Appendices: Questions and Case Studies
Appendix 1: Questions
Appendix 2: Solutions to Questions
Appendix 3: Case Studies
Appendix 4: Solutions to Case Studies
One of the problems that most students of accounting face is being able to tackle
calculation problems. The ‘fear of numbers’ is quite common with postgraduate
students and practising managers. Students often look back to find a similar ‘model
question’ and then try to repeat the calculation, simply replacing the numbers.
This is not good practice as it does not help the student to think about the
concepts involved. Each problem is different, and this mirrors day-to-day business
decisions. Solving these problems is about applying the underlying concepts.
The questions in the Appendices to this book require the reader to perform
calculations. These are contained in Appendix 1 with the solutions in Appendix 2.
This is a good way of learning about the techniques. In attempting to solve these
problems, you need to think about
žWhat the business problem is;
žThe information that is provided to solve the problem;
žThe most appropriate technique to apply to the problem; and
žHow to apply the technique to solve the problem.
The Case Studies in Appendix 3 already have calculations as these would most
likely have already been produced by an accountant in business organizations.
What is required to answer these questions is to apply your understanding of the
techniques employed by accountants and critically analyse the information given
(some of which contains questionable assumptions) so that you can
žInterpret the financial information;
žIdentify the underlying assumptions used; and