Professor David M. Cottrell
Email: cottrell@byu.edu
Office: 560A TNRB
Office Hours: MW 2:00-3:00 (class meeting days) and by appointment
Course Purpose and Expectations: The purpose of this course is to provide non-accounting majors an upper division course focusing on the accounting principles of corporate financial reporting. This course will be targeted towards Finance Majors (and other business majors) who have had previous courses focusing on judgments investors make based on financial statement information. Specifically, this course will focus on the judgments managers make in preparing this financial statement information. Specific attention will be devoted to areas where managers have some discretionary accounting and business strategy choices. Financial statements and disclosures will be examined to see how these choices impact reported earnings and how these choices are reported to financial statements users. This course will also introduce the topic of earnings management and fraudulent financial reporting. The differences between fraud and earnings management will be explored, and the incentives each of the above parties have in reporting financial information will be examined.
At the conclusion of this course, students should be able to:
1.
Identify and evaluate accounting areas where managers can exercise significant judgment in preparing this financial statement information.
2.
Interpret financial statements and disclosures to identify how these choices impact reported earnings and how these choices are reported to users of financial statements.
3.
Exhibit a sense of ethical values through identification and evaluation of differences between earnings management and fraudulent financial reporting.
4.
Demonstrate the proficiency to address CFA exam questions over the topic areas covered in this course.
Course Prerequisites:
 Accounting 200
 Accounting 210
 Business Management 301
Required Materials:
1.
Text:
Intermediate Accounting
17e, by Stice, Stice, and Skousen, ISBN 978-0324592375
2.
Accounting 440 Harvard Case Packet (available in Bookstore)

3.
iClicker response device (available in Bookstore). Students must have their own i-clicker in class every day.
4.
Hand held calculator with Time-Value-of-Money financial functions. This must be a stand-alone calculator and not a computer, cell phone, Ipod, or other PDA device. Students must have their own calculator in class every day.
Course Grading: Grades will be assigned based on course points earned during the semester. These course points will be allocated as shown below:
Course Item
Quizzes, Homework Assignments and
Three Exams
Professionalism — points unlimited
Total
Grading Points
200
400
+ or −
600
Quizzes:
We will have several quizzes during the semester—these may be in class (announced or unannounced), on-line administered through Blackboard, take home, or administered in class through iClickers. In class quizzes will typically be given during the first five or ten minutes of class. Make-up quizzes will not be given (if you miss a quiz then you miss it). However, at the end of the semester, I will drop ten percent of all quiz points before grading points for quizzes are assigned. This means that a student who earns ninety percent of all quiz points possible during the semester will be awarded one hundred percent of the grading points possible in the course for quizzes when course grades are computed.
Note: Using Blackboard for quizzes presents some opportunities and some challenges, but I believe the overall benefits are worth using the system. I need (and fully expect) you to carefully follow the instructions for Blackboard homework and quizzes that are found in the Blackboard section of this document below.
Exams:
We will have two exams during the semester, as well as a final exam. All exams will be given in the testing center on the dates shown on the course calendar. Make up exams will not be given.
Faculty Discretion Points for Professionalism:
I will not attempt to define for you a comprehensive list of what is expected in terms of professional behavior. However, I will state that my expectations of you for professional behavior are very high and deviations from acceptable professional behavior may impact your grade substantially. At the center of these professionalism expectations is the principle that you will take responsibility for your own actions as well as the consequences of your actions. The basics of these expectations should be common sense. These include such things as courtesy to peers and faculty, coming to class on time and prepared, submitting assignments on time and in good form, following instructions received from faculty, and following the laptop policy in the classroom – all the time.
At the end of the semester, I will consider the “professionalism” of each student. This will be a subjective evaluation of your contribution to the class and to the “Spirit of the Y” and adherence to all Marriott
School classroom policies. If you have any concerns during the semester regarding these points, please do not hesitate to come by and visit with me.
As I said above, I will not attempt to define for you a comprehensive list of what is expected in terms of professional behavior, but you can use the following information as a starting point.


Class preparation – Do you complete the assigned material and readings before class? These outside readings are not intended to be “busy work,” and students are expected to do more than just casually read them. Do you understand the homework problems assigned? If not, do you know at least know what your questions are? When you come to class, you should be prepared to lead a discussion on the assigned topic (because you might have the opportunity to do so).

Class participation – Do you regularly contribute insightful comments or questions without dominating the class? Class time in Acc 440 is intended to be more of a group discussion as opposed to a lecture hall. All students are expected to contribute to make this a learning experience. Note this may be accomplished more by having good questions than by having all the answers.

Class attitude – Do you add to, or detract from, the learning effort in the classroom, e.g., do you bring a positive spirit to the class? Do you positively interact with the professor and other students?

Spirit of the Y – Do you “cut corners” on the BYU Honor Code? Is there any question of honesty? Do you obviously adhere to dress and grooming codes?

Marriott School and Accounting 440 Policies
– Do you completely follow the Marriott School policies and Accounting 440 Policies as outlined below?
Marriott School Classroom Policies
The Marriott School has established policies in the areas listed below that apply to all classes taught in the Marriott School.
 Academic Honesty
 Plagiarism
 Fabrication or Falsification
 Cheating
 Other Academic Misconduct
 Marriott School Grade Policy
 Preventing Sexual Harassment
 Students with Disabilities
 Diversity
 Policy on the Use of Technology in the Classroom -- UPDATED 8/31/2010
 Marriott School Cell Phone and PDA Policy -- UPDATED 8/31/2010
In Accounting 440, we will follow all Marriott School policies. These complete policies are posted on the Marriott School web page at the follow address: http://marriottschool.byu.edu/students/classroompolicies

Accounting 440 Policies

Course Email – Most of the communication from me and from the TAs will be delivered to students through email and Blackboard. Students are responsible to check their email at least once every day and twice a day is recommended. All email will be sent through Blackboard which uses Route Y email. Students are responsible to keep their email address current on Route
Y. Sending a message to me or to the TAs asking for your email to be sent to a different address is not an option. Also, requests for more time to complete assignments because you did not receive an email will not be accepted and additional time will not be granted. It is the responsibility of each student to monitor all email and Blackboard communications on a daily basis.

Food in the Classroom – To help maintain a professional education environment, students are requested to not eat food in the classroom during class sessions. You may consume a drink at your desk, such as a bottle of water, juice, soda, etc., during class sessions. Also, if you choose to use your break between classes to obtain and eat food, that is your choice. However, I request that you do not bring food into the classroom to eat during class sessions. All items opened on break should be put away before the next class session starts. This includes items brought to class or purchased on a break.

Laptop Computers in the Classroom – Many students will choose to bring laptops to the classroom. The default position for laptops in the classroom is always closed. There may be several times during the semester when I will ask or invite you to open your laptops for specific tasks or activities in the classroom. However, before and after these specific times, laptops should always be closed. And, they should always be in the closed position at the start of each class period.
Accounting 440 TAs and Office Hours
Brooke Watson
Kaitlin O'Bryant watson_brooke_c@yahoo.com kaitlinobryant@yahoo.com
We are fortunate to have two great TAs who will be working with us in Accounting 440. Their primary responsibility is to provide office hours where you can go and ask questions related to class homework and assignments.
Both Brooke and Kaitlin can discuss any Accounting 440 question with you during the office hours posted below
. Additionally, Kaitlin will specifically be managing the grade book on
Blackboard, so you can contact her if you have a question about a score. Brooke will specifically be managing the Quizzes and Homework on Blackboard, so if you have a concern about a question on these items, you can discuss your concern with Brooke.
Day
All TA Office Hours are in Room 135 TNRB
Time #1 Student TA Time #2 Student TA
Tuesday
Thursday
Friday
11:00-1:00 Kaitlin O'Bryant
9:00-11:00 Brooke Watson

Blackboard Homework – General Model
Preparation for most class days will involve doing homework for which key response variables will be submitted through Blackboard. The general model is that you can work together on problems with your assigned class group before you access the Blackboard link, but you cannot
share any information with your group or anyone else after you access the Blackboard link. This general model is described in detail below.
The instructions that follow should be used for
EACH and EVERY
Blackboard homework assignment unless specific instructions are provided that are different from the instructions listed below.
Posted Homework Assignments
You will typically be assigned several problems to complete for each class day. These problems are listed in the Acc 440 calendar for each day. Some of the problems listed will have solutions provided in advance, either through a media file or in a document posted in the Pre-Class materials for the day. These examples should be used in combination with assigned reading from the text to better understand the topics assigned for the day. You will not have any Blackboard questions asked over the questions for which solutions were provided in advance; however, you may have questions asked about all other assigned problems assigned for the day.
Information Sharing and Group Work
You will be allowed to discuss all assigned homework problems and work on solutions to the assigned problems together with the classmates who are in your class group . This is allowed as long as all group members work on all problems together . The divide and conquer approach where different problems are parceled out to different group members and then answers are pooled is not allowed.
For example, Problem #1 for the day may ask you to create an income statement for a company. Problem
#2 for the same day may ask you to create a statement of cash flows for a company. At this point you know what the problems are, but you do not know which exact questions from these problems will be asked in Blackboard. You can work on these problems and discuss them with your group members before you open the Blackboard Link for the homework assignment. The idea is that you can work together and help teach each other the problems and everybody will then have their own copy of the solution before you individually and privately
access the Blackboard links for the day's homework.
You are required to open the Blackboard links in private. When you do, you may find that from the income statement required in Problem #1 you are asked two questions where you need to enter total revenues and total depreciation expense for the year. From statement of cash flow Problem #2, you may be asked to enter the total cash flow from operating activities. From the moment you access the
Blackboard links, all information becomes private. You may not discuss the specific questions, your score, the
Blackboard Reported Answers
, or any other information related to the questions with anyone until after class. Specific solutions will be discussed in class and complete solutions will be posted after class.

Blackboard Instructions
 Before launching the Blackboard Homework link, you should complete the problems and readings assigned for the class session. Those problems are listed in the Acc 440 calendar for each class day.
 “Complete” means that you should study the problems and generate written answers. Once you launch the Blackboard Homework link, there won’t be enough time to frantically search the textbook, learn the material, generate a solution, and then fill it in.
 Completion of the online Blackboard Homework will involve inputting selected answers from the homework solutions you have generated.
 All sections must access the Blackboard link for the homework by 10:00 am on the day the assignment is due. The link will not
be available after this time.
 Once you open the link, you will have 28 minutes to submit your answers. You must time yourself to make sure you submit your answers on time (a timer will appear in Blackboard with some but not all browsers). Submissions after the time limit will not be accepted.
 You may
NOT
use Internet Explorer 8 (IE8). If you do use IE8, a problem with this browser will not allow you to submit your answers which result in a zero score for the assignment. You should be especially aware of this issue if you are using a computer other than your own to access
Blackboard and submit your assignment.
Entering Numerical Solutions in Blackboard
You must
use the following procedures for entering your answers to questions that call for a response in dollars. Answers submitted in the wrong format will not
be accepted—please be careful.



Round all your final answers
to the nearest dollar. Do not round your immediate answers, just leave them in your calculator or in Excel.
Enter all answers as positive numbers regardless of the account or the properties of the amount
(debit, credit, asset, liability, gain, loss, expense, revenue, etc.)
Enter numbers only; do not enter commas or dollar signs. For example, if I computed the answer to a question to be a gain or loss of $23,582.96, then in Blackboard I would enter 23583.
Emergency Version on Blackboard
Blackboard is a great technology tool that provides many benefits to our course. I understand that, on occasion, there can be some unavoidable glitches in technology. However, after observing literally thousands of students take tens of thousands of Blackboard assessments, I have identified some high risk approaches that lead to avoidable glitches in technology. Avoidable glitches are solely your responsibility. I want to help you with those glitches that are unavoidable. I also expect you will take the necessary steps to minimize avoidable occurrences of problems which you have been warned about in advance.
One tool I will provide to help you through unavoidable glitches in technology is the Emergency Versions of Blackboard assessments. The Emergency Version of these assessments is provided in case you encounter an unavoidable problem. In these situations you should (1) take the Emergency Version on
Blackboard, then (2) immediately send me an email explaining the circumstances of why you needed to take the emergency version. I will evaluate the reasons for taking the emergency version and communicate to the TAs which uses of the Emergency Versions are authorized. If the TAs see a score for an emergency version of a Blackboard assessment that has not been authorized, this score will not be counted for grading purposes.

Preventable Causes of Technical Difficulties
Again, there are certain situations that we know create a very high risk of causing glitches during
Blackboard assessments. We are not certain why Blackboard is unstable in these situations, but we know that it is—and we have described this for you below. Since you have received advice to avoid these situations, we will not authorize the emergency versions if you choose to pursue these situations which include:
1.
You have used IE8 as your browser and therefore you cannot use the submit button.
2.
You have accessed a Blackboard assessment using a wireless connection.
3.
You have not pressed the submit button before the 28-minute time limit expires.
4.
You have other software or other browser windows open at the same time you have a Blackboard assessment open.
5.
You have hit the “back” key on your browser while you were taking an assessment.
Other situations for which the Emergency Version of the Blackboard assessment should not be used include items below:
6.
You did not take the main version within the assigned time period and the link was no longer available.
7.
You did not follow the instructions and entered your response in the incorrect format.
8.
You realized after taking the original assessment that you want to change an answer.