How to pass ICAN Financial Reporting
Skills level. The syllabus has 7 areas and they are not worth the same — 55% of the marks sit in just three of them. Knowing which three changes what you do tonight.
Start here, in this order
- 1
Preparing and Presenting Financial Statements of a Simple Group (Parent, a Subsidiary and an Associate) 20% of the paper
Understanding a simple group (concept and objectives of group accounts; IAS 27, IAS 28, IFRS 3, IFRS 10; non-controlling interest measurement and consolidation adjustments) · Preparation and presentation of simple group financial statements (statement of financial position, statement of profit or loss and other comprehensive income, statement of cash flows, IFRS 18 changes to IAS 1, management disclosures and analyses, application of IFRS to group scenarios)
- 2
Preparation and Presentation of Single Entity General Purpose Financial Statements 20% of the paper
Accounting policies, changes in accounting estimates and prior period errors (IAS 8) · Preparation and presentation of single entity general purpose financial statements (IAS 1 and other relevant IFRS accounting standards) · Changes introduced by IFRS 18 to IAS 1 · Statement of cash flows for single entities using direct and indirect methods (IAS 7) · Objectives, limitations and features of general purpose financial reporting · Other national disclosures under CAMA 2020 (as amended): value added statement and five-year financial summary
- 3
Analyses and Interpretation of Financial Statements 15% of the paper
Analyses of financial statements (types of analysis; profitability, efficiency, liquidity, solvency and investors' returns; ratio computation and interpretation for entities and simple groups; use of statement of cash flows; non-financial information; EPS and capital market reaction; analytical reports for stakeholders) · Limitations of analyses and interpretation of financial statements (historic information, window dressing and creative accounting, specialised and not-for-profit entities, limitations of EPS, limitations of consolidated financial statements, other and non-financial information)
The remaining 4 areas share 45% between them. Worth knowing. Not worth the weeks that the three above deserve. Full weightings for this paper.
Then write, by hand, against the clock
Financial Reporting is written by hand. Marks are earned by the reasoning — stating the principle, applying it to the scenario, concluding — so an answer that jumps to the figure loses most of them even when the figure is right. Practise full answers on paper, timed at roughly 1.8 minutes per mark.
The part nobody does
Almost every candidate writes practice answers. Almost none of them ever find out whether those answers would have scored. You write, you feel it went reasonably, you move on — and the first real feedback you receive is the result, months later, when the diet is gone.
That gap is the whole reason preparation fails for people who worked hard. Not knowledge. Feedback.
What Edentos does about it
- Find out now. Not when the results come out.
- Write by hand, photograph it, and have it marked against the examiner's own marking guide — with the marks broken down the way the examiner breaks them down, and the reason for each one.
- Revise where the marks are, not where the pages are.
- Every syllabus topic, ordered by the share of marks it carries, so your revision time follows the marks instead of the page count.
- A right answer with no workings is a wrong mark.
- The Institute's published solution beside your attempt, with the mark allocation visible — so you can see the marks sitting in the principle and the application, not only the final figure.
- The exam is handwritten. Your practice should be too.
- Timed mocks written on paper, under exam conditions, so you discover how long handwriting takes before it costs you a question.