Dear All,
I thought this might be of interest to you.
In one of my accounting classes last Thursday afternoon we were doing an
exercise including depreciation ... so I did my presentation and then set
them off on their own work. Part way through, just about as I was about to
wander and see who was doing what, D asked me to confirm that he'd dealt
with the accrual and prepayment properly.
Yikes!
I'd given them a question by accident that contained a topic that we hadn't
covered and that takes time to cover.
D has done the subject before so it was no problem for him but I wondered
what to do: stop them all and say this is how you do this bit, write up the
answer on the board as I usually do bit by bit but a bit earlier than I
normally would, or do nothing?
Almost immediately K asked me to help her as her balance sheet didn't
balance, by £2,500: the net effect of the accrual and prepayment. K is an
excellent student who hasn't done any accounting before so I said to her
that she should look at the accrual and prepayment items since they need to
be in the balance sheet too. Within two minutes she told me she'd solved it
... she had.
Then R asked why her balance sheet didn't balance: I told the same as I told
K and she cracked it. A asked the same ... she cracked it.
Emboldened I then did put part of my answer on the board that included the
accrual and prepayment including what they needed to know as far as the
balance sheet is concerned.
So for homework, complete this exercise if you haven't already and read
chapter 28 ready for a discussion on Monday.
Moral of the story? Don't panic Captain Mainwaring. Even if you do make a
mistake it can often be turned to advantage. Fortunately, I don't have any
classes that are prone to swinging from the rafters and I tend not to show
signs of distress or panic even when I feel something's not going as it
might.
Best wishes
Duncan Williamson
|