Class Time: Thursday 13:10~18:00 Classroom: 260815 Office Hours: Monday 14:00~16:00; 18:00~20:00; by appointment.
Course Objectives
This two-semester course is designed to provide an overview of financial accounting, including introductory accounting theory, concepts, principles, and procedures. As depicted on page 7 of the syllabus, I divide the lecture materials into five topics: basic structure and concepts of accounting (Chapters 1-5), accounting for assets (Chapters 6-9, and 13), accounting for liabilities (Chapters 10-11 and Appendixes E and H), accounting for corporate transactions (Chapter 12), and the analysis of accounting information (Chapter 14). In this semester, we will cover the first two topics (i.e., Chapters 1-9); the remaining three topics will be discussed in the next semester.
Financial accounting focuses on providing information that is relevant and useful for external users (e.g., investors, creditors, regulators, etc.) but not for internal users (e.g., managers). Therefore, this course concentrates on the preparation, understanding, and analysis of the statement of financial position (i.e., balance sheet), income statement, statement of shareholders’ equity, and statement of cash flows.
Since we have to finish 9 chapters within 14 weeks (excluding exam days), we suffer high time pressure. Therefore, it is your responsibility to review the chapter materials before you come to the class. In the class, I will simply outline the key concepts and answer your questions. If you don review the materials, you may not be able to understand what I say.
09/15/2022 Course Introduction (Syllabus to be distributed in class)
09/22/2022 Chapter 1 Accounting in Action Chapter 1
09/29/2022 Chapter 1 Accounting in Action (Transaction Analysis)
10/06/2022 Chapter 2 The Recording Process Chapter 2
10/13/2022 Chapter 3 Adjusting the Accounts Chapter 3
10/20/2022 Chapter 4 Completing the Accounting Cycle Chapter 4 Assignment #1
10/27/2022 Demonstration of the Overall Accounting Cycle (To be distributed in class)
11/03/2022 Chapter 5 Accounting for Merchandising Operations Chapter 5
11/10/2022 Exam #1 (Chapters 1-4)(**In-class exam**)
11/17/2022 Chapter 6 Inventories Chapter 6 Assignment #2
11/24/2022 Chapter 7 Fraud, Internal Control, and Cash Chapter 7 Assignment #3
12/01/2022 Appendix G Subsidiary Ledgers and Special Journals Appendix G
12/8/2022 Exam #2 (Chapters 5-7)(**In-class exam**)
12/15/2022 Chapter 8 Accounting for Receivables Chapter 8 Assignment #4
12/22/2022 Chapter 9 Plant Assets, Natural Resources and Intangible Assets Chapter 9
12/29/2022 Chapter 9 Plant Assets, Natural Resources and Intangible Assets
01/05/2023 Chapter 9 Plant Assets, Natural Resources and Intangible Assets
01/12/2023 Final Exam (Chapters 8-9 and Appendix G)(**In-class exam**)
Textbook
Weygandt, Kimmel, Kieso, 2021, Financial Accounting with IFRS, 4th Edition, John Wiley & Sons (Taiwan Custom Edition).
We will closely follow the textbook and finish Chapters 1-9 and Appendix G in this semester. Students are expected to read the book and be prepared to discuss the lecture materials.
Grade Determination
The final grade will depend on your performance in uniform exams, quizzes, and computer assignments. The point allocations for the various components of the final grade are as follows:
Uniform Exam #1 (Chapters 1-4) 400 points
Uniform Exam #2 (Chapters 5-7) 400 points
Uniform Final Exam (Chapters 8-9, Appendix G) 400 points
Quizzes (100 points each x 4) 400 points
Excel Computer Assignments 400 points
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TOTAL 2,000 points
Class Performance
It is your responsibility to attend and actively participate in each lecture. I will ask you questions on a surprise basis and your responses will be considered as an important part of your overall performance in this course. No talking, eating, sleeping, randomly walking, passing private notes, or doing anything unrelated to the lectures are allowed; or you will be kicked out of the classroom. Please turn off your mobile phone while you are in classes. If your mobile phone beeps during any class, I will confisticate it and give it to the Department staff for one week.
Honor Code
"NO PAIN, NO GAIN" is an appropriate motto for this course because struggling with the textbook exercises and problems is absolutely necessary to understand the material. Therefore, you are strongly encouraged to work in groups in solving the problems. You are also welcomed to discuss problems with the instructor and your TA.
There are a lot of practice questions and problems at the end of each chapter. You are expected to do all the self-study questions, questions, and brief exercises. In considering your time constraint, selected exercises and problems are listed in the “Class Schedule” on page 5. These exercises and problems are the basis for class discussion and are very important to your learning process. Students who attempt and complete these assignments generally perform significantly better in this course.
English Proficiency
Being an NCCU student, you should not suffer serious problem in English reading and writing. However, students always complain that they have fully understood the textbook materials, but cannot perform well in the exams simply because they are unable to comprehend what the exam questions mean. My suggestions are: (a) never use a Chinese-translated version of the textbook, and (b) do the exercises and problems at the end of each chapter as many as possible to get used to professional accounting terms.
English is very important not only because it will help you survive and succeed in your future career. There is no shortcut to polishing your English proficiency. You should take every chance and try very hard to learn it. I will not accept any English-related complaints about the exams (e.g., vocabulary, grammar, length of questions and problems). It is your responsibility to be well-prepared for all the English-written exams and quizzes. Please note that you are NOT allowed to bring and use dictionary (either paper- or electronic-based) in the exams and quizzes.
Length of Class Time
Taiwan has fully adopted the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in 2013, and these IFRS are different from the US standards. Therefore, it is necessary to briefly introduce both sets of standards in this course. You should know IFRS because all countries in the world have adopted them no later than 2016. You should know US standards because they provide a more precise framework for you to know accounting. Therefore, we DO need more time in each week to finish the lecture materials. Some students complain that the length of time is too long because: (a) they cannot concentrate during the last hour, (b) they have to take another course at 18:00, and (c) they just don’t like overly-long classes. What I want to emphasize is that I never complain about this because I strongly believe that it is my responsibility to teach all you have to know so that you can build up a solid foundation for more advanced accounting courses, if you want. I’ll try to finish my lecture within 4.5 hours. However, for most topics, I may need up to 5 hours.