Principles of Accounting I—AC 121

Section 02

 

Fall, 2007

 

Meeting Time:  9:00—10:05 a.m. MWF                                                                           Instructor:  Paul Magnall

                                   

Place:  Business Center 116                                                                                                                          Office:  Business Center 108                 

                                               

Office Phone:  352-8428                                                                                                   Home Phone:  352-2197 (before 10 PM)

 

Office Hours:   M   10:45—11:45                                                                                      e-mail:  paul.magnall@wartburg.edu

                              T      9:35—10:45

                             W    1:15—2:15

                              H    9:35—10:45

      F     10:45—11:45

 

Prerequisites:  MA  090 Competency

 

Textbook:  Financial and Managerial Accounting—Information for Decisions (2nd ed) written by Wild and Chiappetta and published by  McGraw-Hill Irwin is required—you will use the same textbook for Principles of Accounting II next semester.  There is also an OPTIONAL student workbook and this outlines the material from each chapter and provides some sample questions.  A calculator would be helpful but is not required.  (If you are going to purchase a calculator, you will find that a financial calculator will be more useful to you as a business student than a scientific calculator.)

 

Course Objectives:  This course is designed to give beginning business students a basic understanding of accounting terminology, financial statement preparation, and the preparation of journal entries.  This is accomplished by reading the textbook material and working through many exercises and problems that require the student to apply the many aspects of accounting theory being studied in the course.

 

The following is a list of major objectives for this course:

 

1.     Describe the purpose of accounting and understand its role in business and society.

2.     Learn the terms associated with accounting—the language of business.

3.   Understand the basic elements and formats of the three primary financial statement--

            Balance Sheet, Income Statement, and Statement of Cash Flows—and the statement of

Retained Earnings

4.     Understand the process of transforming transaction data into useful accounting information—

            a.   Analyzing transactions

            b.   Journalizing transactions

            c.   Posting transactions

            d.   Adjusting the financial statements

            e.   Prepare financial statements—Income Statement and Balance Sheet

            f.    Complete the closing process in the accounting cycle

5.   Properly record transactions associated with the revenue cycle

6.   Properly record transactions associated with the expense cycle

7.   Understand the different methods of inventory valuation

8.   Compute the allocation of long-term operational assets over their useful lives—

                        Depreciation, Amortization, and Depletion

9.   Use financial ratios to identify a company’s strengths and weaknesses

10. Apply analytical and problem solving skills in an accounting setting

 

Homework Assignments:

All assignments for the class are available on the attached sheet.  The procedure to follow is to have completed or attempted your assignment prior to coming to class using a pencil.  There are questions, exercises, and problems that will be assigned and discussed in class on the day designated on the schedule.  When we go over these items in class, you should use a colored pen or pencil to make the necessary corrections to your work; you will need to have the correct solutions for studying for exams.  NOTE:  we do not have enough class time for you to COPY correct solutions to the problems—be prepared before coming to class.

 

The daily assignments are very important in your understanding of the material covered in the course.  Try to keep current on your assignments and try not to fall behind on your work.  The assigned exercises and problems are the MINIMUM amount of exposure that the instructor feels students need to understand the material—students who need (or want) more practice on the material can complete additional exercises and/or problems and review them with the instructor.  It is the estimate of the instructor that the average student should be spending 2 hours in out-of-class work (reading and computational work) for each class session—that translates to 6+ hours of work each week outside of class for this course.  The daily assignments will NOT be collected for evaluation. 

 

There are three documents that are posted as HANDOUTS on MY.WARTBURG for this course:

 

1.  The assignments for this course are posted as an EXCEL spreadsheet—Assignments Section 02.

 

2.  A WORD document that gives you some advice on studying accounting—Accounting Study Guide.

 

3.  A copy of the syllabus—Section 02 Syllabus.

 

Attendance: 

Attendance of class sessions in not directly related to the evaluation process of the course.  It is the instructor's expectation that students will attend all class sessions if at all possible and the instructor will note absences on the seating chart. Examinations cannot be made up without proper notice prior to the exam period.

 

On Monday, September 10, a seating chart will be prepared based upon where students are sitting on that day.  The purpose of the assigned seating is

 

Ø      for the instructor to take note of who is in class each day

Ø      for the students to become comfortable with there position in the class

Ø      to aid the instructor in learning students' names and faces

Ø      to aid in the return of evaluated materials

 

Academic Integrity: 

Students are expected to do their own work in this course, but the instructor realizes that students may be working together in the completion of their homework assignments.  The fact that students are working together on the daily assignments does not concern the instructor unless students are just copying answers to have some response for classroom discussions.  The process of just copying the answers from your classmate will eventually catch up with you when a quiz or examination is given on that material.

 

Cheating on an exam or any other evaluated item will not be tolerated. Anyone suspected of cheating on such evaluations will discuss the incident and the consequences with the instructor.  It is the responsibility of other students to report violations of this rule.  The penalty for such conduct could range from a zero on the evaluation to an immediate removal of the student from the course with a failing grade.

 

Supplemental Instruction: 

If a student is having a great deal of difficulty with some accounting topic, they can receive assistance from the supplemental instructor for this class.  The supplemental instructor will be announcing the times of help sessions within the first few class sessions.  Remember that this additional support is a supplement to any assistance that may be available from the instructor.

 

General Conduct in Class:

Hats are not to be worn during exams or presentations.  PDAs and other hand-held devices are not allowed during exams—you will be given a calculator to be used during exams—use your own during quizzes.  Students are not to leave the room without permission during exams.  As a courtesy to others, please turn off cell phones and other electronic devices during all class activities.  

  

Special Needs:

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) provides protection from illegal discrimination for qualified individuals with disabilities.  Students requesting instructional accommodations due to disabilities must arrange for such accommodations by contacting the Dean of Students Deborah  Loers.  He can be reached at the Student Life office, Wartburg College, Student Center 195, 352-8260, <deb.loers@wartburg.edu>.  Accommodations should be requested PRIOR to affected assignment due dates. 

 

Academic Integrity Statement:  By attending Wartburg College, students are demonstrating their dedication to the Honor Code.  The Honor Code reminds students of their responsibility to promote academic honesty by opposing cheating and plagiarism and of their responsibility to report dishonest work turned in for credit.

 

Evaluation Process for Principles of Accounting I--Fall, 2007

 

QUIZZES

Almost every Wednesday, you will be given some sort of evaluation—either a scheduled exam or a quiz.  Each quiz will have a point value of 10 and only your top 8 quizzes will be included in your final grade—there will be more than 8 quizzes, however.  The format of the quiz could be multiple choice questions, short computational problems, and/or essay questions.  If you are not present when the quiz is handed out at the beginning of the period, you will not be allowed to make up the quiz regardless of your excuse for not being present (i.e. sickness is not enough, athletics is not enough, etc.—remember that will have 2 quiz scores to throw out and being absent will be one of those scores that won’t count.)

 

SPECIAL ASSIGNMENTS

There will be several special assignments that will be sent to you via email.  Your responses to those assignments may need to be turned in hard copy form or you may be required to return your answers via email.  In either case, YOU MUST MAKE SURE YOUR NAME, YOUR SECTION NUMBER, and SEAT NUMBER IS PROVIDED TO RECEIVE ANY CREDIT FOR YOUR WORK.  You will be given several days notice of when these assignments are to be completed.  You need to make sure that you are checking your email.  There will be several versions of the assignments; so you need to make sure that you complete the one sent to you and not your roommate’s nor classroom neighbor’s.  Also this is a GRADED exercise and academic integrity rules govern the grading of these assignments just like in-class quizzes and exams (i.e. you need to do your own work and not work on these projects jointly).

 

 

EXAMS

During the semester four exams will be given.  The first three will be unit exam (approximately 80 points each) covering the material in the chapters of that unit and the final exam (approximately 100 points) will cover the material in the last unit PLUS will have questions from all of the material covered during the term (comprehensive final) with extra emphasis on chapters 10 & 11.  The exams will consist of multiple choice questions covering terminology, accounting theory, journal entries, and computations and two short answer essay questions.  The final exam will include problems from chapters 10 and 11 and multiple choice questions (some of which may be quantitative in nature) from all of the material covered during the term. 

 

Projected Dates for EXAMS—also on the assignment sheet:

 

EXAM 1  Covers chapters 1—3                         Monday, October 1, 2007

EXAM 2  Covers chapters 4—6                         Wednesday, October 23, 2007

EXAM 3  Covers chapters 7—9                         Monday, November 19, 2007

EXAM 4  Covers chapters 10—11 (prob)           Tuesday, December 11 (8:30-10:30 a.m.)

Plus comprehensive M.C. questions over all material

 

When students writes an exam for this course, they must use the calculator provided to you by the department (i.e. you CANNOT use your own calculator for exams), use a pencil for a writing instrument, place all books and papers on the floor, and NOT WEAR CAPS—I would like to see your eyes during the exam.

 

If for some reason a student cannot attend class on a day that a test is scheduled, they must notify the instructor prior to the administration of the exam.  Without such notice, the student will receive a zero for the exam.  Any make-up exams will contain different questions (some multiple choice questions may be changed to open ended questions like fill in the blank or short answer essays) and the numbers in the problems will be different than the exam given at the scheduled time.

 

The procedure for student review of the exams is to have them returned to the students as soon as possible during a regular class period.  Then the students will take the exams with them and review the exams before the next class period.  At that class session time will be allocated to discuss questions about the exam.  Students may also visit with the instructor on an individual basis if they choose.  Scores for exams are not recorded in the grade book until students have had a chance to review the exams.  To receive a score for the exam, they must be returned to the instructor.    Also remember that the exams belong to the instructor—making copies of the exam would be a violation of academic integrity and subject to severe penalty.

 

EXTRA CREDIT

During the semester, students may be given an opportunity to earn extra credit points by completing some “special” assignments that will be determined later.  The maximum extra credit points that will be awarded to any student are 15.

 

 

DETERMINATION OF FINAL GRADE

The final grade for will be determined by applying their final percentage to this grading scale:

 

Over 90%                               A

Between 80% and 89%        B

Between 68% and 79%         C

Between 56% and 67%         D

Under 56%                             F

 

The Wartburg College grading system allows for the assignment of +'s and -'s.  These additional designations will be made by the instructor at the end of the semester for scores in the upper end

(+) and lower end (-) of each grade category.

 

Grades for this class will NOT be posted.  Instead, you will receive an individualized sheet that will indicate the scores that I have recorded for you and your grade after exam 2 and exam 3 as if the grade were to be determined on that day.  (Also, since this is an Accounting class, students should be able to keep their own records of scores and be able to tell how they are doing at any point in time.)