ADMS 4520 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Tiffany Million
11 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
How to Analyze a Case
1
by Joanne Jones, as adapted by Sandra Scott
Why Use Cases in Advanced Financial Accounting?
The use of cases is a good way to develop your understanding of how the various things
you have learned apply in practice. An important skill that you will learn when analyzing
cases is issue identification. You need to be able to recognize issues within the case,
and respond appropriately to them.
Cases also help develop your professional judgment, by requiring you to support your
decisions and analyses, as well as your professional skepticism (you are expected to
have a questioning mind and to be aware of biases – particularly management bias –
within cases).
Problem/Issue Identification and Integrated Analysis
When you analyze a case, you need to keep in mind that you have to make decision(s)
and/or recommendation(s). The main problem is usually to decide upon the proper
accounting given the facts presented in the case, or to provide recommendations to
specific questions asked of you. You will also need to consider management’s
motivation in this context (are they motivated to be conservative? Aggressive?).
As in all types of cases you are expected to identify and rank the issues. A key point to
remember is you are expected to identify an issue; however, identification is not enough,
you must also explain why it is important and link together several points. This
demonstrates that you understand the scope and implications of the issues. Remember
an in-depth analysis means more than making a single reference to an issue.
Then you need to consider how you can deal with the issue. Consider:
• Is there enough information? (And where can I get the information?)
• What is the quality of the information (And how can I verify its accuracy,
completeness, etc..)
• Do I (or my firm/team) have the skills? (Generally, a change or something new
would provide clues that this may be a concern. Then you need to think about
how to deal with this – do I need a specialist?)
Some General Steps to Help Your Analysis
Each case will have its own unique circumstances, however the following points are
intended to help you organize and present your analysis:
1. Read the Required:
First read the required – if they ask you to make a recommendation, make a
recommendation; if they want a report – make sure you address what they asked for in a
report
For instance, if you are asked to comment on accounting and financing issue, comment
on both. Make sure you are clear on your role and who is the audience for your memo
or report.
2. Get a Sense of the General Issues
When you first read the case start at the high level first – consider what are the more
general issues here (these are generally framing considerations) –
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
How to analyze a case by joanne jones, as adapted by sandra scott. The use of cases is a good way to develop your understanding of how the various things you have learned apply in practice. An important skill that you will learn when analyzing cases is issue identification. You need to be able to recognize issues within the case, and respond appropriately to them. When you analyze a case, you need to keep in mind that you have to make decision(s) and/or recommendation(s). The main problem is usually to decide upon the proper accounting given the facts presented in the case, or to provide recommendations to specific questions asked of you. As in all types of cases you are expected to identify and rank the issues. A key point to remember is you are expected to identify an issue; however, identification is not enough, you must also explain why it is important and link together several points.
