ACCOUNTING 350
FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING THEORY
WINTER 1998

 

CRN
Time
Room
 
Professor
Ray King
21061
1200-1400 UH
333 Gilbert
 
Office
379 Gilbert
21062
1400-1600 UH
333 Gilbert
 
Phone
346-3357
 
 
 
 
E-mail
rking@oregon.uoregon.edu
 
 
 
 
Office Hours
2:00 - 3:00pm M
4:00 - 5:00pm UH & by Appointment
 

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

This is the first of three courses concerned with financial reporting (ACTG 350, 352, 450). This sequence will provide the backbone of your knowledge and understanding of financial accounting and reporting. The focus is on economic events (business transactions) and how they are measured, recorded and reported by a financial accounting system. An understanding of the events (transactions) themselves is a prerequisite to a useful understanding of accounting for those events. Hence, our first task is to understand business transactions and then how accounting reflects them. Since the financial accounting system exists to provide information to users, it is crucial that financial accountants understand the perspective of the users and their uses of the information. Therefore, while we learn about business transactions and recording and reporting them, we will also consider how financial information is used and what users want to know about the operations of the business.

 

Since we will consider many types of transactions, how they are reflected in the financial statements, and how users use those statements, this is a most challenging course. Only a consistently high level of student effort will lead to success. You cannot afford to fall behind or to postpone reading or assignments.

CLASS STRUCTURE

Classes will be a combination of lecture and problem solving. Working problems is a critical part of the process of learning accounting. I expect you to have worked on the assigned homework for each class period so that you can participate in class. Homework will not be collected; however, failure to keep up with the assigned problems generally leads to poor exam performance.

 

LEARNING AND LEARNING RESOURCES

This is a difficult course. The quantity of material is heavy, and the complexity of the material is high. Success in the course demands learning strategies that take advantage of all the resources at your disposal. Those resources include:
    1. The instructor (me). You should ask questions in class and in office hours about anything you don’t understand. Obviously, the answers will be more useful to you if you have read the assignments and attempted the suggested homework. My goal is to help you understand financial accounting so that you can become a skilled professional accountant or a sophisticated user of financial information. I will work hard to facilitate your learning. I cannot teach you anything, you have to learn it.
    2. Your fellow students. You will benefit from studying with and talking with other students. Of course, exams and assignments must be your own work; therefore, you should use studying with others to figure things out, but you should write out your own solutions so that you are sure you understand.
    3. The text and related material. Understanding accounting requires repetition in solving accounting problems. The text and study guide contain great numbers of exercise designed to help you master the concepts. However, the emphasis must always be on the concepts since you can encounter an infinite number of situations and problems, both on exams and in practice. Therefore, you cannot memorize your way to success in the course or in an accounting career.

 

TEXTS AND COURSE MATERIALS
     GRADING (approximate weighting)
Midterm #1 (Ch 1-5, 23)
20%
Midterm #2 (Ch 6-14)
20%
Company project
15%
Final exam (cumulative)
40%
Quizzes, participation, homework
5%
    Total
    100%

The company project is an exercise in which you will analyze the financial statements of a publicly traded company. You will find specified information in the financial statement and use that information to compute a number of commonly used measure of firm performance (return and risk). You will then use these computed measures in drawing conclusions about the performance of the company.

 

OTHER

Attendance and participation are expected. A short quiz may be given at the beginning of class. Note the scheduled exam times. No makeup exams will be given. Missed exams can only be excused with prior arrangements. All students must take the final exam at the scheduled time. Grades of I, X, and Y will not be given.

 

Tentative Schedule

DATE
TOPIC
READING
SUGGESTED PROBLEMS
January 6
Environment of Accounting
Ch 1
E1-1, E1-6, P1-2, C1-2
January 8
Conceptual Framework for Accounting
Ch 2
E2-1, E2-5, P2-3, A2-2
 
 
 
 
January 13
Review of the Accounting System
Ch 3
E3-18, P3-1
January 15
Review of the Accounting System cont.
Ch 3
P3-7, C3-5, A3-1
 
 
 
 
January 20
Income Statement
Ch 4
E4-2, E4-15, P4-2, P4-5, C4-4
January 22
Balance Sheet
Ch 5
E5-7, P5-3, E5-12, P5-6
 
 
 
 
January 27
Statement of Cash Flows
Ch 23 (pp. 1186-1209, 1214-1216)
E23-10, E23-11, E23-12, P23-2, E23-3
January 29
Midterm Exam #1
 
 
 
 
 
 
February 3
Financial Statement Analysis
Handout
Handout exercises
February 5
Financial Statement Analysis cont.
Handout
Analysis of Coca-Cola
 
 
 
 
February 10
Review of Present Value Concepts and Revenue and Expense Recognition
Ch 6 & 7
E6-10, P6-3, P6-16 E7-3, P7-2, P7-4, A7-2
February 12
Cash and Receivables
Ch 8
E8-9, P8-8, P8-16, A8-2
 
 
 
 
February 17
Inventories
Ch 9
P9-5, P9-12, C9-4, A9-1
February 19
Inventories
Ch 10
P10-5, P10-7, P10-20, C10-3, A10-4
 
 
 
 
February 24
Midterm Exam #2
 
 
February 26
Operating Assets
Ch 11
E11-2, E11-17, P11-9, P11-13, P11-21
 
 
 
 
March 3
Operating Assets cont.
Ch 12
P12-6, P12-12, P12-13, P12-19, A12-1
March 5
Intangible Assets
Ch 13
P13-5, A13-2, A13-4, A13-5
 
 
 
 
March 10
Investments
Ch 14
E14-2, E14-3, E14-5, E14-9
March 12
Summary and Final Exam Review
 
 
 
 
 
 
March 18
FINAL EXAM 1745
 
 
 
 
January 12 - Last day to drop without a ‘W’
February 20 – Last day to withdraw