The financial accounting pathway comprises the following modules:

YEAR 1

FN0135 Financial Decisions and Accounting [semester 2]

FN0130 Computer Applications in Accounting

YEAR 2

FN0247 Corporate and Group Accounting

FN0204 Taxation

FN0248 Conceptual Frameworks for Financial Reporting

YEAR 3

FN0346 Current issues in Financial Reporting

FN0301 Auditing Process and Theory

FN315 International Accounting

FN0322 Further Taxation

FN0309 Issues in Contemporary Auditing

In this pathway students will study the design, implementation and administration of systems (often computerised) for the classification, recording, and control of financial data. They will learn how that data is periodically summarised in the form of Balance Sheets, Profit and Loss Accounts, and Cash Flow Statements, as well as developing a facility in the reliable and insightful interpretation of these statements.

Students will discover why and how the form and content of these statements is regulated both by law, accounting standard setters and other regulatory bodies.

They will learn how to retrieve publicly available financial information from on-line databases, how to evaluate and interpret that information, and how to communicate their conclusions in the form of reports to clients. At level one information technology skills in financial accounting will be developed in Computer Applications in Accounting.

As the pathway develops the modules will become increasingly concerned with complex and controversial areas, and current issues.

All students will study one module of taxation as part of the core programme and their studies in this area can be taken further by choosing an additional taxation module (Further Taxation) as a level 3 option.

Students also study a module of auditing as part of the core programme. Again the core module in auditing is developed further in an additional auditing module which can be taken as a level 3 option (Issues in Contemporary Auditing). Both auditing modules will address the particular problems of auditing computerised accounting systems.

Conventional financial reporting has developed in a rather haphazard and ad hoc way. Many feel that it is ill equipped to deal with modelling the complexities of modern economic activity, the demands made by sophisticated investors for reliable information about the economic performance of enterprises, and the needs of other legitimate users. Accounting theorists have developed a number of alternatives to the conventional reporting model. Students will study these in the level 2 Alternative Valuation Systems module. This will not only enhance their appreciation of the strengths and weaknesses of conventional accounting and its alternatives but will ensure that they are well placed to understand and participate in the debate and current proposals on how to improve financial reporting.

By the final year of the course students will have a secure background in financial accounting, taxation, auditing and accounting theory. This will equip them to deal with a module in Advanced Financial Reporting which will be concerned with current problems, trends and issues.