ACCT1101 Accounting for Decision Making
The Complete Exam Bible · ACCT1101 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
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 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 concept02Reading the Statement of Financial Position
Current against non-current · the common account names · equity by structure · permanent accounts03Recording Transactions With the Worksheet
Duality · the two-account test · worksheet columns · closing balances that still balance04The Statement of Profit or Loss
Income and expenses defined · cost of goods sold · gross profit · EBIT and EBITDA · the expanded equation05Accrual Accounting and the Matching Principle
Earned against received · incurred against paid · the four timing mismatches · why the two profits differ06Preparing the Statement of Cash Flows
Operating, investing, financing · the direct method · brackets for outflows · the three nets reconcile07Cash Flow Ratios and Warning Signs
Cash adequacy · cash flow ratio · debt coverage · cash flow to sales · free cash flow08End of Period Adjusting Entries
The five adjustment types · the pair of accounts each one moves · contra assets · the reversal next period09Valuing Receivables and Inventory
Allowance for doubtful debts · aged debtors · lower of cost and net realisable value · FIFO and weighted average10Non-current Assets and Depreciation Methods
What goes into cost · useful life and residual value · straight line, diminishing balance, units of productionWhat 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.
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.
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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