Detailed syllabus
A The professional and ethical duty of the accountant
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Professional behaviour and compliance with accounting standards
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Ethical requirements of corporate reporting and the consequences of unethical behaviour
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Social responsibility
B The financial reporting framework
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The applications, strengths and weaknesses of an accounting framework
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Critical evaluation of principles and practices
C Reporting the financial performance of entities
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Performance reporting
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Non-current assets
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Financial instruments
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Leases
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Segment reporting
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Employee benefits
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Income taxes
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Provisions, contingencies and events after the reporting date
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Related parties
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Share-based payment
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Reporting requirements of small and mediumsized entities (SMEs)
D Financial statements of groups of entities
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Group accounting including statements of cash flows
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Continuing and discontinued interests
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Changes in group structures
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Foreign transactions and entities
E Specialised entities and specialized transactions
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Financial reporting in specialised, not-for-profit and public sector entities
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Entity reconstructions
F Implications of changes in accounting regulation on financial reporting
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The effect of changes in accounting standards on accounting systems
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Proposed changes to accounting standards
G The appraisal of financial performance and position of entities
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The creation of suitable accounting policies
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Analysis and interpretation of financial information and measurement of performance
H Current developments
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Environmental and social reporting
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Convergence between national and international reporting standards
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Current reporting issues
Approach to examining the syllabus
The syllabus is assessed by a three-hour paperbased examination. It examines professional competences within the corporate reporting environment.
Students will be examined on concepts, theories, and principles, and on their ability to question and comment on proposed accounting treatments.
Students should be capable of relating professional issues to relevant concepts and practical situations. The evaluation of alternative accounting practices and the identification and prioritisation of issues will be a key element of the paper. Professional and ethical judgement will need to be exercised, together with the integration of technical knowledge when addressing corporate reporting issues in a business context. Global issues will be addressed via the current issues questions on the paper. Students will be required to adopt either a stakeholder or an external focus in answering questions and to demonstrate personal skills such as problem solving, dealing with information and decision making.
The paper also deals with specific professional knowledge appropriate to the preparation and presentation of consolidated and other financial statements from accounting data, to conform with accounting standards.
The paper will comprise two sections.
Section A Compulsory question 50 marks.
Section B 2 from 3 questions of 25 marks each 50 marks
100 marks
Section A will consist of one scenario based question worth 50 marks. It will deal with the preparation of consolidated financial statements including group statements of cash flows and with issues in financial reporting.
Students will be required to answer two out of three questions in Section B, which will normally comprise two questions which will be scenario or case-study based and one essay question which may have some computational element. Section B could deal with any aspects of the syllabus.