BUSINESS114: pass the exams, not just read the notes
Your complete guide to University of Auckland's accounting for decision making course. See where the marks are, work real practice questions, and study with an AI tutor that knows BUSINESS114.
Sia generates BUSINESS114 practice questions, walks through why accounting information matters and business structures step by step, and quizzes you on the material the exam weights most heavily.
Worked example
A retailer reports revenue of $400,000, cost of sales of $260,000 and total operating expenses of $90,000 for the year. What is its net profit margin?
Compute gross profit first: revenue minus cost of sales is 400,000 minus 260,000, which is 140,000. Gross margin is 140,000 over 400,000, or 35% — that is option B, and it is not what was asked.
Divide by revenue: 50,000 over 400,000 is 0.125, or 12.5%.
State the decision the number informs: for every dollar of sales the business keeps 12.5 cents after all operating costs, which is the figure a lender or owner would compare with prior years and competitors.
The trap: Stopping at gross margin. The question asks for net profit margin, which comes after operating expenses; option B is the gross figure and option C is what you get by subtracting the expenses from the margin percentage instead of from the dollars. classic slip!
One exam decides 50% of your grade. Individual examination. This whole page is built around that.
Overview
What BUSINESS114 is, and where it sits
BUSINESS 114 is the University of Auckland's Stage 1 accounting-for-users course and one of the Business School core courses that every BCom and BProp student takes. It is not a bookkeeping course: the catalogue frames it as accounting and finance information as inputs to decisions, with the legal context in which New Zealand businesses make those decisions folded in.
The learning outcomes set the shape: apply business concepts including legal structures and ethics to domestic and global scenarios, analyse a business's performance and recommend decisions in writing, convey insights to different audiences including professional emails, and use financial and non-financial information to work out how accounting issues affect managers and stakeholders.
Assessment is 50% final examination and 50% coursework split six ways: quizzes 10%, three assignments at 10% each and an online test at 10%. A flipped weekly rhythm of pre-workshop videos and quizzes followed by one two-hour workshop drives the coursework half. The course is offered in Summer Semester, Semester One and Semester Two at the City campus, and from Summer Semester 2027 it is retitled Financial Insights with a revised prescription and the same six-part assessment.
Always treat your own course outline and the exam timetable as authoritative.
Difficulty & time commitment
Is BUSINESS114 hard, and how much time does it take?
BUSINESS114 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 do the pre-workshop videos and quizzes before the workshop, because the workshop assumes them.
- You can write a short, clear recommendation and defend it with numbers.
- You are comfortable with ratios, percentages and basic time-value arithmetic.
- You treat the three assignments as exam rehearsal rather than boxes to tick.
You may struggle if
- You expect a debits-and-credits course; this one is about interpreting information, not recording it.
- You skip the legal and ethics material because it feels like 'not accounting' — it is examined.
- You let quiz and assignment deadlines slide; there are six of them and they are the safe half of your grade.
- You prepare for the final by re-reading slides instead of working problems and writing answers.
- Build a one-page map of the three financial statements and how a transaction flows through all of them.
- For every ratio, learn what decision it informs, not just the formula — that is what the written outcomes reward.
- Practise the professional-email format the outcomes name: audience, recommendation, evidence, next step.
- Use the online test as a diagnostic for the final; both draw on the same material.
Syllabus
The 9 topics, topic by topic
The exam-weight marker on each topic shows where the marks concentrate. The amber topics carry the highest exam weight.
T1 · Why accounting information matters
Course prescriptionUsers, decisions and the difference between financial and non-financial information.
T2 · Business structures and their legal consequences
Learning outcome 1Sole traders, partnerships and companies; what each structure means for owners and stakeholders.
T3 · Reading the financial statements
Course prescriptionBalance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement as a connected set.
T4 · Analysing business performance
Learning outcome 2Ratios and trends used to judge profitability, liquidity and solvency.
T5 · Accounting for management decisions
Course overviewCosts, budgets and the information managers use inside the business.
T6 · Basic finance models
Course overviewTime value of money and simple investment appraisal as the catalogue's 'analytical models'.
T7 · The legal context of business decisions
Course overviewRegulatory and legal mechanisms that shape operational and strategic choices in New Zealand.
T8 · Ethics and stakeholders
Learning outcome 1Ethical considerations in evaluating scenarios and recommending decisions.
T9 · Communicating insights
Learning outcome 3Writing recommendations for diverse audiences, including professional emails.
How it's assessed
Assessment structure
| Component | Weight | Format & timing |
|---|---|---|
| Quizzes | 10% | Online quizzes through the semester. Across the semester. Continual assessment. |
| Assignment 01 | 10% | Written assignment. First third of semester. Individual coursework. |
| Assignment 02 | 10% | Written assignment. Mid-semester. Individual coursework. |
| Assignment 03 | 10% | Written assignment. Final third of semester. Individual coursework. |
| Test (Online) | 10% | Online test. Mid-semester. Individual test. |
| Final Exam | 50% | Final examination covering the whole course. Examination period. Individual examination. |
- The catalogue publishes no exam hurdle for BUSINESS 114: the grade is the weighted total of the six assessments. Treat the 50% final examination as the component that decides your grade band.
- Half the grade sits in one final examination. The other half is six small, early pieces, so the coursework total is largely locked in before the exam. Students who reach the exam with strong coursework marks are protecting a grade; students with weak coursework are rescuing one.
This is an exam-cram course. With the exams at 50% of the grade and the final exam alone at 50%, your result is overwhelmingly decided by how well you perform under time pressure. Individual examination.
Final exam timing: During the examination period. Confirm the exact date and venue on your 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
- Explain the main business structures and their legal consequences.
- Read a balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement and explain how they connect.
- Compute and interpret basic profitability and liquidity ratios.
- Write a short recommendation with supporting numbers.
Before the final heaviest topics
- Analyse performance across a set of statements and recommend a decision.
- Apply management accounting information to a decision.
- Apply a basic finance model to an investment choice.
- Identify the legal and ethical considerations in a scenario and address them in a recommendation.
The mistakes that cost marks
Reporting numbers without a decision. The outcomes ask for recommendations. A ratio with no conclusion attached earns little.
Ignoring the legal half. Business structures and regulatory context are examinable content, not background reading.
Treating the coursework as optional. Six small pieces make up half the grade; missing two of them is a whole grade band.
Formula & concept sheet
The vocabulary and formulas you must own
- Financial information
- Monetary measures of performance and position, drawn from the financial statements.
- Non-financial information
- Measures such as customer satisfaction or defect rates that inform decisions without a dollar value.
- Balance sheet
- A statement of assets, liabilities and equity at a point in time.
- Income statement
- A statement of revenue and expenses over a period, ending in profit or loss.
- Cash flow statement
- A statement of cash movements over a period, split into operating, investing and financing activities.
- Ratio analysis
- Comparing statement items to judge profitability, liquidity, efficiency and solvency.
- Limited liability
- The company feature that shields owners' personal assets from the business's debts.
- Time value of money
- The principle that a dollar today is worth more than a dollar later, underlying finance models.
- Stakeholder
- Any party affected by a business decision, including owners, employees, lenders and the community.
- Budget
- A plan of expected revenues and costs used to guide and control decisions.
Set texts
The prescribed reading
The syllabus references map straight onto these.
Accounting: Business Reporting for Decision Making
.
Where it fits
Prerequisites, related courses & why it matters
No prerequisite. Restriction: you cannot enrol if you have completed ACCTG 101. BUSINESS 114 is 15 points at Stage 1, offered in Summer Semester, Semester One and Semester Two at the City campus, and is the prerequisite for ACCTG 102.
Your BUSINESS114 study toolkit
Study the course with Sia, not just read about it
Each tool already knows BUSINESS114: 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 BUSINESS 114 hard?
It rates moderate. The content is introductory and the coursework half is spread across six small assessments, but the 50% final examination and the written-recommendation outcomes mean it rewards consistent work rather than last-week cramming.
What is the assessment breakdown?
Quizzes 10%, three assignments at 10% each, an online test 10% and a final exam 50%, as published on the University of Auckland catalogue page.
Who has to take it?
It is a Business School core course for the BCom and BProp, designed to support every Commerce major. It is also the prerequisite for ACCTG 102, so Accounting and Finance students take it in their first semester.
Do I need prior accounting?
No. The course introduces accounting and finance from the user's perspective. The only restriction is that you cannot take it if you have already passed ACCTG 101.
What is the weekly rhythm?
One two-hour workshop each week, with up to two hours of online preparation (lecture videos and pre-workshop quizzes) beforehand. Lectures are provided as recordings and there are no live online events.
Is the course changing?
Yes. From Summer Semester 2027 the catalogue retitles it Financial Insights, with a prescription centred on financial statements, budgets and investment appraisal. The six-part assessment structure is unchanged in the published version.
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