2010年12月ACCA考试考官报告(P2)(2)

　　问题一要求考生用间接法编制综合现金流量表。考生需要计算公司已经对一个实体进行了投资的情况下，这个实体的收购商誉。考生在这一部分表现得很好，但是却经常忘记考虑递延税项调整账户。在B部分，考生需要评论编制现金流量表的间接法比直接法对使用者更有用这一观点。从这部分可以看出，考生阅读还不够广泛，只注重于一小部分的专题。

Specific Comments
Question One
This question required candidates to prepare a consolidated statement of cash flows for a group using the indirect method.The question required candidates to calculate goodwill on the acquisition of an entity where the group already held an investment in the entity.The goodwill needed to be calculated in order to ascertain the impairment of goodwill which was an adjustment to the operating activities of the group.Candidates performed well on this part of the question but often failed to take account of the deferred taxation adjustment.The question also required candidates to deal with the acquisition of the subsidiary in preparing the cash flow statement and to calculate the cash flows relating to an associate,PPE,non-controlling interest,deferred taxation,a defined benefit scheme,investment property,intangible assets and available for sale investments.This part of the question was well answered.There are some elements of a cash flow question which are relatively easy to answer and candidates generally obtained the marks in these areas.
The main areas where candidates found difficulties were:
•Ensuring that the purchase of the subsidiary was dealt with in calculating cash flows across the range of assets and liabilities
•The treatment of the past service costs relating to the defined benefit scheme
•The calculation of the cash flow on taxation, although many candidates made a good attempt at this calculation

Part b of the question required candidates to comment on the directors’ view that the indirect method of preparing statements of cash flows is more useful and informative to users than the direct method and to discuss the reasons why the directors may wish to report the loan proceeds as an operating cash flow rather than a financing cash flow commenting on whether there are any ethical implications of adopting this treatment.The first part of this element of the question was often poorly answered.In fact often it was not attempted.Currently there is a debate over whether the direct method should be used in preference to the indirect method and thus candidates should be aware of the advantages and disadvantages of the methods.It shows that candidates are not reading widely enough and are focusing on a narrow range of topical issues.The ethical part of the question was quite well answered although many candidates did not read the question fully enough as it stated that the directors were to receive extra income if the operating cash flow exceeded a predetermined target for the year.Part of the answer to the question was therefore contained in the scenario.This further exemplifies the points raised in the introduction to this report.