The effectiveness of using spreadsheets to teach financial accounting

There have been numerous attempts to integrate micro-computers into the teaching of accounting courses in higher education. Two of the reasons that have been suggested for using computers on accounting courses are: firstly, the educational benefits and, secondly, that students will then be equipped with the computing and spreadsheet skills that they will require in the workplace. One method of using the computer is to use it as a computational tool, allowing the student to develop models from scratch. Such an approach was developed by Marriott & Simon (1990a). However, as there is little evidence regarding the educational effectiveness of using such methods, a rigourous and structured research project was conducted using first–year accounting degree students at Cardiff Business School. This article outlines the rationale for the project and analyses the results obtained. The results indicate that while spreadsheets can be successfully integrated into an accounting course, their use had no measurable impact on test performance. However, the use of computers can still be deemed to be worthwhile as the students' computer skills are enhanced and it permits further integration in other courses where educational benefits may be more readily obtained.     

Using accounting equation analysis to teach the statement of cash flows in the first financial accounting course

Understanding the statement of cash flows requires that students have some knowledge of accrual-basis accounting. This means that coverage of the statement of cash flows is deferred until late in the introductory financial accounting course and related textbooks, a time when student motivation and retention may be waning. The timing of statement of cash flow coverage is unfortunate for two reasons. First, the statement of cash flows is an important topic that all business students need to understand. Second, most students understand cash flows at the start of their financial accounting class, so there is no reason to defer coverage of this topic.This paper describes a user-oriented, pedagogical approach to integrating the statement of cash flows throughout the first financial accounting course. The essence of this approach is the use of an expanded accounting equation with temporary cash accounts corresponding to the major categories on the statement of cash flows. Directly capturing cash flow information simplifies the preparation of the statement of cash flows.     

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): An emerging challenge to accounting education

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA; 1990) opens an academic door on two levels which will affect the way we provide educational services. First, employment practices for staff and faculty will require a review. Second, there will be more disabled students in our classroom. This article summarizes relevant provisions of the ADA and offers recommendations for compliance. A significant issue considered is faculty employment practices. Each of the three typical performance areas of faculty activity (research, service, and teaching) are examined. The Act also creates a new environment for instruction for the students. Access to the classroom, office hours, examination locations, research facilities, computer labs, etc., must be made available in a manner that is normally provided for all students. This article presents a graphic paradigm providing a structure for evaluation of the institutional and instructional impacts.     

(Re)figuring accounting and maternal bodies: The gendered embodiment of accounting professionals

This paper examines the relationship between the body and the self for women accounting professionals. It explores how they come to embody the identity of accountant and what happens when forms of organizational and professional embodiment coincide with other forms of gendered embodied self, such as that experienced during pregnancy and in early motherhood. These forms of embodiment can be seen simultaneously both as a mechanism of social control, and as a form of self-expression and empowerment for women.     

英国替代性汇款监管的经验及其对我国的启示

本文首先介绍了英国对于替代性汇款的定义和立法过程以及监管替代性汇款的组织体系与措施,在分析英同商业银行在替代性汇款方面的甄别原则、相关法律义务和客户身份识别方法以及监测替代性汇款经验的基础上,提出完善我国替代性汇款监管体制的建议,包括构建基础信息提供机构体系、加强反洗钱机制及组织框架的建设、加强与被监管机构的沟通和反馈、充分利用外汇管理现有非现场数据系统利用率等.     

The (uncertain) invisible college of Spanish accounting scholars

In order to test empirically the invisible college thesis in an accounting academic community and evaluate the internal mechanisms that are embedded in its reproduction, we explore in this paper the social network of Spanish accounting scholars. The social network examined arises from one event that combines formal and informal aspects of interaction between scholars: the selection of members of Ph.D. panels for the period 1994–2003. Results are consistent with the existence of an oligarchic academic community that shows a strong and positive association with measures of local influence, but that is decoupled from measures of scholarly contribution. In this regard it is difficult to sustain that high profile scholars in this community generate a disproportionate volume of new ideas, which is the basic tenet of the invisible college hypothesis. This finding is also indicative of the schizophrenia in which non-tenured Spanish accounting scholars live, between increasing demands of refereed publications by academic institutions and a hierarchical academic community sponsoring very different values.     

Personality preferences of accounting and non-accounting graduates seeking to enter the accounting profession

The aim of this study is to investigate the relative personality preferences of accounting and non-accounting graduates seeking to enter the accounting profession. This study is motivated by the recent changes within the Australian accounting profession to encourage non-accounting graduates to enter the discipline, a key motivation for which is a perceived need to attract a greater diversity of individuals to pursue careers in accounting. Using the personality preferences (as measured using the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator [MBTI]) as an indicator of diversity, the results of this study signify that accounting and non-accounting graduates seeking to enter the accounting profession are likely to share similar personality preferences. The implications of this finding for a range of stakeholders associated with the accounting profession, and for matters such as stereotypical images of accountants, graduate recruitment, and university and professional curriculum development are discussed.     

On the use of positive economic theory to explain the choice of accounting methods to financial accounting students

Leading financial accounting textbooks explain the choice of accounting methods in terms of the accountant choosing the method that best reflects the firm's financial condition and results of its operations for the period. In this paper it is argued that a more satisfactory way of explaining why firms choose particular accounting methods is in terms of positive economic theory. Relevant research results that can be readily incorporated into classroom lectures are summarized.     

(No) Limits to Anglo-American accounting? Reconstructing the history of the International Accounting Standards Committee: A review article

The development of the current International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) from the earlier International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) provides insight into many issues of international financial reporting, among them the characteristics of international accounting standards themselves. This article reviews Camfferman and Zeff’s [Camfferman, K., & Zeff, S. A. (2007). Financial reporting and global capital markets. A history of the international accounting standards committee 1973–2000. Oxford: Oxford University Press] volume on the organizational development of the IASC and contextualizes it in the broader literature of cross-border standardization in accounting. While having produced a seminal piece, the authors take a clear Anglo-American perspective. The downsides are insufficiencies regarding a simplistic understanding of experts and expertise, a neglect of the role of auditing firms, and only an imbalanced integration of different stakeholders.     

会计披露在东亚金融危机中的作用及应吸取的教训(一)

编者按《会计披露在东亚金融危机中的作用:吸取的教训》是联合国贸易和发展会议的一份研究报告,该报告对会计披露与亚洲金融危机的关系进行了深刻的剖析,指出缺乏透明,可靠和可比的会计信息是导致亚洲金融危机的主要原因之一,并用实证方法分析了东亚5国对国际会计准则的严重背离,提出了加强监管和遵循国际会计准则的政策建议.     

《合伙会计师事务所协议范本》《有限责任会计师事务所章程范本》内容介绍与解答(四)

事务所高级管理人员包括哪些人?哪些人不得担任事务所的高级管理人员?事务所高级管理人员,包括事务所主任会计师、副主任会计师、董事、监事、合伙人管理委员会委员以及财务主管等管理人员。他们对事务所的发展起着十分关键的作用,各事务所可根据自身情况对其任职资格提出较高要求。新《公司法》第147条:“有下列情形之一的,不得担任公司的董事、监事、经理:(1)无民事行为能力或者限制民事行为能力;(2)因犯有贪污、贿赂、侵占财产、挪用财产罪或者破坏社会经济秩序罪,被判处刑罚,执行期满未逾五年,或者因犯罪被剥夺政治权利,执行期满未逾五…     

Computer Aided Learning (CAL) and its impact on the performance of non-specialist accounting undergraduates

This study examines the factors affecting students' performance on an introductory UK undergraduate financial accounting course and changes in students' attitudes and perceptions towards Computer Aided Learning (CAL) and accounting. It differs from previous research in that non-specialist accounting students taught using CAL are studied here. Questionnaire data was collected at the beginning and end of the module and is statistically analysed. Multiple regression analysis on student performance shows that age and attitude towards accounting are significant influences, but that attitude towards CAL and students' entry qualifications are not. Students' perceptions of CAL appear to be affected negatively by its use. The study shows that students are significantly more likely to perceive CAL as easy to use, but significantly less likely to view it as flexible, helpful or useful in improving computer literacy. Students' perceptions of accounting as a subject are also negatively affected. They are shown to be significantly less likely to choose to study accounting and significantly more likely to view accounting as a boring subject, following the completion of a CAL course. The negative impact on students' perceptions and attitudes towards CAL and accounting has implications for extending the use of CAL in order to efficiently redirect limited staff resources. However, given that there is no significant effect on performance this may warrant further consideration by higher education institutions.     

借鉴国际经验 完善我国证券税收制度

证券税制建设的核心问题是按照证券市场自行运行规律，规范设置税种，合理确定税率，以保证证券市场健康、规范发展。当前，完善我国的证券税收制度应重点考虑的问题是：明确证券市场税收管理的政策导向；改革现行证券交易印花税，实行证券交易税与证券交易印花税兼征制度；谨慎、适时开征资本利得税。     

Virtual Office Hours (VOH) in accounting coursework: Leveraging technology to enhance an integrative learning environment

For at least the past two decades, accounting educators have been faced with increasing demands to keep pace with imperatives from the profession and with changes in the practice environment. Rapid changes in information technology applications, both in accounting practice and in academe, have added to the complexity of accounting educator responsibilities. This paper reports on the development and use of a “Virtual Office Hours” (VOH) platform to enhance opportunities to engage students in their learning beyond the classroom environment. This approach has been developed as a result of instructor experience with adding technology applications in the accounting classroom to better reflect practice environment needs. VOH has been implemented in auditing and intermediate accounting courses to develop clear and assured lines of communication between the student and instructor, and to foster the use of information technologies as a normal and expected characteristic of the course learning environment. In so doing, the approach uses tools that students will likely apply in the practice setting to interact with clients and colleagues. This can be seen as an extension of the model conveyed by the AICPA in its Core Competency Framework to leverage technology for student skill building. Student feedback, insights from accounting course experiences with VOH, and suggestions on applicability to other accounting educators are considered in the paper.     

A reassessment of the role of the Learning Style Inventory (LSI-1985) in accounting education research

This paper reexamines the cautionary theme advanced recently in Stout and Ruble (1991a; 1991b) regarding the use of the LSI-1985 in accounting education research. We focus on evidence relevant to the construct validity of the LSI-1985 and identify a number of psychometric problems with the instrument. The evidence regarding the measurement properties of the LSI-1985 (in both its standard and scrambled versions) argues for suspension of its use in accounting education research. In short, the LSI-1985 does not provide meaningful measures of the learning style constructs posited by the Experiential Learning Model (ELM).     

聚焦会计服务业发展 共商事务所"走出去"之路——中注协在京召开会计师事务所"走出去"座谈会

7月25日,中注协在京召开会计师事务所"走出去"座谈会。政府有关部门、部分"走出去"企业的代表和国内大型事务所的负责人参加了座谈,共商中国注册会计师行业"走出去"之路。刘仲藜会长出席会议并发表了重要讲话。今年5月,中注协发布了《关于推动会计师事     

新旧企业会计准则比较(二)

二、企业会计准则--债务重组 (一)内容比较 1.债务重组方式 修订前: (1)以资产清偿债务; (2)债务转为资本; (3)修改不包括上述(1)和(2)两种方式在内的债务条件,如减少债务本金、减少债务利息等(以下简称"修改其他债务条件"; (4)以上两种或两种以上方式的组合(以下简称"混合重组方式").