of accounting standards and concepts, producing and making adjustments to financial statements during an accounting period and interpreting the accounts for economic decision-making.

Formative assessment and feedback

The class test will be marked by the tutor and the most appropriate way to provide feedback to students on this assessment will be by uploading the answers on Surrey Learn as well as the marks distribution for the whole class. Some descriptive statistics and charts and general feedback on how the cohort has performed will also be included. This will allow students to see how they performed against their peers and in relation to the class as a whole.

Following the marking process for the class test, the next drop-in session will be used to provide further feedback by working through the class test and answering any queries. Students will have the opportunity to find out what they did not do so well, if applicable, that prevented them from achieving 100%. This feedback will help students prepare for the final examination.

Students will also have the opportunity to attempt sample exam papers, on which general formative feedback will be provided.

Module aims

• Provide students with a clear understanding on how business entities record financial transactions in the accounting system;
• Explain the application of the main accounting concepts and how to make adjustments to accounts;
• Prepare and interpret the financial statements for a single entity.

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy:

The initial focus of the module is to understand the system of recording financial transactions. Weekly tutorial and homework questions should build students’ confidence to undertake the process of entering information into the accounting system. Students then make adjustments to accounts, while applying the accounting concepts. As the course progresses students should see how all the individual components are pulled together and be able to prepare the financial statements from the Trial Balance. Once this has been accomplished, students should be ready to interpret the accounts.

The learning and teaching methods:

The learning and teaching methods include the use of weekly two-hour tutorials to illustrate theories and allow the student to apply the practical aspect of such theories with a range of weekly tutorial questions. In addition, students will also have the option of attending a weekly one hour drop-in should they need further help.  Lecture materials will be supported by directed reading and weekly homework exercises. Surrey-Learn will be used as an information portal and will contain lecture notes, practical exercises as well as past exam papers. Model answers for the exercises and past exam paper will also be provided. General formative feedback will be given on an on-going basis during tutorials / drop-ins and students will be encouraged to take responsibility of their own work.

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: MAN1068

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2019/0 academic year.