Unit information: Advanced Financial Reporting in 2016/17

Unit name	Advanced Financial Reporting
Unit code	EFIMM0034
Credit points	15
Level of study	M/7
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Professor. Clatworthy
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	School of Economics, Finance and Management
Faculty	Faculty of Social Sciences and Law

Description including Unit Aims

This unit is designed to develop the material covered in the International Financial Accounting (IFA) unit by examining more advanced financial reporting topics from both a technical and conceptual perspective. It will build on some of the topics covered in the IFA unit and will also introduce new, more advanced ones. Topics covered include the IASB Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting, financial instruments, employee benefits, income taxes, advanced consolidation, foreign currency translation, segmental reporting, related party disclosures and earnings per share. Because the external financial reporting standard setting environment is dynamic, the unit will also introduce new topics if and when they emerge.

The aims of this unit are to build on the material that students will have covered in their first teaching block in International Financial Accounting. It examines important and more advanced financial reporting issues – both in measurement and disclosure – from both a technical and a conceptual perspective, and introduces relevant academic literature which assesses different accounting treatments from the perspectives of different users. It also covers some of the issues included in the International Financial Accounting unit in more depth.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Having successfully completed this unit students should be able to:

• Develop knowledge of key IFRS requirements in areas of measurement and disclosure.
• Apply key International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) requirements in a variety of complex situations.
• Discuss the issues to be considered for users in the preparation of financial statements and advise as to the complex trade-offs in accounting standard setting.
• Construct consolidated financial statements for a group of companies, including joint arrangements and structured entities.
• Consider the merit of different accounting policies in the context of the Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting and in the context of real world decisions.

Interpret relevant empirical and conceptual evidence designed to evaluate different accounting treatments.

Teaching Information

25 contact hours split between lectures and classes (typically 18 hours of lectures and 7 hours of classes).

Assessment Information

Summative assessment:

The summative assessment for this unit is a three-hour examination in May/June. The exam will assess students’ ability to apply IFRS to various accounting problems, including for entities with different structures. In this process, they will need to demonstrate their technical capabilities in applying the standards in numerical questions, but also their ability to evaluate the technicalities. The exam will also include essay-type questions, which will require students to demonstrate their knowledge of and ability to interpret important conceptual and empirical arguments surrounding the users of financial statements and accounting standard setting.

Formative assessment

The main method of formative assessment is class participation and discussion in tutorials. These will provide opportunities for feedback on the students’ progress. Furthermore, students will be required to submit at least one piece of work from the tutorials, which they will have marked and returned with comments and with a ‘model answer’. This exercise will contain both technical and discursive questions and will be designed to be broadly representative of questions given in the main exam paper.

Reading and References

Picker et al. (2016) Applying International Financial Reporting Standards, Wiley (4^th ed.).

Elliott and Elliott (2015) Financial Accounting and Reporting, Pearson, 17^th ed.