New York University
Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
P11-4130 (2 Credits)
FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING
SPRING 2009
Silver, Room 802
8:35 p.m. – 10:15 p.m.
Professor:
Stewart M. Presser, Vice President, Greater New York Hospital Association
The purpose of this course is to provide students with essential skills of financial accounting. P11.1021,
the school's core course in Financial Management for Public, Non-profit and Health Organizations
provides students with the tools necessary to understand and use financial information. However, that
course does not delve into many of the specific techniques related to generating financial information. In
many careers pursued by graduates of the Wagner School, knowledge of such technical details will be
useful, and in some cases it may be necessary. This course seeks to fill that need.
Topics covered include debits and credits, the recording process (including double entry accounting, T
accounts, journal entries, adjusting entries, closing entries, and financial statement preparation), accounts
receivable (including allowances for bad debts and aging schedules), inventory (including LIFO/FIFO,
periodic vs. perpetual, and lower of cost or market) and standard depreciation methods.
Text: Horngren, et al, Financial Accounting, Ninth edition, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
LECTURES
Class 1
January 22, 2009
Chapter 1: Accounting: The Language of Business--Types of entities and
Balance Sheet transactions.
Chapter 2: Measuring Income to Assess Performance--Income Statement
transactions, concepts of recognition, matching, and cost recovery to record
revenues and expenses. Income statement preparation and how it relates to the
balance sheet.
These chapters are combined, as they contain some overlap with P11.1021.
Class 2
January 29, 2009
Class 3
February 5, 2009
Chapter 3: Recording Transactions--Double entry accounting (debts and
credits); analyze and journalize transactions; posting journal entries to ledger
accounts; prepare and use a trial balance; use T accounts to analyze accounting
relationships.
Chapter 3 continued. Review journalizing and posting process and review
homework assignments for chapter 3.
Class 4
February 12, 2009
Class 5
February 19, 2009
Class 6
February 26, 2009
Chapter 4 - Accrual Accounting and Financial Statements—Prepare
adjustments for the expiration of assets, accrual of unrecorded expenses, accrual
of unrecorded revenues. Preparation of a classified balance sheet and a
single/multi-step income statement will be discussed. TAKE HOME FINAL
PORTION OF FINAL WILL BE GIVEN OUT.
Chapter 6 - Accounting for Sales--Recognize revenue items on the income
statement, account for cash and credit sales and estimate and interpret
uncollectible accounts receivable balances.
Chapter 7 - Inventories and Cost of Goods Sold—Types of inventory
methods, calculate the cost of merchandise acquired, and inventory valuations.
Chapter 8 - Long-Lived Assets and Depreciation—Measure acquisition costs
of tangible assets, compute depreciation and compute gain/loss on disposal of
fixed assets.
Final Exam Review.
Class 8
March 5, 2009
FINAL EXAMINATION IN CLASS, PART 2 and SUBMISSION OF PART
ONE OF THE FINAL EXAM.
Assignments
There will be weekly assignments given, see hand out. Students are expected to complete the
assignments on dates indicated and handed in for review. We will go over the problems in class. The
homework assignments are an integral part of the class work and will comprise a portion of the final
grade.
Grading
Class participation, attending lectures and completion of assignments will count for 20% of the final
grade and the FINAL exams will count for the remaining 80%. The final will be in two (2) parts: Part
one, a take home problem and part two, will be given in class. The take home will account for (25% and
the in-class, 75%) of the 80% of the final exam portion of the grade.
Office Hours
You may reach me during the day at my office, (212) 506-5444 or via e-mail at
PRESSER@GNYHA.ORG. I will be available to meet with any student on an individual basis if
necessary. Please contact me via e-mail to set up an appointment.