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

The student will get one single grade, equivalent to 7.5 credits.

The examination takes place continuously through an individual written test and seminars and assignments carried out in groups. The grade for the entire course is based on an assessment of all parts of the examination. Grading criteria are presented in the study guide that applies to the course section. The following grades will be used, pass with distinction (VG), pass (G) and fail (U). Examinations handed in late will not be assessed except under special circumstances. Any remaining supplemental work must be handed in by the deadline specified in the study guide.

For students who have not received a passing grade for the course, there is the opportunity to be examined without re-registration via a make-up exam.

If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the University's disability coordinator.

Uppsala University does not accept cheating or plagiarism. Suspected incidents of cheating or plagiarism are reported to the Vice-Chancellor, 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 courses: Accounting 2FE154, Accounting A 2FE153, Financial Accounting 2FE151, Business and Enterprise 2FE007, Business and Markets II 2FE008, Business and Enterprise I 2FE015, Business and Enterprise II 2FE016, Economy, Accounting and Analysis 2FE024, 2FE032, Business Economics 1TG010, Business Studies A/B 2FE025, Management Accounting and Control in Private and Public Organisations 2FE017, Financial Accounting with Applied Business Analysis 2FE944.