Executive MBA
HEC Lausanne
Financial Accounting 07/08
Professor
•
•
Prof. Dr. Anne d'Arcy (Sessions 1-4)
Prof. Dr. Alexis H. Kunz (Sessions 5-8)
Brief overview and goal
•
The purpose of this course is to furnish students with a basic understanding of the financial reporting
process with a focus on how financial statements are put together and how they are used.
Although the course principally concentrates on the production of financial statements, the aim is not
to turn participants into practising accountants. The philosophy is rather to provide an appreciation of
the process of how accounting information is produced to give students the ability to successfully
analyse a relatively complex set of financial statements. The ability to extract relevant information
from accounting data for the purpose of decision-making is an important skill in various contexts,
such as investment, evaluation, and performance-based compensation.
Evaluation
•
100% final exam
The final exam will take place on 09/11/2007. It will be an open-book exam.
Executive MBA Programme
HEC Lausanne | CH-1015 Lausanne
Phone: +41 21 692 33 90 | Fax: +41 21 692 33 95
E-mail: emba@unil.ch | www.hec.unil.ch/emba
Required reading
•
For each lecture you will be given a copy of our slides which, when annotated with your own notes,
should be sufficient for both revision purposes for the exam and as a record of the course for future
reference. In addition, the textbook for this course is:
Harrison and Horngren (HH), “Financial Accounting,” Pearson Higher Education/Prentice
Hall, London, 6th ed, 2005, ISBN 0-13-149945-9.
The detailed outline below contains references to the relevant chapters from the book (these would
ideally be read before the appropriate session, and revisited after the relevant session).
Cases
•
Case Oldmobile's Paradise – required for Lecture 8. Though we would like to encourage you to
solve the case before the lecture, it will suffice to read the case and be familiar with its facts.
Professor availability and contact information
Professor:
Office:
Phone:
Email:
Dr. Anne d'Arcy
Internef # 511
+41 21 692 3459
annechristine.darcy@unil.ch
Professor:
Office:
Phone:
Email:
Dr. Alexis H. Kunz
Internef # 523
+41 21 692 3462
alexis.kunz@unil.ch
2
Detailed Course Outline
Professor: Dr. Anne d'Arcy
Class
Topic
Content
Reading
1
13/09/07
Course overview and
administration
HH, Chapter 1
Thursday
Institutional
background
Basic concepts
Users of accounting data
Standard Setting bodies
Basic accounting concepts
Basic structure of financial statements
The balance sheet equation
13:30-17:30
2
14/09/07
Friday
Transaction analysis
and basic financial
statements
preparation
Transaction analysis
Double-entry bookkeeping
Preparing financial statements
Statement of changes in shareholders'
equity
External speaker: case study
HH, Chapter 2 &
Chapter 11, pp.
522-524
Accrual vs. cash
accounting
Accounts receivable
Prepayments and accrued liabilities
Expense matching under uncertainty –
Warranty
Revenue recognition
HH, Chapter 3 &
Chapter 5 pp.223232
Stocks (Inventories)
and corporation tax
Product vs. period costs
Manufacturing cost flows
Lower of cost or market
Cost flow assumptions
LIFO – intl. differences and taxes
Corporation tax
HH, Chapter 6
13:30-17:30
3
28/09/07
Friday
13:30-17:30
4
29/09/07
Saturday
13:30-17:30
3
Professor: Dr. Alexis H. Kunz
Class
Topic
Content
Reading
5
12/10/07
Long-term Assets
Accounting for fixed assets
Depreciation methods
Capital gains/losses
Changes of estimates
Revaluations
HH, Chapter 7
Inter-corporate
Investments
Financial assets
Basics of equity method
Basics of consolidation
HH, Chapter 10 &
Chapter 5 p. 218222
Friday
13:30-17:30
6
13/10/07
Saturday
Enron Case
13:30-17:30
7
26/10/07
The statement of
cash flows
Friday
Components of cash flow statement
Cash flow statement
Preparing a basic CF statement
Definition and measurement of free cash
flows
HH, Chapter 12
Ratio Analyses
Value Chains
HH, Chapter 8
HH, Appendix C
Case Study
Case Oldmobile's
Paradise
Class notes
provided in the
binder
13:30-17:30
8
27/10/07
Financial Statement
Analyses
Saturday
13:30-17:30
9
09/11/07
Exam
Friday
10:00-12:00
4