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Effect of Receivables Accounting Exercises on Debtors’ Management Skills among Accounting Education Students in Nigeria

Abstract

Effective receivables management is an important component of accounting and financial management because organizations must maintain appropriate credit policies, monitor amounts owed by customers, control credit sales, and ensure timely collection of outstanding debts. Accounting education students therefore need practical skills in recording credit transactions, maintaining debtors' accounts, analysing receivables, monitoring customer balances, calculating relevant receivables indicators, identifying overdue accounts, and applying appropriate debt-collection and credit-control procedures. However, conventional approaches to teaching receivables accounting may emphasize theoretical explanations and routine calculations without providing sufficient opportunities for students to apply receivables-management principles to realistic business situations. Receivables Accounting Exercises provide students with structured opportunities to work with credit transactions, debtors' records, customer balances, credit terms, bad and doubtful debts, discounts, ageing schedules, and receivables analysis. Against this background, this study investigates the effect of receivables accounting exercises on debtors' management skills among accounting education students in Nigeria. The study will be anchored on Experiential Learning Theory, Constructivist Learning Theory, and Mastery Learning Theory. Experiential Learning Theory emphasizes learning through concrete experience, reflection, conceptualization, and active experimentation, providing a suitable framework for students' engagement with practical receivables accounting activities. Constructivist Learning Theory emphasizes active participation, problem-solving, prior knowledge, and the construction of knowledge through meaningful learning experiences. Mastery Learning Theory emphasizes repeated practice, formative assessment, corrective feedback, and opportunities for learners to achieve clearly defined competencies. Collectively, these theoretical perspectives provide a suitable framework for explaining how receivables accounting exercises may influence students' debtors' management skills. The study will adopt a quantitative quasi-experimental or analytical cross-sectional research design. The study population will comprise undergraduate accounting education students enrolled in selected public and private universities across Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique will be used to select geopolitical zones, states, universities, faculties or departments, levels of study, and eligible accounting education students. Receivables accounting exercises will be assessed using indicators such as frequency of practical activities, recording of credit sales, preparation of debtors' accounts, control accounts, credit notes, debit notes, sales returns, discounts allowed, bad debts, provision for doubtful debts, receivables ageing schedules, customer statements, reconciliation of debtors' balances, credit-limit assessment, credit terms, collection periods, receivables turnover, average collection period, cash discount decisions, debt recovery procedures, write-offs, spreadsheet-based activities, accounting software, case studies, group exercises, lecturer guidance, feedback, and opportunities for repeated practice. Students' debtors' management skills will be assessed using indicators such as accurate recording of credit transactions, maintenance of debtors' accounts, preparation and interpretation of receivables ageing schedules, identification of overdue debts, reconciliation of customer balances, assessment of creditworthiness, application of credit terms, monitoring of credit limits, calculation and interpretation of receivables turnover, determination of average collection periods, identification of doubtful debts, treatment of bad debts, evaluation of collection strategies, management of customer accounts, cash-flow implications of credit sales, identification of receivables-related risks, and ability to apply accounting information to realistic debtors' management decisions. Data will be collected using structured questionnaires, standardized debtors' management skills tests, receivables accounting tasks, customer-account scenarios, ageing-analysis exercises, case studies, spreadsheet activities, competency-based assessment rubrics, observation checklists, and pre-test and post-test assessments where a quasi-experimental design is adopted. Descriptive statistics will be used to summarize students' demographic and academic characteristics, receivables accounting learning experiences, practical exercise exposure, and levels of debtors' management skills. Inferential statistical techniques, including chi-square tests, paired and independent t-tests, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis where appropriate, will be used to determine the effect of receivables accounting exercises on students' debtors' management skills. Where a quasi-experimental design is adopted, debtors' management skill scores before and after exposure to receivables accounting exercises may be compared with those of a comparison group receiving conventional accounting instruction to determine changes associated with the intervention. Diagnostic tests will also be conducted to assess the reliability, validity, and robustness of the findings. The study is expected to find that receivables accounting exercises have a significant positive effect on debtors' management skills among accounting education students in Nigeria. Students who regularly engage in structured receivables accounting exercises are expected to demonstrate stronger abilities to record credit transactions, maintain debtors' accounts, analyse customer balances, identify overdue debts, prepare ageing schedules, reconcile receivables, assess credit risks, and recommend appropriate collection strategies than students exposed primarily to conventional lecture-based instruction. Practical exercises may help students understand the relationship between credit sales, receivables, cash flow, profitability, and liquidity. Ageing-analysis activities may strengthen students' ability to identify overdue and potentially doubtful accounts, while receivables turnover and average collection-period exercises may improve their ability to evaluate the efficiency of credit and collection policies. Case-based exercises may further develop students' analytical reasoning, problem-solving, financial judgement, and ability to make appropriate debtors' management decisions. Spreadsheet-based and computerized receivables exercises may strengthen students' digital accounting competence and ability to monitor large volumes of customer information efficiently. However, inadequate access to realistic customer-account data, limited accounting technology, large class sizes, insufficient instructional time, limited lecturer training, and inadequate opportunities for repeated practical exercises may reduce the effectiveness of receivables accounting instruction. The study therefore expects structured, practical, progressively challenging, and technology-supported receivables accounting exercises to contribute significantly to improved debtors' management skills among accounting education students in Nigeria. The study is expected to contribute to the literature on receivables accounting exercises, debtors' management skills, accounting education, financial accounting education, credit management education, practical accounting competence, experiential learning, constructivist learning, mastery learning, accounting pedagogy, and higher education in Nigeria. The findings will provide useful information to the National Universities Commission, universities, accounting education departments, accounting educators, professional accounting bodies, accounting firms, employers, curriculum developers, and policymakers regarding strategies for strengthening practical receivables and credit-management education. The study will also provide evidence-based recommendations for increasing practical receivables accounting activities, developing realistic Nigerian credit-management cases, strengthening students' training in debtors' account preparation and receivables analysis, incorporating spreadsheets and accounting software into receivables exercises, training accounting educators in practical debtors' management instruction, using competency-based receivables assessment rubrics, providing continuous corrective feedback, and creating opportunities for accounting education students to develop the practical debtors' management skills required for effective accounting and financial management practice in Nigeria.

Keywords: Receivables accounting exercises, debtors' management skills, accounting education students, credit management, receivables management, financial accounting education, practical accounting competence, experiential learning, mastery learning, Nigerian universities, Nigeria.