Samoa Year 13 Accounting Curriculum

This curriculum is based on the Accounting One Step 3 Part A and Accounting One Step 3 Part B Second Edition textbooks and is guided by the Ministry of Education and Culture's Year 13 Learning Guide. The curriculum emphasizes a logical and systematic approach to learning accounting principles and their application in various contexts. A well-designed teaching program should allocate sufficient time for each area of study to ensure all achievement objectives are covered effectively and thoroughly. Regular internal assessments are also recommended to reinforce learning and prepare students for external examinations.

Accounting Concepts and Principles

This strand focuses on how accounting concepts and principles are applied in individual and business decision-making within community and organizational settings.

• Collection, Presentation, and Analysis of Source Documents: Students will collect a selection of source documents and learn how to use them.
• Review the Importance and Relevance of Accounting Concepts: This section covers the three fundamental accounting assumptions: the Going Concern, the Period Reporting, and the Accrual Basis of Accounting. It also discusses the qualitative characteristics of accounting information: relevance, understandability, comparability, timeliness, neutrality, verifiability, and objectivity.
• Identify and Describe the Qualitative Characteristics of Accounting Information: This section emphasizes the importance of accounting concepts in the production of new types of Balance Day Adjustments that appear in the Year 13 curriculum. It is crucial for students to identify the importance of accounting concepts and how they relate to practical situations.

Financial Accounting

This strand focuses on the reporting requirements for financial statements of businesses and community organizations.

• Describe the Features, Functions, and Limitations of Financial Statements for Businesses and Community Organizations: This section revisits the preparation of financial statements learned in previous years' courses. The revised financial statements are for retail businesses.
• Prepare Columnar Worksheets in Consolidating Balance Day Adjustments: The worksheets used in the textbooks are comprehensive spreadsheets. Instructions are provided on how to set these up on a computer. If students have access to a computer, they can follow the instructions to establish spreadsheets. A worksheet can be prepared manually by students with help from the teacher using the same examples and following the instructions given.
• Prepare Financial Statements for Businesses and Community Organizations Incorporating Balance Day Adjustments: The Financial Statements for retail businesses are prepared in full as an example for students to follow. Students should ignore all references to GST and the inclusion of GST in the calculations unless the teacher clearly indicates that this is required. The textbooks do not make any reference to the preparation of financial statements for community organizations. Teachers will have to use other resources to show students how to prepare financial statements for clubs and other non-profit community organizations. This part of the curriculum was covered very fully in the last unit of the Accounting Year 12 textbook. The concepts for the preparation of these statements are the same as they are for proprietary organizations.

Financial and Non-Financial Information of Sole Proprietors

This strand focuses on how financial and non-financial information of sole proprietors is used to make informed decisions.

• Categorize Relevant Ratios and Percentage in Measures of Profitability, Financial Stability, Liquidity, and Management Effectiveness: The content related to these Achievement Objectives is discussed fully in this section of the textbook. The worked examples are very well presented. Students may need help to understand some of the explanations given to explain the trends identified in the worked examples but the diagrams and cartoons used in the textbook will also be helpful.
• Analyze Financial and Non-Financial Data:
• Interpret and Explain the Trends Shown by the Analysis of Data, Comparisons over at Least Two Years: It is recommended that teachers take the time to go over the worked examples given in the text so that students are then able to complete the exercises independently later.
• Report on Trends Identified under the Different Categories Given in (d) above:

The Accounting Process

This strand focuses on the significance of the input and recording stages of the accounting process.

• Identify Source Documents that are Used to Record Transactions in the Financial Records: Source documents are revised from the perspective that the information captured on them provides the input into the accounting system. GST entries should be ignored.
• Design Source Documents with Necessary Features:
• Relate the Function of the Different Journals and Categories to the Types of Transactions Recorded in each: It is suggested that accounting for GST in the cash receipts journal is included in the teaching and learning program for year but that it is ignored for all other journals.
• Identify, Calculate, and Record Balance Day Adjustments as Required for the Matching Concept: The first reference (Part A) deals with closing journal entries for a service organization. The second reference (Part B) revises closing journal entries and incorporates the entries that are required to remove the opening inventory and bring in the closing inventory.

Ledgers and Drafting up of Financial Statements

This strand focuses on the significance of the processing and output stages of the accounting process.

• Identify and Record Closing Journal Entries as Required to Prepare Final Statements: Posting to the General Ledgers discussed throughout the textbooks can be worked examples. These are used to show how the financial information is processed and included in accounting records.
• Utilize a Worksheet to Assist in the Preparation of Final Statements from Ledger Account Balances Including Balance Day Adjustments: The worksheets used throughout the textbooks refer to a computer system. This can be adapted to a manual worksheet by following the format given for each cell in the spreadsheet.
• Relate the Use of a Chart of Accounts by Businesses and Organizations: There is no specific section that deals directly with this area of the curriculum. Students will be expected to draw conclusions of their own by comparing a manual system of recording financial information with a computerized system. The textbooks show how a computerized processing system would record financial information at the end of a posting cycle. These sections are headed up USING YOUR COMPUTER.
• Compare and Contrast Manual and Computer Processing Methods Used in the Accounting Process:

The Development and Use of Accounting Systems as Control Measures by Businesses or Organizations

This strand focuses on the development and use of accounting systems as control measures.

• Identify and Explain the Principles and Procedures of Internal Control for Businesses or Organizations:
• Describe Essential Features for Internal Control System for Cash Receipts and Payments, Inventory, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Fixed Assets, and Payroll Systems: Fixed assets.
• Identify the Accounting Concepts and Principles Relevant to each Subsystem Described in (e) above: The Payroll System is only mentioned in passing in the section that deals with Cash payments. It is suggested that the teacher provides additional information on all payroll systems and the required internal controls.
• Describe and Record the Necessary Accounting Entries Required for each of the Systems: The Payroll System is only mentioned in passing in the section that deals with Cash payments. It is suggested that the teacher provides additional information on all payroll systems and the required internal controls. This could be supplemented with a presentation from an accounts clerk who has the responsibility of managing a payroll system, either in a small business or in a large government department or business.