Principles of Financial Accounting I Instructor: Stasia Straley, CPA Acct 101-201 Office: RH 307-D Spring 2014 Phone: 907-786-4137 E-mail: scstraley@uaa.alaska.edu Office Hours: M 12:00-2:00, R 12:30-4:30, & by appt. If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you. If you are determined to learn, no one can stop you. Student Learning Outcomes Students will be able to: Identify various employment opportunities in accounting. Identify and describe basic accounting concepts, methods, and principles. Understand the effect of business transactions on the fundamental accounting equation using the double entry accounting system for both service and merchandising entities. Identify, analyze, and record business transactions using the accrual basis of accounting. Analyze account balances and prepare period end adjusting and closing entries. Complete a worksheet. Prepare the Income Statement, Statement of Owner s Equity, and Balance Sheet. Identify, analyze, and record merchandising transactions, including the calculation of cost of goods sold and gross profit. Record transactions using special journals and subsidiary ledgers. Discuss the importance of ethics in the business environment. You have registered in an online version of this course, which provides an alternative to attending a traditional, on-campus, face-to-face class. Although this provides you with the flexibility to set your own schedule, it also requires you to be self-motivated and diligent in staying on task. This course requires homework to be submitted according to the schedule and exams to be taken at the prescribed dates and times. An online version of the course does not mean that it is an easier version of the course. You will be expected to complete the same number of homework assignments and master the same material that is required of a traditional on-campus student. The general rule-of-thumb for this class is that you should spend six to nine hours each week reading the chapter and completing the homework assignments (not including time spent studying for exams). Also, because this is an online course, it is not necessarily bound by campus closures due to weather or holidays. Students should review the syllabus and assignment due dates carefully and plan accordingly. Early submissions for homework and the practice set are always accepted. Required Materials: Principles of Financial Accounting, 21 st Edition, Wild, Shaw, Chiappetta with the McGraw Hill Connect website access. You may purchase either the hard copy book or the e-book. Practice Set: Information to be provided at a later date. NOTE this book will also be used in Acct 102.
UAA Distance Education Office: All students registered in this course should familiarize themselves with the Distance Education Student Guide published by the UAA Distance Education Support (DES) office. Please visit the DES website for important dates, forms, and resources. www.uaa.alaska.edu/distanceeducation This course requires proctored exams, so you will need to complete the Distance Education Proctor form to register to take the exams. You do not need to take your exams in Anchorage, but they must be taken from a qualified proctor (see the DES website for more information). You should schedule your exams as soon as possible. The first exam (Ch. 1-3) must be taken between 2/10 and 2/13, the second exam (Ch. 4-6) must be taken between 3/17 and 3/20, and the third exam (Ch. 7-9) must be taken between 4/21 and 4/26. Note that you must schedule your exams ahead of time, as the testing center has a limited number of testing seats. (Please take the time to schedule your exams today!) Contact with the Professor: Because this is an online course, we will not be meeting on a regular basis. The best way to contact me is via email at scstraley@uaa.alaska.edu. Please include the course number in which you are enrolled (Acct 101 online), as I am teaching multiple courses. This will help me to answer your questions more quickly. I try to check email at least once each day and will endeavor to respond within 24 hours for emails received between 8:00 a.m. Monday and 5:00 p.m. Friday and within 48-72 hours for emails received between 5:00 p.m. Friday and 8:00 Monday and holidays. Recommended Reading and Websites: www.accountingcoach.com Accountingcoach.com provides free online educational material to help you learn the accounting concepts practiced in the United States. The site provides hundreds of pages of explanations, drills, exams, crossword puzzles, and a glossary of over 1,000 terms. www.careers-in-accounting.com www.accountingmajors.com www.startheregoplaces.com www.thiswaytocpa.com www.aipb.org/certification_program.htm - American Institute of Professional Bookkeepers www.aicpa.org/becoming+a+cpa American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) www.akcpa.org Alaska Society of CPAs Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Business Week, Fortune, or any other business periodical. Resources: The McGraw Hill Connect software has a wealth of supplemental resources to help you understand the material. These include chapter quizzes, Excel templates, PowerPoint presentations, narrated slides, and ipod content. The Connect LearnSmart tool is an adaptive learning tool that can help you review and test your understanding of the course material. The Accounting Club has Accounting Lab hours held in Room RH 207, where upper division accounting majors volunteer their time to help tutor students enrolled in the introductory courses. The tutor hours, which can be found in the lab, should be available by the second week of the semester. I recommend students form study groups (in person or online) to review the material and study for tests. You may use the Discussion Board in Blackboard to organize your groups. There are additional books and study guides available at the Learning Resource Center (Sally Monserud Building). If you are having difficulties, please see me as early in the semester as possible. Do not wait to get help until the end of the semester or right before a test. If there is a need, I will schedule extra workshops/labs to assist students in need of help. The sooner you tell me you are struggling, the easier it will be for you to get back on track.
Homework Completion: McGraw Hill s Connect software works best with either Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome (not Internet Explorer). Homework is assigned to help the students apply the concepts presented in the text. Homework assignments are due by 8:00 p.m. on the day they are scheduled. You will be required to submit your homework electronically through Blackboard. Homework assignments consist of interactive videos, quick studies, exercises, problems, or a combination of those items. Completing the assigned homework is a critical part of the learning process in accounting. Students who do not complete the homework typically do not succeed in this course. There are tutorials on the Connect website to assist you in completing your homework if needed. I recommend completing some of the homework by hand, as you will be required to take a paper exam. You can either do the Connect homework by hand and then enter it in the Connect software, or you can do the Connect homework electronically the first time, and then do it by hand when you are studying for the exam. It s important to practice some problems using paper, so that you will be used to doing that way when you are required to do so on the exam. Remember that the assignments with the interactive videos are important. They provide additional coverage of some of the important sections of the chapter. Completion is tracked and included in your overall homework score. Late homework submissions will not be accepted. Please do NOT ask for exceptions to this policy. Assignments and corresponding due dates are listed on the syllabus, so students can plan their schedules accordingly. Your lowest homework score will be dropped in your final grade calculation. The homework assigned is a minimum. This gives the student an example of the types of homework problems the student should understand and expect to see on the tests. To better understand the material, the student should complete as many of the unassigned problems as necessary to feel comfortable with the material. There is a Check My Work option available when doing your homework. This option will mark your answers as correct or incorrect, and will allow you to change your answers. However, you will only have two opportunities to check your work after each problem (not the assignment), so make sure you are finished with the problem before clicking the check my work button. Students will only be allowed to submit their homework assignment once and the homework assignment must be submitted in its entirety. Students will be provided with feedback on each homework problem after submission. This allows students to review their work and study for the exam. Please note that there is an option within Connect to Email the instructor if you are having problems with a homework assignment. When the student clicks that button, the instructor can see a screen shot of the problem that the student is working on. However, Connect does not notify the instructor that the student has sent a question. Therefore, in order to get a timely response, after using the email the instructor link, please also send an email to scstraley@uaa.alaska.edu, letting the instructor know that you have sent a question via Connect. If you have a technical issue when submitting your homework assignment, you will need to call McGraw Hill at 1-800-331-5094 to log a trouble call. You will need to get a case number before the assignment due date/time, in order to receive an extension for the assignment. Note that the technical support team at McGraw Hill might ask for the faculty member s email address. If they do, you will need to tell them it is afss5@uaa.alaska.edu (this is my McGraw Hill faculty email address). Please note that the instructor cannot help with technical issues. If you have a technical issue with McGraw Hill, you must call the number listed in the bullet above. If you have a technical issue with Blackboard, you must call UAA IT support at 907-786-4646.
Because of flexibility in testing dates, it is possible for you to take a test before all homework in that section is due. It is recommended that you complete all homework for that section before taking the exam. The length of homework assignments varies, so be sure to give yourself enough time to complete your homework assignments before the due date/time. Also, when working with technology, things can go wrong so it s good practice to start early to give yourself enough time to work through any technical difficulties. Remember that no late homework submissions are allowed. Practice Set: You will be required to complete a practice set in this course, which will be worth 10% of your overall grade. The practice set needs to be started after you have an understanding of Chapter 7. The practice set must be purchased from the UAA bookstore, and an email will be sent to the class and an announcement will be posted on Blackboard when it is available for purchase. The practice set must be received (not postmarked) no later than Thursday April 17 th, by 5:00 p.m. A late fee of 10% per day will be charged for all late submissions (including practice sets submitted at 5:10 p.m.). Note that each weekend day also counts for 10%, so a practice set submitted on Monday, April 21 st at 8:00 a.m. would be charged a 40% late fee. TAKES ABOUT 15 HOURS ADD THIS. You can submit your practice set several ways. You can hand deliver it to my office, RH 307D, or hand deliver it to the Distance Education Services office. Alternatively, you can mail the practice set to my office at the address below. Note that you do not need to send your binder but you do need to send all of the papers inside of your binder. If you are mailing the practice set, please send it to: UAA - Attn: Stasia Straley Rasmuson Hall, 307D 3211 Providence Drive Anchorage, AK 99508 Each student should complete the assignment without any outside assistance from current or former students, other faculty members, or accounting lab tutors. Students may seek assistance from the instructor of the course only. This is NOT a group assignment. See the academic dishonesty bullet for consequences of cheating on the practice set. Note that UAA s Student Code of Conduct defines Cheating, Plagiarism, or Other Forms of Academic Dishonesty as providing assistance to another student or receiving assistance from another student during an examination or assignment in a manner not authorized by the faculty member. Exams: There will be three exams given during the semester. These are paper and pencil exams. The exams are scheduled in advance and it is the responsibility of the student to arrange for proctoring. Testing is administered by the Distance Education Office (DES). The scheduled hours at the center vary, and the testing center is closed Tuesdays and weekends. Extended testing hours are available Wednesdays and Thursdays. Contact DES to schedule your exams. Note that you do not need to take your exams in Anchorage, but they must be taken from a qualified proctor (see the DES website for more information). To sit for the proctored exams, you will need to complete the Distance Education Proctor form. You should schedule your exams as soon as possible. The first exam (Ch. 1-3) must be taken between 2/10 and 2/13, the second exam (Ch. 4-6) must be taken between 3/17 and 3/20, and the third exam (Ch. 7-9) must be taken between 4/21 and 4/26. Note that you must schedule your exams ahead of time, as the testing center has a limited number of testing seats. (Please take the time to schedule your exams today!)
As the test is done using pencil and paper, it is recommended that the student complete some practice problems this way. If you practice problems solely in Connect, it may be difficult to complete the exam in a written format instead of an electronic format. All testing is done by appointment only, and you are required to schedule your appointment at least 24 hours in advance. However, because testing space is limited, you are encouraged to schedule your exams as soon as possible (please schedule today!). Please see the DES website for the complete policies and procedures for proctored exams: www.uaa.alaska.edu/distanceeducation/examsproctoring. You can also call DES to get further information at 907-786-4646, option 3. Other Activities and Policies: Periodically throughout the semester, students will be required to participate in miscellaneous activities deemed appropriate by the instructor. Late or make-up assignments will not be accepted. The instructor reserves the right to revise assignments and due dates as the need arises. It is the student s responsibility to contact a fellow student for any missed announcements, handouts, or assignments. Professional Demeanor: The expectation for this class is that you will display a positive and respectful attitude toward the instructor and your peers. This encompasses the exercise of self-control in all your communications, whether it is a phone call, face-to-face meeting, Blackboard Collaborate session, email, or conversation through the discussion board. Following these rules will create a positive learning environment and will help us to have a great semester. Academic Dishonesty: Cheating will not be tolerated in this class. One of the objectives of the AAS-Accounting Program is to train students to work in the accounting profession. Ethics is one of the cornerstones of any profession and something that we take very seriously at UAA. There are many different definitions for ethics, but it simply means being an honest person and doing the right thing. This class requires you to complete projects independently. These assignments test your commitment to ethical behavior. It is acceptable to discuss a particular homework problem with another student, but copying the work of others or having others do your work for you is not ethical. Note that discussing any part of the practice set with another student is cheating. This will result in a zero on the practice set and a referral to the Dean of Student s Office. The consequence of participating in acts of academic dishonesty in this class is at a minimum, a grade of zero on the assignment/exam. In addition, the instructor reserves the right to lower the student s final grade by 10% (a full letter grade) for cases of academic dishonesty. UAA Disability Support Services: If you experience a disability and would like information about support services, contact Disability Support Services located in RH 105 at 907-786-4530 (V), 907-786-4536 (TTY) or www.uaa.alaska.edu/dss. UAA Instructional Technology Services (ITS) Call Center: This course requires the student to have reliable internet access in order to complete assignments through the Blackboard course management system. If you are having log-in issues, contact the ITS Call Center at 907-786-4646 or email callcenter@uaa.alaska.edu immediately. They log in trouble tickets so we can track student issues and verify if technical problems negatively impact the student s ability to use Blackboard.
UAA Student Health Services: As a student, you may experience a range of challenges that can interfere with learning, such as strained relationships, increased anxiety, substance use, feeling down, difficulty concentrating and lack of motivation. These mental health concerns or stressful events may diminish your academic performance and reduce your ability to participate in daily activities. UAA services are available and treatment does work. You can learn more about confidential mental health services available on campus at either: www.uaa.alaska.edu/studenthealth/ or www.uaa.alaska.edu/psych/services/. 24 hour emergency help is also available through the Alaska Careline at 877-266-4357 or at www.carelinealaska.com. Other Administrative Matters: There will be no instructor-initiated withdrawals. Any student who stops attending class, but does not officially withdraw, will receive a grade of F. April 4 th is the last day to withdraw from class. An incomplete grade will be given only if the student has made satisfactory progress, ( C or better) in the majority of the course work and, due to circumstances beyond the student s control, cannot complete the course as scheduled. An incomplete does not give the student the right to start over or to retake the class in another semester. You will retain all of your grades to date and you will be given a reasonable amount of time to complete the remaining requirements for the class. A letter grade of F will be assigned if the requirements are not completed within the specified time frame. Blackboard: UAA uses a course management tool called Blackboard (BB). It allows the instructor to post documents, assignments and announcements online, as well as provide the opportunity to contact students via email. Every UAA student has been assigned a UAA email address. This is the address that I will use to communicate with the class. If you do not plan on checking your UAA email regularly, please have your UAA email forwarded to your personal email address. Instructions on how to use BB and how to forward your email can be found at http://technology.uaa.alaska.edu/blackboard/. Please note that the points in this class are weighted. Therefore, you cannot arrive at your grade simply by taking your points earned divided by total points possible. The column in BB titled Weighted Average is your actual grade in the class to date. The weighted average column accounts for your lowest homework grade being dropped so your grade is up to date as soon as grades are posted into the relevant columns. The percentage in the weighted average column is the percentage used when entering final grades into UAOnline. Please see the instructor with any questions. Grades will be issued as follows: Grading Policy: Allocation of Points: 90-100% =A Test 1 30% 80-89 =B Test 2 30% 70-79 =C Test 3 20% 60 69 =D Homework & Misc. 10% Below 60 =F Practice Set 10% Total 100%
Many of you are taking this course in order to earn either an AAS-Accounting or a BBA degree. Listed below are the learning objectives for both degree programs. AAS-Accounting Learning Objectives The achievement of each learning goal is measured by student achievement of specific and measurable learning objectives. The AAS-ACCT faculty has identified learning objectives to support each goal. Goal 1 - Demonstrate the ability to provide written documentation summarizing accounting information in an organized manner. Objective 1.1 - Prepare working papers to document analysis of year-end account balances. Objective 1.2 - Prepare financial statements developed from an accounting information system. Goal 2 - Demonstrate the ability to apply the fundamental accounting equation in the analysis and recording of business transactions and understand the concepts underlying the preparation of financial statements. Objective 2.1 - Objective 2.2 - Prepare appropriate journal entries to record business transactions using the double-entry accounting system and generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). Review account balances and prepare appropriate period-end adjusting entries using GAAP. Goal 3 - Demonstrate the ability to use special journals and subsidiary ledgers in the analysis and recording of business transactions. Objective 3.1 - Record accounting transactions into special journals and subsidiary ledgers. Goal 4 - Demonstrate an understanding of state and federal payroll tax laws and properly calculate, record, and report payroll transactions for an organization. Objective 4.1 - Calculate gross wages and salaries and payroll tax withholdings. Objective 4.2 - Objective 4.3 - Objective 4.4 - Record payroll transactions using appropriate journals and ledgers. Prepare required payroll tax reports. Identify relevant state and federal payroll laws affecting employers. Goal 5 - Goal 6 - Demonstrate an understanding of fundamental income tax laws and prepare an individual income tax return. Objective 5.1 - Complete a comprehensive individual income tax return project based on U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Demonstrate competency using computer technology in the accounting processing cycle. Objective 6.1 - Complete a comprehensive project using accounting software applications.
1 A baccalaureate content knowledge of [major discipline]. BBA Learning Objectives ACCT 1.1 - Prepare a complex cash flow statement. ACCT 1.2 - Prepare a complex tax return. ECON 1.1 - Achieve a score of 80% or higher on a comprehensive exam. ECON 1.2 - Demonstrate content knowledge in a written senior paper. FIN 1.1 - Demonstrate corporate finance content knowledge through a project evaluation. FIN 1.2 - Demonstrate investments content knowledge through advanced stock and bond valuation. LOG 1.1 - Demonstrate understanding of the role logistics plays in creating or adding value to supply chain management. LOG 1.2 - Identify key logistics components and explain how they affect the economy and the performance of organizations. MGMT 1.1 - Demonstrate understanding of human behavior in organizations and the management of human resources in a global context. MGMT 1.2 - Demonstrate ability to perform managerial tasks involving strategic and cross-functional issues in complex organizations. MIS 1.1 - Analyze, design, develop and document a real world information system. MIS 1.2 - Identify key challenges in the leadership and management of an information systems project and recommend ways to address them. MKTG 1.1 - Provide a comprehensive delineation of the key marketing concepts, requisite steps, strategic considerations and essential decision paradigms involved in planning, implementing and evaluating marketing tactics and campaigns. MKTG 1.2 - Create an appreciation for the evolving role and scope of the marketing function in customer-focused organizations operating in a global economy. 2 The ability to communicate effectively. 2.1 - Prepare and deliver an effective managerial presentation. 2.2 - Demonstrate clear, concise, and correct writing in a paper on a business topic. 3 4 Knowledge of the external environment of business. The ability to identify, formulate, and solve business problems using appropriate methodologies and tools. 3.1 - Demonstrate knowledge of the economic environment of business. 3.2 - Demonstrate knowledge of the external environment of business. 4.1 - Identify and formulate the appropriate business problem given a complex case. 4.2 - Solve a given business problem using appropriate tools. 5 An appreciation of professional and ethical responsibilities. 6 The ability to function well in groups. 7 Knowledge of the functional areas of organizations and how they relate to each other. 5.1 - Conduct oneself professionally in a business presentation. 5.2 - Identify ethical dilemmas and suggest responsible courses of action in a business case. 6.1 - Be evaluated as a successful team member by peers. 6.2 - Participate in a group project that produces a successful product. 7.1 - Demonstrate knowledge of the functional areas of a complex organization. 7.2 - Prepare an internal analysis of the functional areas within a complex organization and determine how each adds value.