Course Syllabus

For a list of course activities, scroll to the bottom of this page.

Course Purpose

Acct 5202 is designed to provide an overview of the financial accounting and reporting process. It is not designed to make you expert accountants or financial analysts.  Rather it is designed to give you some familiarity with how financial information is prepared and used.

Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:

• Define and break down the major components for the financial statements
• Complete a set of journal entries and t-accounts for a simple company for an accounting period and generate a set of financial statements
• Apply the accrual process and adjust entries
• Compute and interpret ratios, conduct basic analysis and interpretation of financial statements
• Explain reporting for accounts receivable and bad debts
• Outline reporting for inventory
• Recognize key issues critical to revenue and expense recognition
• Describe accounting for long-term assets and reporting depreciation
• Compare and contrast key reporting issues in current liabilities and long-term debt.

The course is not simply about learning mandated accounting rules.  It is intended to address broader financial reporting issues such as why and how accounting information is useful.  This makes the course more practical and more challenging.  To get the full benefit of the course, you must be dedicated to keep up.  Accounting learning must be done bit by bit, by gradually adding new knowledge to past lessons.  The topics in this course cannot be learned all at once.  In addition, the format of the course is interactive, where students are asked to participate in each class session.  The quality of the learning experience depends on everyone doing their assignments.  If you fail to keep up, you will be letting down yourself and your classmates.

Course Format

Prior to each online session, you will need to complete the reading and assignments to prepare for class.  In most sessions, I will provide some lecture and there will be opportunity to ask clarifying questions and to work on problems in groups and as a class.

The pace of this course is extremely rapid because of (i) the voluminous amount of material covered in any in financial accounting course, (ii) the ever-expanding quantity of accounting standards, and (iii) the orientation towards both users and preparers of financial statements.

Course Prerequisites 

There are no specific prerequisites.  However, a general understanding of economics and business is helpful and basic skills in Excel are helpful.

Course Materials

Textbook

Financial Accounting 6th edition, Hanlon, Magee, Pfeiffer, and Dyckman, ISBN: 978-1-61853-133-1.

Online      

myBusinessCourse is an online learning platform and homework manager included with new books, also available for purchase

You'll want to make sure that your online access to myBusinessCourse links to your Canvas course. For more information about how to purchase the text and online access, please go to the Course Resources page.  If you have ordered a printed copy of the book and are waiting for it to arrive, you may read the first two chapters of the book which are posted online at MyBusinessCourse.

Grades

Breakdown

Graded Activities	Percentage
Participation	15%
Concept Checks	10%
Exercises	10%
Accounting Cycle Project	15%
Final Exam	50%
Total	100%

Scale

A = 90.0% to 100.0%

B = 80.0% to <90.0%

C = 70.0% to <80.0%

D = 60.0% to <70.0%

F = 00.0% to <60.0%

Course Components 

Participation 

Your participation score is based on

1) your participation in the Live Session or completing make-up activities

2) your activity in the course discussion board. 

If you participate in the Live Session or complete the make-up activity submitting a summary of the session, you will receive full credit for this portion of the participation grade.

The discussion board is used to facilitate discussion during the live session.  Your questions and comments can relate to clarification or elaboration of a topic, a current event or timely topic to the week’s course material, or an opinion/experience on the week’s material.  To receive full credit for this portion of the participation grade, you must:

1) post at least one thoughtful question (or issue) you would like to discuss during our Live Session. Please post before 5pm on Tuesday, two days before the live session.   Review other existing posts prior to posting and reply to other related posts to organize the discussion and reduce duplication. This will give me enough time to review your questions ahead of our Live Session.

2) read the comments on the discussion board by 5pm on Wednesday and

• • • "like" comments/questions you would like to discuss during class (discussion time will be focused on those receiving the most likes/votes, as well as topics I feel deserve discussion)
    • optionally reply to comments/questions of others

Concept Checks and Exercises

The purpose of the concept check and exercise assignments is to ensure you understand the material and to provide an incentive for you to study before class.  Time permitting, we may work on some of the homework problems during the Live Session.

Concept Check assignments are due by Saturday at 11:59 pm following the live session.  They are intended to assess your understanding of basic concepts in the assigned material. The concept checks will be completed in myBusinessCourse.  I encourage you to review, and complete if possible, the concept checks prior to the live session.

Exercises are due the Monday following the Live Session, though you may complete them before class.  They help assess your mastery of the concepts covered in each session.  These assignments will generally be completed in myBusinessCourse. 

Your homework percentage for the course will be 100% if you receive at least 80% of the total possible homework points, otherwise your homework percentage is calculated as: total earned points/(0.8*total possible points). You cannot receive more than full credit for homework. In other words, you may miss some homework points with no impact on your grade. These “extra point” possibilities are designed to overcome specific technical difficulties with myBusinessCourse as well as any personal issues that may arise.

To illustrate, if you receive 7/10 on an assignment, your grade will be 7/(0.8*10) = 87.5%. Any extra points earned can be used to increase your homework score for other assignments. For example, if you get 10/10 on assignment 1, and 6/10 on assignment 2, the “extra” 2 points from assignment 1 effectively increase your grade from assignment 2 to 8 points, which is full credit.  Grades for the concept check and exercises are separate.

Accounting Cycle Project

After the first few sessions of class, you will complete the accounting cycle project, which ensures you understand the basic framework of financial reporting.  You will analyze and record a set of transactions for a company and you will prepare the basic financial statements.  It is important to get early feedback on these fundamental concepts as we will quickly proceed to more advanced concepts, which will be difficult without a good foundation.

Final Exam 

The final exam will assess your understanding of the key concepts covered in each chapter.  The final exam will be closed book, but you will be allowed to use one page of notes.

Course Policies

Communication Plan

The best way to contact me is via email.  I will strive to respond in a timely manner, usually within 24 hours.  If you anticipate issues with assignments or class attendance, contact me as soon as you know.

Late Policy

Late work will be penalized 10% for each day it is late (10% will be subtracted from your score for submitting late and each subsequent day that passes will result in an additional 10% subtraction).  If you do not submit before the assignment is due, I may need to re-open the assignment for you.

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UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA

ACADEMIC POLICIES AND STUDENT SUPPORT

Catalog

Please familiarize yourself with the student catalog: http://catalog.ou.edu/courses/courses.htm

Online Library

Students can use the University of Oklahoma library by visiting: http://libraries.ou.edu/

Academic Misconduct

In addition to the course conduct policies outlined by your professor in the Course Syllabus in the online classroom, please review the Graduate Student Handbook. 

It is the responsibility of each student to be familiar with the definitions, policies, and procedures concerning academic misconduct. The Student Code is available from the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs, and is contained in the Student's Guide to Academic Integrity, available at http://integrity.ou.edu/students_guide.html 

This site also defines misconduct, provides examples of prohibited conduct, and explains the sanctions available for those found guilty of misconduct.

Plagiarism 

Plagiarism is the most common form of academic misconduct at OU. There is basically no college-level assignment that can be satisfactorily completed by copying. OU's basic assumption about writing is that all written assignments show the student's own understanding in the student's own words. That means all writing assignments, in class or out, are assumed to be composed entirely of words generated (not simply found) by the student, except where words written by someone else are specifically marked as such with proper citation. Including other people's words in your paper is helpful when you do it honestly and correctly. When you don't, it's plagiarism. 

Go to http://integrity.ou.edu/students_guide.html to learn more about the rules for avoiding plagiarism. Watch this video and then test your skills in avoiding plagiarism by taking this plagiarism tutorial and quiz. 

Reasonable Accommodation for Disabilities

The University of Oklahoma is committed to providing reasonable accommodation for all students with disabilities. Students with disabilities who require accommodations in this course should contact their professor as early in the semester as possible.

Students with disabilities must be registered with the Disability Resource Center prior to receiving accommodations in this course.

If you have a disability and you would like to make a request for reasonable accommodation, please see the Graduate Student Handbook or visit the Disability Resource Center and other disability services at OU at: http://drc.ou.edu/

Adjustments for Pregnancy/Childbirth Related Issues or Other Illness

Should you need modifications or adjustments to your course requirements because of documented pregnancy-related or childbirth-related issues, or other illness, please contact me as soon as possible to discuss your options. Generally, modifications will be made where medically necessary and similar in scope to accommodations based on temporary disability. Please see www.ou.edu/content/eoo/faqs/pregnancy-faqs.html for commonly asked questions.  

Title IX Resources  

For any concerns regarding gender-based discrimination, sexual harassment, sexual misconduct, stalking, or intimate partner violence, the University offers a variety of resources, including advocates on-call 24.7, counseling services, mutual no contact orders, scheduling adjustments, and disciplinary sanctions against the perpetrator. Please contact the Sexual Misconduct Office 405-325-2215 (8-5, M-F) or OU Advocates 405-615-0013 (24/7) to learn more or to report an incident. 

Religious Holidays

It is the policy of the University to excuse absences of students that result from religious observances and to provide for the rescheduling of examinations and additional required classwork that may fall on religious holidays without penalty. It is the responsibility of the student to make alternate arrangements with the instructor at least one week prior to the actual date of the religious holiday.

Copyright Policy

It is illegal to download, upload, reproduce, or distribute any copyrighted material, in any form and in any fashion, without permission from the copyright holder or his/her authorized agent. The University of Oklahoma expects all members of its community to comply fully with federal copyright laws. If such laws appear to have been violated by any user, the university reserves the right (1) to terminate that user’s access to some or all of the university’s computer systems and information resources and (2) to take additional disciplinary actions as deemed necessary or appropriate. Repeat offenders will be sanctioned and their privileges terminated.

Registration and Withdrawal

If you choose to withdraw from this course, you must complete the appropriate University form and turn the form in before the deadline. If you stop attending the course and doing the coursework without doing the required paperwork, your grade will be calculated with missed homework and examination grades entered as zero. This could result in receiving a grade of F in the course. Deadlines are shown in the Academic Calendar, which is available from the Office of Admissions and Records or online at http://www.ou.edu/admissions/home/academic_calendar.html

Student Grievances

In addition to any policies outlined related to submitting an informal or formal grievance by your professor in the Course Syllabus in the online classroom, please review the Graduate Student Handbook for more information about the process of submitting a formal grievance.