Teaching code

4S02459

Academic staff

Alessandro Lai, Riccardo Stacchezzini

Coordinator

Alessandro Lai

Credits

9

Language

Italian

Scientific Disciplinary Sector (SSD)

SECS-P/07 - BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION AND ACCOUNTING STUDIES

Period

Primo semestre L dal Sep 23, 2024 al Jan 10, 2025.

Courses Single

Authorized

Lessons timetable Moodle Seminars 0

Learning objectives

The course aims to develop the knowledge on foundation and interpretation of the financial statements in the perspective of national legislation and international accounting standards, considering general principles of foundation, classification and evaluation criteria and the techniques of financial statement analysis and interpretation. The aim of this course is to improve awareness on the process for identifying income and capital as a pivotal lever for companies’ management and a way to identify the conditions of income, financial and capital equilibrium.
The course also aims to improve the student’s skills necessary to face concrete problems related to the foundation and analysis of the financial statement.
At the end of the course the student must demonstrate the capability to take the main classification and evaluation choices as starting point to draft a financial statement; the ability to carry out a financial statement analysis (financial statement reclassification, indexes calculation and flows calculation); the capability to read, understand and interpret the analyzed financial statement. Accordingly, the various topics into the program are developed also by presenting exercises, business cases, and examples built on real situations.

Prerequisites and basic notions

Knowledge of the main corporate transactions and their double-entry keeping is required.

Program

Part I - Financial statement theory and the financial statement frameworks
• Financial statement functions
• Financial statement discipline in accordance with national law
• General principles of the financial statement
• Financial statement structure and contents in accordance with national law
• Innovative forms of corporate reporting - Towards Integrated Reporting
Part II – Areas of employment of the financial statements: the financial statement analysis
• Aims, potentialities and limits of the financial statement analysis
• Areas of employment and techniques for the financial statement analysis
• Reclassification technique
• The indexes calculation technique
• Flow calculation technique
Part III – Evaluations on the financial statement contents in accordance with national law
• Assets evaluation
• Property, plant and equipment
• Intangible assets; the recognition and representation of innovations output
• Financial long-term assets, equity investments and other financial instruments
• Evaluation of current assets
• Inventories
• Work in progress
• Credits
• Other assets
• Evaluation of liabilities
Part IV - Introduction to the consolidated financial statement

Bibliography

Didactic methods

The activities carried out will be provided face-to-face.
The teaching methods consist of: i) lectures accompanied by cases and examples and ii) exercises useful for learning the application parts.
During the course, reference will be made to a business case whose financial statements will be discussed and interpreted.
A collective and individual tutoring service is available by a student enrolled in CdLM according to a calendar that will be made available on the Moodle platform. This service is aimed at supporting the performance of the exercises taken from the exercise book.

Learning assessment procedures

The written test consists of two parts:
Part I, which consists of 16 closed-ended questions, of which:
a) 11 multiple-choice questions (1 point each);
b) 5 quantitative and/or qualitative questions (2 points each);
Part II, which consists of an open-ended question (10 points).
With regard to the multiple choice questions (Part I.a), the student obtains one point for each correct answer, 0 points for each omitted answer and loses 0.25 points for each incorrect answer.
There are no penalties for the questions referred to in Part I.b and for the open question (Part II).
The student passes the exam when all three of the following conditions are met:
i. achievement of a score of at least 10 points (out of 21) in Part I;
ii. achievement of a score of at least 5 points (out of 10) in Part II;
iii. the sum of the total scores obtained in the two parts is at least equal to 18/31.
The student who passes the written test can then access an optional oral test. The oral test can be requested by the student who has passed the written test if he is convinced that his preparation is not reflected by the results of the written test. Exam methods are not differentiated between attending and non-attending students.

Evaluation criteria

The multiple-choice questions are aimed at verifying knowledge of the part of the program covered by the question as well as the understanding of technical language and economic calculation skills in the preparation of the financial statements and its analysis.
The other questions are aimed at verifying both the methodological application of the acquired knowledge and the theoretical bases of support, in order to ascertain the student's specific knowledge and skills on the various operational and theoretical aspects relating to the preparation and analysis of the financial statements.
The student passes the exam when all three of the following conditions are met:
i. achievement of a score of at least 10 points (out of 21) in Part I;
ii. achievement of a score of at least 5 points (out of 10) in Part II;
iii. the sum of the total scores obtained in the two parts is at least equal to 18/31.

Criteria for the composition of the final grade

The student passes the exam when all three of the following conditions are met:
i. achievement of a score of at least 10 points (out of 21) in Part I;
ii. achievement of a score of at least 5 points (out of 10) in Part II;
iii. the sum of the total scores obtained in the two parts is at least equal to 18/31.

Exam language

Italiana

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