BUD2 Financial Accounting teaches students how to read financial statements use the accounting numbers as input for business decisions. BUD2 is taught in the third semester, where the overarching theme is on management and technological change; how to run the company, make good investment and operational decisions. To do so, one has to know the profitability of the company, the financial strength and liquidity resources.
The accounting numbers are the basis for many analyses in and of a firm. But Financial Accounting has its own language, framework, rules and formats. To read and interpret the financial numbers one has to learn this language, or one will soon be out of business.The course is an introductory course to financial accounting and analysis; so, the key focus is to understand the fundamentals and apply them in different settings for analysis. Hence the focus will be:
- Basic understanding of accounting and book-keeping
- What are the elements of financial statements, how should they be interpreted, and how do they relate?
- Why do we need accounting frameworks and regulations?
- What are the key elements of IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards)?
- When are assets, liabilities, income and expenses recognized in the financial statements?
- How are assets and liabilities measured?
- How to assess the financial health of a company, i.e. how to perform basic financial statement analysis including profitability, solvency and liquidity analysis?
- How to do benchmarking between companies?
To analyze these questions, we will use IFRS (international Financial Reporting Standards) as the accounting language. IFRS is mandatory for all listed firms in EU and Norway, and in more than 100 countries outside Europe.