General provisions

The course is offered within the Bachelor's Programme in Business and Economics and as a freestanding course. The course syllabus was approved by the board of the Department of Business Studies on delegation from the Faculty of Social Sciences.

Entry requirements

General entry requirements

Learning outcomes

On completion of the course, the student is expected to have achieved:

- basic understanding of the techniques used at the production of accounting information

- basic understanding of the use of accounting information at external analyses

- basic understanding of the design of the annual accounts and how laws and rules influence the design of accounting standards

- good understanding of the structure of the accounting system.

Content

The course starts with a discussion of basic concepts such as assets, liabilities, equity capital, revenues and costs. The relationship between earnings, deficits and liquidity is studied. The principles underlying double-entry accounting, debits and credits, accounts and charts of accounts are introduced in parallel. The principles are illustrated with common business occurrences. The main focus in this section is on final reports such as annual financial statements, annual reports and consolidated annual reports. The ways in which these reports are affected by laws, conventions, international accounting standards, different accounting principles and valuation methods are also discussed. The section concludes with a discussion of how accounting data in the form of key figures can be used to describe the company's profitability, liquidity and financial situation.

Examples of specific knowledge and skills that should be achieved:

- ability to read financial reports

- establish annual financial statements in a general way

- separate between concept as cost and cash outflow, respective revenue and cash inflow

- use key figures to describe the profitability, liquidity and financial situation of a company

- be able to set up balance sheet, income statement and cash flow analysis and explain the relationships between them

- be able to discuss the fundamental values that are used in accounting standards

- reproduce the fundamental features of the design of accounting standards and in IASBs framework

Instruction

The instruction involves lectures, written assignments in groups and seminars.

Assessment

Examination takes place continuously through individual and group tests. One grade is given for the course. The grade is based on an assessment of all the parts of the examination. Grading criteria are presented in the study guide provided at the start of the course. The grades that are used are Pass with distinction (VG), Pass (G) or Fail (U).

Any supplemental work must be completed and handed in by the deadline specified in the study guide. Otherwise the grade failed is received in the course. The entire course (including all examination parts) will then have to be redone which can only take place through re-registration on upcoming course dates, provided there are available spots. However, there is a possibility to receive the grade Pass without re-registration by doing a written test.

Uppsala University does not accept cheating and plagiarism. Suspected incidents of cheating and plagiarism are reported to the Disciplinary Committee of the University, which may issue a formal warning to the student or suspend the student from studies for a certain period. NOTE: Only completed courses can count toward a degree.

Other directives

This course replaces/overlaps among others the following basic courses in business studies: Accounting 2FE154, Accounting A 2FE153, Financial Accounting 2FE151, Business and Enterprise 2FE000, 2FE007, Accounting 2FE279, Business and Markets I 2FE778, Business and Markets II 2FE779, 2FE008, Business and Enterprise I 2FE015, Business and Enterprise II 2FE016, Economy, Accounting and Analysis 2FE024, 2FE032, Business Economics 1TG010, Management Accounting and Control in Private and Public Organisations 2FE017, Financial Accounting with Applied Business Analysis 2FE944.