Financial accounting (2020/2021)

Learning outcomes

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.

Part I - Financial statement theory and the financial statement frameworks
1. Financial statement functions
2. Financial statement discipline in accordance with national law and international accounting standards
3. General principles of the financial statement
4. Financial statement structure and contents in accordance with national law and international accounting standards
5. New waves on corporate reporting - Towards Integrated Reporting


Part II – Evaluations on the financial statement contents in accordance with national law and international accounting standards
6. Assets evaluation
6.1 Property, plant and equipment
6.2 Intangible assets
6.3 Financial long-term assets, equity investments and other financial instruments
7. Evaluation of current assets
7.1. Inventories
7.2. Work in progress
7.3. Credits
8. Other assets
8. Evaluation of liabilities


Part III – Areas of employment of the financial statements: the financial statement analysis
10. Aims, potentialities and limits of the financial statement analysis
11. Areas of employment and techniques for the financial statement analysis
12. Reclassification technique
13. The indexes calculation technique
14. Flow calculation technique

Part IV - Introduction to the consolidated financial statement

Textbooks
A. Palma (edited by), Il bilancio di esercizio. Profili aziendali, giuridici e principi contabili, V ed., Giuffrè, Milano, 2016.
G. Brunetti, S. Corbella, L’interpretazione e l’analisi di bilancio, copisteria La Rapida, 2017.
R. Stacchezzini e C. Florio, Bilancio d’impresa. Esercizi svolti, Egea, Milano, 2018.
Lesson materials are available on the e-learning platform accessible by your personal credentials.

Teaching focuses on frontal lessons, exercises and applications, references to concrete cases, also inferred from large company financial statements.
Tutoring is provided to support the learning process during the course, that is carried out through supplementary student office based on small groups of students. Tutoring activities aim to review topics and exercises dealt with in the course.

The exam consists of a written test «at distance», which will be explained later, considering the evolution of the pandemic emergency. No difference in exams between people attending classes and others