Academic Year/course:
2022/23
432 - Joint Law - Business Administration and Management Programme
30615 - Financial Statements
Syllabus Information
Academic Year:
2022/23
Subject:
30615 - Financial Statements
Faculty / School:
109 - Facultad de Economía y Empresa
Degree:
432 - Joint Law - Business Administration and Management Programme
ECTS:
6.0
Year:
3
Semester:
Second semester
Subject Type:
Compulsory
Module:
---
1.1. Aims of the course
The course and the expected results correspond to the following approaches and general objectives:
- To study the objectives of business accounting reporting.
- To know the basic contents of business reporting within the Spanish regulation framework.
- To know the structure of disclosure of annual accounts and other reports used by companies.
- To learn to draw up financial statements.
- To interpret correctly the meaning of the different magnitudes that arise in the financial statements.
These approaches and objectives are aligned with the 2030 Agenda Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and certain specific targets (https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/), contributing to some extent to their achievement.
Goal 4: Quality education
Goal 4 targets
4.3 By 2030, ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university
4.4 By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship.
4.7 By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development.
Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth
Goal 8 targets
8.3. Promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and encourage the formalization and growth of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, including through access to financial services.
Goal 16: Promote just, peaceful and inclusive societies
Goal 16 targets
16.6. Promote just, peaceful and inclusive societies
1.2. Context and importance of this course in the degree
The course Financial Statements is taught during the second semester of the second year of the degree in Business Administration. The students of this degree have completed two six-month accounting courses (Financial Accounting I and II). Thus, when they start Financial Statements, they know and dominate accounting technique and the recognition and valuation criteria contained in the Spanish regulation.
In this context, the course Financial Statements completes the students’ knowledge of the process of the elaboration of business accounting reporting, given that its main objective is to study the way in which companies must present their accounting information to third parties, once the economic facts have been adequately registered and assessed. Furthermore, this course allows the student to correctly interpret data registered in the financial statements.
1.3. Recommendations to take this course
Given that this is a compulsory subject taught in the second year, there are no prerequisites for taking this course except those necessary for enrolment in the Degree in Business Administration. Nevertheless, it would be advisable to have acquired the knowledge and skills studied in Financial Accounting I and Financial Accounting II in the first year of the degree.
The student is advised to attend the scheduled theoretical and practical classes, to carry out the proposed cases, tasks and autonomous work.
2.1. Competences
After completing the course, the student will be competent in the following skills:
To elaborate and to write comprehensive management projects for companies and other entities
To understand and to apply professional criteria with scientific rigor to solve economic, business and organizational problems.
To use technological tools and instruments required for professional performance.
To apply knowledge in practice
2.2. Learning goals
The student, in order to pass the course, will have to show her/his competence in the following skills:
To be able to apply the requirements of commercial and accounting regulation regarding the elaboration and disclosure of financial-accounting reporting by companies.
To be able to design and to present the reporting structure of the annual accounts and other reports used by companies.
To be able to implement) the principles required by Spanish law when preparing the annual accounts.
To be able to describe and differentiate the meaning of the different items that are included in each annual account from the perspective of the evaluation of the economic-financial situation of the company.
2.3. Importance of learning goals
The learning outcomes of the course Financial Statements are relevant because
- They complete the process of the elaboration of accounting reporting started in previous courses.
- They justify the aim and meaning of business accounting reporting.
- They reveal how preparers of business accounting reporting should present it.
- They illustrate how an external user of business reporting can obtain it.
- They explain the meaning of the different accounting magnitudes that conform financial statements, in general, and the annual accounts, in particular.
All the above is particularly important because most graduates will carry out their professional activity in areas where they will be obliged to work with financial statements elaborated in accordance with the criteria explained in this course, as preparers of these financial statements or as external users of the information contained within them.
3. Assessment (1st and 2nd call)
3.1. Assessment tasks (description of tasks, marking system and assessment criteria)
As in the FIRST CALL as in the SECOND CALL the student will prove that he/she has achieved the expected learning outcomes by means of a GLOBAL assessment system structured in any of the following modes:
MODE A:
In order to be able to carry out this type of assessment, students must carry out and discuss in class a minimum of 70% of the proposed activities related to the subject taught in each session, both theoretical and practical.
The assessment will be carried out by means of the activities proposed in classes and a written exam.
ACTIVITIES (30% weight of final mark): They consist of practical cases and theoretical-practical questions based on financial reporting of a company to be solved and discussed by the student at class. There will be one activity in every topic of the syllabus, at least. These activities require that student carries out previous work at class or out of the class. The assessment
of these activities will be the arithmetic mean of the valuation of all of them.
WRITTEN EXAM (70% of final mark): This exam will deal with the contents of topics 1 to 7 of the syllabus and will be taken on the date of the official call set by the Faculty in the calendar of exams. This exam will consist of theoretical and practical questions that can be closed-ended questions (multiple-choice) or open-ended questions, so students shall prove that has assimilated and understood the basic concepts of the subject.
To pass the subject with Mode A, the mark of the written exam should be equal to or greater than 4 (out of 10) and the final weighted mark of the written exam and the mark of the proposed activities shall be equal to or greater than 5 (out of 10). If the resulting mark obtained by the student using the weights above is less than the mark obtained in the written exam, the final mark of the course will be the latter (that to pass the subject shall be equal to or greater that 5 (out of 10)). In the event that the student gets a mark less than 4 in the written exam, the final mark will be the mark of the written exam.
The mark of the proposed activities will be kept for the second call.
Mode B:
This mode consist of a written exam in which the student shall get a mark of 5 out of 10. This exam will deal with the contents of topics 1 to 7 of the syllabus and will be taken on the date of the official call set by the Faculty in the calendar of exams.
This exam will consist of theoretical and practical questions that can be closed-ended questions (multiple-choice) or open-ended questions, so students shall prove that has assimilated and understood the basic concepts of the subject.
These tests are expected to be carried out in person, but if health circumstances require it, they will be carried out in a semi-face-to-face or online manner.
If the evaluation is carried out online, the student may be recorded in any test, being able to exercise his rights by the procedure indicated in the following link on the INFORMATION CLAUSE REDUCED IN MANAGEMENT OF DOCENCE RECORDINGS: https://protecciondatos.unizar.es/sites/protecciondatos.unizar.es/files/users/lopd/gdocencia_reducida.pdf
The necessary software will be used to check the originality of the activities carried out. Detection of plagiarism or copying in an activity will involve grading 0 points on it.
4. Methodology, learning tasks, syllabus and resources
4.1. Methodological overview
The learning process that has been designed for this course is based on the following activities:
The learning process designed for the course Financial Statements comprises 6 ECTS credits and distributes 150 student working hours in 60 class hours (theoretical and practical), 8 P6-type practices hours and 82 distance learning hours.
The 60 class hours of theoretical and practical sessions consist of 30 participative lectures and 30 practical hours solving problems and practical cases. The class time of the course is organised as follows:
- Participatory Lectures:
These will involve the description and explanation of basic concepts referring to the disclosure of accounting reporting by companies, in particular, dealing with the content of the annual accounts. In these lectures, the participation of students will be essential to discuss the main concepts analysed in each session.
Participatory lectures will last 2 hours and will include a revision of the most relevant concepts and the explanation of new concepts, finishing with a summary of the most relevant points of the lecture.
Students will have at their disposal the recommended bibliography for each lesson and they are expected to review it in detail before attending the corresponding lecture.
- Practical classes.
Every week, besides the theoretical participatory lecture, students will attend a practical class to solve cases.
There will be two types of problems and cases. Some of them will be designed to consolidate and to help to understand the most relevant issues explained in the participatory classes. Others will deal with real business information, working with annual reports of companies that are publicly traded for easy access to the information.
Some problems and cases will be done individually but there will be other cases that will be solved by groups of 2-3 people using the methodology of the cooperative learning. Some of these cases solved in groups will have to be presented to the other class members during classes.
The P6-type practices will be carried out in different weeks during the semester. In these) practices, students will report on their progress in the real disclosure of accounting information. Questions and doubts that arise when analysing the accounting reporting of a real company will also be solved.
Finally, the 82 hours of the student’s distance learning will consist of 30 reading hours and personal reflection about the programme of the course or the bibliography, 30 hours to complete the group task and 22 hours to do individual exercises, participating in learning platforms and tutorials.
4.2. Learning tasks
This course is organized as follows:
Lectures (30 hours). Weekly two-hours sessions. Lectures will involve the description and explanation of basic concepts referring to the disclosure of accounting reporting by companies, in particular, dealing with the content of the annual accounts. In these lectures, the participation of students will be essential to discuss the main concepts analysed in each session. Students will have access to the recommended bibliography for each topic and they are expected to study them before attending to the corresponding lecture.
Practice sessions (30 hours). One weekly session. There will be two types of problems and case studies. Some of them will be designed to consolidate and to help in the understanding of the most relevant issues explained in the lectures. Others will deal with real business information, working with annual reports of companies that are publicly traded for easy access to the information. Some problems and cases will be done individually and other cases will be solved by groups of 2-3 people using the methodology of the cooperative learning. Some of these cases solved in groups will have to be presented to the other class members during sessions.
Autonomous work and study (90 hours). 30 reading hours and personal reflection about the syllabous of the course or the bibliography, 30 hours to complete the group assignments and 30 hours to do individual exercises, participating in learning platforms and tutorials.
The teaching methodology is planned to pivot around face-to-face classes. However, if necessary for health reasons, face-to-face classes may be taught semi-face-to-face or online.
4.3. Syllabus
ECTION 1.
LESSON 1.- ACCOUNTING INFORMATION
In this section, the student will learn the requirements of the accounting and commercial regulation about the elaborating and issuing of financial-accounting reporting by companies.
SECTION II.
LESSON 2.- ANNUAL ACCOUNTS: THE BALANCE SHEET
LESSON 3.- ANNUAL ACCOUNTS: THE INCOME STATEMENT
LESSON 4.- ANNUAL ACCOUNTS: THE STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN EQUITY
LESSON 5.- ANNUAL ACCOUNTS: THE STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS
LESSON 6. ANNUAL ACCOUNTS: THE NOTES THERETO
In this section the student can learn the structure of the annual accounts, apply the Spanish requirements to elaborate the annual accounts and understand the meaning of the different items that conform each of them.
SECTION III.
LESSON 7.- OTHER REPORTS
Together with the annual accounts, commercial regulation obliges companies that exceed a certain size to issue two additional reports that complement the information included in the financial statements: the management report and the audit report. Although they are two reports with very different characteristics, the student will learn the meaning of both and their usefulness for knowing the financial position of the company.
4.4. Course planning and calendar
Calendar of actual sessions and presentation of works
The calendar of classes will be published in the web site of the Faculty and/or in the Online Teaching Platform (ADD) and the presentation of works and other activities will be announced by the lecturer and though the appropriate channels in each group.
Table of contents
LESSON 1.- THE ACCOUNTING INFORMATION
1.- The accounting information. Main characteristics.
2.- Classification of accounting information.
3.- The annual accounts.
LESSON 2.- ANNUAL ACCOUNTS: THE BALANCE SHEET
1.- The balance sheet: expression of the financial position of the company.
2.- The format of the balance sheet.
3.- Items of the balance sheet: most significant properties.
4.- Functional classification.
5.- Classic imbalances.
LESSON 3.- ANNUAL ACCOUNTS: THE INCOME STATEMENT
1.- The nature of the income statement.
2.- The format of the income statement
3.- Other operational formats.
4.- More relevant results.
5.- Quality of the result for the year.
LESSON 4.- ANNUAL ACCOUNTS: the statement of changes in equity
1.- Objectives and usefulness of the statement of changes in equity.
2.- Disclosure of the statement of changes in equity.
3.- The statement of recognised income and expense.
4.- The statement of total changes in equity.
LESSON 5.- ANNUAL ACCOUNTS: THE STATEMENT OF CASH-FLOWS
1.- Fund-flows and changes in cash.
2.- The statement of cash-flows.
3.- Elaboration of the statement of cash-flows.
4.- Disclosure of the statement of cash-flows.
LESSON 6.- ANNUAL ACCOUNT: NOTES TO THE ANNUAL ACCOUNTS
1.- Concept and usefulness
2.- Content of the notes to the annual accounts
LESSON 7.- OTHER REPORTS
1.- The management report.
2.- The audit report.
LESSON 8.- OTHER FINANCIAL REPORTING
1.- The statement of value added.
2. Simplified reporting.
3.- Intermediate accounting reporting.
4.- Planned accounting reporting.
Activities and deadlines will be announced through the Online Teaching Platform (ADD) at the beginning of the term. Dates of the final exams are provided in the Faculty web site and/or in the Online Teaching Platform (ADD).