Students are able to independently post all business transactions that occur in the course of a period and understand the origin and significance of the opening and closing balance sheets, can assess the effectiveness of the postings and determine the profit or loss for a period. Furthermore, they are able to allocate the assets and capital values of a balance sheet to the correct items in accordance with the UGB classification rules and to record postings affecting expenses and income in the categories provided for by the UGB in accordance with the P&L classification rules.

• LO2: Students learn how to prepare an opening balance sheet, post business transactions that usually occur in a period, close accounts and prepare the closing balance sheet.
• LO3: Students can correctly calculate sales tax, correctly post input tax or sales tax depending on the business case, determine the tax office payment amount and its due date.
• LO4: Students can assess for each posting which document type is present, which account classes and accounts are to be posted and whether the posting affects operating profit, financial profit or loss.
• LO5: Students can assess whether costs relating to fixed assets should be capitalized and written off over the useful life, or whether these costs should be immediately recorded in profit or loss. They are also able to assess which type of fixed assets are present.

• Students learn the basics of accounting. It is clarified who is affected by the accounting obligation under the Austrian Commercial Code (UGB), who the stakeholder groups of a company are and who is interested in its published annual financial statements, how double-entry bookkeeping works and which legal provisions of the UGB apply to different companies based on their company form or size.
• Students learn the meaning and correct application of key terms and are able to explain these terms according to their meaning and clearly distinguish them from other, often similar terms.
• Students learn the accounting system of double-entry bookkeeping. They learn to differentiate between postings that do not affect profit or loss and postings that do affect profit or loss and to assess their effect on the balance sheet and/or their impact on the income statement.
• Students learn the structure and organization of double-entry bookkeeping and are taught which steps must be taken by a company in the course of a financial year so that the various milestones to be reached in the course of annual accounting (inventory, stocktaking, opening balance sheet, closing balance sheet, annual financial statements) are actually achieved.
• Students learn about value added tax. At the end of the course, they will know the basic regulations regarding the scope of the Value Added Tax Act (UstG), taxable vs. tax-free transactions, which tax rates apply, how to calculate VAT correctly, how to issue invoices so that they entitle to input tax deduction and the difference between a genuine and a non-genuine tax exemption.
• Students are introduced to the procedure for posting current business transactions. They also learn the document symbols, the account classes and the account designations to be assigned to the posting records.
• Students learn the basics of asset accounting. How are acquisition or production costs calculated and how is depreciation calculated and subsequently recorded in the accounts? What is the difference between production and maintenance costs and how do low-value assets and assets under construction differ from other fixed assets in terms of their recognition and subsequent measurement?
• Students are taught the basic principles of closing entries. This includes how an opening balance sheet account (EBK), a closing balance sheet account (SBK) and the P&L are created, how accounts are to be balanced, which accounts must be balanced against the respective accounts and in what order, and how the double entry is made at the end of the year.

Learning Outcomes

• LO1: Students know the theoretical basics and the legal regulations that require accounting according to the UGB. They are able to identify the areas of application of the UGB and the UStG (spatially / temporally / factually / personally) and to apply the contents of the individual regulations relevant to this course.