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Impact of Payables Accounting Exercises on Creditors’ Management Skills among Accounting Education Students in Nigeria

Abstract

Effective payables management is an important component of accounting and financial management because organizations need to maintain accurate records of amounts owed to suppliers, manage payment obligations, control credit purchases, and maintain appropriate relationships with creditors. Accounting education students therefore need practical skills in recording credit purchases, maintaining creditors' accounts, analysing supplier balances, monitoring outstanding obligations, managing payment schedules, and applying appropriate accounts-payable control procedures. However, conventional approaches to teaching payables accounting may emphasize theoretical explanations and routine calculations without providing sufficient opportunities for students to apply payables-management principles to realistic business situations. Payables Accounting Exercises provide students with structured opportunities to work with credit purchases, creditors' records, supplier statements, purchase returns, discounts received, payment terms, ageing schedules, reconciliations, and payment decisions. Against this background, this study investigates the impact of payables accounting exercises on creditors' 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, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation, providing a suitable framework for students' engagement with practical payables accounting activities. Constructivist Learning Theory emphasizes active participation, problem-solving, prior knowledge, and knowledge construction 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 payables accounting exercises may influence students' creditors' 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. Payables accounting exercises will be assessed using indicators such as frequency of practical activities, recording of credit purchases, preparation of creditors' accounts, purchase returns, debit notes, credit notes, discounts received, supplier statements, creditors' control accounts, reconciliation of supplier balances, payment schedules, ageing of payables, credit terms, settlement periods, cash discount decisions, payment prioritization, outstanding obligations, short-term liability management, identification of duplicate invoices, invoice verification, spreadsheet-based activities, accounting software, case studies, group exercises, lecturer guidance, feedback, and opportunities for repeated practice. Students' creditors' management skills will be assessed using indicators such as accurate recording of credit purchases, maintenance of creditors' accounts, preparation and interpretation of payable ageing schedules, reconciliation of supplier balances, identification of outstanding obligations, monitoring of payment due dates, application of supplier credit terms, evaluation of cash discounts, payment scheduling, prioritization of creditor obligations, identification of duplicate or incorrect invoices, detection of discrepancies in supplier records, assessment of short-term liquidity implications, management of supplier relationships, evaluation of payment alternatives, and ability to apply accounting information to realistic creditors' management decisions. Data will be collected using structured questionnaires, standardized creditors' management skills tests, payables accounting tasks, supplier-account scenarios, payable ageing 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, payables accounting learning experiences, practical exercise exposure, and levels of creditors' 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 impact of payables accounting exercises on students' creditors' management skills. Where a quasi-experimental design is adopted, creditors' management skill scores before and after exposure to payables 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 payables accounting exercises have a significant positive impact on creditors' management skills among accounting education students in Nigeria. Students who regularly engage in structured payables accounting exercises are expected to demonstrate stronger abilities to record credit purchases, maintain creditors' accounts, reconcile supplier balances, monitor payment obligations, prepare ageing schedules, evaluate payment terms, identify invoice discrepancies, and make appropriate creditors' management decisions than students exposed primarily to conventional lecture-based instruction. Practical exercises may help students understand the relationship between credit purchases, accounts payable, cash flow, liquidity, and supplier relationships. Payable ageing activities may strengthen students' ability to identify overdue obligations and prioritize payments, while exercises involving payment terms and discounts may improve their ability to evaluate the financial implications of alternative payment decisions. Case-based activities may further develop students' analytical reasoning, problem-solving, financial judgement, and ability to manage competing creditor obligations. Spreadsheet-based and computerized payables exercises may strengthen students' digital accounting competence and ability to monitor supplier information efficiently. However, inadequate access to realistic supplier records, limited accounting technology, large class sizes, insufficient instructional time, limited lecturer training, and inadequate opportunities for repeated practical exercises may reduce the effectiveness of payables accounting instruction. The study therefore expects structured, practical, progressively challenging, and technology-supported payables accounting exercises to contribute significantly to improved creditors' management skills among accounting education students in Nigeria. The study is expected to contribute to the literature on payables accounting exercises, creditors' 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 payables and credit-management education. The study will also provide evidence-based recommendations for increasing practical payables accounting activities, developing realistic Nigerian supplier-management cases, strengthening students' training in creditors' account preparation and payable analysis, incorporating spreadsheets and accounting software into payables exercises, training accounting educators in practical creditors' management instruction, using competency-based payables assessment rubrics, providing continuous corrective feedback, and creating opportunities for accounting education students to develop the practical creditors' management skills required for effective accounting and financial management practice in Nigeria.

Keywords: Payables accounting exercises, creditors' management skills, accounting education students, accounts payable, credit management, financial accounting education, practical accounting competence, experiential learning, mastery learning, Nigerian universities, Nigeria.