ACCOUNTING 252 Financial Accounting - Spring 2008 Instructor: Kevin Melendrez Office: Guthrie 314 Office Hours: 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm TTH 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm MW and by apointment Office Phone: 646-7199 E-mail address: [email protected] Materials: Purchases Required: Financial Accounting (4th edition), Kimmel, Weygandt, and Kieso Scantron forms 882-ES, one per exam Other Resources: Free tutoring and access to the answer book (with completed homework in hand) in the Accounting Tutorial Lab in Guthrie 305A. Hours TBA. Prerequisite: Acct 251 Course Objective: To introduce students to the basic concepts of financial accounting. Financial accounting statements are prepared mainly for investors, creditors and other interested external users. The main emphasis of this course will be on teaching the student to use accounting information. The course will provide enough knowledge of accounting to enable a person to use financial statements to assess a company's financial strengths and weaknesses. At the end of the course students should be able to 1. list the purpose of the four required financial statements 2. create a balance sheet, income statement and retained earnings statement . 3. define assets, liabilities, stockholders’ equity, revenues and expenses 4. state the accounting equation and illustrate how changes affect it 5. explain the difference between cash and accrual bases of accounting 6. prepare basic journal entries 7. prepare adjusting entries 8. compute and analyze basic ratios Attendance: You can adequately learn the course content only if you attend class. Material on tests will emphasis items discussed in class and/or covered on quizzes and homework. You are responsible for all material covered in class, handouts, and all announcements made in your absence. The instructor will not automatically drop anyone attending at least one class prior to the drop date. Study: The nature of the material covered requires that you study before each class session. Studying the material thoroughly by rereading, taking notes, and working through computations is essential. It is important to relate illustrations to the written material in your book. You should remember that your grade will be based upon your ability to DO accounting rather than on your ability to follow along as someone else does it.Evaluation: Regular exams (3 @ 100) 300 Final 150 Homework (8 @ 5) 40 In-class work: Quizzes – (7 @ 10) 70 In class assignments 40 Points Possible 600 Grades are guaranteed according to the following scale: A: 90% and above, B: 80-89%, C: 70-79%, D: 60-69%, F: below 60% A grade of “C” or better must be earned to qualify as satisfactory performance on an S/U option for undergraduates. Graduate students must earn a grade of “B” or better to qualify as satisfactory performance under an S/U option. There will be NO extra credit projects available to individual students. Exams: There will be three regular exams and a final. The exams will be based upon text material, homework assignments and class discussion and will consist of multiple choice questions, matching and problems. The final will be comprehensive. For regular excused absences, the student has the option of taking the exam early (however not more than two weekdays prior to the exam day) or allowing the final exam to be worth 250 possible points. An absence can only be considered excused is it meets university guidelines and the student has informed the instructor of his/her absence prior to the exam. For students who are participating in university activities, a letter from the sponsoring department must be provided a week prior to the activity. These students will have the additional option of taking a makeup exam during finals week at an agreed upon time. Homework: Homework assigned for a particular day must be completed prior to that meeting day. You should be prepared to submit any assigned problem in the chapter being discussed that has not yet been covered in class. An acceptable solution is one from which the instructor can infer that you have made a genuine attempt to learn the content of the assignment. NO LATE HOMEWORK WILL BE ACCEPTED. If you must be gone for a particular class meeting, arrange to have someone else bring your homework or hand it in early. The homework will be picked up on a random basis and graded upon effort. A solutions manual will be available in the accounting lab for you to check your answers prior to class time. Nine homework assignments will be picked up and your best 8 will be used in determining your grade. The instructor reserves the right to modify the attached assignment schedule. Quizzes: In order to efficiently use the limited classroom time allocated for this class, it is essential that the students carefully read and study the material before coming to class. Therefore, on the days indicated on the assignment schedule, a quiz will be given. These quizzes will cover the main material discussed in the chapter. The notes for each chapter will be available on WebCT prior to the day of the quiz. In general, make-up quizzes will only be given to students participating in university sponsored activities. Then the rules listed under the subtitle “Exams” will be followed. Eight quizzes will be given and your best 7 will be used in determining your grade. If a student misses more than one quiz for reasons that are generally considered to be excused (i.e. illness, death in the family, etc), the student must put together a memo stating the dates missed, reasons for missing, and attach supporting documentation. The student will then be allowed to make up excused quizzes missed in excess of the one that is dropped (for example if he or she misses three quizzes for the excused absence, two quizzes can be made up). In Class Group Assignments: A number of problems, exercises, cases, etc. will be assigned to be completed on a group basis. These will be done during the class period, with very little (if any) outside work needed. All members of the group will receive the group grade providing that all participate acceptably in the process. No make-up group assignments will be given. The lowest grade on these assignments will be dropped. If a student misses more than one group assignment for reasons that are generally considered to be excused (i.e.