New Student Starter Tasks

In preparation for your studies in A level Accounting before attending your first Accounting lesson write down your answers to the questions contained in the 4 tasks below:


Task 1- Key Terms

1) What is an asset for a business? Can you identify three examples?

2) What is an expense for a business? Can you identify three examples?

3) What is a revenue for a business? Can you identify two examples?

4) What is a liability for a business? Can you identify two examples?

5) Which two of the above will appear in the Income Statement and which two will appear in the Statement of Financial Position (Balance Sheet)?

Task 2 - Accounting Principles and Concepts

Watch this video and make  a record of the 8 basic accounting principles applied when recording financial transactions in accounting.

Task 3 - Management and Financial Accounting 

What is the difference between management accounting and financial accounting?

Identify two differences in the focus of a management accountant and a financial accountant.

Task 4 - The impact of Ethical considerations

The A-level Accounting qualification requires students to study ‘The impact of ethical considerations’:  the fundamental principles of ethical behaviour; how the principles of ethical behaviour impact the behaviour of accounting professionals and organisations; the legal and regulatory frameworks which relate to the accounting sector; the role of professional bodies in establishing and enforcing codes of conduct; appropriate courses of action to take if there is a suspicion that an unethical or illegal act has been, or may be, committed. Even with Sarbanes-Oxley and learning from past business ethics pitfalls, the onus is still on the organization to maintain high ethical standards.

Use the video links and information below to help you answer the following questions :

1) What is meant by ethics in the accountancy sector?

2) What are the 5 ethical accounting principles?

3) What is the potential impact on different stakeholders of misrepresentation of the financial state of a business?


What is meant by ethics in the accountancy sector? 

5 Ethical Principles: POPIC 

Hewlett-Packard bought software firm Autonomy in 2012 and, a year later, began accusing the company of misrepresenting the financial state it was in when it was being sold, claiming they paid $3 billion too much. HP states they launched an investigation that uncovered a host of accounting misrepresentations, which has spurred them to plan a civil action suit against the heads of the software firm