Exercise: Preparing Financial Reports Using the Group Categorizing Technique

Abstract

Guided by this year's theme, ABSEL 2000: Learning in and for the Future, this paper describes an exercise that can be used to teach students the nature of financial statements. Working in groups, students sort and assemble financial information from a small business into basic financial reports. Although the example used in this paper is accounting-based, the technique discussed in this paper can be applied to most business disciplines where students need to develop the ability to organize and analyze a complex set of information. It can be adapted to many college courses to enhance the learning experience.