Preparation of financial statements

What the specification requires

These are the requirements for this section, paraphrased from the official specification.

• Prepare and comment on financial statements of sole traders (service and trading). Include adjustments for concepts such as depreciation, accruals, irrecoverable debts, goods taken for own use and inventory.
• Prepare the income statement, appropriation account and statement of financial position of partnerships, with interest on capital and drawings, salaries, loan interest and profit shares, and partners' capital and current accounts.
• Prepare internal financial statements for limited companies, with the five statement of financial position headings, and distinguish share capital from loan capital.
• Prepare manufacturing accounts showing prime cost, overheads and factory cost of finished goods.
• Prepare receipts and payments accounts, trading accounts and income and expenditure accounts for clubs and non-profit organisations.
• Calculate profit where records are incomplete, using statements of affairs, and weigh single against double entry.

How it is examined

This section is assessed in Paper 2, which lasts 1 hour 45 minutes and carries 75 marks, worth 50% of the qualification.

Sources: OxfordAQA International GCSE Accounting (9215) specification (FT Sept 2024) (Version 1.2), page 9. See all sources.

Slips our teachers see most in this section

These come from marking student work in lessons, not from the board.

• Revising excluded topics such as the statement of changes in equity.
• Using a published-accounts layout for a company where internal statements are expected.
• Omitting the comment when a question asks students to prepare and comment.

If these slips look familiar, a teacher can go through your child's answers on preparation of financial statements and fix the habit behind each one. Book a trial class.

A teacher's note

OxfordAQA is the only one of the four to say companies' statements are for internal use, not publication, which keeps the layouts simpler than many students expect. Our teachers use the exclusions list as a revision filter: it tells students exactly what they can leave out, so time goes to what is examined.

Where this sits on the other boards

Our teachers' map of the same ideas in the other documents (an editorial mapping, with the official reference shown):

• Sole trader financial statements: Cambridge 5.1 (p. 15); Edexcel Topic 4, item 1 (p. 21).
• Partnership financial statements: Cambridge 5.2 (p. 16); Edexcel Topic 4, item 2 (p. 21).
• Limited company financial statements: Cambridge 5.3 (p. 16); Edexcel not in the content list.
• Manufacturing accounts: Cambridge 5.4 (p. 17); Edexcel Topic 4, item 5 (p. 22).
• Clubs and societies: Cambridge 5.5 (p. 17); Edexcel not in the content list.
• Incomplete records: Cambridge 5.6 (p. 17); Edexcel Topic 4, item 3 (p. 21).

Keep going

• All OxfordAQA 9215 topics

Official reference: OxfordAQA International GCSE Accounting (9215) specification (FT Sept 2024) (Version 1.2), page 15. See all sources.