Course Approved by Faculty Senate.

 

 

Department Accounting
Course Number 211 Number of Credits: 3
Course Title: Financial Accounting Principles

Catalog Description: Study of topics in financial accounting including the accounting cycle, forms of business organizations, assets, liabilities, owner’s equity, and financial statement preparation and analysis. Examples are drawn from service, merchandising and manufacturing organizations. Prerequisite: WSU math proficiency.

This is an existing course that has previously been approved by A2C2: Yes

Department Contact Person: Jim Hurley jhurley@vax2.winona.musu.edu

 The attached sample syllabus explains what is typically covered in this course. It also shows to students how the outcomes for Contemporary Citizenship are addressed. The syllabus is included in this application for purposes of illustration. Each faculty member is still responsible for his/her own course syllabus.

As required in points 1 and 2 of the approval process, the following address the outcomes listed for Contemporary Citizenship courses:

  1. use critical thinking to analyze contemporary issues

    2. Financial accounting is often called "the language of business". This course requires students to use critical thinking in learning how to prepare, and especially, how to analyze and use basic financial statements such as the balance sheet and income statement. Revenue recognition and expense matching concepts are studied in detail. Also covered in this course are specifics of things such as business inventories, investments, and financial obligations. Critical thinking is required to understand these details, and how they are used in the financial statements. Students learn how to better assess how a company is doing compared to published standards, other time periods, and other companies. This helps with various investment and credit decisions.

  2. demonstrate effective oral and/or written communication of ideas, informed opinions, and/or values

Homework is required for each chapter in the course. Quizzes and tests are given regularly. These assignments, that often use "real" financial statements and other related information, require students to effectively communicate information about the companies’ financial reports. Case studies that require written analysis are frequently used. Students are expected to participate in class. If time allows, students are sometimes asked to give short oral reports about some aspect of a business.

 

c. identify, find, and use tools of information science related to contemporary issues

Students are required to find information about the financial statements and annual reports of companies using various business databases found on the internet.

  1. demonstrate the ability to work effectively independently and/or in collaborative problem-solving groups

    2. Most of the work done in this course is done independently. Students must demonstrate the ability to work effectively in completing the required assignments to pass the course. This ability must be demonstrated in the quizzes, tests, homework, and other course requirements. Relatively short group projects are frequently required. Reports relating to these group projects are due throughout the semester.

  2. identify principles and applications of personal, civic, and/or economic responsibility; understand personal responsibility for lifestyle choices

This course explains the financial accounting principles and concepts necessary in understanding how businesses are performing. Many of these principles and concepts can also be used in personal financial applications. Students learn the basics of a balance sheet, income statement, statement of cash flows, statement of changes in owners’ equity, and retained earnings statement. They also study basic cash management, including how to do a bank reconciliation, and they learn the basics of accounting for various investments. This knowledge helps students to become better decision-makers when assessing business strengths and weaknesses.

 

ACCOUNTING 211

Text: Financial Accounting, Edmonds, 3rd Edition, working papers, Power Notes, and study guide.
Date Chap. Subject Assignment

    1. Introduction
    1. Read 1
    1. E10, 1, 2, 8 P2
    1. P7, 8, 4, ACT1, 6

      2. 2 Accruals Read 2, Q1, 2, 7, 12, 9

    2. E7, 8, 9, 15, 16, P4

      3. 2 P5, 1, ACT 1, 3

      3 Deferrals Read 3, Q17, 18, 2, 3

    3. E2, 5, 7 , P1, 4

3 E9, P5, ACT 1, 7

4 Recording Read 4, Q27, 26, 25, 24

4 E1, 14, 10, 11, P1

4 ACT 1, 2, 3, 4

5 Merchandising Read 5

5 P2, E 9, P4, P6

    1. P8, E18, ACT 1, 3, 4

      2. 6 Internal Control Read 6

    2. E1, 2, 3, P1, 2

      3. 6 P5, 9, ACT 1, 2, 8

      7 Receivables Read 7

    3. E1, P1, E11, 12, 10

      4. 7 P7, ACT 4, 8

      8 Investments & Inventory Read 8

    4. E3, 4, 9, P2, E6

      5. 8 E17, 18, P7, ACT 1, 3

      9 Property and Depreciation Read 9

    5. E1, 2, 3, 4, 5, P1, E9

9 P4, E10, 14, 15, P11, ACT 1

    1. Owner’s EquityRead 11

11 P1, P2, E14, 15, 6

11 P7, 8, 6

 

 

Note: This schedule may be changed at the discretion of the instructor.

Grading: Grade will be by the total number of points earned by each

student.

 

Items # Points Each Total %

Homework 20 4 80 5

Annual Reports 4 30 100 6

Participation 24 4 96 5

Quizzes Bonus 8-10 points Each Chapter.

Exams 1-2 300

      1. 400
      1. 400

Final 400 1500 84

Policies:

    1. If you miss an exam for any reason, you may take a makeup exam that covers chapters 1-7. This exam may be used for only one regular exam, and only for a missed exam.
    2. Grading: I will use the following approximate %’s of the total points available:

      3. A – 90%

      B – 82%

      C – 72%

      D – 65%

      F - <65%

    3. Homework Collection: From time to time I will collect homework,

      4. usually the larger problems. They will be collected at the end of the class period that the work is assigned. They will be graded on completeness only. They should be done on the working papers provided for the text.

    4. Participation: As you are called on in class, points will be granted

      5. for an adequate response. This will occur about 2 times per week.

    5. Annual reports: I will assign groups of students two companies to

analyze. Reports will be due throughout the semester, after chapter 2.

 

University Studies Program: Contemporary Citizenship Course

This course will satisfy the three semester-hour requirement for Contemporary Citizenship in the Unity and Diversity section of the University Studies Program. As such, it seeks to provide students taking this course the opportunity to achieve the following outcomes:

  1. use critical thinking to analyze contemporary issues
  2. demonstrate effective oral and/or written communication of ideas, informed opinions, and/or values
  3. identify, find, and use tools of information science related to contemporary issues
  4. demonstrate the ability to work effectively independently and/or in collaborative problem-solving groups
  5. identify principles and applications of personal, civic, and/or economic responsibility; understand personal responsibility for lifestyle choices.

The paragraphs below should help you to identify how these University Studies Program outcomes are addressed in this course.

 

a. Each chapter in the text used for the course will require you to use critical thinking to analyze contemporary financial accounting issues. This critical thinking must be carried over to the quizzes and tests for you to succeed. You must learn the principles and concepts of financial accounting, and how these are applied to the basic financial statements. You will use critical thinking to learn how to best use the information provided by the financial reports.

b. You will be required to effectively communicate financial accounting principles and concepts in the homework assignments, the quizzes, and the tests. Most of this communication will be written, but part of it will be oral.

c. In the internet assignments, you will be asked to use business databases to get information about the financial reports of businesses.

d. You will be asked to work effectively independently most of the time. You must be able to do this to succeed on the quizzes and tests. However, I do view the classroom environment as a collaborative problem/solving group, and you will more successfully participate in this group by coming to class prepared to ask and answer questions related to the homework material.

e. Throughout the course you will be required to identify principles and applications of economic and personal responsibility that are related to financial accounting. You will identify and apply principles related to the general external financial reports of businesses, and the various details making up these reports such as revenue recognition, expense matching, cash management, investments, inventories, and obligations of businesses. This will greatly help you in various aspects of your financial decision making.