Fancy Fliers: Understanding Financial Reporting Pressure

Fancy Fliers uses a simple and fun activity—making paper airplanes—to create a competitive environment where students feel reporting pressure. Students engage in an interactive group learning activity that helps them appreciate the pressures under which accountants operate in a manufacturing or corporate setting and develop an understanding of what constitutes aggressive accounting. The activity facilitates a meaningful discussion of financial reporting pressure and distinctions between aggressive accounting and fraud. This activity can be used in undergraduate or graduate accounting classes and is designed as an in-class group project.