Key Topics Covered in the comprehensive exam for Financial Statement
Analysis
To pass the exam it is important that students review the reading material and the
lecture material which were provided in the lectures. In addition to this please go
through the questions and the solutions which were provided to the students. The
exam is for four hours and consists of 4 questions. Each question has a number of sub
questions.
A few topics to focus on are outlined below.
•
Introduction to International Financial Reporting Standards: Importance of
International reporting standards and key differences between IFRS and US
GAAP.
•
Liabilities, On and Off Balance Sheet: Leasing (Pay particular attention to the
calculation of lease payments, the implications of different type of leases and
the proposed changes to lease accounting).
•
Transactions and operations in foreign currencies (Pay particular attention to
the preparation of financial statements using the two methods discussed in the
lectures as well as the implication of using the different methods for financial
analysis purposes).
•
Taxation in financial statements (Pay particular attention to the calculation of
deferred tax as well as the meaning of deferred tax).
•
Revenue Recognition (Pay particular attention to the definition of revenue,
measurement of revenue, recognition of revenue and disclosure requirements
of IAS18; Included in this area is revenue and expense manipulation by
management and management incentives to manipulate earnings).
•
Inter Corporate Investments: (Pay particular attention to Analyse intercorporate investments by accounting method, Defining four different
methods: Cost or Market (“fair value”), Equity, Consolidation, Proportionate
Consolidation, Analyse acquisition accounting (“business combinations”)).