SMU ASoc - Corp Reporting

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Accountancy Module

ACCT 222: Corporate Reporting and Financial Analysis (Corp)

Official Description on Oasis		Professors
Students doing the BAcc programme are required to take this course. This course examines corporate reporting issues and accounting standards as well as the analysis and interpretation of financial statements and reports prepared under those standards. The objective is to attain technical and analytical proficiency in preparing and using financial reports of companies, whether as accountants, auditors, managers, financial analysts or investors. Particular emphasis will be given to the application and interpretation of Financial Reporting Standards (FRS) of Singapore. Topics covered include: financial reporting framework and environment, accounting standards and disclosure requirements, quarterly reporting, accounting changes, classification of income, introduction to consolidated statements and accounting for investments in associates and joint ventures, financial statement analysis, credit risk analysis and bankruptcy prediction, equity valuation, leases and other off-balance sheet financing, capitalisation of borrowing costs, revenue recognition, intangible assets, impairment of assets, segment reporting, events after balance sheet date, provisions and contingencies.		Prof Andrew Lee and Prof Tan Min Yen
		Pre-requisite
		Financial Accounting. Also advised to have taken or concurrently taking Finance 101.
Importance		Project
One of the most useful modules in SMU. Corp is a pre-requisite for Advance Financial Accounting (AFA), and also a requirement for students doing a Finance Major. Students will learn more in-depth techniques on financial statement analysis such as analytical adjustments, which helps students develop critical analysis of financial statements. Also taught during the course are valuation techniques used by analysts. Students hoping to venture into investment banking will find this module particularly intriguing. Students will also be familiarised with most FRS in this course. Corp Reporting will slowly get you into the habit of reading FRS, which will be examined in further details as you get to AFA . Journal entries for more complex accounting transactions are taught in this course. Simple consolidations of companies are also taught in Corp Reporting.		The project will require students to do a financial statement analysis and valuation of a company. You can form groups of 4 to 5 students for the project. Typical duration required: 2 to 6 weeks. The project is typically due on Monday of week 12. This project has much more requirements than your typical FA and Finance project, so do not be fooled into thinking you can complete it within a week or two. You are strongly advised to start early and be consistent, although you might find the lack of knowledge a huge constraint. Groups typically spend 1 to 2 weeks just brainstorming on what analytical adjustments to make, 1 week making the adjustments on Excel, another 1-2 weeks figuring out the forecasting and balancing the financial statements and 1-2 weeks for the report and presentation. Avoid taking too many project-intensive modules together with Corp, as you may find your other projects being crippled. One is fine, but no more.
Difficulty Level		Technical Difficulty
A survey was done in May 2011 on the level of difficulty for the various accountancy modules. Rating was done on a scale of 1 to 5 [1:very easy and 5: OMG!]. Generally, you can consider a rating of < 3 to be manageable and relatively easy. A rating of 3 to 3.5 can be considered challenging yet manageable. A rating of > 4 will probably give rise to horror stories. For comparison, go to modules difficulty.		Average: 4.00/4
		Project Difficulty
		Average: 4.29/4
Interesting Facts		Advice and Studying Tips from Seniors
One of the favourite gossip topics among year 2 students. Corp is definitely one of those modules that will stir your memories when you graduate and make you think about the "wonderful time" you have back in SMU. Rumoured to be 3 times harder than FA. You have probably heard horror tales about Corp project. They are probably true, no matter how exagerrated it sounds. Heed the warnings, for the project has been rated the most difficult in a survey done by the students. Affectionally known as Corpse Reporting by students taking the module. First the good news: In a private interview with Prof Andrew, he claims that the final exams set are "getting easier". The bad news: His definition of "easier" appears to be mis-aligned with most students... Students who simply love doing past year paper and TYS (ten year series) can rejoice, as 2 past year papers will be provided. Seniors are also willing to lend out even more past year papers than provided by the prof, so there is an abundant supply of papers you can attempt. However, despair sets in as you start to realise it takes 1 entire day to work on 1 paper, and you are running out of time in study break... ... To top that off, no answer key is available...and you just do not know whether your answers, or the 4830591 different variants out there, are right... An attempt to create the "model answer" for 1 paper in 2008 was made while studying for the module. It took 5 days and at least 8 students contributed to the creation and editing of the answer key (just to illustrate how impossible it is to get the answer right yourself). The feat involved students from 2 different professors' classes, immense amount of researching online and in the library course section, not to mention unselfish sharing of knowledge among peers (emphasis added). All the students involved actually managed to pull off decent grades in the end. A plausible studying tip there =)		Be consistent in your revision, don't cramp everything at the end Don't bother reading through every sentence in the FRS. Skim through and identify the important parts. Keep practising the past year papers. They really help in revision. Do the homework and read the FRS. A guidebook may sometimes help as well. Never take with tax! Revise your FA. Get your concepts right from the start. Read the bible every night...I mean the FRS. Be diligent, you MUST read every week. Consistency is KEY. Don't ever, ever procrastinate your work. Pay attention in class. Be thorough in understanding everything that the professor has taught or requires to be covered. Practice, practice, practice. Work on past year papers together with your friends and discuss. Start early for your project. The scale and nature is unlike anything you have done before. It is a feat just to complete the project. Doing everything right is a bonus. Impressing the professor with additional analysis is a dream. Do not even consider the possibility of last minute work, or last 2 weeks work for that matter. Presentation usually starts on the day or a few days after report submission, so try to complete the report a week earlier. Try... Some form of Excel knowledge is highly recommended.
Resources		Feedback
Primary Text: Revsine, Collins & Johnson, Financial Reporting and Analysis, 3rd Edition 2005, Pearson-Prentice Hall [Retail Price: S$50] Supplement Text: Spiceland, Sepe and Tomassini, Intermediate Accounting, 4th Edition 2007, McGraw-Hill [Available in LKS Library Course Reserve] FRS: www.asc.gov.sg Singapore Company Act: statutes.agc.gov.sg SGX Listing Manual: www.sgx.com.sg Bloomberg Terminals: LKS Library Level 3 Every information that you might need: Google & Wikipedia		We hope to constantly update the information to make it relevant and reliable for future batches. >>>>> Help us improve this article now! Do your part in contributing back to the school!