Questions and Answers of Global Financial Accounting

Provide examples of adjusting events after the reporting period and explain how these would affect a company's financial statements.
Explain how VAT is accounted for in a wholesale company. Use an example of a sales invoice and of a purchase invoice to illustrate your reasoning. Refer to the definitions of elements of financial
For what purposes may a tax haven be profitably used by a multinational group?
Provide four examples of 'OCI' and explain how they meet the definition criteria of income and expense.
Explain the link between accrual accounting and the concept of working capital.
Explain the crucial role of identifying performance obligations in the five-step revenue model.
Describe the issues of revenue recognition and profit determination relating to long- term construction contracts.
Elaborate how the concept of accruals is applied in accounting for inventory.
A company usually reports on different types of inventory. Elaborate these and explain how they are different.
Elaborate the potential tension between timeliness and verifiability as characteristics of useful financial information.
What are the annual financial statements of a company?
Contrast broadly the regulatory traditions in continental Europe as opposed to the anglophone countries.
Are the financial accounting requirements of entities in the public sector different from those of business in the private sector?
Compare and contrast the different types of accounting regulation that exist.
How is the IASB’s organizational setting structured?
Explain the potential trade-off between relevance and verifiability.
Explain what is meant by relevance, faithful representation and comparability and how they make financial information useful.
What are the objectives which a company’s accounting department should be aiming to achieve?
How is the company’s accounting database organized and from where does it get its data?
How does the COSO report approach a ‘system of internal control’?
Explain the difference between preventive, detective and corrective controls.
What is the relationship between internal control and internal audit?
What is the purpose of external audit, and who carries this out?
Discuss the shortcomings of a statement of financial position as a proxy for company value.
Critically assess the usefulness of fair value as a measurement attribute.
What is the link between a functional presentation and a presentation by nature of the statement of profit or loss? Provide a number of examples to illustrate your point.
Explain what is meant by relevance, timeliness and comparability and how they make financial information useful.
Elaborate the link between a statement of financial position and a statement of profit or loss.
Contrast the accounting consequences of financing the acquisition of a building through a bank loan or as a finance lease.
What is included in the acquisition cost of a long-term tangible asset? Give examples of at least four costs that would be included in the acquisition cost of a new production line.
Discuss the recognition rules for research and development costs.
Under what conditions will the disposal of a long-term tangible asset lead to a loss? How will the sale affect the financial statements?
What are the most common causes of the depreciation of a long-term tangible asset?
Accurately accounting for accruals and deferrals is a major issue in preparing financial statements. Discuss what constitutes an accrual and a deferral and give appropriate examples of the main
Explain why and how deferred revenue is recognized in the statement of financial position.
In what sense is provision accounting a specific application of the principle of accrual accounting?
Explain the meaning of the word ‘impairment’ within the context of IFRS and discuss why it can be difficult to apply the concept to individual assets.
Identify and discuss the main categories of shareholders’ equity that you would find in an IFRS statement of financial position. Be sure to enumerate specific sources included in each main category.
A company that grants defined pension benefits to its employees usually shows in its statement of financial position a net liability representing the difference between the obligation to pay pension
Why does an analyst need to take a view about the riskiness of a company as well as its profitability?
Distinguish between debt and equity and explain the importance of this ratio in financial statement analysis.
What is the working capital cycle, and what are the likely conflicts in managing this from a financial point of view as opposed to a sales or production point of view?
Explain why net working capital tends to be industry-specific.
How does high liquidity affect the risk/return relationship?
Explain briefly the incremental utility of the statement of cash flows to external users of financial statements.
The statement of cash flows contains three major sections. What are these sections and what information is contained in each?
Why does only a small minority of companies use the direct method to elaborate the statement of cash flows?
Discuss the different types of adjustment needed to derive a net operating cash flow figure from net profit. Provide an example of each type of adjustment.
What is the logic of analyzing components of the statement of financial position when constructing a statement of cash flows?
Identify the users and uses of a multinational group’s financial statements as opposed to those of a small company.
Explain how a management report supplements and complements a company’s financial statements.
Explain how the concept of comprehensive income is related to profit of the year.
Provide some examples of ‘other comprehensive income’.
Discuss the differences of the concepts of company, business and business combination within the context of IFRS 3.
Does a controlling interest always imply majority ownership? Does one need to know the exact level of a ownership in a subsidiary in order to prepare consolidated financial statements?
In order to account for investments in other companies it is common to distinguish different degrees of ownership or influence. Describe these and explain the reasoning for the distinctions made.
At acquisition date, the net assets of the acquired subsidiary are included in the consolidated financial statements at their acquisition date fair value. However, most of the parent’s assets and
Describe the different types of joint arrangements and their respective accounting treatment.
Discuss why it is important to complement consolidated financial statements with segment reporting.
A central issue in applying IFRS 8, Operating Segments, is the determination of which operating segments should be reported. Explain the tests to determine whether or not an operating segment is a
In what circumstances can a company’s local (national) currency be different from its functional currency? If different, what are the accounting implications?
Explain why secondary translation differences are not recognized in profit and loss and deferred (as part of equity) under the net investment method.
Discuss the purpose and accounting consequences of currency hedges
Explain the differences between the following value concepts: exit value, value-in-use and deprival value.
What is meant by an executory contract? Do executory contracts affect financial statements?
Discuss why the existence of contingencies is important to the financial statement analyst, making reference to environmental issues and financial instruments
Explain what is meant by intellectual capital and discuss what an analyst can do to make an assessment of the intellectual capital of a particular group.
Describe the categories into which IAS 39, Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement, requires financial assets and liabilities to be classified. For each category, explain how they should
Is all the tax which a group pays visible in the financial statements?
Contrast the deferred tax concepts of ‘timing differences’ and ‘temporary differences’.
On January 3, 20X1 Foldet SA purchased equipment for €1.4m. The equipment has a useful life of four years and will be depreciated using the straight line method for financial reporting purposes.
For tax purposes the following tax depreciation amounts are allowed: €450 000 (20X1), €350 000 (20X2), €250 000 (20X3) and €150 000 (20X4). The enacted income tax rate is 20 per cent for 20X1
ZZ consultants have won a contract from the Russian government to advise on small company accounting regulation and to provide training for government officials and educators. Some of the contract
What is the current state of the corporate governance debate in the country in which you are based? Try to identify from the different sources of regulation(stock exchange, government, accounting
Compare the audit committee disclosures of a US corporation (see SEC EDGAR database) with that of a company based in your country.
Do you think that the independence of auditors is an issue about which you should be concerned? What are the rules in your country?
Explain the relationship between enterprise risk management and internal control.