TIPS TO ATTEMPT CBSE ACCOUNTANCY PAPER XII – 2017
1. READ THE QUESTIONS VERY CAREFULLY: Underline the main and key points in the allotted reading time. Generally, the students answer what they think right and not in the manner what exactly the examiner asks for.
2. During the days of examination, it is advised to GO THROUGH SOLVED QUESTIONS as the solved questions are comprehensive and cover all relevant facts.
3. DO NOT FORGET TO GO THROUGH THE PREVIOUS YEARS QUESTIONS ESPECIALLY CBSE SAMPLE PAPER’ with solutions (scanner). This will instill a lot of confidence and acquaint you the pattern of questions, typology and methodology how and what type of questions are set by examiner.
4. DO NOT PRACTICE SO MUCH COMPLEX AND LENGTHY QUESTIONS at the time of examination as it may waste a lot of time.
5. This subject is entirely based on the concept clarity. DO NOT TRY TO CRAM ANYTHING EXCEPT GENERAL THEORY, rather try to understand the logic behind the conceptual, legal and technical concepts.
6. TIME MANAGEMENT: Just double the time according the weightage of an individual question. For example, a question carrying 8 marks should be attempted within 16 minutes. This way you will be able to finish your paper in about 160 minutes and be left with 20 minutes for revision.
7. Attempt all those questions first which you find easy to do.
8. Attempt all parts of a questions altogether. If you don’t know how to attempt a part of a question, leave space and attempt later.
9. DRAW THE LINES WITH PENCIL to prepare Accounts and Journal Book.
10. FOLLOW ALL ACCOUNTING PRACTICES like writing Dr, Cr, date, particulars and amount etc.
11. Write rupee with symbol for rupee.
12. RECORD ALL ENTRIES IN THE RESPECTIVE ACCOUNTS SIMULTANEOUSLY i.e. Revaluation Account, Capital Accounts and Balance Sheet. Avoid preparing them individually as one or more items may be missed which may create difference in the balance sheet.
13. MUST REMEMBER Assets side of the Balance Sheet is Dr side and the Liabilities side is Cr side and never write Dr and Cr in the Balance Sheet and also never write ‘To’ and ‘By’ in the balance sheet.
14. BALANCE SHEET IS A STATEMENT and not an account. It is just opposite to any Account.
15. IF YOUR BALANCE SHEET DOES NOT TALLY, JUST FIND THE DIFFERENCE and match this amount in the question and see whether you have given the second effect of such amount or not. Still if such amount is not found then double it or halve it to find such related figure creating difference.
16. DOUBLE EFFECT: If you take any figure from the balance sheet then you need to show single effect at the required place because second effect is itself in the balance sheet. Any adjustment, balancing figure or figure obtained by the way of %age has to be shown at two places i.e. one on the Dr.side of one account and other on the Cr side of other. If still, your Balance Sheet doesn’t tally then proceed to the next question and try to correct it at the end.
17. STEP MARKING is followed in Accountancy and marks are awarded accordingly. It would be of no use if you match the Balance Sheet with wrong amounts.
18. ‘To’ and ‘By’: There is NO NEED TO WRITE ‘TO’ AND ‘BY’ IN THE ‘ACCOUNTS’ (not mandatory) as modern Accountants don’t prefer to write these words.
19. LEAVE 1 ½ INCH MARGIN ON BOTH SIDES OF YOUR ANSWER SCRIPT so as to facilitate the teacher to award the marks.
20. ALL ROUGH WORK SHOULD BE DONE ON A SEPARATE SHEET. It is not required to be shown with the main solution or the margin on the right side of the answer sheet.
21. DO NOT AVOID WORKING NOTES wherever these are required in the question. Working notes are generally expected and may carry the marks like in case of pro-rata calculations, adjustment of capital, calculation of no of shares or debentures etc.
22. YOUR PRESENTATION MATTERS A LOT Avoid cuttings and mistakes.
23. LEAVE TWO LINES after the end of each answer.
24. Your HANDWRITING MUST BE LEGIBLE to let the teacher award the marks easily as the teacher finds it difficult to award marks in such situations.
24. DO WRITE ‘as at Dec 31 / March 31,(Year)’ in the Balance Sheet instead of ‘as on’
25. HIGHLIGHT THE ANSWER OR WRITE THEM IN THE BOXES to let the teacher see your answer easily and quickly.
26. WRITE THE FORMULA WHEREVER REQUIRED as it may also carry mark(s).
COMMON MISTAKES
(A) IN CASE OF PARTNERSHIP
- While calculating interest, rate as “% age with the word “per annum” and the rate “%” without the word per annum must be read very carefully. If the words like ‘IRRESPECTIVE OF MONTHS’ or AVERAGE PERIOD’ have been used, number of months will be ignored.
- The word “APPROPRIATION AND CHARGE” must be differentiated and give the treatment of expenses accordingly. See the topic interest on capital and interest on loan provided by a partner to the firm.
- INTEREST ON PARTNER’S LOAN advanced to the firm is always charge against the profit whereas interest on capital may be charge against the profits or appropriation out of profits depending upon the nature of information given in the question.
- INTEREST ON PARTNER’S LOAN is always credited to Partner’s Loan Account and is never credited to partner’s Current Account or Capital Account.
- Short cut methods for calculating INTEREST ON DRAWINGS are applied when the drawings are of constant amount made at regular intervals.
- While CALCULATING OPENING CAPITALS if closing capitals are given, drawings and profit or loss appearing in the balance sheet are not readjusted as such amount represent amounts not adjusted earlier.
- While CALCULATING THE VALUE OF GOODWILL, abnormal losses or gains already adjusted are reversed but any normal expense or income not adjusted earlier has to be deducted or added respectively in the amount of profits given.
- While calculating sacrificing shares, attention should be given to the words ‘of’ and ‘from’
- IF NEW PARTNER HAS NOT BROUGHT HIS SHARE OF GOODWILL IN CASH, the amount not brought in by such partner in respect of his share of goodwill, should be DEBITED TO HIS ‘CURRENT ACCOUNT’ especially when the capital of old partners have be adjusted on the basis of new partner’s capital or when new partner brings his share of capital on the basis of proportionate amount of capital in the new firm.
- While calculating sacrificing shares, SHARE OF AN EXISTING PARTNER COMES NEGATIVE should be dealt carefully while adjusting share of goodwill.
- EXPENSES ON REALIZATION borne by a partner is debited to Realisation account and credited to partner’s capital. ACTUAL EXPENSES paid by such partner out of his pocket must be debited to such partner’s capital account and credited to cash or bank account to give priority in payment.
(B) IN CASE OF COMPANY ACCOUNTS
- While attempting questions on SHARE CAPITAL, share applied and allotted must be differentiated while calculating excess money of the defaulter.
- At the time of REISSUE OF FORFEITED SHARES, paid up value on forfeited shares to be reissued cannot be less than called up value. It can also not be more than full value (face value or par value or nominal value) of the shares. In the absence of paid up value of forfeited shares to be reissued, called up value at the time of forfeiture is taken as paid value.
- After the forfeited shares have been reissued, excess of price received over the paid up value on reissue is always credited to Securities Premium Reserve and deficit is always debited to share Forfeited Account.
- Shares cannot be issued at discount (section 53) except to sweat equity shares (section 54), reissue of shares at discount will always means shares being reissued at loss which is to be debited to share forfeiture account.
(C) In COMPARATIVE INCOME STATEMENT, Net Sales has been replaced with Revenue from Operations and percentage has to be calculated on Revenue from operations only and will not include other incomes in the revenue for this purpose.
(D) RATIO ANALYSIS
- When closing stock is given 2 TIMES MORE OR LESS than opening stock instead of 2 TIMES THAN CLOSING STOCK.
- Loose tools, spares and parts are to be ignored while calculating current assets in current ratio and Inventory Turnover Ratio while the same have to be considered in working capital turnover ratio.
- Provision for doubtful debts is always considered the part of current liabilities for calculating Current Ratio, ITR OR WCTR.
(E) In CASH FLOW STATEMENT
- While preparing accumulated depreciation account, students generally do not DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN THE DEPRECIATION OF THE SOLD PART AND TOTAL DEPRECIATION PROVIDED. Depreciation provided on the assets is shown on the credit side of Accumulated Depreciation Account and depreciation on sold part of asset is shown on the debit side of Accumulated Depreciation Account and on the credit side of Asset account or Asset.
- In Cash Flow Statement, when accumulated depreciation account is not given, DEPRECIATION PROVIDED IS ASSUMED TO BE ON THE TOTAL ASSETS and includes depreciation on the part of asset sold in the absence of any specific information.
- Cash Credit, Bank Overdraft, Borrowings (Short Term & Long Term) are to be considered under financing activities. If time period of Current Assets is not given, the same is to be considered as marketable securities (i.e. part of cash equivalents)
- Investment (Short Term & Long Term), both come under Investing Activities.
- Loans and advances (Short Term & Long Term), both come under Investing Activities.
- It must be noted, as per new changes in the schedule III, Current Year’s figures will be given first and of Previous Year later but you always need to deduct previous year’s figure from current year’s figure.
- TREATMENT OF PROPOSED DIVIDEND: If no additional information is given, previous year's balance is shown as‘ Dividend Paid’ under financing activities whereas closing balance is shown as Dividend Paid in the net profit under operating activities.
- PROVISION FOR TAX: If no additional information is given, previous year's balance is shown as tax paid (less refund of tax) from the cash generated from operating activities and whereas closing balance is added as tax provided in the net profit. (Note: If Proposed Dividend Account and Provision for Tax carry some additional information, their accounts are required to be prepared as working notes to find out balancing figures.)
- INTERIM DIVIDEND: It is the dividend which is declared and paid during the year in the anticipation of profits. It is added in the net profit and is shown as interim dividend paid under financing activities.
- PREFERENCE DIVIDEND: If % as prefix is given with the preference share capital, dividend is calculated on the opening balance of preference share capital and is added in the net profit and shown as Preference Dividend Paid’ under financing activities.
- PREMIUM ON REDEMPTION: If premium on redemption as a percentage is given, the same is calculated on the face value of preference shares / debentures being redeemed. It is added in the net profit and shown as ‘Premium on Redemption’ under financing activities.
- TREATMENT ON TANGIBLE FIXED ASSETS: If no additional information is given, as a general rule, the decrease in the value of such assets is taken as depreciation if fall is not more than 10 % of the book values of the assets; else the decrease is taken as sale of fixed asset. Depreciation is added in the net profit whereas sale is shown as positive item under investing activities. Similarly, if the value increases, such increase is normally taken as purchase of fixed asset which is shown as negative value under investing activities.
- TREATMENT OF INTANGIBLE FIXED ASSETS: Decrease in their values is taken as the asset amortised (written off) and such decrease is added in the net profit. Increase in the value of such assets is shown as purchase of acquisition of assets under Investing Activities.
- NON-CURRENT INVESTMENTS: The increase is shown as purchase of investments and decrease is shown as sale of investments under investing activities.
Note: If Non-current assets carry some additional information, their accounts are required to be prepared to find out balancing figure.