Course Schedule: Corporate Reporting Q2

Course Dates

Start Date:                                  Recorded Phase available upon enrolment. Taught Phase starts Apr 2024  (exact date to be announced)

End Date:                                    Jul 2024 (Exact date to be announced)

 

Important Dates  

Exam Registration Start Date:  20 May 2024

Exam Registration End Date:    31 May 2024

Advance Information Date:      28 May 2024

Exam Date:                                  22 Jul 2024

Exam Results Release Date:      29 Aug 2024

 

Course Structure

Recorded Phase:                         7 sessions x 3-hour (students must watch the pre-recorded videos at their own time before the start of Taught Phase on 18th Apr 2023)

Taught Phase:                              8 sessions x 3-hour

Revision Phase:                           10 sessions x 3-hour

Total number of course hours: 75

Mock Exams:                                2

 

Training Venue

All classes are online.

 

Class Size

Class is limited to 30 students on a first-come first-served basis. There is a 50% discount given on the course fee component if you sign up for both Corporate Finance and Strategic Business Management.

If you have further query or wish to enrol, please contact us at enquiry@cityacademy.sg.

Website: www.cityacademy.sg                         Tel: 6742 0300

 

2024 Schedule: Corporate Reporting 

No Date  Day Timing

Topics

Recorded Phase to be watched before Taught Phase: Sessions 8- 14

1 3 hours

·    Introduction to this paper and three different question types

·    Short recap on principles and regulation

·    Revision of the audit aspects of this paper: Governance and ethics, corporate governance and planning and risk assessment and the Audit Process

2 3 hours

·    Revision of the audit aspects continued: Evaluating ad testing controls, Audit evidence and Finalisation, review and completion, including audit reports.

3 3 hours

·    Financial Statement analysis

·    Assurance and related services

·    Disclosing financial performance – recapping on FAR assumed knowledge which is heavily tested in CR: on Presentation of Financial Statements, Statement of Cash Flows, Related Party Disclosures, Operating Segments and NCA Held for Sale and Discontinued Operations

4 3 hours

· Reporting financial performance revisited- covering Distributable Profits and Operating Segments

·    Earnings per Share

5 3 hours

·    Revenue and Construction contracts

·    Reporting of assets: PPE, intangibles and new at CR, Investments Properties

6 3 hours

·    Assets and liabilities: including revision of impairments and the new CR part on Cash generating units and impairments

·    Finishing this phase with a mixed exam question on FR and auditing issues.

Financing: Government grants and borrowing costs

7 3 hours

·    Financing continued: Leases, including lessee accounting already seen at FAR but revisited along with sale and leaseback. New at CR- lessor accounting too.

·    Question practice to finish this phase, including FR and audit

Taught Phase

8 27 Apr Sat 2pm – 5pm

· Financial instruments- the different classifications and then new areas on hedge accounting and how to audit financial instruments.

9 1 May Sun 7pm – 10pm

· Remuneration- covering Employee Benefits (different types of pension schemes)

10 2 May Thu 7pm – 10pm

· Interaction of IAS 33 DEPS and share based Payment.

· Question practice in CR style, covering topics covered so to date (even topics in phase 1).

11 14 May Tue 7pm – 10pm

·    Business combinations revision from FAR, including associate and joint ventures

·    Group audit issues

12 16 May Thu 7pm – 10pm

·  Business combinations/ groups: revision of groups from FAR continued, but concentration in class on new syllabus areas, particularly changes in group structure

13 18 May Sat 2pm – 5pm

·    Reporting foreign activities cont'd– individual foreign exchange has already been seen at FAR, this is focusing on the new part of the standard on how to translate an overseas subsidiary.

·    Question practice in CR style.

14 20 May Mon 7pm – 10pm

·    Deferred tax – New at CR.

·    Covering the theory of deferred tax, application to scenarios and how to audit deferred tax.

  15  21 May Tue 7pm – 10pm

·    Deferred tax contd- covering examples with share payments and interaction with different syllabus

·    Audit question technique and analysis revisited

 Mock Exam 1   to be completed at home & submitted by (Date to be announced).

Revision Phase

1 1 Jun Sat 2pm – 5pm

·    This marks the beginning of the revision phase of study

·    Tailored question practice and debriefs of past exam questions to cover all areas of the syllabus

2 1 Jun Sat 6pm – 9pm

·    Tailored question practice and debriefs of past exam questions to cover all areas of the syllabus

3 6 Jun Thu 7pm – 10pm

·    Tailored question practice and debriefs of past exam questions to cover all areas of the syllabus

4 18 Jun Tue 7pm – 10pm

·    Tailored question practice and debriefs of past exam questions to cover all areas of the syllabus

5 22 Jun Sat 2pm – 5pm

·    Tailored question practice and debriefs of past exam questions to cover all areas of the syllabus

6 22 Jun Sat 6pm – 9pm

·    Tailored question practice and debriefs of past exam questions to cover all areas of the syllabus

7 26 Jun Wed 7pm – 10pm

·    Tailored question practice and debriefs of past exam questions to cover all areas of the syllabus

8 2 Jul Tue 7pm – 10pm

·  Tailored question practice and debriefs of past exam questions to cover all areas of the syllabus

9 4 Jul Thu 7pm – 10pm

·  Extra Session

10 13 Jul Sat 6pm – 9pm

·  Extra Session

Mock Exam 2 to be completed at home & submitted by midnight (date to be announced).

 * Dates are subjected to changes

 

To enrol for this course, please click this link Enrol

Download Course Outline

 

Course Tutor: Helen Crofts

Helen is an experienced corporate reporting lecturer with over 20 years experience of teaching professional accountancy courses. She is passionate about helping students to achieve exam success and career goals. Her teaching style is engaging and she always aims to bring a sense of calm to the classroom.

CORPORATE REPORTING

The aim of this module is to enable students to apply technical knowledge, analytical techniques and professional skills to resolve compliance and business issues that arise in the context of the preparation and evaluation of corporate reports and from providing audit services.

Students will be required to use technical knowledge and professional judgement to identify, explain and evaluate alternatives and to determine the appropriate solutions to compliance issues, giving due consideration to the needs of clients and other stakeholders. The commercial context and impact of recommendations and ethical issues will also need to be considered in making such judgements.

On completion of this module, students will be able to:

  • Formulate, implement and evaluate corporate reporting policies for single entities and groups of varying sizes and in a variety of industries. They will be able to discern and formulate the appropriate financial reporting treatment for complex transactions and complex scenarios. Students will be able to evaluate and apply technical knowledge from individual accounting standards and apply professional skills to integrate knowledge where several accounting standards are simultaneously applicable and interact.
  • Analyse, interpret, evaluate and compare financial statements of entities both over time and across a range of industries.
  • Explain the processes involved in planning an audit, evaluating internal controls, appraising risk including analysing quantitative and qualitative data and using data analytics, gathering evidence and drawing conclusions in accordance with the terms of the engagement. In addition, they will be able to perform a range of assurance engagements and related tasks.
  • Evaluate corporate reporting policies, estimates and disclosures in a scenario in order to be able to assess whether they are in compliance with accounting standards and are appropriate in the context of audit objectives.
  • Identify and explain ethical issues. Where ethical dilemmas arise, students will be able to recommend and justify and determine appropriate actions and ethical safeguards to mitigate threats.

 

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

This module assumes and develops the knowledge and skills acquired in the Financial Accounting and Reporting (FAR) module and in the Audit and Assurance (A&A)module. Background knowledge based upon the strategic elements of the Business Planning modules, Business Strategy and Technology and Financial Management modules will also be required in evaluating the business and financial risks of reporting entities.

 

METHOD OF ASSESSMENT:

The Corporate Reporting module will be examined as a 3.5 hour exam. Each exam will contain questions requiring integration of knowledge and skills, including ethics and will consist of three questions. Question 2 requires the use of data analytic software, called Inflo. You are required to have a good working knowledge of the software as you will be using it in the actual exam to identify audit risks. Ethical issues and problems could appear in any of the three questions.

The exam will be open book and will permit students to take any written or printed material into the exam, subject to practical space restrictions.

 

Syllabus area Weighting (%)

Corporate Reporting –

  • Compliance Corporate Reporting & Financial statement analysis 55-65
  • Audit and Assurance 30-40
  • Ethics 5-10

 

DATA ANALYTICS

Q2 of the exam will require you to use Info, data analytics software, to interrogate a data set for a company to perform analysis potentially identify audit risks, transactions that require further explanation or to identify fraud or bias. This represents between 15-20 marks.

https://www.icaew.com/for-current-aca-students/changes-to-our-qualifications/exams/corporate-reporting-das-resources

If you sat Audit and Assurance in March 2021 or later, you will be familiar with this software. If not, then you will need to spend some time familiarising yourself with its functionality by working through the guidance notes found on the link below.

The ICAEW will issue advance information 6-7 weeks before the exam in the form of a pdf document containing background information and an 11-month data set. In the exam you will be provided with the full 12 months of data.

You will be introduced to Inflo on the recorded phase, and you should to review the resources provided by the ICAEW. There are various practice questions to work through and so it is recommended you visit Questions 1-4  before the taught phase.

https://www.icaew.com/-/media/corporate/files/for-current-aca-students/changes-to-exams/cr-das/corporate-reporting-data-analytics-software-guidance-notes.ashx?la=en

 

Course Objective and Approach

The course is planned to prepare you for success in the Corporate Reporting exam. This is our key objective. We assume that you have done some preparatory work prior to the commencement of the course and that we can build on this through the duration of the course. This assumes you have completed and passed or attained a relevant exemption from the ICAEW Professional Audit & Assurance paper and the Financial Accounting and Reporting paper (IFRS).

The course will consist of 3 phases –

  • a pre-recorded video phase for revise prior assumed knowledge (7 sessions);
  • a lecture-based taught phase to cover new knowledge at corporate reporting (8 sessions);
  • a revision phase (10 sessions).

Lectures will follow the content of BPP course notes and will include extensive practice on questions from the ICAEW Question Bank, even during the taught phase.

You will be given Mock Exam 1 (ME 1) towards the end of the Taught Phase.
You will be given Mock Exam 2 (ME 2) towards the end of the Revision Phase.
City Academy’s tutors will mark and review your ME scripts so as to benefit your learning outcome. You will have the flexibility of practising the ME at your own time at home but you must submit your ME answer scripts by the due date set. You may also be given homework, assignments or additional reading materials.

Corporate Reporting is a technically challenging exam with some sophisticated data analytic software to master. In order to succeed you need to be complete in your exam preparation and organize your work commitments to allow adequate time for your studies.

The course is aimed at exposure to/coverage of most significant exam matters. It focuses on how these matters will be examined and prepares you with question practise and tips in answering the paper. You are responsible for brushing up on the assumed knowledge from the professional stage FAR and A&A exam syllabus. You will be expected to attend all lectures and any supplementary tutorials, complete all course assignments and sit for and return all PT and ME answers on time

 

 

CITY ACADEMY, ICAEW GLOBAL PARTNER IN LEARNING

~ Working with ICAEW in the professional development of students ~