If you are in Grade 12 Accounting and you are struggling with Company Financial Statements, this is where you fix it.
Every year, learners lose marks on this question for the same reasons.
You are not failing because the question is too hard. You are failing because you do not know how to calculate certain adjustments, and you do not understand how the Statement of Comprehensive Income (SOCI) is structured. These two parts work togethe, the adjustments affect the final totals in the SOCI. If you do not know how to apply them properly, your whole answer will fall apart.
On this page, we show you what learners are doing wrong, based on the 2024 national Accounting report.
How to Answer Grade 12 Company Financial Statements Exam Questions Like a Pro
To pass this question and push your marks higher, you need to focus on these 5 real issues:
1. Understand the structure of the SOCI
This is the first place where most learners go wrong. The SOCI follows a clear format — it is not a guessing game. You need to know what comes first, where each line item goes, and how to show totals. Even if you mess up the calculations, you can still get marks for placing the figures correctly. Learn the layout. Practice filling it in from a Trial Balance. This is where easy marks come from.
2. Master fixed asset calculations
Depreciation, cost price, and profit or loss on sale of assets — these are not new. They have been taught from Grade 10. In 2024, many learners used the trade-in value as the cost price when they were supposed to use the original amount paid for the asset.
Others tried to calculate depreciation for equipment even though the rate was not given. Read the question carefully and know when to apply each rule, especially the historical cost concept.
3. Apply adjustments correctly, step by step
This is where you lose the most marks. Adjustments are not meant to trick you — they are repeated from previous years. In 2024, learners made mistakes with trading stock deficits, bad debts, insurance, salaries and wages, directors’ fees, and income tax. For example, many forgot to deduct bad debts before adjusting the provision.
Some added the wrong contribution amounts to salaries. Each adjustment follows a specific method. Practise them one by one, until you know how to solve each type.
4. Use ratios and percentages correctly
You need to stop skipping calculations that involve things like 15/12, 28/72, or 100/72. In 2024, learners could not handle mark-up reductions, income tax calculations, or prepaid expenses because they did not apply the right ratio. This is basic exam technique. You already do this in Mathematical Literacy or Maths. Use that skill here.
5. Change how you revise this topic
The way most learners revise is not helping. Do not just copy answers from the memo. That teaches you nothing. Instead, start by placing figures from the Trial Balance into the correct lines of the SOCI — without doing adjustments. Then practise each adjustment in isolation. Then combine them. Past papers are your best tool. The more versions you see, the more you understand how this question gets tested.
If your marks are stuck under 50% in this topic, this is why. You are not fixing the specific problems that cost you marks.