ACCTG102: pass the exams, not just read the notes
Your complete guide to University of Auckland's accounting concepts course. See where the marks are, work real practice questions, and study with an AI tutor that knows ACCTG102.
Sia generates ACCTG102 practice questions, walks through accrual accounting concepts and inventories step by step, and quizzes you on the material the exam weights most heavily.
Worked example
On 1 October a business pays $12,000 cash for a 12-month insurance policy and records the full amount as Prepaid Insurance. What adjusting entry is required at 31 December, the end of the accounting period?
Prepaid insurance is an asset that is used up over time; at period end you expense only the portion that has expired.
By 31 December, three months (October, November and December) have expired: 3 × 1,000 = 3,000.
The adjusting entry moves the expired portion out of the asset and into an expense: debit Insurance Expense 3,000 and credit Prepaid Insurance 3,000, leaving 9,000 still on the balance sheet as Prepaid Insurance (option A).
The trap: Expensing the full 12,000 (option B) ignores that nine months of cover are still unused at 31 December; that prepayment is an asset, not yet an expense. Option D expenses the 9,000 that has not yet expired, the exact reverse of the matching principle. classic slip!
One exam decides 50% of your grade. Comprehensive across the whole course (Chapters 1 to 5 and 7 to 10). This whole page is built around that.
Overview
What ACCTG102 is, and where it sits
ACCTG 102 is the University of Auckland Business School's Stage 1 financial accounting course: a 15-point paper that takes you from a single business transaction all the way to a complete set of financial statements. It builds the double-entry recording system, the accrual concepts that decide when revenue and expenses are recognised, and the reporting and analysis of inventory, cash and receivables, non-current assets, liabilities and equity. The framing is the preparer's perspective throughout: how the numbers in a financial report are actually constructed under the New Zealand Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting and IFRS.
The course runs as a flipped classroom. You watch pre-workshop recordings and sit a short online quiz before each week, then spend about two compulsory contact hours in a live City Campus workshop working problems by hand. The textbook (Carlon et al., Financial Accounting, 7th edition) maps one chapter to each week, and the WileyPlus assignments plus a Get-to-Know-Xero task connect the manual mechanics to real cloud accounting software. Chapter 6 is not covered: the sequence runs Chapters 1 to 5 before the mid-semester test, then Chapters 7 to 10.
ACCTG 102 is the technical platform for the rest of an accounting or finance major. The recording mechanics, accrual adjustments and reporting chain you drill here are assumed knowledge in the Stage 2 financial accounting, management accounting, finance and accounting-information-systems courses, so the payoff for getting fluent early is large. Assessment is weighted heavily toward two sittings: a 20% mid-semester test on the first half and a 50% comprehensive final on the whole course.
Official outline: courseoutline.auckland.ac.nz · ACCTG102 outline. Always treat the official outline and the exam timetable as authoritative.
Difficulty & time commitment
Is ACCTG102 hard, and how much time does it take?
ACCTG102 is manageable if you keep a weekly rhythm and treat the back half as the main event. The pattern is consistent: it starts gently and steepens, and the heaviest assessment is the part that separates grades.
The difficulty curve and the assessment weighting point the same way: the back half is harder and worth more. Front-loading effort there is the highest-return decision in the course.
Is this course for you
Who tends to do well, and who tends to struggle
You will likely do well if
- You keep the double-entry mechanics automatic: for every transaction you can name the accounts, the debit and the credit, and check that the accounting equation still balances.
- You redo the worked problems by hand (journal entries, T-accounts, adjusting and closing entries, inventory cost flows) and self-mark before the workshop rather than only watching the recordings.
- You stay current week to week, because each chapter assumes the recording and accrual mechanics from the ones before it.
- You treat the numbers carefully, because accounting rewards precise, checkable arithmetic and a single posting error cascades through the statements.
You may struggle if
- You watch the pre-workshop recordings passively and never push a transaction all the way through to the financial statements yourself.
- You leave the WileyPlus assignments and online quizzes to the last minute; they are low-stakes individually but they are how you build the fluency the 50% final tests.
- You memorise rules without understanding why an entry debits one account and credits another, which falls apart on the analytical and written exam questions.
- You skip the back-half chapters (receivables, non-current assets, liabilities and equity), which are denser and all sit on the comprehensive final.
- Build one running summary of the journal-entry templates: accruals, prepayments, depreciation, bad debts, inventory cost flows and closing entries, and rehearse each from a blank page.
- Drill the comprehensive final under timed conditions, because it covers Chapters 1 to 5 and 7 to 10 together and the analytical questions reward speed and accuracy.
- Practise the full reporting chain end to end: transaction to journal to ledger to adjusted trial balance to the financial statements, so a question about any step is familiar.
- Use the Xero task to see how the manual mechanics map onto real cloud software, which makes the concepts stick rather than feeling abstract.
Syllabus
The 12 topics, week by week
The exam-weight marker on each topic shows where the marks concentrate. The amber topics carry the highest exam weight.
T1 · Introduction to accounting and the financial statements
Carlon Ch 1What accounting is and who uses it, the four financial statements (statement of profit or loss, statement of financial position, statement of changes in equity and statement of cash flows) and how they connect, plus an introduction to the Xero toolbox.
T2 · The recording process
Carlon Ch 2How business events become transactions and accounts, recording with debits and credits, posting to the general ledger and preparing a trial balance that proves the books balance.
T3 · Accrual accounting concepts
Carlon Ch 3The difference between accrual and cash accounting, the adjusting entries for accruals and prepayments that update the accounts at period end, and closing the books to complete the accounting cycle.
T4 · Inventories and merchandising operations
Carlon Ch 4Merchandising operations and the perpetual and periodic inventory systems, recording purchases, sales, discounts and returns, the statement of profit or loss for a trading business, and the New Zealand GST process.
T5 · Inventory cost flow methods and analysis
Carlon Ch 5Assigning cost to inventory using FIFO and weighted average, the effect of each method on profit and the balance sheet, and inventory analysis including turnover and profitability.
T6 · Mid-semester test review
Chapters 1 to 5A consolidation week: discussion and revision of Chapters 1 to 5 in preparation for the mid-semester test.
T7 · Cash and receivables
Carlon Ch 7Managing and monitoring cash, and recording and reporting receivables including the allowance for doubtful debts and the net realisable value of accounts receivable.
T8 · Non-current assets and depreciation
Carlon Ch 8Accounting for non-current assets: acquisition, depreciation methods, disposals, and the treatment of intangible assets.
T9 · Liabilities, bonds and leases
Carlon Ch 9Current and non-current liabilities, accounting for bonds and market interest rates, leasing, provisions and contingent liabilities, and the analysis of a firm's financial position.
T10 · Equity: shares and dividends
Carlon Ch 10The corporate company form of organisation, accounting for share issues and splits, and recording dividends.
T11 · Accounting in Xero
XeroApplying the concepts in Xero, a cloud-based accounting package, to see how the manual recording and reporting mechanics map onto real software.
T12 · Final exam review
Whole courseA consolidation week: discussion and revision across the whole course in preparation for the comprehensive final exam.
How it's assessed
Assessment structure
| Component | Weight | Format & timing |
|---|---|---|
| Assignments, quizzes and coursework | 30% | Ten pre-workshop online quizzes (0.5% each, 5% in total; 20 multiple-choice questions, 60 minutes, two attempts with the higher kept, open-book) plus three WileyPlus assignments (Assignment 01 on Chapters 1 to 4, Assignment 02 on Chapters 7 to 10, and Assignment 03, the 5% Get-to-Know-Xero task). Across the semester, with due dates on Canvas. Individual work submitted through WileyPlus and Canvas. |
| Mid-semester Test | 20% | Online Inspera test of 90 minutes plus reading and technical time (about a 110-minute window); a mix of multiple-choice, analytical questions such as journal entries and calculations, and written questions. Held mid-semester; covers Textbook Chapters 1 to 5. Individual, online and invigilated through Inspera. |
| Final Exam | 50% | Two-hour comprehensive examination delivered through Inspera, with the mode (online or on-campus) announced on Canvas; a practice exam is provided. During the University of Auckland examination period. Comprehensive across the whole course (Chapters 1 to 5 and 7 to 10). |
- Pass on a weighted average of at least 50%. No single-component hurdle is stated in the official outline.
- The mid-semester test (90 minutes plus reading and technical time) covers Chapters 1 to 5 and mixes multiple-choice, analytical questions such as journal entries and calculations, and written questions. The final exam is comprehensive across Chapters 1 to 5 and 7 to 10, so the recording, accrual and reporting mechanics from the first half are tested again alongside the second-half chapters.
This is an exam-cram course. With the exams at 70% of the grade and the final exam alone at 50%, your result is overwhelmingly decided by how well you perform under time pressure. Comprehensive across the whole course (Chapters 1 to 5 and 7 to 10).
Final exam timing: During the University of Auckland examination period for the semester of your offering (subject to confirmation against the official exam timetable). Confirm the exact date and venue on the official exam timetable.
How to actually pass it
A weekly rhythm, two checklists, and the traps to avoid
The course rewards consistency over cramming, and practice over re-reading. Here is the loop that works, then what to have nailed before each exam.
The weekly loop
Before the mid-semester checklist
- Drill the recording process and accrual mechanics: journal entries, T-accounts, the trial balance, adjusting entries and closing entries, until they are automatic.
- Practise the inventory chapters by hand: merchandising entries, the GST process, and FIFO versus weighted-average cost flows with their effect on profit.
- Sit the practice mid-semester test under the 90-minute Inspera conditions so the online format holds no surprises.
- Make sure you can move cleanly from an adjusted trial balance to the statement of profit or loss and the statement of financial position.
Before the final heaviest topics
- Revise the whole course (Chapters 1 to 5 and 7 to 10); the final is comprehensive, so nothing from the first half is safe to drop.
- Prioritise the denser back-half chapters: receivables and the allowance for doubtful debts, non-current assets and depreciation, liabilities and equity.
- Work the practice final under two-hour conditions and check your method on the analytical and written questions, not just the final number.
- Re-rehearse every journal-entry template and the reporting chain from a blank page, since the comprehensive paper can test any step.
The mistakes that cost marks
Confusing the accrual basis with cash. Recording revenue and expenses when cash moves rather than when they are earned or incurred is the most common conceptual error and it breaks every adjusting entry. Revenue is recognised when earned; expenses are matched to the period they help generate revenue.
Treating the quizzes and assignments as optional. The online quizzes (5%) and WileyPlus assignments build the fluency the 50% comprehensive final tests. Skipping them to save time is borrowing against the exam that decides half your grade.
Forgetting that adjusting entries never touch Cash. Every adjusting entry updates one income-statement account and one balance-sheet account, and never Cash. An adjusting entry that debits or credits Cash is a sign the entry is wrong.
Leaving the back-half chapters to cram. Chapters 7 to 10 (receivables, non-current assets, liabilities and equity) are denser and all sit on the comprehensive final. Cramming them in the last week rarely works.
Teaching team
Who teaches ACCTG102
The bios below are factual. We do not rate lecturers; any star ratings are submitted by students who have taken ACCTG102.
Yen Shih
Co-ordinates ACCTG 102 and lectures the City Campus live workshops, posting course announcements on behalf of the teaching team and running the exam revision workshop.
Terry
Leads City Campus live workshops for ACCTG 102. Listed by first name in the course materials.
Marzie
Leads City Campus live workshops for ACCTG 102. Listed by first name in the course materials.
Teaching team as listed in the course materials reviewed. AskSia does not rate lecturers; star ratings are submitted by students who have taken ACCTG102.
Formula & concept sheet
The vocabulary and formulas you must own
- The accounting equation
- Assets = Liabilities + Equity. Every transaction keeps this in balance, and double-entry records equal debits and credits for each event.
- Accrual basis
- Revenue is recognised when earned and expenses when incurred, regardless of when cash moves, in contrast to the cash basis which records only cash receipts and payments.
- Adjusting entries
- Period-end entries for accruals (revenue earned or expense incurred but not yet recorded) and deferrals (prepaid expenses and unearned revenue). Each adjusting entry hits one income-statement account and one balance-sheet account, and never Cash.
- Prepaid expense adjustment
- Debit the expense and credit the asset for the portion that has expired. The unexpired portion stays on the balance sheet as an asset.
- Depreciation (straight line)
- Annual depreciation = (cost minus residual value) / useful life. Accumulated Depreciation is a contra-asset; carrying amount = cost minus accumulated depreciation.
- Cost of goods sold (periodic)
- Opening inventory plus purchases minus closing inventory. Gross profit = sales revenue minus cost of goods sold.
- FIFO versus weighted average
- FIFO assigns the oldest costs to cost of goods sold; weighted average uses a single average cost per unit. In rising prices FIFO reports lower cost of goods sold and higher profit than weighted average.
- Allowance for doubtful debts
- An estimate of receivables not expected to be collected. Net realisable value = accounts receivable minus the allowance, and bad-debt expense is recognised when the allowance is created or topped up, matching it to the related sales.
- Closing entries
- At period end the revenue and expense (temporary) accounts are closed to a profit or loss summary and then to retained earnings; the permanent balance-sheet accounts carry forward.
- GST (New Zealand)
- GST is collected on sales (GST payable) and paid on purchases (GST receivable), with the net remitted to Inland Revenue. GST is not revenue or expense; it passes through the entity.
- Current ratio
- Current assets / current liabilities, a measure of short-term liquidity.
- Inventory turnover
- Cost of goods sold / average inventory, a measure of how quickly inventory is sold during the period.
Common acronyms: COGS · FIFO · GST · NRV · PPE · NCA · AR · AP · TB · IFRS.
Set texts
The prescribed reading
The syllabus references map straight onto these.
Financial Accounting: Reporting, Analysis and Decision Making
Carlon, McAlpine, Lee, Mitrione, Kirk and Wong.
Where it fits
Prerequisites, related courses & why it matters
Prerequisite: ACCTG 101 or BUSINESS 114. ACCTG 102 assumes you have met one of these and builds the technical, preparer-side foundation for the Stage 2 accounting, finance and accounting-information-systems courses.
Your ACCTG102 study toolkit
Study the course with Sia, not just read about it
Each tool already knows ACCTG102: your syllabus, your texts, and where the marks are. Grouped by how you study, from first contact to exam week.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is ACCTG 102 hard?
It is a moderate Stage 1 course. The concepts are introductory, but the work is relentlessly numeric and procedural, and 70% of your grade sits in two timed assessments (a 20% mid-semester test and a 50% comprehensive final). It is very manageable if you keep up week to week, do the problems by hand and treat the back-half chapters seriously.
How is ACCTG 102 assessed?
Coursework is 30% (ten pre-workshop online quizzes worth 5% in total plus three WileyPlus assignments, one of which is the 5% Get-to-Know-Xero task), the mid-semester test is 20% and the final exam is 50%. You pass on a weighted average of at least 50%, with no single-component hurdle stated in the official outline.
What does the final exam cover?
The final is a two-hour comprehensive examination over the whole course, Chapters 1 to 5 and 7 to 10. It is delivered through Inspera, with the mode (online or on-campus) announced on Canvas, and a practice exam is provided so you can rehearse the format.
How much calculation is involved?
A lot, at an introductory level: journal entries, T-accounts, trial balances, adjusting and closing entries, inventory cost flows (FIFO and weighted average), GST, depreciation, the allowance for doubtful debts and basic ratio analysis. It is procedural arithmetic rather than algebra, but accuracy matters because one posting error flows through every statement.
Do I need ACCTG 101 first?
The prerequisite is ACCTG 101 or BUSINESS 114. ACCTG 102 takes the preparer's perspective (how reports are constructed) where ACCTG 101 takes the user's perspective (how to read them), so the two complement each other and 102 builds on the foundation.
Do I need the textbook?
Yes. The prescribed text is Carlon et al., Financial Accounting, 7th edition (Wiley), and the WileyPlus assignments that count toward your coursework are delivered through the platform that comes with it, so access is effectively required rather than optional.
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