Honors Theses
Date of Award
2018
Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Department
Accountancy
First Advisor
Victoria Dickinson
Relational Format
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
The following presents a series of case studies in various areas of financial reporting. The purpose of these case studies is to further understand the concepts found in the Accounting Standards Codification and see how they can be applied in the real world. Each study focused on a different area of financial accounting and the appropriate ways to account for transactions in a company's four financial statements: the Income Statement, the Statement of Changes in Stockholders' Equity, the Balance Sheet, and the Statement of Cash Flows. To understand the situations and transactions each case study presented, I called upon the principles and ideas I have learned in my accounting courses as a student of the University of Mississippi Patterson School of Accountancy. With the information I gathered from doing research in the Codification, I was able to generate new knowledge on the accounting concepts deliberated in the respective case studies. Through the research I performed on the various topics in financial reporting, I gained a clearer insight on how companies account for and report their day-to-day activities, while gaining a general awareness for how companies work. I have found that my enhanced knowledge of financial reporting topics and the business world has already propelled me further into becoming the strong business woman that I have been striving to grow into during my college career. I believe that because of my understanding of these different topics in financial reporting I learned how to use my critical thinking skills to construct solutions to contextualize large problems. My research process cultivated the ways I approached every problem I encountered while on my internship with the Big Four Accounting Firm KPMG. During my time as an intern in the international tax department of the KPMG Houston office, I noticed myself reverting back to the ways of thinking that I used when advancing through the following case studies. With every new challenge as an intern, I found myself progressing intellectually as an accountant and business woman because of the analytical approach I used when problem-solving; the same approach I used to complete this thesis. My hard skills also improved due to the extensive Excel work many of these case studies required. Before writing this thesis, I had not had much experience in Excel. Now I can say that I am extremely familiar with Excel and am comfortable learning new ways to filter and analyze data that is entered into the program. I found the improvement of my technical skills within Excel to be a huge factor as to why I easily transitioned into the work I was given on my internship. Having a solid knowledge base to build on during my internship was one of the most profitable things I learned from my time as an accounting student at the University of Mississippi. In conclusion, the knowledge I have accumulated throughout writing this thesis will be substantial to my success in my future career as an accountant. The deeper understanding of accounting methods I received through the research I performed will be a great base for the concepts I will learn as a graduate student and for the concepts I will continue to build on as a young professional. The impact of conducting the research to write this thesis will assist me in achieving amazing heights in my professional career.
Recommended Citation
Camilleri, Katherine, "Financial Reporting: The Application of the Accounting Standards Codification" (2018). Honors Theses. 513.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/513
Accessibility Status
Searchable text