IAI CAFB - Certificate in Accounting, Finance and Business study plan

Build a one-page map of the IASB conceptual framework: objective of financial reporting, qualitative characteristics, elements, recognition and measurement bases, and capital maintenance concepts.

Apply the recognition and derecognition criteria to five short scenarios (consignment stock, sale with right of return, bill-and-hold, repurchase agreement, principal vs agent) and justify each conclusion in two sentences.

Produce a personal formula sheet for the accounting cycle: double entry, adjusting entries, closing entries, and the link between statement of profit or loss, statement of financial position, and statement of cash flows.

Solve ten computation drills on revenue recognition under IFRS 15 (five-step model, transaction price allocation, over-time vs point-in-time) and log every error with its cause.

Work through the measurement rules for property, plant and equipment, intangible assets, investment property, and impairment, writing a decision tree for each standard.

Prepare a full set of adjusting journal entries from a trial balance containing depreciation, accruals, prepayments, inventory write-down, and doubtful debts.

Compute and interpret the main ratios (liquidity, solvency, efficiency, profitability) on a published annual report and state which two ratios best reveal earnings quality.

Reconcile a statement of cash flows prepared under the indirect method to the movement in cash, explaining each adjustment line.

Consolidate a parent and a wholly owned subsidiary: elimination of investment, goodwill computation, intra-group sales and unrealised profit, and non-controlling interests.

Distinguish cost classification (direct/indirect, fixed/variable, product/period) and apply it to build a cost card for a manufactured product.

Compute equivalent units and prepare a process account with normal loss, abnormal loss, and work-in-progress under both weighted average and FIFO.

Explain the treatment of deferred tax, leases, and financial instruments at a summary level and identify where each most often appears in exam scenarios.

Apply absorption costing and activity-based costing to the same overhead pool and quantify why the two product costs differ.

Prepare a reconciliation of marginal costing profit to absorption costing profit and explain the fixed overhead volume variance effect.

Build a flexible budget and compute price, rate, efficiency, expenditure, and volume variances for materials, labour, and overhead, labelling each as favourable or adverse.

Use CVP analysis to compute break-even, margin of safety, target profit, and operating leverage, then recommend a pricing decision from the results.

Evaluate a make-or-buy, accept-or-reject, and scarce-resource decision using relevant costing and opportunity cost.

Compute and interpret NPV, IRR, payback, discounted payback, and profitability index for a project, and state when each method misleads.

Adjust a project appraisal for working capital, tax depreciation, inflation, and risk by applying sensitivity and scenario analysis.

Calculate the cost of equity (CAPM and dividend growth), cost of debt after tax, and WACC, then explain how gearing changes WACC.

Analyse working capital: cash conversion cycle, EOQ, credit policy trade-offs, and short-term financing choices.

Describe dividend policy theories and the practical constraints on payout decisions.

Build a sources-of-finance comparison table covering equity, debt, leases, and retained earnings, with cost, risk, control, and covenant implications.

Summarise the legal framework of business organisations: separate legal personality, limited liability, incorporation, and directors' duties.

Apply the rules on contract formation (offer, acceptance, consideration, intention, capacity) to five short fact patterns.

Explain corporate governance codes at principle level: board composition, independence, audit committee, remuneration, and shareholder rights, and map each to a governance failure example.

Model supply and demand shifts and compute elasticity, then predict revenue effects of a price change using the elasticity figure.

Interpret market structures (perfect competition, monopoly, oligopoly) and relate each to pricing power and output decisions.

Explain macroeconomic indicators (GDP, inflation, unemployment, interest rates, exchange rates) and trace how a rate rise flows through a firm's cost of capital and demand.

Apply PESTLE and Porter's Five Forces to a named industry and derive three strategic options.

Compare growth strategies (Ansoff matrix, vertical integration, diversification) and evaluate one using a cost-benefit and risk screen.

Apply the main ethical frameworks (consequentialist, deontological, virtue) to three professional dilemmas and identify the threats and safeguards from the standard conceptual framework.

State the core professional obligations: integrity, objectivity, confidentiality, competence, and compliance with laws and technical standards, and apply whistleblowing considerations.

Explain internal control and information system controls (access, segregation of duties, backup, audit trail) and identify fraud risks in a described process.

Use descriptive analytics on a sample dataset: clean data, compute summary statistics, and produce two charts supporting a business recommendation.

Draft a final revision timetable allocating remaining hours by domain weight and self-assessed weakness.