This course teaches fundamental concepts and skills related to how organisations account for and financially report their business activities, and how you can comprehend, interpret and analyse the financial information that they report. It also introduces contemporary extended reporting practices (such as integrated reporting) that provide further insight into an organisation’s financial, social, and environmental impact. By the end of the course, students will develop sufficient financial literacy to read financial reports, interpret and analyse a company’s financial position and performance, control cash and other business assets, identify links between financial reporting and capital markets, and recognise sustainability and ethical issues in financial reporting.

The course provides students with an introductory understanding of how accounting and finance function and co-exist within business. Key aims include:

• Developing students’ capacity to understand and interpret key accounting and finance terminology
• Encouraging students to think critically and analytically about financial information and how it impacts businesses financial performance and financial position
• Developing problem-solving skills by presenting students with various accounting/finance scenarios and challenges
• Building students’ confidence and ability to communicate financial information to their peers
• Making students aware of careers and pathways in accounting and finance, and prepare students for entry to these major at UNSW.

COMM1140 is the first of four units within the IFY that focus on the theme of Business Management, that is the study of what goes on within a business organisation. It is a prerequisite for COMM1170 and COMM1180, which further develop the cross-disciplinary foundational knowledge covered in this unit.

COMM1140 prepares students for COMM1170 Organisational Resources and COMM1180 Value Creation and is a formal prerequisite.

The aim of COMM1140 is to unlock the language of business to allow students to communicate insights about financial and non-financial performance to a range of audiences and to empower students to make informed business-related decisions. This is achieved primarily through understanding, interpreting, and analysing financial statements and applying financial literacy knowledge and skills through the interpretation of a range of real-life scenarios.

N/A

N/A

This course will have an invigilated exam held on UNSW’s Kensington campus. The exam would be conducted on Inspera, an online assessment platform. It is a mandatory requirement that you attend the exam on-campus (even if you are only attending online classes) and that you come with a fully charged laptop which has the Safe Exam Browser (SEB) installed. Students will be informed of the type of final exam assessment in the early weeks of the term.

As a student at UNSW, you are expected to display academic integrity in your work and interactions. Where a student breaches the UNSW Student Code with respect to academic integrity, the University may take disciplinary action under the Student Misconduct Procedure. To assure academic integrity, you may be required to demonstrate reasoning, research and the process of constructing work submitted for assessment.

To assist you in understanding what academic integrity means, and how to ensure that you comply with the UNSW Student Code, it is strongly recommended that you complete the Working with Academic Integrity module before submitting your first assessment task. It is a free, online self-paced Moodle module that should take about one hour to complete.

In order to pass this course, you must:

• achieve a composite mark of at least 50 out of 100;

You are expected to attempt all assessment requirements in the course.

A detailed course overview is provided on the COMM1140 Moodle page, along with dates for assignment submission.

Required textbook:

"Trotman, Humphreys, Clout, Morgan (2022) Fundamentals of Accounting and Financial Management" 8th Edition.

This resource comes in e-book format only. Information about purchasing this e-book will be posted to the COMM1140 Moodle site 2 weeks before the commencement of the term. Due to content updates, it is not possible to use older versions of this e-book in this unit.

Optional Textbooks:

The finance portion of this course (as well as the finance portions of COMM1170 and COMM1180) will make use of the following resource:

Jonathan Berk, Peter DeMarzo, Jarrad Harford, Guy Ford, and Vito Mollica, 2017, Fundamentals of Corporate Finance, 3rd Edition (Pearson Australia; ISBN 9781488620072)

Relevant material from this textbook will be posted on the COMM1140 Moodle site.

Course Website:

A course website will be maintained within Moodle. You are required to have a student number and zPass to access this website. You must be enrolled in the course to access the website at Moodle. The website will contain important announcements, copies of lecture notes, the solutions to the weekly preparation and tutorial questions and other material deemed suitable by the course coordinator from time to time. We cannot place any material on the website that involves the use of student IDs or raises issues with respect to privacy. If you need help getting started or using Moodle then go to eLearning at UNSW.

Peer Assisted Study Sessions (PASS) is available for this course:

PASS offers free, weekly, out-of-class study sessions that are drop-in, drop-out to all students enrolled in a COMM1140. The PASS classes are facilitated by a leader who is a student who has previously studied and successfully completed the course. Attending PASS regularly can help you to: deepen your understanding of the course content; develop skills for independent university study; make friends; and help you feel more confident in your studies. The timetables for the PASS classes will be made available on the course Moodle website. You are recommended to attend the same PASS class regularly but there is no obligation. You can also choose to attend during some weeks but not other weeks. To get the most out of your PASS class you should: (i) be interactive; (ii) come along with questions and raise issues that you are having with the course content; and (iii) attend regularly.

A PASS schedule will be posted on Moodle at the start of the term.

We provide a list of resources to support students learning on the COMM1140 moodle page.

Students are encouraged to purchase the Trotman ebook to support their independent learning.

In advance of T1, 2024, COMM1140 has undergone a renovation to further enhance the student experience. This includes:

- Ensuring students can better differentiate between accounting and finance

- Ensure students understand the relevance and application of the concepts we teach in the business world

- Embedding industry experience in each COMM1140 tutorial

- Making the lectures and tutorials more engaging

- Embedding a full week of tax so students are aware of what tax involves.