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A Financial Statement Analysis Project for Introductory Financial Accounting

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G lobal Perspectives on Accounting Education
Volume 6, 2009, 83-96

A FINANCIAL STATEMENT ANALYSIS
PROJECT FOR INTRODUCTORY
FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING
Marilyn B. Misch
Business Administration Division
Pepperdine University
Malibu, California
USA
Carolyn A. Galantine
Business Administration Division
Pepperdine University
Malibu, California
USA
ABSTRACT
This paper describes a financial statement analysis project useful in both preparerbased and user-based introductory courses in financial accounting. The project requires students to analyze trends in corporate performance, to evaluate corporate financial decisions, to discuss non-financial statement issues that would be important to potential investors, to compare two companies …show more content…

The project in this paper, on the other hand, is much more in keeping with the recommendations of authors such as
Kimmel (1995), who call for using cases which do not have unique solutions and which require students to formulate recommendations on the basis of incomplete information. The project included here has only six requirements, which are completely detailed on a single page. Yet, while the requirements provide a systematic framework for completion, they also are open-ended, inducing students to create analyses tailored to the particular circumstances encountered by the specific companies and specific industries being analyzed at a particular point in time.

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A Financial Statement Analysis Project for Introductory Financial Accounting

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PROJECT OVERVIEW
Project Requirements
As may be seen in the assignment sheet included in Appendix 1, the project requires students to obtain annual reports for two companies in a given industry-one to serve as the “base company” and one to serve as the “comparison company.” Then, students are required to analyze key trends in the base company’s income statement and balance sheet

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