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 (7 th
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.
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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
50%
20%
Annual report project
Class participation
20%
10%
100%
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Lecture Plan
3
4
8
10
11
Performing Financial Statement Analysis
Concepts and Understanding of Liabilities
Communicating and Interpreting Accounting
Information
Concepts and Understanding of Investments
Concepts and Understanding of Cash Flow
Statements
Group
Presentation
Tutorial
Lecture
1
2
Topic
Overview and Fundamentals of Financial
Accounting
Readings*
Concepts and Understanding of Balance Sheet
Concepts and Understanding of Income Statement
Libby Ch1
Libby Ch2
Libby Ch3,
5
9 Concepts and Understanding of Owner's Equity
Concepts and Understanding of Sales Cycle,
Receivables and Cash Management
Libby Ch 5
Libby Ch 14
Libby Ch 6
Libby Ch 7
Libby Ch 8
Libby Ch 9
Libby Ch 11
Libby Ch 12
Libby Ch 13
Cases for ch1-2 + exam questions
Cases for ch
3 + exam questions
Cases for ch
5 + exam questions
Cases for ch
6
Cases for ch
7
Cases for ch
8
Cases for Ch
9
Cases for ch
11
Cases for Ch
12
1-ch2
2-ch3 rest
3-ch6
4-ch7
5-ch8
6-ch9
7-ch11
8-ch12
3

12
13
Synthesis of Financial Reporting
Course Wrap-up, Submission of project & assignment presentations -
Libby Ch 4
Cases for Ch
13
9-ch13+ch4
14 Break -
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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