The
Course: AIM 6201 – Financial Accounting
Instructor: Dr. Mark Anderson
Semester: Fall 2005
| Course Information | Technical Requirements | Course Access | Communications |
| Student Assessment | Scholastic Dishonesty | Course Evaluation | Course Outline |
Welcome to AIM 6201 with Dr. Mark Anderson. My objectives in this course are to help you
understand financial reports and learn to use financial statement
information. Financial statements are
the windows through which investors and external parties view the performance
and evaluate the financial health of a company. As managers, you need to know how the
results of your business decisions and activities are reflected in the
financial statements. You also need to
know how financial statement information is interpreted by investors, creditors
and other external parties.
This is a basic course in financial accounting with two
distinguishing features. First, we move
at an accelerated pace and second, we emphasize your role as managers using
financial information. Accounting is an
action word and it is learned by doing.
So this course is set up to give you a variety of opportunities to do
things. There are six modules. Each module has a variety of learning
activities. Content is delivered through
textual presentation, video and PowerPoint with audio. The other activities are intended to get you
more involved.
Self-study exercises and/or problems are given for each
learning objective. Working through these
exercises and problems is critical to preparing for the tests that occur at the
end of the third and sixth modules. If
you have worked through the exercises and problems carefully and understand
them well, you should do well on the tests.
Solutions are available for the suggested exercises and problems so you
can check your work. But avoid the
temptation to read the solutions before you have worked the exercises and
problems.
Team assignments that require you to access financial
statements of publicly traded companies are given for each of the first four
modules. These assignments are intended
to help you get to know each other and to get familiar with financial reports
prepared by some leading companies. Your
final team assignment (module 6) is a project where you will perform a
comprehensive financial analysis of a company of your choice. You should not wait until the last week to do
this project. Select your company early
and work on the project throughout the class.
Instructor Information
You should normally contact me through WebCT
e-mail. Here is my other contact
information:
e-mail:
mark.anderson@utdallas.edu
Office: SM 4.813 Telephone:
972-883-2056 Fax: 972-883-6811
I am typically in my office for consultation
from
Teaching assistants will also be available to
help you throughout the course. They
will introduce themselves and provide you with contact information through the
main discussion board.
Course Materials
The required text for this class is:
Financial
Accounting: A Business Process Approach
by Reimers
(1st Edition), published by
Prentice-Hall
The required text for AIM 6202 – Managerial Accounting is:
Introduction to Management Accounting
by
Horngren, Sundem and
Stratton (13th Edition), published by Prentice-Hall
If you are taking both AIM 6201 and AIM 6202 this semester,
you can buy both books for a package price that is approximately equal to the
cost of one book purchased singly. The
ISBN number for the package is 0-53-694215-3.
If you prefer to buy the Reimers book
independently, the ISBN number is 0-13-022266-6. The ISBN number for the Horngren
book (AIM 6202) separately is 0-13-144131-0.
Textbooks
and some other bookstore materials can be ordered online through MBS Direct Virtual
Bookstore. They are also available at the UTD Bookstore and Off-Campus
Books.
Important, Time-Sensitive Requirement
Study teams will be
formed immediately at the start of the course. To facilitate the process,
the following information, formatted as shown below, must be sent to the
instructor immediately upon logging in to the course via
WebCT e-mail.
1.
Last Name; First Name; UTD Degree Program and Expected Graduation Semester
2. Day-Time Telephone Number
and FAX Number; Day and Evening e-Mail Addresses
3. Collegiate Degree(s) Earned;
Year(s) Earned; Name(s) of the Granting Institution(s)
4. Number of Earned Collegiate
Semester Hours of Accounting; Where Earned (Institution)
5. Name of Current Employer;
Your Position or Title; Months with Employer
6. Short Summary of Prior
Business Experience with Most Recent Experience First
7.
A Short Statement of Your Career Objectives and How You Expect This Course to
Help
8.
Times and Days of the Week that You Are Available to Work on this Class
In addition
to a confident level of computer and Internet literacy, certain minimum
technical requirement must be met to enable a successful learning experience.
Technical requirements include but not limited to:
Hardware
Software
Web
Browser Configuration
For the WebCT
courses to work properly, you need one of the WebCT
supported browsers listed above with JavaScript enabled and cookie enabled.
It is also important that you set the cache settings of your browser to
verify web documents “Every Time”. The methods for configuring these
settings vary among browsers. Please follow this web link provided by WebCT to tune-up your browser:http://www.webct.com/tuneup/.
This course
is developed using a web course tool called WebCT. It
is to be delivered entirely online. You will be notified by email about the
course access information at the start of the course. You’ll need to have a UTD
NetID and password (your UTD Unix/Email ID and
password) to access the course. If you have not used a UTD NetID
account yet, you can go to http://netid.utdallas.edu to initiate your account shortly before or at the start of the semester. Your UTD NetID is your WebCT ID to be used
to log on to the UTD WebCT courses. For more
information, please check out this NetID
FAQs page. The URL for the course login page is: http://webct.utdallas.edu.
You can login to the course whenever you want. You are required to meet any
deadlines for the assignments and exams and also any schedules for class
activities or tasks the course requires. You should login to the course site
regularly to check course updates, discussion board messages and so on.
You’ll access “My WebCT” page after you login. The page listed all the
courses you’ve registered. You can click the course title to access the course
Home page which displays several icon links. Clicking each icon link will take
you to different subsidiary pages containing the course content elements or
built-in course tools. Some navigation components such as the Navigation Bar
with Course Menu on the left side, the Menu Bar and the path link on the top
and the Action Menu on the content page can help you navigate within the course
site.
To get
started with a WebCT course, please see Getting
started: Student WebCT Orientation. For more information about WebCT tool usage, please see the WebCT’s Student Help Index. Within the course site, you can
always click HELP on the WebCT Menu Bar to find information and answers. You can
also check out the Orientation
Center to Online Learning and WebCT provided on WebCT’s
web site. For more WebCT
information and its learning resources, visit http://www.webct.com.
If you have
any problem with your UTD account or connection to the UTD WebCT
server, you may email to: assist@utdallas.edu
or call UTD computer help call center at: 972-883-2911. If you encounter any technical difficulties
with the course, you can send an email to gmbasupport@utdallas.edu.
WebCT built-in communication tools:
There are four built-in communication tools to facilitate learning,
communication and collaboration. A course conferencing system, the Discussion,
allows the communications among all course participants. Discussion topics or
groups can be set up for topic discussions and homework assignments. You can
use course Mail tool to
communicate privately with instructor and classmates. The Chat tool can
be used for real time communication among course participates. Please see specific
information for accessing Chat tool. Finally there is a Whiteboard
tool that allows real-time interaction among course participants using a
graphical interface. Instructor may schedule times to use the Chat and/or
Whiteboard tools for office hours and/or class discussion sessions. Small
groups may also use Chat for group discussions.
Interaction with Instructor: Instructor will communicate with students mainly using course Discussion boards. Students may
send personal concerns or questions to the instructor using course Email tool.
Instructor will reply to student emails or Discussion board messages within 2
working days under normal circumstances.
The
Discussion boards are information areas where students communicate with each
other, the instructor and teaching assistants.
Anytime you would like to ask other students in this course a question
or discuss a particular issue you should use the Discussion boards. Be sure to visit often (at least twice a week).
NOTE: Email sent to the instructor asking questions that would
more appropriately be answered in the general discussion area will not be
answered. Only
send Email if you have a private issue, such as a question about your
grades. Soft skills that you should
learn in this class include skills in communication and the use of technology
to communicate as a member of a community.
Take advantage of this opportunity to learn skills that will benefit you
in the workplace.
MeetingPlace TeleConference System: UTD maintains a telephone
conferencing system from Latitude Communications. Online instructors can use
the system for class teleconference sessions during the semester. Participants
can access a meeting by dialing a “972” area code number using any touch tone
phone and entering a meeting code. If any teleconference is scheduled for the
course, students will be posted for times and access instructions. A class
teleconference is usually recorded and can be reviewed over the phone after the
conference. Please see TeleConference Guide for general
conference participation and review instructions.
While
different online programs in the
This course consists of six modules. The first module provides you with an
overview of accounting information and how it is used including a description
of the four financial statements and the concepts and principles underlying the
preparation of those financial statements.
The second and third modules take you through the major
business activities and demonstrate how information about those business
activities is reported in the financial statements. These activities include the acquisition and
use of productive assets, purchase of and payment for inventory, and sales and
collection of cash from customers.
The fourth and fifth modules focus on financial activities. Companies finance their operations by
obtaining money from lenders and shareholders.
You will see how financing transactions involving debt and equity are
reported in the financial statements and learn how information about debt and
equity is used to evaluate financial health and flexibility. You will also learn how companies report
investments in stocks and bonds issued by other companies.
The sixth module is aimed at providing you with
opportunities to use and interpret financial statement information. You will prepare a statement of cash flows
using information from the other financial statements. Cash is the lifeblood of a business. Preparing the statement of cash flows helps
you see how cash is generated and used in operating, investing and financing
activities. You will also prepare a
financial analysis of a real company and compare its performance with other
companies in its industry. This exercise
will use information resources that are publicly available and accessible
through the internet.
Managing involves working with other people. Working with other students will help you get
more out of this course and will provide you with valuable experience in online
communication and coordination. For this
reason, each of the first four modules has a team assignment associated with
it. The team assignments require you to
access information about companies and their industry peers through the
internet. These assignments will give
you exposure to financial statements for a variety of companies. The company analysis project in the sixth
module will also be prepared by your team.
A description of the project is provided at the end of this syllabus.
The textbook provides the basic content for the course. Lecture and PowerPoint presentations will
help guide your study and prepare you for the team assignments. Tests are given at the end of the third and
sixth modules. These tests are based
primarily on the text and lecture material.
Working through the suggested exercises and problems from the textbook
will help you prepare for the tests.
Preparation of a statement of cash flows (chapter 10) will be a major
part of the second test.
Grading Information
|
Tests at 25% each |
50% |
|
Team assignments for modules 1, 2, 3
and 4 at 4% each |
20% |
|
Final team project: Analysis of a
Company |
20% |
|
Evaluation of participation by other
team members in assignments and project |
10% |
|
Total |
100% |
You can
check your grades by accessing “My Grade” icon on Student Tools page after the
grade for each assessment task is released.
Group Assignments
Groups will
be assigned at the beginning of the class. Please see the Groups icon for
groups lists. Each group can also use the group area for file exchanges within
the group. Please click the WebCT Help menu on how to
use the features of the group tool. A private discussion forum will be set up
on Discussions board for each group for group communications.
Tests
The tests
will be accessible during the days indicated in the course schedule. You will download the test in Word format,
answer the questions and then return the test as if you were submitting an
assignment. You should download the test
and return it within a three-hour time period.
Here are
the instructions for accessing the tests.
To submit
the completed test:
The
University has policies and discipline procedures regarding scholastic
dishonesty. Detailed information is available on Scholastic
Dishonesty web page. All students are expected to maintain a high level of
responsibility with respect to academic honesty. Students who violate
University rules on scholastic dishonesty are subject to disciplinary
penalties, including the possibility of failure in the course and/or dismissal
from the University. Since such dishonesty harms the individual, all students
and the integrity of the University, policies on scholastic dishonesty will be
strictly enforced.
As required
by UTD academic regulations, every student needs to do an evaluation for each
enrolled course at the end of the semester. An online instructional assessment
form will be made available for your confidential use. Please look for the
course evaluation link on the course Homepage towards the finishing of the
course. Your feedback and comments are
greatly appreciated.
|
Module (Dates) |
Team
Assignment |
Assignment
Due |
Test
Dates |
|
Module 1 (8/18 to 8/28) |
Internet Exercises: Disney (IE 1-1
and 1-2, p. 43) and Darden (IE 3-1 thru IE 3-5, p. 122). |
August 28 |
|
|
Module 2 (8/29 to 9/4) |
Internet Exercises: Best Buy (IE 5-1
and 5-2, pp. 208-209) and Coca Cola (IE6-1 only, p.253). |
September 4 |
|
|
Module 3 (9/6 to 9/14) |
Internet Exercises: Intel (IE 7-1, 7-2 and
7-3, p. 293). |
September 14 |
|
|
Test #1 (9/15 to 9/18) |
|
|
September 15 to 18 |
|
Module 4 and Module 5 (9/19 to 9/28) |
Internet Exercises: Starbucks (IE 8-2,
p. 345) and Hershey Foods (IE 9-1 thru IE 9-6, pp. 378-379). |
September 28 |
|
|
Module 6 (9/29 to 10/5) |
Project – Financial Analysis of a
Publicly Traded Company (description below). |
October 9 |
|
|
Test #2 (10/6 to 10/9) |
|
|
October 6 to 9 |
Team Assignments
The team assignments for the first four modules are taken
from the Internet Exercises included at the end of each chapter. The directions for getting to the Internet exercise company link given in each
chapter are not quite complete. Go to www.prenhall.com/reimers. Then click on “Student Resources”. Then, click on “Internet Exercise Company
Links” under any chapter. A direct link is also provided in the
modules section of this course. The
team assignments are not intended to take a long time – they are intended to
get you reading some financial statements and talking to each other about
them. Answers to the questions should be
concise. I don’t like reading long
answers when a short answer is sufficient.
Final Project – Analysis of a Publicly-Traded
Company
Review
the most recent annual report of a publicly-traded company including the
“Management Discussion and Analysis”.
Then, study the section
containing the company’s consolidated financial statements and the footnotes
to the statements.
Notes:
1.
Use “Analysis of Financial Information”, pp. 423-436 as a guide.
2.
Annual reports (10Ks) may be obtained at
http://edgarscan.pwcglobal.com/servlets/edgarscan
You may use the Excel versions of the
financial statements if they are available.
Questions:
1.
For the most recent three years, compute
ROA and ROE and other ratios described in exhibit 11-8, p. 426. You will have to use more than one annual
report to get all of the numbers.
2.
Also prepare common-sized income
statements and balance sheets (vertical analysis) for the most recent three
years.
3.
For the last five years, prepare
longitudinal measures of change (horizontal analysis) for key financial and
non-financial items (at least 2 of each), i.e., items that you consider
critical to evaluating the performance of the company. These can be items such as sales, number of
stores, etc. Consider preparing graphs.
4.
Comment on the information found in the
cash flow statement, e.g., what are the primary sources and uses of cash? How stable are the major sources of
cash? What activities consume the
preponderance of the cash?
5.
What is the company’s policy regarding
revenue recognition? What inventory
cost-flow assumption is it using?
6.
Comment on the business (economic),
financial, operating and technological risk facing the Company.
7.
Based on your analysis, what comments
can you provide regarding the Company’s past performance and its future? What is the company’s strategic direction as
reflected in its operations, finances, sources of revenue, product mix, etc.?
8.
Would
you invest your personal or corporate assets in the company? Why or why not?