Merle Hopkins, BUAD 250A Syllabus, Page 1 of 11

Merle Hopkins, BUAD 250a Syllabus, Page 1 of 11

BUAD 250a:

Core Concepts of

Accounting Information

Dr. Merle Hopkins

Fall 2009

Class Meeting Times:Section 14509R MW 10.00-11.50 am BRI 202

Class Meeting Times:Section 14510R TTH 10.00-11.50 am HOH Edison

Class Meeting Times:Section 14511R MW 2.00-3.50 pm HOH Edison

Class Meeting Times:Section 14512R TTH 4.00-5.50 pm HOH Edison

Professor Office Location:B4a [Basement of ACC]

Professor Office Telephone:(213) 740-4857

Instructional Assistant [IA]

Office Location:B4 [Basement of ACC]

IAs Office Phone:(213) 821-5932

Professor E-Mail Address:

IAs will monitor when available during office hours.

Professor Office Hours:

Mondays & Wednesdays 9.00-9.45am

Tuesdays & Thursdays2.15-3.30pm

And by appointment (send an email indicating some of your available times)

USC Information Line (213) 740-2311 or listen to 91.5 KUSC Radio

To report USC Emergencies: (213) 740-4321

USC Emergency Information Hotline (213) 740-9233

Prerequisites: None

Co-Requisite: Econ 203

Course Materials

Required:

1. Adding Value with Financial Accounting Exercises, Merle W. Hopkins, 2009.*
2. Study Guide for Core Concepts of Accounting Information, Merle W. Hopkins, 2009*.

*The required items will be available in the bookstore as a package.

Optional materials: Business periodicals to stay up with current business developments. The Wall Street Journal can be purchased as a subscription package at the bookstore when you purchased the required course package as described above. Or, you can go to this website and subscribe online:

Course Objectives

Accounting has often been called the ‘language of business’. Core Concepts of Accounting Information should help you to begin to understand and communicate in this language. The course should also help you gain an appreciation for the uses of accounting information and limitations inherent in that accounting information. Very few people achieve serous levels of success in business without a fundamental understanding of accounting principles and concepts. Finally, this course should help you learn about the nature and responsibilities of careers in the accounting profession.

Upon completion of Core Concepts of Accounting Information, you should:

1. Have a general understanding of the role of the accounting profession in our economic society, including: (a) an awareness of the process of regulation and self-regulation of the profession (including the accounting standard setting process) in the United States, and (b) the increasing internationalization of accounting.
2. Have a basic understanding of how accounting is used in business, including an appreciation of the role of financial and managerial accounting, systems, tax and auditing.

1. Have an awareness of some of the fundamental differences between US GAAP [generally accepted accounting principles] and the broad set of accounting rules known as IFRS [International Financial Reporting Standards].

1. Have an introductory knowledge of how to use the available tools in accounting – including such tools as the professional literature, research literature, – to help clarify accounting concepts and issues, analyze options, and make business decisions or solve problems.

1. Grasp the importance of ethics and values in your career.

Course Overview

Core Concepts of Accounting Information acknowledges there are five functional areas of accounting: financial accounting, managerial accounting, taxation, systems and auditing. BUAD 250a is a financial accounting course. The other four functional areas of accounting are mentioned when appropriate to establish that accounting extends beyond financial accounting. These functional areas are viewed from the perspectives of managers, preparers and users of accounting information.

Following is a brief overview of the course content.

1. Financial Accounting: This involves the study of the concepts, standards, and procedures that comprise generally accepted accounting principles [GAAP]. GAAP covers the external reporting process and includes the rules for the preparation of the basic financial statements. These financial statements have a wide audience of users including present and potential investors, management, labor unions, employees, creditors and governmental entities among others. The financial accounting section will cover these topics.

1. An overview of the financial reporting process including the objectives of financial reporting.
2. The underlying concepts, principles and conventions governing the financial reporting process. This will include developing your ability to apply these concepts, principles and conventions in a wide variety of situations.
3. The accounting cycle involves analyzing, recording and summarizing an entity’s transactions in the books and records of an organization in order to prepare financial statements as well as other financial information. The financial statements include classified balance sheets, multiple step income statements and statements of cash flow.
4. Revenue and expense recognition will be developed in some detail because these rules govern revenues and expenses appearing in a particular year’s income statement.
5. Revenue recognition criteria will be examined to better appreciate how and when revenues appear in an income statement. Uncollectible Accounts Receivable will be a part of this coverage as well as related topics.
6. Inventories and Cost of Goods Sold will be explored because of their significance in balance sheets and income statements. Understanding financial statements of many firms will require knowledge of accounting methods for Inventories.
7. Operating assets (property, plant, and equipment) present significant accounting issues because of their size in most enterprises. The variety of acceptable accounting methods for operating assets makes this topic important.
8. Inter-corporate and other investments can pose material accounting issues within the investors’ balance sheets. Managers and other financial statement users need an appreciation for the impacts caused by the variety accounting methods for investments.
9. The accounting and financial statement issues related to capital sources, debt and equity, will be developed appropriately.

1. Management Accounting: This is the primary topical coverage in BUAD 250b [sister course to BUAD 250a]. In these areas of accounting, students’ skills are developed leading to better business decisions through the use of accounting information. These skills will enhance a student’s capability of progressing into senior management positions [or becoming a better entrepreneur].

1. Auditing: We will develop an awareness of the need for independent reviews of accounting records and financial statements in order to promote the reliability of the information contained in the published information. Financial statements are the responsibility of the upper management of the firm and are prepared by the firm’s accounting personnel. Independent auditors may review these financial statements to enhance the reliability of the information in the financial statements. Sometimes, these independent audits are required by securities regulations. Additionally, banks and creditors may require independent audits of the financial statements of firms as part of the lender’s decision-making process.

1. Taxation: This will involve an introduction to this functional area within the accounting profession. Taxable income and financial accounting income will be compared in the context of the goals and rules for each area. Recognition of revenues and expenses differs between financial statements and tax returns. These differences pose challenges to users of financial statements and will be examined in this course (current and deferred tax expense).

1. Accounting Systems: This is a brief orientation to the value available to management, enterprises, and individuals through an understanding and use of accounting systems.

Statement for Students with Disabilities

Any student requesting academic accommodations based on a disability is required to register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP. Please be sure the letter is delivered to the instructor as early in the semester as possible. DSP is located in STU 301 and is open 8:30 am – 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday. The phone number for DSP is 213-740-0776.

“Blue sheets’ should be given to the instructor for any quiz/exam for which the student intends to utilize the testing services facilities to ensure timely delivery of the quiz/exam to STU 301. DSP has implemented an advance deadline for the submission of paperwork to them to ‘reserve’ a spot for the student to take the exam. Plan ahead.

Course Format

The course has two meetings per week each lasting 110 minutes. The class meetings will involve lectures and discussions of class assignments. Your performance over the entire semester will depend on the preparation you have done before class, what you do during the lecture sessions and review/study that you do after the lectures have ended.

Review the schedule portion of the syllabus to make sure that you have read the appropriate material for each class session. This will add value to your learning in the lecture and may shorten the total amount of time necessary to perform well in the course. Also, ensure you have appropriate resource materials available for each class meeting.

You have enrolled in one of the lab sessions to be held on Fridays. Your attendance at the lab sessions will be optional. Instructional assistants [IAs] will administer the labs. On a space available basis, you may attend lab sessions other than the one for which you are enrolled.

The instructor and the IAs will hold office hours each week. These hours are available to you. A schedule of office hours by IAs will be available early in the semester. Make a point to resolve any questions about the course or course content with the instructor or one of the IAs. The instructor and the IAs can be a valuable source of information and you are encouraged to meet with them on a regular basis. Timely resolution of problems/questions should enhance your performance on the quizzes and exams.

A typical week’s assignments will include background reading assignments and completion of assigned homework problems. I will utilize many handouts for use in class and/or as homework assignments. These are available to you as part of Adding Value with Financial Accounting Exercises. I may supplement these with additional handouts as needed. These will be important in your learning.

Working in Groups

You may wish to create informal groups to discuss class topics and/or homework assignments. This can be very helpful for the learning that will need to occur.

Grading

Final course grades will be assigned depending upon cumulative course points accumulated by you and all of the other students in the mega sections. Grading will be done on a curve that is responsive to the mean and median points accumulated by all the students completing the course. I have no preconception of the number of points needed to earn a particular letter grade. I will attempt to create exams where the mean score will be in the 70%-75% range. The average student completing the course likely will receive a B [3.0/4.0]. Some students will miss the next higher grade by as little as one point. Plan now to avoid being in that unfortunate situation. Extra credit is never an option.

Points will be allocated as follows:

Mid-term I / 300 points
Mid-term II / 300 points
Final exam / 300 points
Quizzes / 100 points
Total Course Points / 1,000 points

The exams will be made up of problems/exercises of a computational nature. Some problems may involve matching or true-false responses. There may be some discussion questions included on any of the exams. Announcements will be made in the lecture sessions related to the nature of the questions/problems on a specific exam. Your preparation on a daily basis throughout the semester should enable you to complete the exams in the time allotted. You will be expected to have learned the material thoroughly enough to efficiently adapt to different assumptions or formats.

The final exam will not be cumulative over the entire semester. The final exam will generally cover material discussed in class after the second mid-term. A word of caution is appropriate: accounting is cumulative. The ideas and concepts developed early in the course often become the basis for topics introduced later. The nature of the accounting material in this class does not suggest that you pin your hopes for a good grade on a strong ‘second half performance’. Second-half ‘comebacks’ are more common on the football field [and more spectacular].

Quizzes will generally be given each week and will count for ten ‘quiz’ points. Quizzes will be done ‘online’ and submitted following directions to be given with each quiz. The lowest two quiz scores will be dropped. Generally, I do not offer ‘makeup-up’quizzes*. Instead, any missed quizzes will be among the quiz scores that are dropped. Retain a copy of each quiz that you submit. [*Students with particular hardships in completing the quizzes in the designated time frames may ask the instructor for alternate arrangements. These requests will be resolved by the instructor on a case-by-case basis.]

The 100 course points assigned for quizzes and will be allocated on a proportionate basis. For example, if there are 10 quizzes at 10 points each, there would be a maximum of 80 points for the student [8 x 10 = 80]. If a student has earned 72 of these points out of the maximum 80 points, that student will be awarded 90% of the 100 course points available for quizzes.

Exam Schedule

Mid-term IFriday, October 10, 2009, 3-5pm [Location TBA]

Mid-term IIFriday, November 6, 2009, 3-5pm [Location TBA]

Final Exam*Thursday, December 10, 2009, 8am [Location TBA]

*This date and time can be found the final exam exceptions schedule.

Midterm 1 covers Classes 2-10, inclusive. Midterm 2 covers Classes 11-19, inclusive.

The Final Exam covers only Classes 20-28, inclusive.

Students occasionally have bona fide reasons for not being able to take the midterms on Fridays at the times indicated above. Students wishing to discuss alternate exam times must see the instructor in his office hours prior to the exam dates.

Regrading Exams

Regrading for partial credit will not be possible. In order to allow you to discover your own mistakes and make the appropriate corrections before turning the exam in, I am planning these steps:

1. The exams will be written with the intention that prepared students can finish in 1.5 hours. This will provide prepared students with sufficient time to review the exam within the two-hour period. This self-review will enable prepared students to correct relatively minor mistakes and avoid significant point loss as a result.

1. Exam questions will be structured to be relatively non-cumulative. This will reduce the likelihood that uncorrected mistakes made by students will penalize students’ scores repeatedly through a problem.

Students will be able to review the exams for the purpose of determining whether mistakes have been made in the grading process.

Any and all grading errors must be discussed with the Instructor before the date of the subsequent exam. In the case of grading errors on the final exam, that discussion with the Instructor much occur within one month of the start of classes in the immediately following semester.

Exam Reviews

Reviews of testable materials prior to exams have been tentatively scheduled for recording on Friday, October 2, for Midterm 1, on Friday, October 30, for Midterm 2, and on Friday, December 4 for the Final exam. In a change from prior semesters, these reviews will be recorded in BRI 202 and later available for all students to watch at their convenience. All students who wish to attend the recording sessions ‘live’ will be given an opportunity to sign-for a ‘lottery’ of available seats. BRI 202 has a seating capacity of approximately 40. The starting times for the reviews has not yet been finalized.

Make-Up Exam Policy

Mid-term exams should only be missed in extreme situations that, in the opinion of the instructor, constitute a true emergency. Any such situation must be supported by documentation deemed adequate by the instructor. If circumstances permit, the instructor’s prior approval is required. If an exam is missed without prior approval of the instructor and that approval is not obtained subsequently, the student will receive a score of zero for the missed exam.

If a student is unable to complete a mid-term on the scheduled date due to an instructor-approved reason, the instructor will administer an alternative mid-term approximately one week after the missed mid-term’s date. The student shall have the responsibility of contacting the instructor to schedule this alternative mid-term. The score to be used in combining a student’s alternative midterm results with the rest of the class will be solely within the discretion of the instructor when considering the additional week of time to study among other countless factors.

Final exams must be taken by the student at the designated time and place unless an ‘incomplete’ [IN] contract has been previously approved according to Leventhal School of Accounting regulations or an adequately documented situation necessitates the exam to be completed later in the university’s final exam period. The instructor alone shall decide whether the situation warrants postponing the exam within the final exam period. Advance requests by individuals for exceptions involving the time and/or place of a student’s final within the university’s scheduled finals period will be evaluated by the instructor on a case-by-case basis.