Spring 2015 SEMESTER
ACCOUNTING 370: EXTERNAL FINANCIAL REPORTING ISSUES
January 12, 2015-May 1, 2015
Instructor: Professor Merle Hopkins
Office: ACC B4 [basement]
Telephone: 213-740-4857
Email:
Office Hours: MW 10:15-11:30am, and by appointment
Sections:
14025 MW 8:00-9:50am ACC 310
14027 MW Noon-1:50pm ACC 310
Friday labs 10:00 - 11:50am HOH EDI
Exams will be on Fridays in the Lab time slot.
IA Hours: To be announced
Emergencies: In case of campus-wide emergencies, USC wants you to know: USC Emergency: 213-740 4321; USC Emergency Info Line: 213-740-9233; USC Information Line: 213-740-2311
Information: tune to KUSC Radio at 91.5 on your FM dial
Prerequisite: One from: BUAD 281, BUAD 285b or BUAD 286b, or BUAD 305
Co-requisite: none
Statement on Academic Integrity:
Students enrolled in any class offered by the Leventhal School of Accounting are expected to uphold and adhere to the standards of academic integrity established by the Leventhal School of Accounting Student Honor Code. Students are responsible for obtaining, reading, and understanding the Honor Code System handbook. Students who are found to have violated the Code will be subject to disciplinary action as described in the handbook. For more specific information, please refer to the Student Honor Code System handbook, available in class or from the receptionist in ACC 101.
Academic Integrity: Ethics and values are very important in accounting, in the business world, and in education. We will consider ethical issues in accounting throughout this course. As an instructor, I will assume, barring evidence to the contrary, that you are an ethical student. To help you fulfill your ethical responsibilities as a student, the ethical standards for this course are listed below.
Graded team assignments: All work is to be performed exclusively by the members of the team and all team members must contribute their fair share to each assignment. If outside research is performed, sources are to be cited and information discovered via outside research is to be clearly referenced as such. The products of your research are not to be shared with any student who is not a member of the team nor should you use the product of any prior students in the class.
In-class examinations: All exams must be the exclusive work of the individual student. No student may share the exam contents with another student until exam grading has been fully completed.
If you know that another student is violating these standards: Allowing another student to obtain course points by deceit contributes to a general lowering of the ethical standards of the University and contributes to deception of potential employers and other academic institutions. Thus, you have an obligation to take some action when you know another student is violating the course's academic integrity standards. This is a difficult personal trial to face, but it is an important part of your ethical obligation as a student. If you know that another student is violating the standards, it is your responsibility to inform the student's instructor. See the latest edition of SCAMPUS for a discussion of academic integrity violations. In this course, academic integrity violations generally will be penalized with a grade of F for the course.
Retention of Returned paperwork, unclaimed by a student, will be discarded after four weeks.
Graded Paperwork not returned to students will be retained for one additional semester
Work: following the student’s receipt of a letter grade, or C/NC, or P/NP.
Statement Any student requesting academic accommodations based on a disability is
Regarding required to register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester.
Disabilities: A letter of verification for approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP. Please be sure the letter is delivered to me as early in the semester as possible to facilitate any accommodations that might be needed. DSP is located in STU 301 and is open 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. The phone number for DSP is (213) 740-0776.
LSOA Program Learning Objectives
Technical Knowledge: High Students will demonstrate technical proficiency in the accounting discipline, including the use of technical accounting knowledge to help solve problems and make decisions.
Research, Analysis and Critical Thinking: High Students will demonstrate the ability to research, critically analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information including professional standards for decision making in the local, regional and global business environment.
Ethical Decision Making: Medium Students will demonstrate an understanding of ethics, ethical behavior and ethical decision making.
Communication: Medium Students will demonstrate the ability to communicate ideas both orally and in writing in a clear, organized and persuasive manner.
Leadership, Collaboration and Professionalism: Medium Students will demonstrate leadership skills and the ability to work cooperatively and productively to accomplish established goals.
Course Description and Objectives
This course focuses on problems and issues related to the collection, reporting, and analysis of financial accounting information for decision making. The objectives of the course include the following:
· develop skills in reporting and analyzing accounting information;
· develop an understanding of accounting information, including the rules used to prepare and report this information;
· develop an appreciation of the usefulness and limitations of accounting information;
· develop experience in analyzing accounting information from the perspective of its various users (e.g., equity investors, creditors, auditors, etc.);
· develop report-writing, discussion, teamwork, and oral-presentation skills.
Attachments or additional handouts
· Class Schedule and Assignments
· Leventhal School of Accounting Grading Standards (including important dates for the Spring 2015 Semester)
Required and Supplemental Course Materials (also used in ACCT 370b)
· Required Textbook: Intermediate Accounting 15th Edition, (by Donald E. Kieso, Jerry J. Weydandt, and Terry D. Warfield; John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2013).
· Supplemental material: Problem Solving Survival Guides volume 1 (Chs. 1-14) and volume 2 (Chs. 15-28). The survival guides contain additional problems you can do, and excellent descriptions of how to solve each problem. Although no formal assignments will be given from the guides, doing additional problems in the guides will help you better understand the course material.
· Supplemental material on class website: http://edugen.wiley.com/edugen/class/cls66923/. You will be prompted for a registration code the first time you access the website. Registration codes are packaged with new copies of textbooks purchased from the Trojan Bookstore. You may also purchase a code online from the Wiley website at www.wileyplus.com/buy. The website provides complete texts of the textbook, as well as additional problems and self-tests to help you better understand the topics.
· Workbook of exercises I have written for intermediate accounting. This will be available in bookstore at the start of the semester.
Classroom Rules of Conduct
· Cell phone usage (e.g., voice, text messaging) is not allowed during classes and exams. You will have plenty of other important things to do with your time.
· Cell phones should be turned off during class. I make every effort to do this myself.
· Be courteous to all by not making distractions.
· If you need to take a call, please take it outside the classroom. For example, if you are called by the White House on some urgent national security issue.
Grading Approximate Points
Weekly Quizzes ` 100 points
Midterm Exams [2] [220 points each] 440 points
Final Examination 250 points
Wall Street Journal assignment 40 points
Homework 40 points
Peer Evaluations 50 points
One Written Team Project 80 points
Total points possible 1,000 points
Grades will be assigned based on target grades for The Leventhal School of Accounting grading standards (attached). General descriptions on how the components of your grade (team case and team project assignments, etc.) are given below.
No late work will be accepted (including homework). If you need to miss a class, send your HW with a classmate in case it is collected. There are no make-ups for quizzes. The Leventhal School of Accounting policy on incompletes is attached to this syllabus.
Exam Dates:
Midterm 1: Friday, Feb.13, in lab
Midterm 2: Friday, Mar. 13, in lab
Final Exam: Thursday, May 7, 8:00-10:00am: location TBA
General Description of Exams
The final exam will be cumulative and all material covered in the course would be tested if time permitted. Quiz and final exam questions will be problem-oriented and will contain discussion questions. I will make comments as the final approaches as the extent of the cumulative coverage.
Quizzes will generally be given online. Collaboration is expected and the sharing may even enhance the desired learning.
Exam Conflicts
If you have other extraordinary conflicts which prevent you from taking the final exam, contact me as soon as you know about the situation.
Only the instructor can grant permission to be excused from a scheduled exam. To obtain my permission to be excused from a scheduled exam, students will be asked to provide appropriate documentation the instructor considers adequate. A note documenting a visit to health services is not necessarily a sufficient excuse for missing an exam. Minor illnesses, including upper respiratory infections (i.e., colds), or fatigue, are examples of unacceptable reasons for missing an exam. Also, illness during the time that a student had intended to study for an exam is not an excuse for missing a scheduled quiz/exam.
There are no make-up quizzes. If a student misses the final exam (with a valid and approved excuse), he/she will be required to take a make-up exam. If a student fails to show up for the make-up exam, he/she will receive a failing grade for the course. Students who do not show up for an exam without making arrangements with me according to the above guidelines will receive a zero for that exam.
Team Assignment
There will be one major team assignment during the semester worth 80 points. In addition, there is one Wall Street Journal assignment and 10-minute presentations (See WSJ assignments below for details). A detailed requirements sheet for the ACCT 370 written team assignment will be passed out several weeks prior to the date on which the assignment is due. The due date for the ACCT 370 written team assignment is:
· Monday, April 27: Written team assignment is due at the start of class.
Details on team makeup and size will be given to you during the semester.
Note that some of the results of the written team assignment may be presented orally in BUAD 302T – Communication for Accountants. [The rehearsal date is set for Friday, April 24 and the presentation date is set for May 1.]
If you are a student taking ACCT 370 but not BUAD 302T because you already successfully completed BUAD 302T or its equivalent, (a) you must join a team and be fully involved in the development and execution of both the written and the oral portions of the team assignment; and (b) you must contact your instructor AND your BUAD 302T Professor on or before Wednesday, January 22 and inform them that you are a student taking ACCT 370 but not BUAD 302T because you already successfully completed BUAD 302T or its equivalent.
Regarding working on team assignments, I expect that team members will talk among themselves. I also expect that members of one team will NOT discuss the details of their team’s “answer” with members of another team in this class or other sections of the class or with students who previously took the class.
Wall Street Journal assignments
Wall Street Journal assignment: the following assignment is due at the start of the designated lab session (each team will prepare a single team answer to turn in at the start of that designated lab session). The submission is to be fully internally integrated and appear to have been written by one person. The schedule for these lab sessions will be determined in the early days of the semester.
To get a good job placement, it is quite important that you be well informed about the business world. With this in mind, your assignment is to turn in a summary of one article from the Wall Street Journal (along with a copy of that article). The issues of the Wall Street Journal from which you get your articles should generally fall within the two weeks preceding your team’s assignment due date. The article must relate to the topics to be covered in this course or fall into one of the following categories: 1) financial reporting issues, preferably related to an accounting topic covered in ACCT 370 (it will be to your advantage if you clearly point out the topical relevance in your written summary); or 2) accounting firms/profession or 3) business ethics.
When you and your team members have settled on an article for your written paper and to present to your classmates, ‘register’ that article with me in person. Articles will be ‘registered’ on a first-come, first-served basis. Only one team in both of the sections will be approved for a particular article. The presentations are to be ten minutes in length.
Each article’s executive summary cannot exceed one page, double-spaced 12-point type. A copy of the original Wall Street Journal article should be attached to your summary. Please include a cover page for your assignment, with your section number, class time, printed names, four-digit numbers and signatures of team members in alphabetical order by last name. Note that your individual points for the Wall Street Journal assignment will be based on your team’s article write-up.
General Description of Participation Points
Participation points may be awarded to students who make valuable contributions to the overall quality of the class by their answers to questions posed by the instructor and/or by the thoughtful questions they raise about the subject matter in the course. I will not award more than 30 points to any students and many students may receive no participation points. Undeserved participation points will never be awarded to improve any student’s grade in the course.
Note: It is to your advantage to have your name card prominently displayed every day so that the professor knows who is making a contribution in class.
Homework: Homework assignments, along with due dates, are specified in the attached class and assignments schedule. Student written responses to designated homework assignments may be collected on due dates. No late or emailed work will be accepted. If you have an extraordinary conflict that prevents you from attending class on a homework due date, you are responsible for arranging for a classmate to turn in your homework on your behalf. In addition, the homework that is collected will be graded primarily for apparent effort [not correctness].