INTERMEDIATE FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING II

Texts:

• Intermediate Accounting, 12^th Edition, Kieso and Weygandt, Wiley Publishers.

• Student Study Guide (optional)

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Prerequisites:

Students enrolled in Acctg 3010 must have successfully completed Acctg 3000, Intermediate Financial Accounting I prior to beginning this course. If you have not completed these prerequisites, you must drop this course. You should see your advisor immediately. In the event that you do not voluntarily drop this course, you will be administratively dropped.

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Academic Dishonesty:

You are expected to adhere to the Honor Code. As a result, you should ensure that you understand what is considered a violation of the honor code on each assignment. For example, I expect you to collaborate on group assignments; however, I do not expect you to collaborate on examinations.

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Grading:

Letter grades for the course will be assigned based on the percentage of points you accumulate during the course, based on the following possible points earned.

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Examinations:

Examinations will consist of multiple choice and problems. They may cover all material assigned, whether explicitly covered in class. Examinations must be taken at the time and place announced unless other acceptable arrangements are made in advance with me. Examinations will not be reviewed in class. You may review examinations in my office when grading has been completed.

Note: The final examination is scheduled for Thursday, May 3rd at 9 am. The final exam is comprehensive.

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Mini-Tests:

Throughout the semester, there are days set aside for mini-tests. These mini-tests will cover material recently introduced in the class. On these days, you will begin class by taking an individual mini-test which is approximately 20-25 minutes long. After you hand in the individual mini-test, you will meet with members of your group. Then, your group will work the same mini-test. Towards the end of class, I will hand out solutions to the mini-test for class discussion.

In total, the mini-tests represent 100 points (equal to one exam) of your grade. Forty (40)% of your grade on minitests will reflect your individual score. Another 40% will reflect your group's score, and the remaining 20% of your grade will reflect your group's evaluation of your contribution.

Using electronic peer-evaluation forms , each member of the group will have the opportunity throughout the semester to provide objective information to the instructor regarding the contribution of the other members of his/her group. Specifically, you will be evaluated based on your effort, cooperation with others, initiative, technical knowledge/expertise and overall contribution.

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Executive Shadowing:

Each of you will participate in a half-day executive shadowing program during the semester. The purpose of this program is to expose you to the operations of a public accounting firm. At the beginning of the semester, I will assign you to one of the CPA firms that has agreed to participate in the program.

As soon as you receive your assignment, you should contact the CPA firm and make arrangements for your visit. As soon as the arrangements are made, you need to let me know when the visit is scheduled. Each CPA firm will determine what your day will be like, but generally, you should expect to spend a half-day meeting various members of the firm and learning about the firm. Before you visit your firm, I expect you to do some research about the firm (most of the firms have a web site) and submit a list of 5 questions you have about their practice.

When you visit your firm, there are several things to keep in mind. First, plan to dress professionally for this visit. In general, men should plan to wear a coat and tie, women should plan to wear a professional suit (pants are fine) or dress. Some firms have implemented more casual dress codes, so you may want to check with your contact peron before you go. Second, be on time for your appointment. If you don't know where the offices are, find out before the day you need to be there. Third, plan on asking questions and taking notes while you're there. Your primary objective for this day is to learn as much as you can about the CPA firm. Your secondary objective is to convince me that you achieved your primary objective. So, keep good notes for the paper you'll turn in when the visit is over. Fourth, you will need to write a thank-you note to the firm once your visit is over. Plan on turning in a copy of the thank-you note with your assignment

Once you've completed your visit, you will submit a typed, double-spaced paper about your experiences. Specifically, you should describe your day, who you saw and what you did. Then, you should discuss what you learned from the experience. After that, you will evaluate the executive shadowing program, i.e. was it worth your time? If so, how? If not, how could it have been better. Finally, you will suggest recommendations for improving the program. Attach a copy of your thank-you note to the paper. I will grade 80% of the paper on its content and 20% on how well it is written.

NOTE: Your participation in the executive shadowing program reflects not only on you, but also on your colleagues and the Else School. I will monitor your activities closely by talking with representatives of the CPA firms. Failure to take this project seriously will result in the loss of one full letter grade in this class.

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Mini-Comps:

One of the requirements of this class is that you demonstrate your competence in financial accounting in an oral comprehensive examination. At the end of the semester you and your group will answer a series of questions posed by accounting faculty in a 30-minute session. These questions may cover any material covered in Intermediate 1 and 2. Faculty members will evaluate your answers to determine your grade on this project.

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Written Assignments:

Professional accountants are evaluated by the quality of their written work (e.g. audit reports, management letters, financial statement notes). Logical organization, proper spelling, punctuation and sentence structure are expected on all assignments. During the semetser, you will have two opportunities to hone your writing skills as a professional accountant

Assignment No. 1 (Ethics) 35 points - ONe of the challenges professional accountants consistently face is the pressure to "play the game" or "bend the rules" in order to meet management's expectations regarding the corporate bottom line, competition, short-term results, etc. Consider that you are the controller for a subsidiary of a small, privately-owned company. You are preparing a proposal for new capital funding for consideration by the owner along with the submissions from the other subsidiaries. The 70-year old owner has a hands-off management style and has never specified the methods to be used in analyzing the acceptability of new investment projects. You are certain that if you use the optimistic projections developed by the management team of your company, you will receive the additional funding, but you are not sure that you can deliver the anticipated results. On the other hand, if you use more realistic estimates, you may not receive the funding. If the project is not undertaken, your company will probably not be able to maintain its competitive position and your plant stands a good chance of closing within the year. If your plant closes, you and all of the other 100+ employees will lose their jobs. Prepare a double-spaced and typed analysis of the situation and your actions, not to exceed 6 pages. At a minimum, the paper should identify ALL of the stakeholders in your decision and their respective interests, as well as ALL of the options available to you and the likely outcomes. Then, make a decision. What would you really do? How would you justify your actions to the stakeholders who are adversely affected by your decision? If you don=t think that you would really choose what you consider to be an ethical action, what would it take for you to make the more ethical decision?

Assignment No. 2 (Revenue Recognition) 15 points B For your second writing assignment, please read Case 18-5 on page 956 of your textbook. Take the position of the controller of Cutting Edge magazine and write a memo responding to the proposal made by the marketing director. In particular, your memo should address how and when subscription revenue should be recognized, how estimated sales returns from the unconditional guarantee should be classified, how the atlas premium should be recorded and whether this proposed plan will result in the current and debt-to-equity ratios needed to obtain the loan. Your memo should be no more than 3 pages, typed, single-spaced. The memo should be addressed to Kimberly Burke, the CEO of Cutting Edge.

Homework/Participation:

You are responsible for attending class, having read the assignments, having prepared your initial responses to the assigned homework and being ready to ask any questions related to the assignment. You should be ready to ask any questions related to the assignment. I will monitor your class participation by noting such items as your attendance, initiative, responsiveness and evidence of preparation.

On occasion, I will collect your assignments in lieu of a mini-test to review your preparation for class. I generally grade homework based on the effort, logic and familiarity with subject matter that it exhibits, rather than on whether the answer is correct.

Note: At the end of each chapter there are review questions. I suggest that you look over all of these questions (do not prepare formal answers).

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Syllabus Revisions:

The daily schedule is tentative and subject to revisions at my discretion. You will be held responsible for any revisions to the schedule.

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