Financial Accounting

Where the marks are

Percentages are the examinable weighting for each area. Revising in this order puts your time where the marks are.

1. Accounting for Transactions in Financial Statements

   20%

   Accounting for property, plant and equipment (IAS 16) · Accounting for intangible assets (IAS 38) · Accounting for impairment of assets (IAS 36) · Accounting for inventories (IAS 2) · Accounting for provisions, contingent liabilities and contingent assets (IAS 37)

2. Recording Financial Transactions

   15%

   Source documents of accounting data and information · Procedures and documentation for banking of monies received · Recording and accounting for transactions and events using books of prime entry and cash books · The double entry principle · Usefulness and limitations of the trial balance

3. Reconciliation in Financial Accounting

   15%

   Errors · Control accounts and reconciliations · Bank reconciliation · Accounting treatment for bad and doubtful debts · Accounting treatment for accruals and prepayments

4. Accounting for Partnership, Not-for-Profit Entities and Incomplete Records

   15%

   Partnership accounts · Not-for-profit entities' accounts · Incomplete records

5. Financial Statements

   15%

   Purpose, nature and relationships among the main components of financial statements · Accounting policies, changes in accounting estimates and errors (IAS 8) · Accounting for current income tax in the financial statements · Accounting for issue of shares and borrowing in a limited liability company · Preparation of simple financial statements and basic supporting notes · Interpretation of simple financial statements

6. Accounting Framework

   10%

   Scope and purposes of accounting · Users of accounting information and their information needs · IASB Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting · Accounting concepts and conventions · Bases of accounting (accrual and cash) · The regulatory environment of accounting · Ethical considerations for preparers of financial statements · Roles of accountants in business and the economy · Duties and responsibilities of those charged with governance

7. Computerised and Virtual Accounting Systems

   10%

   Computerised accounting systems · Digitisation in financial accounting · Data structure, blockchain, artificial intelligence, virtual accounting and remote-working fraud opportunities

Where candidates lose this paper

The Institute publishes its own past questions. What it cannot give you is an answer to these.

There is not enough time to read the whole study text before the diet.

The official study text condensed and reorganised by examinable weighting, with every claim cited back to the page it came from — so you can check anything you doubt in one click.

You write practice answers for months and never find out whether a single one would have scored.

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.

The study text is hundreds of pages and none of it tells you which parts the examiner actually asks about.

Every syllabus topic, ordered by the share of marks it carries, so your revision time follows the marks instead of the page count.

You know the answer but lose marks anyway, and no one ever explains where they went.

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.