Publisher's Synopsis
This set of case studies aims to help students appreciate more fully the nature and purpose of accounting. The book is intended to support material that is found in accounting textbooks and to counteract the view that accounting problems are merely exercises in simple arithmetic. All the cases are fictitious, although many are based on actual events and realistic data has been used wherever possible.;Most of the problems require students to find out a great deal of extra information themselves and, because they adopt their own assumptions, students arrive at different conclusions, which they should then be encouraged to defend against criticism from other students. The book is intended for those students taking a basic, foundation or first year course in accounting whether at degree, diploma or certificate level. It is suitable for both accounting and non-accounting students and the material can be adapted to meet the requirements of a particular syllabus.;Of the 21 cases presented in the book, ten are concerned mainly with financial accounting and nine are mainly management accounting cases. The case study on stocks and the ones on budgeting and budgetary control encompass elements of both financial and management accounting.;It is intended that tutors should encourage students to find out for themselves the answers to the problems posed in the case studies. Some solution guidelines are provided for the benefit of tutors, but most of the cases do not have a unique answer.;Each case tests a number of skills from the following: data collection; data retrieval - a test of the student's ability to take account of all the information provided; data processing which requires the student to extract and summarize the information provided; numeracy; analysis; reasoning; communication which involves the transmission of information either verbally or in written form; and inter-personal relationships, a test of the ability of the personnel involved to establish good working relationships with all those people with whom an individual has to deal.
