NUS Business School
National University of Singapore
BMA5003_P1 – Financial Accounting, Semester 2, AY2012/2013
Part-time MBA Group: 6PM-9PM, Monday
Course Outline
Instructor: Adjunct Assistant Professor Deon Chan
Office: BIZ2 #02-15
Email:bizcsfd@nus.edu.sg
Consultation Hours: By 3 working days’ advance appointment
COURSE OBJECTIVE
This course is to equip students with the understanding of financial accounting concepts, methods and uses.
The primary objectives of the course are to:
- Help students develop a good understanding of the accounting concepts and mechanisms underlying
financial information so that they can utilize the financial information for decision-making purposes
- Train students in accounting concepts and methods so that they can interpret, analyse and evaluate
financial statements and notes currently published in company annual reports.
REQUIRED MATERIALS
Main Textbook
Financial Accounting (7th edition) Global Edition, by Libby, Libby, and Short, and published by McGraw
Hill (2011) bundled with Connect Student Access Card
Supplementary Readings will be handed out during classes or posted to IVLE.
Course materials (lecture notes, discussion problems, project materials, etc) will be posted periodically on
IVLE.
MODULE WEBSITE:
The module BMA5003_P1 is set up in IVLE. You need to access the IVLE at least weekly before the lecture
to download the lecture materials and look out for announcements.
CLASS SESSION
Class sessions will consist of lecture presentations combined with student presentations and discussion.
Punctuality, courtesy & absenteeism: Please arrive PUNCTUALLY. Students whom are absent without
valid reasons will be taken note of and participation marks would be deducted. Please switch your mobile to
silent mode during the class.
Lecture
For lecture, major points of a topic are covered. Lecture notes will be uploaded to IVLE before the start of
class each week. Students are advised to quick read the lecture notes and the chapters of the recommended
textbook (refer to the lecture plan below) before class each week. Additional readings assigned as and when
would also be uploaded to IVLE before each lecture.
1
Class Participation (10%)
Please participate during the case discussions and lessons actively. Marks will be given for class
participations. Please participate by asking questions, answering questions posed by lecturer and fellow
students, offering opinions, relating material taught to your working experiences, commenting on presented
solutions to assignments.
Homework assignment submission and presentation (20%)
The purpose of the homework assignment is to help you to practice the accounting concepts and mechanisms,
and apply them to the questions. This is key part of the learning. All students are expected to complete the
assignment questions before the class regardless whether they are making the presentations.
The Homework will be administered using Connect Online platform where you can access the homework
questions and key in your solutions. There will be auto-marking by the system and the lecturer concurrently.
Please complete the homework questions before the lecture timing. Late submission will not be considered
for grading and zero mark will be granted. Each student is required to submit the homework regardless
whether he is making any presentation.
For each lecture, a group will be assigned to present the solutions to selected questions, while the other
students are expected to contribute to the discussion of the answers. Due to time constraint, sometimes not all
the questions can be discussed during the class, by which, the suggested solutions will be uploaded by the
instructor for self-checking. The grading will be based on the solutions submitted and the presentation. The
presentation slides should be uploaded to the student’s workbin 2 working days before the lecture by 12noon.
Please submit by the deadline stated.
You can discuss the homework questions in your group. However, all submission of the assignment is on an
individual basis via Connect.
ANNUAL REPORT PROJECT (20%)
This is a group project where the group will perform an analysis of a real-world company annual report by
applying the accounting concepts and methods taught in the course. It requires the reading and analysis of
annual report of listed companies. It serves to integrate all the topics covered and is also the self-learning
component of the course.
Deliverable will be the Project Report. Limit to the number of words would be announced during the class.
Grading will be based on clarity, conciseness and correctness of the written report of your analysis. Details
on the course project will be provided later.
EXAMINATION (50%)
The final examination is an open-book, open-notes exam. All materials covered during the semester in
lectures, presentations, assignments, assigned readings and group project are examinable. All Universityapproved calculators are permitted. Any other electronic and mobile devices e.g. laptop, smartphones and
mobile phones are not allowed.
EVALUATION
Your final grade will be determined on the following basis:
Exams
Homework submission and presentation
Annual report project
Class participation
50%
20%
20%
10%
100%
2
Lecture Plan
Lecture
Date
1
2
3
Topic
Overview and Fundamentals of
14 JAN Financial Accounting
Concepts and Understanding of Balance
21 JAN Sheet
Concepts and Understanding of Income
Statement
Communicating and Interpreting
28JAN Accounting Information
Readings*
Libby Ch1
Libby Ch2
1
Libby Ch3,
2
1-ch2
3 - Connect
Tut 4 + exam
questions
2-ch3
rest
Libby Ch 5
Libby Ch 14
4
Group
Tutorial
Presentation
4 FEB Performing Financial Statement Analysis
5
Concepts and Understanding of Sales
Cycle, Receivables and Cash
11 FEB Management
Libby Ch 6
4 – Connect
Tut 4 + exam
questions
Cost of Goods Sold and Inventory
18 FEB Accounting
Libby Ch 7
5 – Cases for
sales
3-ch6
6
4-ch7
Libby Ch 8
1 – Cases for
COGS
2 – Cases for
LT Assets
5-ch8
Recess week
7
Concepts and Understanding of Long
4 MAR Term Assets and Intangibles
8
Concepts and Understanding of
11 MAR Liabilities
Concepts and Understanding of Owner's Libby Ch 11
18 MAR Equity
3 – Cases for
Liabilities
6-ch9
9
Concepts and Understanding of
25 MAR Investments
4 – Cases for
Equity
7-ch11
5 – Cases for
Investments
8-ch12
10
Libby Ch 9
Libby Ch 12
11
Concepts and Understanding of Cash
1 APR Flow Statements
Libby Ch 13
12
8 APR Synthesis of Financial Reporting
Libby Ch 4
9-ch13+ch4
3
13
Course Wrap-up, Submission of project
15 APR & assignment presentations
-
14
22 APR Break
-
27 Apr Examination
*- For supplementary readings for the lecture, please download from IVLE.
Module Website Resources
1. www.sgx.com.sg
This is the website through which all corporate information and share information are found. The
annual reports reside in Listed Companies – Annual / Financial Reports link. Weblink is
http://www.sgx.com/wps/portal/marketplace/mpen/listed_companies_info/annual_reports_financial_reports
You need to access the above to download the Singtel and other company’s Annual Report for lecture
and project.
2. www.asc.gov.sg/frs/index.htm
All financial reporting standards for Singapore are found in the above weblink. It is not essential to
understand all that is written in the standards as BMA5003 is an elementary module that cover the
basic principles and not the detailed rules in the standards, usually covered in intermediate accounting
courses.
Advisory
Although this module is a basic accounting module, students who have no accounting or business finance
background are likely to find it challenging at the beginning. This is because this will be a new language
with its own unique terminology, concepts and rules, hence time and efforts are needed to familiarize with
them. Do not give up.
Work hard and hope you will have an enjoyable learning experience equipping you with the knowledge to
the accounting world.
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