ACCT1101 Accounting for Decision Making
The Complete Exam Bible · 2026ACCT1101 Overview
- The University of Queensland
- Level 1 undergraduate
- Eleven teaching topics
- Accounting
- No assumed background
Accounting for Decision Making is the University of Queensland's introductory accounting course, and it opens by telling you what it is not: nobody expects you to be strong at maths, there is no taxation content, and no accounting background is assumed.
- Assessed by Two online case studies and a 50% invigilated final exam
- The split that matters Case studies test topics 1 to 6, the final exam tests topics 7 to 11
- Hardest step Naming which two accounts an event moves before writing any figure
- Recording method A columns and rows worksheet, not journals
- How to prepare Drill the worksheet early, then practise short reasoned answers from statements
What you get in the full ACCT1101 Exam Bible
- 10 chapters, 41 pages — every examinable topic
- 29 original practice questions, each with a model answer in the Final Exam format
- 10 worked examples, solved the way ACCT1101 marks
- 15 computed figures, redrawn from the course’s own numbers
- Exam-morning plan for the Final Exam (50%) — what to revise last, where marks are lost
Free on this page: assessment table, chapter map, one worked example, key terms, FAQ. The rest is in the full exam bible.
How ACCT1101 is assessed
| Component | Weight | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Inspera Case Study Part 1 | 20% | Online, completed in Inspera · covers topics 1 to 3 · opens Monday of week 5 and closes Friday of week 5, due 28 August 2026 |
| Inspera Case Study Part 2 | 30% | Online, completed in Inspera · covers topics 1 to 6 · opens Monday of week 8 and closes Friday of week 9, due 25 September 2026 |
| Final Exam | 50% | In person, invigilated, held in the examination period · covers topics 7 to 11 |
The three weights are published in the course's own topic 1 lecture materials for this offering and sum to 100, and the same three components at the same weights appear in the University's published course profile for the course. No pass condition attaching to any single component is stated in either, so confirm that in the course profile for this offering. The examination timetable is set centrally and the teaching staff receive it when students do, so no exam date is given here.
What other students are asking about ACCT1101
- Where can I find lecture notes or study guides for ACCT1101 at UQ?
- The ACCT1101 study guide in AskSia Library covers Accounting for Decision Making in 10 chapters, with the assessment table, a chapter-by-chapter topic map, key terms and a worked example, free to read on this page.
- Is there a final exam in ACCT1101, and how much is it worth?
- Yes. In the offering this AskSia Library guide is built from, Final Exam carries 50% of the ACCT1101 mark; the full split is Inspera Case Study Part 1 20%, Inspera Case Study Part 2 30%, Final Exam 50%.
- What does ACCT1101 cover on reading the statement of financial position?
- In AskSia Library's ACCT1101 guide, the Reading the Statement of Financial Position chapter explains current against non-current · the common account names · equity by structure · permanent accounts.
- What does ACCT1101 cover on recording transactions with the worksheet?
- In AskSia Library's ACCT1101 guide, the Recording Transactions With the Worksheet chapter explains duality · the two-account test · worksheet columns · closing balances that still balance.
- What does ACCT1101 cover on the statement of profit or loss?
- In AskSia Library's ACCT1101 guide, the The Statement of Profit or Loss chapter explains income and expenses defined · cost of goods sold · gross profit · EBIT and EBITDA · the expanded equation.
What ACCT1101 covers
Eleven teaching topics. These ten chapters work through the reporting and recording core: the three statements, the worksheet method, accrual adjustments and asset measurement.
Business Structures and the Five Elements
Sole trader, partnership, company, trust · the five elements · the accounting equation · the entity conceptAccounting is described in this course as a process with four stages: identifying transactions that affect the entity's financial position, measuring and recording them, communicating the result through reports, and supporting a decision at the end.
- The four stages of the accounting process
- Who reads accounting information and what each stakeholder wants from it
- Financial accounting against management accounting
- The four business structures and the trade off each one makes
- Unlimited liability, limited liability and why the distinction drives the choice
- The five elements and which statement each belongs to
Reading the Statement of Financial Position
Current against non-current · the common account names · equity by structure · permanent accountsThe statement of financial position reports what a business controls and who has a claim on it, at a single point in time.
- What the statement reports and the point in time it reports it at
- The twelve month rule that separates current from non current
- Common current asset accounts and what each one records
- Property, plant and equipment against intangible assets
- Common current and non current liability accounts
- Provisions as liabilities carrying uncertainty
Recording Transactions With the Worksheet
Duality · the two-account test · worksheet columns · closing balances that still balanceThis course does not record transactions in journals. It records them on a worksheet, where every account is a column, every transaction is a row, and the accounting equation is a running total you can see rather than a rule you have to trust.
- Duality and why at least two accounts always move
- Setting up the worksheet: accounts as columns, transactions as rows
- Reading an event into two named accounts
- Signed entries and the row level balance check
- Cash purchase against credit purchase against settling the payable
- Owner contributions and drawings, and why a drawing is not an expense
The Statement of Profit or Loss
Income and expenses defined · cost of goods sold · gross profit · EBIT and EBITDA · the expanded equationThe statement of profit or loss, also called the income statement or the statement of financial performance, answers one question across a period of time: income less expenses, what was left.
- What the statement reports, and over what span of time
- The income definition and the contributions exclusion
- The expense definition and the distributions exclusion
- Cost of goods sold and which entities report it
- Gross profit and what a gross margin is telling you
- EBIT and EBITDA and what each one deliberately ignores
Accrual Accounting and the Matching Principle
Earned against received · incurred against paid · the four timing mismatches · why the two profits differUnder the accrual basis income belongs to the period it was earned in, and an expense to the period it was incurred in. The cash basis waits for the money in both cases.
- Earned against received and incurred against paid
- Why reporting entities are required to use the accrual basis
- When revenue is earned for goods against for services
- The matching principle and the period an expense belongs to
- Accrued income and unearned income
- Accrued expenses and prepayments
Preparing the Statement of Cash Flows
Operating, investing, financing · the direct method · brackets for outflows · the three nets reconcileOne asset is tracked here and nothing else: the money that came in and the money that went out over a period. The basis is cash rather than accrual, and the statement exists because the other two can both look healthy while a business runs out of money.
- What the statement reports and why the cash basis is used here
- Operating activities and the four abilities they measure
- Investing activities and what a growing business looks like
- Financing activities and why a negative total can be good news
- The mapping from statement of financial position sections to the three classifications
- Direct against indirect presentation, and which one is encouraged
Cash Flow Ratios and Warning Signs
Cash adequacy · cash flow ratio · debt coverage · cash flow to sales · free cash flowOnce a statement of cash flows exists, it becomes a source of ratios that say things the profit statement cannot.
- Why every cash ratio shares the same numerator
- Cash adequacy: reinvestment and distributions covered by trading
- Cash flow ratio as a liquidity measure against current liabilities
- Debt coverage as a solvency measure over the longer term
- Cash flow to sales, and what it adds to a margin
- Free cash flow as a dollar amount rather than a ratio
End of Period Adjusting Entries
The five adjustment types · the pair of accounts each one moves · contra assets · the reversal next periodUnder accrual accounting there is regularly a gap between when income or an expense is recognised and when cash moves.
- Why adjustments are needed at balance date at all
- Accrued revenue and the follow up entry when cash arrives
- Accrued expenses and clearing the liability on payment
- Unearned revenue released as the obligation is discharged
- Prepayments released as the benefit is consumed
- Depreciation as an adjustment rather than a valuation
Valuing Receivables and Inventory
Allowance for doubtful debts · aged debtors · lower of cost and net realisable value · FIFO and weighted averageTwo current assets need a measurement decision rather than a lookup, and both decisions change reported profit.
- Accounting policy choices and why they are disclosed
- The carrying amount of receivables as amount owing less allowance
- The allowance for doubtful debts as a contra asset
- Aged debtors analysis band by band
- Percentage of credit sales and risk category methods
- The costs and benefits of granting credit
Non-current Assets and Depreciation Methods
What goes into cost · useful life and residual value · straight line, diminishing balance, units of productionProperty, plant and equipment is initially recorded at cost, and cost is read widely: anything the business had to spend to get hold of the asset, get it where it will be used, and get it into a state where it can be used.
- What belongs inside the cost of an item of property, plant and equipment
- Cost against carrying amount, and which of the two changes
- Depreciable amount, useful life and residual value as three separate inputs
- Straight line and the constant annual charge
- Diminishing balance and the front loaded pattern
- Units of production and the rate per unit of output
What it does expect is that you can look at a business event, decide which two accounts it moves, and show the accounting equation still balancing afterwards. Everything else in the course is a variation on that one move.
The teaching runs over eleven topics.
The first six build the reporting machinery: the five elements and the four business structures, the statement of financial position, the statement of profit or loss, the statement of cash flows, accrual adjustments at balance date, and the measurement of receivables, inventory and property, plant and equipment.
The later topics turn those statements outward into financial statement analysis, budgeting, costing and pricing, and performance and sustainability reporting.
Two things make this course unusual and both change how you should study.
First, transactions are recorded on a worksheet, in columns of increases and decreases, rather than in journals: the balance is something you can see across a row instead of something you assert. Second, the marks are split so that the two case studies test the first six topics while the 50% final exam tests the last five.
Nothing you submit in the first half of semester is examined again at the end, and nothing examined at the end was rehearsed in the case studies.
Worked example · free
One event, two accounts, one row: the move the whole course rests on
- +1Start with cost, not with the list price. The cost of an item of property, plant and equipment is every cost necessary to acquire it and bring it into the condition and location it will be used in. That takes in the $6,400 purchase, the $260 delivery and the $140 commissioning, so the asset is recorded at $6,800.
- +1Split the payment. Cash leaves for the $1,900 deposit plus the $400 of delivery and commissioning, a total outflow of $2,300. The unpaid $4,500 of the purchase price becomes an account payable, a current liability because it falls due inside twelve months.
- +1Write the row. Assets move by positive $6,800 for the mower and negative $2,300 for cash, a net increase of $4,500. Liabilities move by positive $4,500. Equity does not move at all, because nothing here is income, an expense, a contribution or a drawing.
- +1Prove it. The left side rose $4,500 and the right side rose $4,500, so assets still equal liabilities plus equity. Three accounts moved rather than two, which is normal: the rule is that at least two move, not exactly two.
Key terms
- Accounting equation
- The statement that assets equal liabilities plus equity, which is another way of saying every resource a business controls was funded either by a debt or by its owners.
- Entity concept
- The rule that a business keeps its records separately from the personal records of whoever owns it, so an owner's private spending never lands in the business statements.
- Duality
- The property that no transaction can touch only one account, and that whatever it touches must leave the accounting equation balanced.
- Accrual accounting
- Putting income in the period it was earned and an expense in the period it was incurred, whatever the cash happens to be doing.
- Prepaid expense
- A current asset created by paying for something before consuming it, released into expense across the periods that actually use it up.
- Unearned revenue
- A current liability created by taking a customer's cash before delivering, released into income as the promise is discharged.
- Accrued expense
- A current liability for something already consumed and not yet paid for, such as wages owed for work already done.
- Retained earnings
- The equity account that carries accumulated profit forward after dividends or drawings, and the only place profit lands on the balance sheet.
- Contra asset
- An account that sits against an asset and reduces it, such as accumulated depreciation against equipment or the allowance for doubtful debts against receivables.
- Carrying amount
- What an asset is shown at after its contra account is deducted, being cost less accumulated depreciation for an item of equipment.
- Net realisable value
- Estimated proceeds of sale less the estimated costs of selling, which caps the value inventory may be carried at.
ACCT1101 FAQ
How are the marks split in this course?
Three components. A case study worth 20% opens in week 5 and covers topics 1 to 3, a second case study worth 30% opens in week 8 and covers topics 1 to 6, and an in person invigilated final exam worth 50% covers topics 7 to 11. Both case studies are completed online in Inspera. The three weights come from the course's own topic 1 materials and add to 100.
Does the final exam cover the whole course?
No. The course materials state that the final examination covers topics 7 to 11, which are financial statement analysis across two topics, budgeting, costing and pricing, and performance measurement and sustainability. The earlier reporting topics are assessed through the two case studies instead. That split is worth planning around, because the second half of semester carries half the marks on its own.
Why does this course use a worksheet instead of journal entries?
The worksheet shows every account as a column and every transaction as a row, so the accounting equation is visible as a running total rather than something you have to trust. For an introductory course taken by students who are not necessarily going on in accounting, that makes the underlying logic of duality obvious, and it means you check your own work by adding up rather than by recalling a rule.
What is the difference between income earned and cash received?
Income is earned when goods are delivered or a service is performed, whatever the bank is doing. If a customer pays first, the receipt is a liability until you deliver. If you deliver first, you recognise income and an account receivable. Under accrual accounting profit and cash almost never move together, which is exactly why the course reports both a profit statement and a cash flow statement.
How do I estimate an allowance for doubtful debts?
The common approach in this course is an aged debtors analysis: split the receivables balance into bands by how long each amount has been outstanding, apply a separate uncollectable percentage to each band, and add the results. The total becomes the allowance, a contra asset that is deducted from accounts receivable to give the amount you actually expect to collect.
Which depreciation method should I use in an answer?
Whichever one the question tells you the entity has chosen, because the choice is an accounting policy rather than a calculation. Straight line spreads the depreciable amount evenly, diminishing balance loads expense into the early years, and units of production charges by actual use such as kilometres driven. The method changes reported profit and asset values, so a good answer names the assumption behind the choice.
How do I decide whether a cash flow is operating, investing or financing?
Ask what the cash touched. Day to day trading such as receipts from customers, payments to suppliers, wages, interest and tax is operating. Buying or selling a non current asset is investing. Anything to do with how the business is funded, such as owner contributions, share issues, borrowings, loan repayments and dividends, is financing. Non cash items never appear at all.
What is the most efficient way to revise for this course?
Work in the direction the assessment runs. For the case studies, rehearse the worksheet until you can record a batch of transactions and finish with a balanced set of statements without stopping to think about which column moves. For the final exam, the material is interpretation rather than recording, so practise writing short reasoned answers from a set of statements instead of re-reading slides.
Questions students ask in each ACCT1101 chapter
- What is the difference between financial accounting and management accounting?
- Financial accounting is written for readers inside and outside the business, what it must disclose is set by regulation, and it looks backwards at transactions that have happened. Management accounting is written for insiders only, nobody is compelled to produce it, and it mixes money with other measures while looking forward as readily as back. In this course the early reporting topics are financial accounting and the later budgeting and costing topics are management accounting. Chapter 01 · Business Structures and the Five Elements
- Why does the twelve month rule decide the classification rather than the size of the item?
- Because the statement is built to answer questions about liquidity and solvency. A reader wants to know what can be turned into cash soon against what is owed soon, and that comparison only works if both sides are cut at the same point. Sorting by size would tell you nothing about whether the business can pay next month's bills. Chapter 02 · Reading the Statement of Financial Position
- Why is it at least two accounts rather than exactly two?
- Because one side of a transaction can be settled in more than one way. Buying a vehicle with a deposit and a loan moves the vehicle account, the cash account and the loan account, which is three. The requirement is that the net effect leaves the equation balanced, and the number of columns involved is whatever the event actually needed. Chapter 03 · Recording Transactions With the Worksheet
- Why do income and expense definitions both end with an exclusion clause?
- Because equity moves for two quite different reasons and only one of them is performance. An owner putting money in raises equity without the business having earned anything, and an owner taking money out lowers it without the business having consumed anything. The exclusions strip those owner transactions out so that what is left measures trading. Chapter 04 · The Statement of Profit or Loss
- If cash accounting is simpler, why is it not allowed for reporting entities?
- Because it lets timing stand in for performance. A business could hold back payments until after balance date and report a better result without anything about its trading having changed. Accrual accounting ties recognition to the underlying event, so the reported figures describe what the business did rather than when it chose to move money. Chapter 05 · Accrual Accounting and the Matching Principle
- Why does depreciation not appear on the statement of cash flows?
- Because no cash moves when it is recognised. Depreciation allocates the cost of an asset across the periods that use it, and the cash left the business earlier, when the asset was bought. That earlier payment appears once, as an investing outflow. Showing the depreciation as well would count the same money twice. Chapter 06 · Preparing the Statement of Cash Flows
- Why do so many of these ratios use operating cash rather than profit?
- Because profit contains accrual judgements and operating cash does not. Revenue recognised on credit, an allowance for doubtful debts and a depreciation policy all move profit without moving money. Comparing obligations against cash actually generated by trading removes those judgements from the comparison, which is the whole point of having a second family of ratios. Chapter 07 · Cash Flow Ratios and Warning Signs
- Why use a contra account instead of just reducing the asset?
- Because two facts are useful and one account can only carry one of them. Keeping the original cost intact and building the accumulated total beside it lets a reader see both what the asset cost and how much of its life has been consumed, which together indicate how soon it may need replacing. Netting them into a single figure throws that away. Chapter 08 · End of Period Adjusting Entries
- Why is the allowance a contra asset rather than a reduction of receivables?
- For the same reason accumulated depreciation is kept separate from the asset it relates to. The business still has a legal claim for the full amount owing, and a reader benefits from seeing both the gross claim and the estimate of what will not arrive. Netting them into one figure would hide how large the doubtful portion has become. Chapter 09 · Valuing Receivables and Inventory
- Why are delivery and installation added to the asset rather than expensed?
- Because the asset is not usable until they have happened, so those costs are part of getting the asset into the condition and location necessary for use. Treating them as expenses would understate the asset and overstate expenses in the year of purchase, then understate depreciation in every later year. The test to apply is whether the cost was necessary to make the asset ready. Chapter 10 · Non-current Assets and Depreciation Methods
How to study for the exam
Treat the semester as two separate subjects, because the assessment does. Until week 9 your only job is to be fast and accurate on the worksheet: record a transaction, check that at least two accounts moved, confirm the row nets to zero across the equation, and move on.
Build that speed on the tutorial transaction sets rather than by reading, because recording is a motor skill and reading is not.
After the second case study the course changes character and so should your revision.
Topics 7 to 11 are about reading statements rather than producing them, and the questions reward a short chain of reasoning: name the figure, say what it measures, say what would make it move, say what you would do about it. Practise writing that chain in four sentences from a set of published statements.
One habit pays off across both halves. Whenever you meet a number, ask whether it is a point in time or a period.
The statement of financial position is a point; the cash flow statement and the statement of profit or loss are both periods, and most confusion in this course comes from putting a period figure into a point statement or the reverse.
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