ACCT11059 Assessment 1 - Step 1

Accounting, Learning and Online Communications

ACCT11059

Central Queensland University

Madelaine Plath

Step 1 – Assignment Stage 1 (Getting Started)

First week of university and the ACCT11059 unit has already been an informative introduction into accounting. I have not written an assignment in almost four years now, however this unit has given me the motivation and confidence to make a start with this task. The main reason for this being is that one of the requirements for this assessment allows the students to express their thoughts and reflections throughout. I have never experienced anything like this throughout my schooling life and I appreciate that Martin Turner and Maria Tyler have adapted this concept within the assessment.

I believe that the active learning method in which is incorporated in this unit is extremely smart. It is rather left field. It seems to me that it is something no teacher has ever done before. Having grown up on a cattle and farming property, my mother was the bookkeeper. On a daily basis she would use something within the accounting and business sector. However, she did not have a degree to show for this. She learnt these things by asking her financial advisor for feedback and advise on her work. You might be wondering, why I am explaining this story? I consider it to be a similar method of learning to the active learning. In this example her financial advisor being our ‘peers’.

I feel as though I am behind with Peer wise, nonetheless I am determined to set aside time to learn and understand some of the different concepts within this unit. I benefit from this way of learning. It is similar to doing a quiz, in which will test my knowledge on the subject. It is also a comfortable way to keep the mind active with doing 2 – 3 questions each day.

This reminds me of my boarding school experience, during the term the girls in the dorm would often have large discussions and would quiz each other with their questions on particular subjects. I really enjoyed this and felt that I was always learning something new from the other girls.

Setting up my blog was a new experience for me. Having created an account for ‘Word Press’ and then having no idea how to operate the editing and failing at it. I quickly decided to change and attempt the ‘Wix’ program. I have had much more success with this blogging platform. I am enjoying being able to introduce myself and have felt inspired to continue adding to my accounting journey in this format. The concept of the blog will be able to illustrate my entire journey of this degree, from every struggle to every success. I imagine this will be incredibly rewarding to look back on at the end of the degree to show just how far I have come. The link to my blog is https://mplath211.wixsite.com/mysite feel free to check it out, I hope you enjoy.

Reading through the study guide has already demonstrated a lot of new aspects of accounting for me. When I was choosing to do a Bachelor of Accounting, I wanted to do something that was universal, something that I could use wherever I may be. After reading Chapter 1 I realised that I had picked wisely, as businesses are everywhere. Even in a small country town similar to ‘Alpha Qld’, where I currently am living.

I have listed just a few examples of the businesses within my local town Alpha:

Peter Tilts (Hardware shop), Snow’s Bakery, Chemist, Caltex, Spar, CRT, Bryce Peckett Welding, Rex and William Bowyer Contracting and Earthmoving and MK’s Mechanics.

As I think about these businesses now, I am curious to know which sort of business model they might be. Whether a sole trader, partnership, company or trust. Some questions come to mind now. Who does there bookkeeping? Do they use an accountant? What accounting software program they might use? If any used at all?

When I originally started reading the study guide, I kept using the word ‘value’ in the wrong context. The way I was interpretating it was how much the business was valued by consumers. However, I should have been interpretating it in a sense of dollar value of a business. The value of a business can be measured into assets, liabilities and equity. The market value of a business and the value in which the account record would demonstrate are perhaps two different figures. Would selling the business be the only way to find out the true value of that particular business?

Journal and lodger are two words in which I had heard of, but had no knowledge of what they actually meant. I had entered transactions into an accounting program before, however the words journal and lodger never appeared. The study guide demonstrates great examples in order to remember them. Is this type of record keeping a thing of the past now?

What is double entry accounting? Does the name say it all? The way that I have understood this concept is that the transactions of the business have dual aspects, tracking both the credit accounts and the debits accounts. Therefore, to have it balance at the end, both need to be recorded correctly. What happens if the credits and debits did not equal the same amount when balanced? Is this a possible outcome or is it always because there has been a mistake within the record keeping? I am curious to know if there is any other way of recording transactions, for example single or triple entry accounting?

The five elements of accounting; assets liabilities, equity, revenue and expenses. I remember learning the definitions of these words in high school in my business subject, however I never fully understood what each element meant. The study guide provided me a refresher to the significance of these words and offered clear examples to have a greater understanding of the fundamental elements. To demonstrate a business reality, assets, liabilities and equity show accurate dollar values, and revenue and expense measure the change of the dollar value at a particular time within the business.

Overall, I am excited to be in this class and to be presented with the opportunity to gain this knowledge and to be able to incorporate this into real life scenarios. Throughout this chapter I have already learnt new aspects, from the view on businesses, the way a business may be organised, business value, the two main books of accounting, double entry accounting and the fundamental elements of accounting. I regularly found myself asking throughout this chapter, ‘What is accounting?’ I may not know the full extent to this answer yet, however I do know that accounting is much more than just the figures of a business. I am feeling motivated to keep reading into the next chapter, as each paragraph is filled with information, worthy examples and history behind theories in which makes understanding how the concepts came to be much clearer.

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