AAT Test Outline

The content outline for the AAT Test appears below. If you do not feel comfortable with your basic financial and/or managerial accounting knowledge, you might consider purchasing and reading through one or both of the following study guides:

The test is offered each semester. This semester the dates are:

Saturday, October 5th
Saturday, November 16th

Important Details:

This semester, the exam will be administered on MyClasses.
Lockdown Browser will be required to take the exam. Additional information regarding a required simultaneous Zoom meeting will also be provided to those that will be taking the exam.
Pre-registration and prepayment will also be required this semester via PayPal.
To register for the testing date of your choice click the link below. Payment information will be provided at the end of the registration.
Testing Date Registration
You must be registered and have paid by Thursday, October 3rd at 12pm for the October testing date and Thursday, November 14th for the November testing date in order to have access to the exam.
Once you have registered and paid, you will be enrolled in the MyClasses course for the AAT the week of the test date you selected.
Any questions? Contact us at DALS@salisbury.edu.

Content Outline:

Financial Accounting
1. Basic Financial Statements
  1. Income Statement and Retained Earnings/Stockholder’s Equity
    1. Revenues
    2. Expenses
    3. Net income
    4. Prior period adjustments
    5. Multi-Step Income Statement for merchandise
  2. Balance Sheet
    1. Assets
      - Current, Property, Plant & Equipment LT investments, intangibles
    2. Liabilities
      - Current
      - Long term
    3. Owners’ Equity/Stockholders Equity
      - Corporation
      - Other legal forms – Partnership, LLC, non-profit, sole proprietorship
  3. Statement of Cash Flows
  4. Interim Financial Statements
2. Underlying Assumptions and Principles
  1. Realization
  2. Conservatism
  3. Going Concern
  4. Monetary Unit
  5. Cost Principle
  6. Entity
  7. Time period
  8. Consistency
  9. Full disclosure
3. Income Determination
  1. Cash versus accrual basis
  2. Revenue recognition principle
    1. At the point of sale/when earned
  3. Expense recognition
    1. Matching Principle
4. Processing Accounting Information
  1. The Accounting cycle (including adjusting entries)
  2. Journals and ledgers
  3. Fundamental principles of internal control
5. Assets and Equities
  1. Assets
    1. Cash
      1. Nature and composition
      2. Petty Cash
      3. Bank reconciliations
    2. Short-term investments (including valuation at lower of cost or market)
    3. Receivables
      1. Allowance for uncollectable accounts
      2. Notes receivable
    4. Prepaid expenses
    5. Inventories
      1. FIFO
      2. LIFO
      3. Average cost
      4. Lower of cost or market
      5. Inventory systems
        
        --Perpetual
        
        --Periodic
    6. Property, Plant and Equipment; Natural Resources
      1. Acquisition cost
      2. Costs subsequent to acquisition
      3. Depreciation
        
        Straight line
        
        Double declining balance
        
        Units of activity
    7. Intangible Assets
      1. Valuation
      2. Amortization
  2. Liabilities
    1. Current liabilities
    2. Bonds payable (including amortization of premium and discount)
    3. Notes payable
    4. Contingencies
    5. Installment loans
  3. Owners’ Equity/Stockholders Equity
    1. Corporations
      1. Common stock and stock splits
      2. Other contributed capital
      3. Retained earnings
      4. Treasury stock
      5. Dividends
        
        Declaration date
        
        Date of record
        
        Payment Date
        
        Cash Dividends
        
        Stock Dividends
    2. Partnerships and proprietorships
6. Analysis of Financial Statements
  1. Profitability Measures (e.g., EPS and ROI)
  2. Liquidity Measures (e.g., current ratio)
  3. Solvency Measures (e.g., debt-equity ratio)
Managerial Accounting
1. Cost Terminology and Concepts
  1. Variable vs. Fixed Cost
  2. Unit vs. Total Cost
  3. Direct vs. Indirect Costs
  4. Product vs. Period Costs
  5. Variable vs. Absorption Costing
  6. Controllable vs. Non-controllable
  7. Production costs
    1. Direct Material
    2. Direct Labor
    3. Factory overhead
  8. Sunk costs
  9. Inventory
    1. Materials
    2. Work in process
    3. Finished goods
  10. Contribution approach
  11. Opportunity costs
  12. Relevant costs
  13. Costs of Goods Manufactured
2. Centralization vs. Decentralization
  1. Responsibility accounting
  2. Cost Centers
  3. Profit Centers
  4. Investment Centers
  5. Segment Reporting
  6. Internal Service Departments
3. Allocation of Factory Overhead
  1. Bases
  2. Applying to work in process
4. Capital Budgeting
  1. Analysis Techniques
    1. Payback period
    2. Accounting rate of return
    3. Discounted cash flows
      1. Net present value
      2. Internal rate of return
5. Analytical Tools
  1. Cost/Volume/Profit
    1. Assumptions
    2. Graphic solution
      1. Break-even graphs
      2. Profit volume chart
    3. Formulas (e.g. ROI)
6. Job Order Cost
  1. Characteristics
  2. Cost Flow
7. Process Costs
  1. Characteristics
  2. Cost Flow
8. Standard Costs and Analysis of Variances
  1. Standard Setting
    1. Capacity levels
      1. Ideal
      2. Attainable
  2. Types and Analysis of Variances
    1. Material
    2. Labor
    3. Overhead
      1. Variable
      2. Fixed
  3. Disposition of Variances