VCE Accounting Exam Discussion and Questions

[MattCorp]

The income statement doesnt concern with the amount paid, it only deals with the amount incurred. Because the business has a 144 accrual at the end of the month they have paid 41856 (42000-144) however they have incurred wages expenses totalling to 420000. Therefore we record the amount incurred.

Dont worry, I also ended up making the same mistake

I honestly dont know why this question tricked so many people (including myself)... Such a generic and straight forward question, i usually dont struggle with the accrued amounts for the income statement or cash flow statement but for this one i dont know what happened!! You think the range for an A+ will increase or decrease from previous years? Pretty sure last year you needed to get 84% for an A+

[omcgil15]

Hello

With the Memo of Question 3, I believe it was supposed to be included.
My reasoning is that the question was worth 7 marks in total. There were 7 source documents. Vcaa would not usually allocate 7 marks to 6 documents because this is illogical and thats not how they work. How would the examiners give 7 marks for 6 documents? There can't be one for balancing as it was explicitly stated not to balance it. Unless the 7th mark is for the correct dates (At the end of the month, not on the day) which it might be, I think the Memo should have been included.

Furthermore, when you do accounting questions, the assumption is made that YOU are the accountant for the business. The Memo was addressed to YOU as the accountant, to include. Also, the final wording of the question supports the Memo inclusion. It says:
"Complete the GST Clearing account for the month of July". To complete the GST Clearing account accurately for July, the accountant would have paid the outstanding GST Balance "At the end of the month", which is stated on the memo. Otherwise, it wouldn't be accurate because the outstanding GST balance wouldn't have been paid at the end of the month.

That being said, its possible that I'm wrong and many seem to think it should have been omitted.

Very valid points you make about the memo, I believe its highly ambiguous, especially as there is no evidence to say that we as the accountant did indeed pay the GST balance.
The solutions I have put up don't include the memo, but it would not surprise me at all if they expected us to put it in. Will be interesting to see how they explain it on the examiners report

[rithvikc]

Hello

With the Memo of Question 3, I believe it was supposed to be included.
My reasoning is that the question was worth 7 marks in total. There were 7 source documents. Vcaa would not usually allocate 7 marks to 6 documents because this is illogical and thats not how they work. How would the examiners give 7 marks for 6 documents? There can't be one for balancing as it was explicitly stated not to balance it. Unless the 7th mark is for the correct dates (At the end of the month, not on the day) which it might be, I think the Memo should have been included.

Furthermore, when you do accounting questions, the assumption is made that YOU are the accountant for the business. The Memo was addressed to YOU as the accountant, to include. Also, the final wording of the question supports the Memo inclusion. It says:
"Complete the GST Clearing account for the month of July". To complete the GST Clearing account accurately for July, the accountant would have paid the outstanding GST Balance "At the end of the month", which is stated on the memo. Otherwise, it wouldn't be accurate because the outstanding GST balance wouldn't have been paid at the end of the month.

That being said, its possible that I'm wrong and many seem to think it should have been omitted.

Maybe one more mark was awarded for the balancing of accounts?

[pm123]

Hello

With the Memo of Question 3, I believe it was supposed to be included.
My reasoning is that the question was worth 7 marks in total. There were 7 source documents. Vcaa would not usually allocate 7 marks to 6 documents because this is illogical and thats not how they work. How would the examiners give 7 marks for 6 documents? There can't be one for balancing as it was explicitly stated not to balance it. Unless the 7th mark is for the correct dates (At the end of the month, not on the day) which it might be, I think the Memo should have been included.

Furthermore, when you do accounting questions, the assumption is made that YOU are the accountant for the business. The Memo was addressed to YOU as the accountant, to include. Also, the final wording of the question supports the Memo inclusion. It says:
"Complete the GST Clearing account for the month of July". To complete the GST Clearing account accurately for July, the accountant would have paid the outstanding GST Balance "At the end of the month", which is stated on the memo. Otherwise, it wouldn't be accurate because the outstanding GST balance wouldn't have been paid at the end of the month.

That being said, its possible that I'm wrong and many seem to think it should have been omitted.

The Memo is a source document that is used for internal transactions. If we go back to the absolute basics of accounting, we need source document evidence to record cash payments. The memo did not provide any information for any transaction that had occurred. Yes, I do agree we were accounting for that specific business, however, you cannot account for a request- the memo outlined a request, not actual transaction that has occurred. And I don’t think we have ever come up with the task where we ourselves pay anything. We do it by source document evidence. What also was not evident was whether this settlement was for opening balance or closing because both were credit. Therefore according to what I feel, they might have been testing us on our knowledge of source document evidence. And btw, they always say not to look at marks and number of entries in many past assessors report. Idk, maybe 1 extra Mark for correct dates or not adding in that GST settlement entry. But you never know, your theory May be correct as well. It will be interesting to see what they say

[v1shnu]

Do you guys think the A+ cut off for this year's will be higher or lower than last year's. I believe last year was around 84%.

[rithvikc]

What sort of study score would I be looking at with a Unit 3 Average of 85%, Unit 4 Average of 95% and roughly 94% on the exam?

[v1shnu]

What sort of study score would I be looking at with a Unit 3 Average of 85%, Unit 4 Average of 95% and roughly 94% on the exam?

44-46. depends whether ur sacs scale.

[waterangel82]

Hi guys,

I have some good news to tell you! For those who included the GST memo in the ledger account, you won't be penalised cos you need 7 transactions for 7 marks!!!! I heard this from my accounting teacher who attended an examiner's meeting recently!

[pm123]

Hi guys,

I have some good news to tell you! For those who included the GST memo in the ledger account, you won't be penalised cos you need 7 transactions for 7 marks!!!! I heard this from my accounting teacher who attended an examiner's meeting recently!

What would happen if you didn't add the memo? Would you lose a mark for gst clearing account? Or would they just reward marks to both responses?