The safe and efficient construction of reinforced concrete flat plate systems requires an accurate, reliable and universally applicable procedure for the punching shear strength design. A nonlinear layered finite element method (LFEM) capable of analysing the punching shear strength of such system has been developed. Based on the LFEM, a parametric study is undertaken to evaluate some of the factors influencing punching shear strength of reinforced concrete flat palate with spandrel beams. This is done by varying the depth and the width of the spandrel beam while keeping other variables constant. The numerical results obtained by the LFEM are also compared with those predicted by the recommendations of the Australian Standard (AS3600-2009) and the Wollongong-Griffith semi-empirical method. The results confirm that the Australian Standard is inadequate in predicting the punching shear strength at the corner and edge column connections of flat plates with spandrel beams or torsion strips.