ACCTG 201 – Financial Accounting Fundamentals
Spring 2015
INSTRUCTOR:
Kevin W. Hee
EMAIL:
khee@mail.sdsu.edu
LECTURES:
Thursday (1900-2015) at AL 201
Friday (1100-1215) at AL 201
AL 201 is the Arts and Letters building
LABS:
Mondays (1200-1315)
Tuesdays (0800-0915)
Wednesdays (1200-1315)
MY OFFICE:
Student Services East Building (SSE) 3449
OFFICE HRS:
Thursday: 1400-1600
(If students cannot make these above times, students can
always make an appointment to come see me in my office.)
GTA office hours will vary depending on the GTA.
OFFICE PHONE:
619-594-6021
COURSE
MATERIALS:
ADDITIONAL:
ACCTG 201 - Syllabus
Financial Accounting, 10th Edition; Harrison, Horngren and
Thomas (2014)
MyAccountingLab (www.myaccountinglab.com)
Poll Everywhere (free)
We will be using the red Parscore forms (F-289) for ALL
EXAMS.
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COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course will encompass the study of corporate financial accounting concepts and
theories with emphasis on the preparation of the income statement, balance sheet, and
statement of cash flows. Coverage involves the process of analyzing, processing,
interpreting and communicating financial information to aid in decision making.
STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES FOR BSBA STUDENTS:
At the completion of the BSBA program, students will graduate being:
1. Effective Communicators
2. Critical Thinkers
3. Able to analyze ethical problems
4. Global in their perspective
5. Knowledgeable about the essentials of business
STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES FOR ACCTG 201:
This course is one of the steps towards achieving the BSBA Student Learning Outcomes
listed above. The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the fundamentals of
financial reporting (what you may know as “financial accounting”). More specifically,
we will look at the mechanics of financial accounting and the theory behind United States
Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) as presented in the statement of
operations (i.e., income statement) and the statement of financial position (i.e., balance
sheet).
This is a unique class environment because of the wide variety of majors taking the
course. I am
At the end of this course students should be able to:
1. Use accounting and business terminology, and understand the nature and purpose
of generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and International Financial
Reporting Standards (IFRS).
2. Explain the objective of financial reporting, the elements of the financial
statements, and the related key accounting assumptions and principles.
3. Define and distinguish between cash basis and accrual basis accounting and the
impact of each on the financial statements.
4. Recognize the information conveyed in each of the four basic financial statements
and the way it is used by investors, creditors, regulators, and managers.
5. Identify and illustrate how internal controls are used to manage and control the
firm’s resources and risk.
6. Explain the nature of current assets including the measuring and reporting of
items such as receivables and uncollectible accounts, inventory and costs of goods
sold, and prepaid expenses.
7. Explain the valuation and reporting of liabilities.
8. Identify and illustrate issues relating to the acquisition, use, depreciation, and
disposal of long-lived assets.
ACCTG 201 - Syllabus
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9. Identify and illustrate issues relating to stockholders’ equity
10. Explain the importance of operating, investing, and financing activities reported
in the Statement of Cash Flows when evaluating firm performance and solvency.
11. Compute and interpret key financial ratios.
12. Identify the ethical implications inherent in financial reporting.
ACADEMIC HONESTY
According to the SDSU Academic Senate policy on cheating and plagiarism:
2.2 Plagiarism shall be defined as the act of incorporating ideas, words, or specific
substance of another, whether purchased, borrowed, or otherwise obtained, and
submitting same to the University as one’s own work to fulfill academic
requirements without giving credit to the appropriate source. Plagiarism shall
include but not be limited to (a) submitting work, either in part or in whole,
completed by another; (b) omitting footnotes for ideas, statements, facts, or
conclusions that belong to another; (c) omitting quotation marks when quoting
directly from another, whether it be a paragraph, sentence, or part thereof; (d)
close and lengthy paraphrasing of the writings of another; (e) submitting another
person’s artistic works, such as musical compositions, photographs, paintings,
drawings, or sculptures; and (f) submitting as one’s own work papers purchased
from research companies.
Unprofessional conduct adversely impacts your fellow students, the accounting faculty,
the Charles W. Lamden School of Accountancy, SDSU, and the accounting
profession. The Charles W. Lamden School of Accountancy takes academic honesty
very seriously and vigorously enforces university policy related to any such
infractions. Any student suspected of academic dishonesty will be reported to the SDSU
Center for Student Rights and Responsibilities; if found responsible, the student will
receive a failing grade (F) for the course.
SPECIAL ACCOMODATIONS:
If you are a student with a disability and believe you will need accommodations for this
class, it is your responsibility to contact Student Disability Services at (619) 594-6473.
To avoid any delay in the receipt of your accommodations, you should contact Student
Disability Services as soon as possible. Please note that accommodations are not
retroactive, and that accommodations based upon disability cannot be provided until you
have presented your instructor with an accommodation letter from Student Disability
Services. Your cooperation is appreciated.
BLACKBOARD:
This course module will be managed via TWO Blackboard course websites. Therefore,
each student needs an email account (either SDSU Rohan or an alternative email system
like Google, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.). Please make sure that you update your email address
in the SDSU database. You can check on your Blackboard email account (or
ACCTG 201 - Syllabus
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update/change it) by going to the SDSU Web Portal at http://sunspot.sdsu.edu/portal.
Please note that Hotmail accounts sometimes do not accept mail sent directly through
Blackboard’s mass email system, but they do receive individual emails. If you do not
receive an announcement via email, you may want to change servers from your Hotmail
server to another mail server. There will be a combined Blackboard website (designated
by “CX”) and individual lab Blackboard websites. The Combined Blackboard website
will be where I make announcements and upload course documents such as lecture slides
and solutions for quizzes and group simulations. All points for assignments, quizzes and
exams that factor into the students’ grades will be posted on your individual lab
Blackboard website. You will also be able to access MyAccountingLab through the lab
Blackboard website.
MYACCOUNTINGLAB:
MyAccountingLab is a web-based tutorial and assessment software for students in this
course. The program provides practice problems and adaptive study modules that are
designed to help enhance students’ understanding of the accounting principles covered in
this course. Like in most endeavors, practice is key to helping you succeed.
MyAccountingLab provides students with virtually unlimited sources of practice
problems and self-assessment tools (e.g., Dynamic Study Modules which is an adaptive
learning tool).
Initial purchase and registration with MyAccountingLab can only be done through
the link provided on your lab Blackboard website. If you try and go directly to the
MyAccountingLab webpage, you will not be allowed to register. By using the link
provided in Blackboard, it ensures that your MyAccountingLab is linked to your
Blackboard and assignment grades can be accurately synced. Trying to bypass
Blackboard can have a negative impact on your course grade.
CLASS LECTURES:
Classes will consist of lectures using PowerPoint slides that are designed to help students
better understand the correct financial reporting rules for a variety of common business
transactions. Students are responsible for accessing the slides from the Blackboard
website. The lecture slides will be posted to the Blackboard website under the “Lecture
Slides” tab. The slides are intended to ease the burden of note-taking during class. The
pace of my lectures are based on the assumption that students have read the
textbook material ahead of time, worked through any study modules assigned for
pre-class work and reviewed relevant slides for class (i.e., BE PREPARED
FOR CLASS!!). If you are not prepared for lectures, you will not be maximizing
what you can learn from each lecture and your grade will most likely suffer.
LAB SECTIONS:
In addition to the auditorium lectures on Thursdays or Fridays (depending on your
section), students are required to attend a 75-minute lab during the week. Each lab section
is run by a graduate teaching assistant (GTA) from the Charles W. Lamden School of
ACCTG 201 - Syllabus
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Accountancy. Each GTA is currently pursuing their Masters of Science in Accountancy
(MSA) degree at SDSU either through our BMAcc or MSA programs. Students will be
placed in randomly-chosen groups within each lab section. Labs will consist of the
following activities:
 Brief Review/Q&A on topics covered in the auditorium lectures
the previous week.
 Graded group simulations on the weekly topics.
 Graded individual quizzes on the weekly topics.
EXAMS:
There will be three exams (two midterms and a final) over the course of the
semester. The third exam will be administered during the course’s final exam time
slot. While the third exam is not fully comprehensive, THE THIRD EXAM WILL
CONTAIN A SET OF QUESTIONS THAT COVER CHAPTERS 1-3. This is due to
the fact that these chapters are essential to the student learning outcomes of this
course. Therefore, the third exam is worth 30% of your total grade while the first two
exams are worth 22.5% each. Students will need a Parscore sheet (F-289) for the exams.
Exams will be administered during the times and dates listed below. No makeup exams
are given. Exams 1 and 2 will be handed back to students in their lab sections. Exams 1
and 2 will be administered on Fridays (2 hours in duration) as stated in the catalog
footnotes.
Exams 1 and 2 will start at 3pm on the Friday exam dates stated in the syllabus
calendar.
The Final Exam will take place at the University-designated day and time (typically
on Saturday starting at 6pm for all sections).
Calculators:
No programmable calculators are allowed to be used during exams. Only basic
function/4-function calculators will be allowed. GTA’s will check all students’
calculators before the exams to ensure that each student only has a basic function
calculator. Cell phones cannot be used in any way during exams, not even to check
the time. If a student is seen with a cell phone in his/her hand, that student will
receive an automatic zero for that exam.
QUIZZES:
Quizzes will consist of multiple choice, fill-in-the-blanks and problems. Each quiz will be
administered at the end of the lab section and covers material from the prior week’s
lecture. I design the quizzes such that students should complete the quizzes in
approximately 15-20 minutes. It is imperative not to fall behind in this class because of
the volume of concepts covered and the sustained pace of the module. Please be aware
that the quizzes are not designed to be wholly representative of the difficulty of
questions on the exams. The quizzes are designed as a tool to ensure that students are
ACCTG 201 - Syllabus
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keeping up-to-date with the material covered in lectures. There will be 11 quizzes total
during the semester. Your lowest quiz score will be dropped in calculating your final
grade.
GROUP WORK:
At the beginning of the semester, students will be randomly assigned to groups (in their
labs) via Blackboard. When you log into your Blackboard account, your group number
will show up on the bottom of your home screen. This group will be your permanent
group for the entire semester for all graded group assignments. There will be graded
group assignments during every lab over the course of the semester. These simulations
are designed for students to work in their groups in class. Points will be earned on a
group basis based on the accuracy of the groups’ answers to the simulations. Whatever
number of points earned by the group is the number of points earned by the individual
student within the group (e.g., if the group earns 8 out of a possible 10 points on a
simulation, each group member that worked on the simulation will earn 8 points each.).
Your lowest group exercise score will be dropped in calculating your final grade.
HOMEWORK:
Homework assignments are administered through MyAccountingLab which is the online
learning system that we will be using in conjunction with the Harrison, Horngren and
Thomas textbook. Homeworks are due after I have lectured on the topics covered in the
homework assignments. For example, if I lecture on Chapter 2 on Thursday/Friday’s
lecture, the Chapter 2 homework will be due by noon on the following Monday
(regardless of your lecture section). Therefore, homeworks are graded on accuracy and
you only have TWO attempts per homework question. Please make sure that you look at
the calendar in the syllabus to see the due dates for the homeworks.
Your lowest homework score will be dropped in calculating your final grade.
POLL EVERYWHERE:
Over the course of the semester, we will use Poll Everywhere (PE) questions to review
lecture content on-the-fly. This means multiple choice poll questions taken from past
exams and quizzes are built into the lectures. Being passive in a lecture room of this size
is quite easy. My goal in embedding these PE questions into my lectures is to permit you
to be an engaged state of mind during lectures and an active participant in the learning
process. Points for correctly answered PE questions will contribute to your final grade.
Students can use any web-connected device (e.g., laptop, cellphone, tablet) to submit
their answers to the PE questions during each lecture. Your lowest PE score will be
dropped in calculating your final grade.
PE is free for students. You do not have to pay any fees to sign up.
ACCTG 201 - Syllabus
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GRADING FOR THE COURSE:
ASSESSMENT
Exams
Final Exam
Poll Everywhere Participation
Quizzes (best 10 of 11)
Homework (best 5 of 6)
Group Exercises
TOTAL
% WEIGHT
45%
30%
5%
10%
5%
5%
100%
Tentative grade categories are as follows (actual grade ranges may be different at
the end of the semester based on the actual student scores):
A
93-100%
A91-92%
B+ 89-90%
B
83-88%
B81-82%
C+ 79-80%
C
70-78%
D+ 68-69%
D
62-67%
D60-61%
F
59% and below
Pages in the textbook for which you are responsible (regardless of
content covered in lecture):
CHAPTER 1: All pages
CHAPTER 2: All pages
CHAPTER 3: All pages
CHAPTER 5: pp. 245, 254-274 (you are not responsible for short-term investment
content in this chapter)
CHAPTER 6: pp. 300-320, 322-323
CHAPTER 7: pp. 362-392, 394-396
CHAPTER 8: pp. 449-458 (only time value of money is covered; you are not responsible
for content on long-term investments)
CHAPTER 9: pp. 482-497, 510, 516-517
CHAPTER 10: pp. 550-562
ACCTG 201 - Syllabus
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WEEK
1
LECTURE
DATES
1/22, 1/23
2
1/29, 1/30
3
2/5, 2/6
4
2/12, 2/13
5
2/19, 2/20
6
2/26, 2/27
7
3/5, 3/6
LAB ACTIVITY
TOPIC COVERED
NOTES
Introduction to the Course
No labs this week
Chapter 1 – Financial
Lab logistics
Statements
FEBRUARY 3RD IS THE LAST DAY TO DROP CLASSES
Chapter 2 – Transaction
Quiz #1 (Ch 1)
Ch 1 HW (HW #1) due on 2/2
Analysis
Group Simulation
Chapter 2 – Transaction
Quiz #2 (Ch 2)
Analysis
Group Sim
Chapter 3 – Accrual
Quiz #3 (Ch 2)
Ch 2 HW (HW #2) due on 2/16
Accounting and Income
Group Sim
Chapter 3 – Accrual
Quiz #4 (Ch 3)
Accounting and Income
Group Sim
Review
Ch 3 HW (HW #3) due 3/2
March 6 (Friday) – Exam #1 covers Chapters 1-3
8
3/12, 3/13
Chapter 5 – Short term
investments and receivables
9
3/19, 3/20
Chapter 6 – Inventory
10
3/26, 3/27
Chapter 7 – Operating Assets
Return Exam #1 in
lab
Quiz #5 (Ch 5)
Group Sim
Quiz #6 (Ch 6)
Group Sim
Ch 5 HW (HW #4) due 3/16
Ch 6 HW (HW #5) due 3/23
SPRING BREAK (Mar 30 – Apr 3)
11
4/9, 4/10
Review
Ch 7 HW (HW #6) due 4/6
April 10 (Friday) – Exam #2 covers Chapters 5-7
11
4/16, 4/17
12
4/23, 4/24
13
4/30, 5/1
14
5/7, 5/8
Chapter 8 – Time Value of
Money
Chapter 9 – Liabilities
Chapter 10 – Stockholders’
Equity
No lectures
Return Exam #2 in
labs
Quiz #7 (Ch 8)
Group Sim
Quiz #8 (Ch 9/10)
Group Sim
Ch 9 HW (HW #7) due 4/20
Ch 10 HW (HW #8) due 4/27
5/9 (SATURDAY – FINAL EXAM IS PARTIALLY-CUMULATIVE (Ch 1-3, 8-10)
The exact exam day will be confirmed later in the semester, but is typically on the first
Saturday of the final exam period.
ACCTG 201 - Syllabus
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