CPA FAR Domain Study Guides
Choose the content area behind your missed response. The reading guides suggest concrete study work, and the Quick Review supplies examples you can solve before looking at the answer.
Financial Reporting study guide
Start with a complete set of financial statements and trace one transaction through it. For a sale on account, connect revenue and receivables before considering collection. Then reconcile net income to operating cash flow using the indirect method. Work through the cash-flow example in Quick Review and explain each adjustment without using the answer as a script.
Give not-for-profit and governmental reporting their own notes. For a contribution, decide whether the donor imposed a condition before classifying a restriction. For a governmental transaction, label the fund or government-wide reporting level and its measurement focus before recording the entry. These labels change the accounting.
When you review a ratio, calculate it from the statements and describe the transaction behind its change. A higher current ratio alone does not tell you whether inventory is saleable or receivables are collectible. Tie the number to the underlying facts, and check the official blueprint for the reporting tasks assigned to this content area.
Balance Sheet Accounts study guide
Choose a balance you missed and build its rollforward. For receivables, begin with the opening amount, add sales, subtract collections and write-offs, and reconcile the closing amount to the exhibits. Keep the allowance calculation separate. A target allowance and an expense adjustment are different figures.
For inventory and long-lived assets, identify the applicable measurement model before doing arithmetic. FIFO inventory uses lower of cost and net realizable value. A held-and-used long-lived asset group has an undiscounted-cash-flow recoverability screen followed, when necessary, by a fair-value impairment measurement. Practice the distinction rather than treating every write-down as the same calculation.
Investments, bonds and equity transactions need the same discipline. State the classification, measurement basis and statement location. For a discount bond, make a short effective-interest schedule and reconcile the carrying amount after payment. Explain why treasury stock reduces equity. Finish the session by solving a new example from your notes and checking the requested sign and units.
Select Transactions study guide
Use a timeline for transactions whose accounting depends on recognition dates. For revenue, identify the performance obligations, allocate the price under the applicable rules, and decide when control transfers. Billing, cash collection and revenue recognition can occur on different dates. The worked allocation example in Quick Review isolates that distinction.
For income taxes, separate current tax payable from temporary differences and deferred tax balances. Apply enacted rates expected at reversal and evaluate deferred tax asset realization. A permanent difference has no future reversal. Write a one-line reason beside each difference before computing an amount.
Lease practice should begin with the payment timing. Mark whether payments are due at the beginning or end of each period, discount the unpaid payments, and reconcile interest with the liability reduction. For contingencies, accounting changes and subsequent events, document the rule and the facts that trigger it. Use the examples to test your explanation, then compare your topic list with the official blueprint so less familiar transactions receive study time too.