Objectives: This course introduces students with no accounting background to understand the fundamentals of accounting and why it is used in small or medium size organizational structures. The purpose of this course is to provide the students basic information of accounting and its financial statements. The obtained knowledge will improve the understanding that accounting is more than keeping records of business transactions or controls over handling cash. It is more than summarizing and reporting the recorded financial information for a certain period.

The students will learn to work with accounting records in a fair way, base decisions on the information in financial statements as well as to conclude from the records what has happened in the fiscal period.

Contents: The course has three major components. The first is introducing accounting basics and simple financial statements. Secondly, sales and purchases are introduced as well as cash and bank flows. We will cover fraud and ethics in terms of maintaining a fair and reliable figures over financial reporting.

Methodology: The course will be provided through frontal lectures and interactive discussions. Students are required to read the assigned materials prior to the lectures and complete practical examples as homework. The homework is corrected together in class and not individually. The students have the opportunity to resubmit the corrected homework. The use of a computer (MS Excel, Libre Office Calc) and/or calculator (no smart phone calculators) is recommended.

Means of evaluation: The grade will be determined by the relative performance of the following components:

Attendance and participation (incl. class preparation) (30%)

Home work (individual incl. corrections) (30%)

Final exam in writing (40%)