Financial Accounting
FINANCAL ACCOUNTING
FALL 2013
Professor: Tina Wang, CPA, PhD.
Office: TBD Office hours: TBD
Phone: 755-2603-2740 Email: frfall2013m2@gmail.com
TA: TBD TA Hours: TBD
Objective and Overview
The ability to read, analyze, and interpret financial report is an essential skill for today’s business leaders. The objective of this course is to help you to become comfortable reading the financial statements of any commercial business, from a large publicly traded company to a small privately held company.
This course provides an overview of financial accounting information and the role of that information in the marketeconomy. The first portion of the course presents an overview of the accrual accounting model, how accounting information is presented, and the mechanics of keeping track of financial accounting information. Without a solid understanding of this material, the remainder of the course and any subsequent financial accounting courses will be very difficult. I urge you to do the course pre-work and to keep up with the course from the beginning.The second portion of this course focuses on how corporate financial statements report particular economic events. By the end of the course, you should be able to analyze the financial statements of any commercial business, be able to come to a reasonable conclusion about a company’s financial health, and be able to make comparisons across firms and periods of time.
We will achieve the course objective in three steps:
The first step is to understand the accounting concepts in general (early part of course) and as they apply to specific situations (later part of course). You will accomplish this step by completing pre-class reading assignments, using the reference textbooks as a resource to understand key concepts where needed, and by completing your assigned homework.This step will be the focus of our in-class work, and you will only to get the most out of it if you have done a good job of understanding the relevant accounting concepts before you come to class.
The second step is to apply these accounting concepts to actual financial statements. This step can be a little tricky because there is some variation across companies and how and where they present the data you will need for any particular task.
The third step is practice.Learning accounting requires practice. The more you practice the more comfortable you will become with financial statements and the better you will do in the course.The way to practice is to review all of the problems we do in class, apply these old problems to other sets of financial statements and solve those, and discuss all this in your groups. Groups are great, use them. My only word of caution is that in the end you will take the exams by yourself, so make sure before each exam that you can succeed independent of the group.
Course Materials
Referencetextbooks for this course include the following:
1. Financial Accounting, by Antle & Garstka, published by Thomson South-Western
2. Financial Accounting, by Dyckman, Magee, and Pfeiffer, published by Cambridge Business Publishing
3. Financial Reporting, Financial Statement Analysis, and Valuation, by Stickney, Brown, and Wahlen, published by Thomson South-Western
4. Financial Reporting & Analysis (FR&A) by Revsine, Collins, Johnson, Mittelstaedt, published by McGraw-Hill/Irwin
Required course materials include assigned readings and class notes aligned with the course schedule. The assigned readings and class notes will be distributed before or during our class meetings. To do well in this course, you’re strongly encouraged to complete the assigned readings before coming to class to understand the topic for that session; during each class session we will together work our way through the in-class notes to help you apply the materials you have learned.
Grades
Grades for the course will be assigned to conform to the following general guidelines that apply to courses in the PHBS master program:
These are guidelines, not fixed rules. Final grades will be determined on the basis of the following assignments and weights.
To determine final grades I rank all of the students in the class from highest to lowest on the basis of total points. I then draw lines between 94 (A) and 90 (A-) and between 86 (B+) and 83 (B), etc., based on the guidelines described above.
Class Participation
I like our class sessions to be very interactive. You are not only expected to regularly attend our class meetings but also expected to actively contribute to our class discussions by asking questions, providing answers, and bringing up relevant examples.
Homework
For each class session you will have homework due before class that is detailed in the course schedule. The problems are not intended to be difficult for those who prepare before completing them. I am hopeful that all students will receive full credit for the homework. Please keep in mind that the objective of the course is to become comfortable reading actual financial statements, so homework problems are only an intermediary step, not the goal itself. What we cover in class and practice exam are your best guides to what will be asked on exams.
Exams
During the semester we will have two exams. Both exams are closed book and closed notes. You may bring a calculator to the exams, but it should not have emailing or text features. Each exam will be based on the actual financial statements of a real company. No make-up exams.
Honor Code
· Collaboration is strongly encouraged outside of class and for the final project. However, homework must be completed independently, and collaboration on exams is not permitted.
· To show your respect to your fellow students and the instructor, you are expected to arrive on time.
· You are expected to fully prepared and actively participate for each class. Please displace your name cards to facilitate class discussion.
· Please minimize unscheduled personal breaks.
· Please turn off your cell phone and other wireless devices during class meetings.
· No tolerance for cheating on exams. Cheating on exams is the sure way to fail this course.
FALL 2013
Professor: Tina Wang, CPA, PhD.
Office: TBD Office hours: TBD
Phone: 755-2603-2740 Email: frfall2013m2@gmail.com
TA: TBD TA Hours: TBD
Objective and Overview
The ability to read, analyze, and interpret financial report is an essential skill for today’s business leaders. The objective of this course is to help you to become comfortable reading the financial statements of any commercial business, from a large publicly traded company to a small privately held company.
This course provides an overview of financial accounting information and the role of that information in the marketeconomy. The first portion of the course presents an overview of the accrual accounting model, how accounting information is presented, and the mechanics of keeping track of financial accounting information. Without a solid understanding of this material, the remainder of the course and any subsequent financial accounting courses will be very difficult. I urge you to do the course pre-work and to keep up with the course from the beginning.The second portion of this course focuses on how corporate financial statements report particular economic events. By the end of the course, you should be able to analyze the financial statements of any commercial business, be able to come to a reasonable conclusion about a company’s financial health, and be able to make comparisons across firms and periods of time.
We will achieve the course objective in three steps:
The first step is to understand the accounting concepts in general (early part of course) and as they apply to specific situations (later part of course). You will accomplish this step by completing pre-class reading assignments, using the reference textbooks as a resource to understand key concepts where needed, and by completing your assigned homework.This step will be the focus of our in-class work, and you will only to get the most out of it if you have done a good job of understanding the relevant accounting concepts before you come to class.
The second step is to apply these accounting concepts to actual financial statements. This step can be a little tricky because there is some variation across companies and how and where they present the data you will need for any particular task.
The third step is practice.Learning accounting requires practice. The more you practice the more comfortable you will become with financial statements and the better you will do in the course.The way to practice is to review all of the problems we do in class, apply these old problems to other sets of financial statements and solve those, and discuss all this in your groups. Groups are great, use them. My only word of caution is that in the end you will take the exams by yourself, so make sure before each exam that you can succeed independent of the group.
Course Materials
Referencetextbooks for this course include the following:
1. Financial Accounting, by Antle & Garstka, published by Thomson South-Western
2. Financial Accounting, by Dyckman, Magee, and Pfeiffer, published by Cambridge Business Publishing
3. Financial Reporting, Financial Statement Analysis, and Valuation, by Stickney, Brown, and Wahlen, published by Thomson South-Western
4. Financial Reporting & Analysis (FR&A) by Revsine, Collins, Johnson, Mittelstaedt, published by McGraw-Hill/Irwin
Required course materials include assigned readings and class notes aligned with the course schedule. The assigned readings and class notes will be distributed before or during our class meetings. To do well in this course, you’re strongly encouraged to complete the assigned readings before coming to class to understand the topic for that session; during each class session we will together work our way through the in-class notes to help you apply the materials you have learned.
Grades
Grades for the course will be assigned to conform to the following general guidelines that apply to courses in the PHBS master program:
| Score | Grade | GPA | Distribution |
| 94-100 | A | 4.0 | 30% |
| 90-93 | A- | 3.7 | |
| 86-89 | B+ | 3.3 | 30% |
| 83-85 | B | 3.0 | 30% |
| 80-82 | B- | 2.7 | |
| 76-79 | C+ | 2.3 | 10% |
| 73-75 | C | 2.0 | |
| 71-72 | C- | 1.5 | |
| 70 (Pass) | D | 1.0 | |
| Below 70 | F | 0 |
| Grading Summary | ||
| Class Participation | 75 | 15% |
| Homework | 75 | 15% |
| Exam 1 | 125 | 25% |
| Final Project | 75 | 15% |
| Exam 2 | 150 | 30% |
| Total | 500 | 100% |
To determine final grades I rank all of the students in the class from highest to lowest on the basis of total points. I then draw lines between 94 (A) and 90 (A-) and between 86 (B+) and 83 (B), etc., based on the guidelines described above.
Class Participation
I like our class sessions to be very interactive. You are not only expected to regularly attend our class meetings but also expected to actively contribute to our class discussions by asking questions, providing answers, and bringing up relevant examples.
Homework
For each class session you will have homework due before class that is detailed in the course schedule. The problems are not intended to be difficult for those who prepare before completing them. I am hopeful that all students will receive full credit for the homework. Please keep in mind that the objective of the course is to become comfortable reading actual financial statements, so homework problems are only an intermediary step, not the goal itself. What we cover in class and practice exam are your best guides to what will be asked on exams.
Exams
During the semester we will have two exams. Both exams are closed book and closed notes. You may bring a calculator to the exams, but it should not have emailing or text features. Each exam will be based on the actual financial statements of a real company. No make-up exams.
Honor Code
· Collaboration is strongly encouraged outside of class and for the final project. However, homework must be completed independently, and collaboration on exams is not permitted.
· To show your respect to your fellow students and the instructor, you are expected to arrive on time.
· You are expected to fully prepared and actively participate for each class. Please displace your name cards to facilitate class discussion.
· Please minimize unscheduled personal breaks.
· Please turn off your cell phone and other wireless devices during class meetings.
· No tolerance for cheating on exams. Cheating on exams is the sure way to fail this course.