General objective
The course is part of the broader objective of the Master Program, course of Corporate Finance to provide advanced knowledge and competences about the functioning of business with respect to the context where companies operate. Specifically, based on the already acquired skills during the undergraduate course on accounting and financial statements, this course aims to provide students with advanced knowledge about the preparation of the financial statements in accordance with international accounting standards (IAS / IFRS) and the financial reporting function on the global financial markets. Particular attention is dedicated to the evolution of European legislation on the implementation of international accounting standards and the global convergence process of these principles (especially in the US US GAAP context).
Expected learning outcomes
Students of the International Accounting and Financial Reporting course must acquire, at the end of the course, the knowledge and competences needed to interpret any event that characterizes the company management in compliance with the IAS / IFRS international accounting standards and derive from the results of the general accounting, the statement of financial statements for the financial year (and the consolidated one) relating to the normal corporate administrative year. They will also acquire the useful knowledge to distinguish the effects on the financial statements deriving from the application of the IAS / IFRS with respect to Italian law and accounting standards. In terms of autonomy of judgment, therefore, the students of the course must be able to interpret the results of the financial statements prepared in accordance with IAS / IFRS in an economic, financial and equity perspective and, in the light of these, express a equilibrium judgment on the company.
The objective is to contribute to the formation of a professional figure (envisaged in the CdS) assigned to the preparation of the financial statements, to the analysis of the summary results, able to propose improvements to the company's decision-making body, both as an internal profile that as a consultant. To this end the course proposes to transmit the following skills and knowledge:
KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING ABILITY
- distinguishes IAS / IFRS accounting standards;
- classifies the general and editorial principles and the evaluation criteria in the light of the purposes of the financial statements (FRAMEWORK IFRS);
- represents company events in terms of financial flows (ASSET and LIABILITIES; INCOME and EXPENSES);
- recognizes the role of the principles in the preparation of the IAS / IFRS financial statements (transition from accounting balances to financial statement values;
KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING (applied)
- prepares the IAS / IFRS financial statements and the cash flow statement;
AUTONOMY OF JUDGMENT:
- interprets the financial statement results in light of the adopted IAS / IFRS principles;
- expresses critical considerations on the degree of economic, equity and financial balance of the company by reading the IAS / IFRS financial statements.
COMMUNICATION SKILLS:
- uses the technical terminology and identifies possible intervention actions for the correct adoption and application of the IAS / IFRS principles based on the summary results, in a professional context of consulting or private business;
- the communication skills assumed by the students reside in the use of technical terminology (English) and in the identification of possible intervention actions for the improvement of company performance on the basis of summary results, in a professional context of consulting or private or public company, of listed and unlisted companies.
ABILITY TO LEARN
- carries out individual and group research on specific aspects of the discipline
- compare their skills with the most recent approaches