CPA Advanced Financial Accounting study plan

Construct a complete set of single-entity IFRS financial statements (statement of financial position, statement of profit or loss and OCI, statement of changes in equity, statement of cash flows under the indirect method) from a trial balance plus a list of year-end adjustments.

Apply IAS 1 presentation and disclosure requirements: classify current versus non-current, identify minimum line items, and distinguish profit or loss from OCI items that may or may not be reclassified.

Compute the common year-end adjustments that feed statements - accruals and prepayments, depreciation and impairment, tax expense, dividends declared, prior-period errors and changes in policy - and show where each lands in the four statements.

Identify the acquirer, acquisition date, consideration transferred and identifiable net assets in a simple business combination, and explain how IFRS 3 differs from the pooling approach.

Apply the IFRS 3 acquisition method end to end: measure consideration transferred including contingent consideration, recognise and measure identifiable assets acquired and liabilities assumed at acquisition-date fair value, and compute goodwill or a gain on a bargain purchase.

Calculate non-controlling interest under both the fair-value method and the proportionate-share-of-net-assets method, and explain how the choice changes goodwill and subsequent NCI allocations.

Prepare consolidation adjustments for intra-group trading: eliminate intra-group sales, unrealised profit in closing inventory, intra-group receivables and payables, loans, interest, dividends and unrealised profit on asset transfers.

Allocate post-acquisition profits between owners of the parent and NCI, including depreciation adjustments on fair-value uplifts, and account for step acquisitions and disposals of a controlling interest.

Apply the equity method under IAS 28 to an associate, including share of profit, dividends received, fair-value adjustments and impairment of the investment.

Classify financial assets under IFRS 9 into amortised cost, fair value through OCI or fair value through profit or loss by testing the business model and the solely-payments-of-principal-and-interest criterion, and justify each classification in writing.

Build an effective-interest-method amortisation schedule for a bond issued or purchased at a premium or discount, and record the interest income or expense, coupon and carrying amount at each reporting date.

Compute expected credit loss under the three-stage model, distinguishing 12-month from lifetime expected credit loss and incorporating forward-looking information.

Separate the liability and equity components of a compound instrument such as convertible debt and account for the subsequent interest accretion and any conversion or redemption.

Account for share-based payment under IFRS 2: equity-settled awards with service and performance vesting conditions, graded vesting, cash-settled awards remeasured each period, and choice-of-settlement arrangements, including the annual expense schedule to vesting.

Apply IFRS 15's five-step model to multi-element contracts: identify performance obligations, allocate the transaction price including discounts and variable consideration with the expected-value or most-likely-amount constraint, and recognise revenue over time or at a point in time.

Account for contract assets and contract liabilities, contract costs, and the effect of a significant financing component and of changes in the transaction price on a partly completed contract.

Apply IFRS 16 as lessee: recognise the right-of-use asset and lease liability at commencement, compute the discount rate effect, remeasure on modification, and present the depreciation and interest split correctly.

Distinguish lessee accounting from lessor accounting, including finance versus operating leases and the sales-type lease with a selling profit.

Compute deferred tax under IAS 12 using the temporary-difference approach for depreciation differences, development costs, revaluations, provisions, unused tax losses and consolidation fair-value uplifts, and present the deferred tax movement between profit or loss, OCI and equity.

Recognise and measure provisions under IAS 37 for warranties, restructuring, onerous contracts and environmental obligations, applying the present-value requirement and distinguishing provisions from contingent liabilities.

Perform an IAS 36 impairment review of a cash-generating unit: identify indicators, allocate impairment across goodwill and other assets, reverse impairment where permitted, and handle the corporate-asset allocation.

Translate foreign currency balances and transactions under IAS 21, distinguish functional from presentation currency, and compute exchange differences on monetary items, non-monetary items at fair value and a foreign operation.

Explain and apply the Conceptual Framework: objective of general purpose reporting, qualitative characteristics, elements, recognition and derecognition criteria, and measurement bases, and use it to critique a proposed accounting treatment.

Summarise the IASB standard-setting process, the role of the IFRS Interpretations Committee, the endorsement and adoption framework in your jurisdiction, and the disclosure initiative.

Compute and interpret the standard analysis ratios - margins, return on capital employed, gearing, interest cover, liquidity, and cash conversion - from a set of published financial statements and explain the business story behind each move.

Critique earnings quality by identifying the accounting policy choices from earlier weeks that shift profit between periods, such as revenue timing, lease classification and impairment assumptions, and return to two previously missed consolidation questions and redo them cleanly.

Sit three mixed-topic papers under exam conditions covering all five domains, then tag every lost mark to a domain and a root cause.

Redo, from a blank page and without notes, the two highest-mark consolidation and financial-instrument questions from weeks 2 and 3.

Close the three weakest areas identified by the tagged errors using targeted practice, and write a one-page formula and adjustment checklist for each.

Practise exam technique on longer questions: allocate time per mark, show workings even when the answer is wrong, and keep to the 1.8-minutes-per-mark discipline.

Sit two full three-hour mock exams under strict timing and no interruptions, and mark each before starting the next.

Review every mock error against the error log from week 7 and confirm which root causes are now closed.

Recite from memory the journal entries and layouts most likely to be tested: consolidation eliminations, effective-interest schedules, lease commencement, deferred tax movement and revenue allocation.

Complete a final light pass of the disclosure and presentation checklists for IAS 1, IFRS 15, IFRS 16 and IFRS 9, and confirm exam-day logistics.