The first week of starting the lecture proper in Conceptual Frameworks

and Accounting Standards has brought me a lot of new knowledge and widened what I
already have. After studying the purpose, users, and due process of such standards,
realizations came to me that there are details the usual textbooks do not offer which
was elaborated more through teachings from a person who actually uses and applied
the accounting standards in the corporate world.
Definition of “Accounting” is usually the first thing students of BSA learn
and from the lecture, it was reviewed to us and able to understand deeper from what is
told by the textbooks to the application of its purpose in the corporate world  a guide
for making business decisions, providing information for the internal and external users,
for controlling expenditures, to assess the company’s performance, and monitoring if
the standards used as a basis are still in compliance with the law. I have learned that
creditors require financial reports right after it is done to monitor for the loans the
company has made. The reports or the financial statements are sent to them also to see
if the company has been paying and if it is still able to pay until fulfilled based on their
agreement. Thus, states one of the objectives of financial reports that it serves as
internal monitoring tools to assess if a company’s performing well or otherwise. It can be
seen from there the usefulness of the report when it comes to decision-making after
interpreted because it will be the basis of the company’s future actions from the results
of their performance on a given period.
The week’s lecture also reviewed the components of the four basic
financial statements, its purpose, and its pro-forma or the way it can be presented. From
the Statement of Financial Position, which mainly shows the company’s performance,
can be interpreted if the company is aggressive or conservative  aggressive if it gained
more liabilities than equity and vice versa for conservative. Another financial statement
is the Income Statement which is used as one of the basis for a sales report and its
compilation (historical data) provides the company’s growth report.
In the middle of the lecture, I realized that I actually contribute or pay taxes
by the VAT included in buying foods and other purchases even if I am still a student
because the instructor mentioned it to remind us. I am also enlightened at the part of tax

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accounting that there are legal ways to reduce a company’s taxes. I hope that majority
of the people will reduce, until there is none, the image of reducing taxes as an illegal
action. Tax minimization, which is the legal procedure, is very far from tax evasion.
The different accounting standard-setting bodies are not detailed in the
textbook I have, so if the lecture did not elaborated their roles and relation to each other
along with what was established and being applied here in the Philippines, I might just
have searched it on the Internet. The instructor also discussed how the standard-setting
bodies work and the step-by-step process of a standard before it is implemented
globally.
Aside from the learning, the instructor reminded us, students, to check our
curriculum and plan ahead for the future semesters. In conclusion, the lecture was very
light and neat and in the right pace which makes the information easier to absorb and
understand. I also had a few self-reflections to review especially the Statement of Cash
Flows and study the details in order to identify and classify easily each cash transaction.
(Operating if it falls under current assets and current liabilities; investing if noncurrent
assets; and financing for noncurrent liabilities and equity. Literally, if a cash was
disbursed, for example, a cash payment has been made, it is an outflow. Otherwise is
an inflow.) Establishing a habit of reviewing the basics of accounting to master it will
surely help me as a student in this field to avoid having a lot of troubles and information
overload in the future discussions in CFAS and also to the other accounting subjects.