Accounting

ACCT 5001EL-01 via Remote Learning

Fall 2020

Faculty Contact Information

Professor Dr. Jo-Anne Ryan
Office F431
1-855-675-1151 ext. 6729
Email jryan@laurentian.ca
Virtual Office Tuesday 11 to 2 pm
Hours Or By Appointment
Note: Virtual office hours mean that you can reach me via google
hangouts or D2L chat. A Zoom meeting can be easily arranged.

PREREQUISITE

Admittance into MBA Program or Permission

REQUIRED

Christopher D. Burnley, Understanding Financial Accounting [Second Canadian Edition], John Wiley
& Sons (2018).

Management Accounting Readings (See PDF readings in later weeks)

Other readings as assigned

It is your responsibility to check your e-mail account and D2L on a regular basis for announcements,
additional instructions, updates for homework and assignments etc. This is Critical as Other
Readings/links and assignments will be posted there.

Note: it is recommended that you subscribe to the announcement posts (and others if you wish). That
way you will know when something gets posted.

RECOMMENDED

Websites (these sites will give you an idea of what Accounting is ‘up to’)

www.cpacanada.ca
www.frascanada.ca

STUDENT COMPANION WEBSITE

Note: There is a companion site for this textbook. Details are on D2L

Note: Update your text for errata that may be published on this site.
COURSE DESCRIPTION & GOALS

ACCT 5001 – Accounting is an introductory accounting course that deals primarily with financial accounting.
The end of the course will explore some introductory aspects of management accounting.

Let's first discuss what this course is not designed to do. This course is not designed for the professional
accountant in mind; although it will expose you to the standard setting process that accountants rely on. This
course is not designed to make you technically competent in leading an accounting department; although it will
expose you to the fundamental concepts involved in recording those all-important financial/accounting
transactions.

What is this course designed to do? Every individual, working or not, is exposed to some form of accounting
throughout their lives. How to record and manage your student loans, your mortgage, your car loan (should
you lease your car or buy your car). When you are working in a management related position, you are often
faced with budgetary decisions or accounting for the activities that have taken place in your department. Many
individuals learn all of this as they are faced with it; you may be one of those individuals. Now, we have the
opportunity to 'go behind the scenes', to get a glimpse into the inner workings of accounting. Putting forth a
strong work ethic throughout this course will assist you in better understanding the world of accounting. The
knowledge you gain from this course will be valuable in other courses such as finance and strategy, and will be
the foundation for an upper year elective in management accounting and strategic decision making.

You will begin the course by understanding why financial accounting is important in making sound business
decisions. The core concepts in accounting such as the basic accounting equation, journal entries and financial
statements will be explored. Your assignments will ask you to think about these concepts from a higher
perspective in order to enhance your skills at being able to read and interpret financial statements.

The last three weeks of this course will introduce you to the world of management accounting. The differences
between financial accounting and management accounting will be explained. You will be exposed to some of
the basic foundational topics that will allow you to calculate and interpret a break-even analysis and to
understand better the budgetary process.

Course activities are very important to your overall understanding. As an MBA student, the course activities will
challenge you to get involved in the online discussion. They include:

• Completion of end of chapter problems

• Posting of discussions to the D2L discussion led by your instructor

• Commenting on the posts of other students in your class

• Participation in polls, online quizzes and other activities throughout the semester

• Participation in live Zoom sessions and related breakout rooms

• Two individual assignments during the course

LEARNING OUTCOMES

This course is intended to develop an understanding of the core financial accounting and introductory
management accounting topics. Once you complete this course, you should be able to:

• Explain the differences between financial accounting and management accounting and their importance
to external users and management in making good business decisions;

• Explain the components of financial statements and how each financial statement is linked to each
other;
 • Prepare basic journal entries using the accounting equation and use the journal entries to complete the
financial statements;

• Interpret financial statements from a user perspective;

• Calculate and interpret financial statement ratios and explain the limitations of your analysis;

• Explain the different cost behaviours and perform a break-even analysis;

• Explain the operating decision differences between service and manufacturing companies;

• Explain the benefits in budgeting and the differences between various organizations

COURSE WORK

Accounting is new to most students and there is a substantial amount of material to get through. Therefore, it
is critical that you do not fall behind. The following approach is highly recommended:

➢ Read the summary of each chapter and then each assigned chapter, and related readings prior to class
and attempt to gain a basic understanding of the new material.

➢ Prepare any homework assignments/Cases – Check D2L.

➢ Use class time to reinforce your understanding of the material and to ask questions.

D2L is our learning platform. You will find content organized by week with Zoom meeting links. Each week
examine the activities required. These are the activities that you should complete before the week Zoom
session. For example, the Week #2 activities should be completed prior to the Week #2 (September 22nd) live
Zoom session.

COURSE GRADE EVALUATION [See more details below]

Evaluation Weight
Participation (See below) 20%
Two individual assignments (15% each) 30%
Final Examination [To be uploaded to D2L] 50%
100%

Please be advised that this assessment plan may change. In the event that unexpected interruptions occur
during the course, the professor reserves the right to reallocate marks within the scheme or to provide
alternative assignments. Appropriate notification will be made to provide time to adjust to any changes. We do
not anticipate any special issues or events.

In order to pass this course, students must achieve an overall final grade of 60% (equivalent to a C letter
grade), complete all course components (including group work and participation), and achieve a minimum
mark of 50% on the final examination.

Individual Assignments
Each student is required to complete two individual assignments. The first will focus on financial accounting
and the interpretation of financial statements. The second individual assignment will focus on managerial
accounting and cost concepts.
Each assignment is to be completed individually and posted to the assignment dropbox that will be available
on D2L.

Participation
Participation is key to your learning. Participation can be earned in a number of different ways and through a
number of different activities. They are outlined here as follows:

Activities
Participation in discussion questions
Discussions with other students
Attendance at breakout/live sessions
Successful completion of Polls/Kahoot!/Textbook
site/handbook assignment
Other activities as assigned

Final Examination
To prepare for the examination, it is best to participate fully in all online discussions, assigned readings and
problems.

NOTE: Supplemental and grade raising options are not available.

CLASSROOM “Rules”

We are a remote/live course. This means that we have a class scheduled on Tuesdays from 2:30 pm to 5:30
am. Zoom sessions will be scheduled, and static recordings will also be done whenever possible. Students are
expected to join in on the Zoom sessions as breakout rooms and other activities are scheduled. As much as
possible, recorded Zoom sessions will focus on the theory with live Zoom sessions focusing on application.

Please be prepared to participate in class Zoom sessions and via the D2L discussion board. We all learn more
when we are active learners rather than passive ones.
SPECIAL EXAMINATIONS

The assignments and final are drawn from the course material and will include our lectures/discussions in class.
Material covered in the last class is a potential topic for the final case.

Only in the case of a well-documented true emergency should an exam be missed. Exams missed without
adequate documentation of the reason for missing the exam will result in a recorded grade of zero

If a midterm exam is missed for a valid reason, the weight for that midterm exam will be transferred
to the final examination. Note: Failure to upload your response on time will result in a zero grade.

If a final exam is missed, requests for a special examination will only be considered if a student is in
good academic standing in the course and has met one or more of the following:

a) A student was ill and unable to be present or to adequately prepare for the examination (this
must be substantiated by a medical certificate);
b) A student was unable to be present or to adequately prepare for the examination due to
legal obligation such as jury duty, witness, defendants, etc.;
c) A personal or family tragedy occurred which would prevent a student from being present or
to adequately prepare for the examination.
POLICY STATEMENT ON ACADEMIC DISHONESTY

The instructor enforces all rules regarding academic dishonesty and all assignments and exams are to
be completed with strict adherence to the University’s Policy Statement. Plagiarism is cheating.
Copying or using a friend’s assignments, any prior year’s assignments, textbooks, solution manuals,
internet resources or any other material without permission and without recognition is cheating. A
student taking this course should take notice that zero tolerance will be accepted and violations will be
reported.

The University takes a most serious view of such offences against academic honesty as plagiarism, cheating,
and impersonation. Penalties for dealing with such offences will be strictly enforced.

Plagiarism
Essentially, plagiarism involves submitting or presenting work in a course as if it were the student's own work
done expressly for that particular course when, in fact, it is not. Most commonly plagiarism exists when: a) the
work submitted or presented was done, in whole or in part, by an individual other than the one submitting or
presenting the work, b) parts of the work (e.g. phrases, ideas through paraphrase or sentences) are taken from
another source without reference to the original author, c) the whole work (e.g. an essay) is copied from
another source, and/or d) a student submits or presents a work in one course which has also been submitted
or presented in another course (although it may be completely original with that student) without the knowledge
or prior agreement of the instructors involved.

Cheating
Cheating at tests or examinations includes, but is not limited to, dishonest or attempted dishonest conduct such
as speaking to other candidates or communicating with them under any circumstances whatsoever; bringing into
the examination room any textbook, notebook, or memoranda not authorized by the examiner or leaving answer
papers exposed to view of other candidates.

Penalties
A student guilty of academic dishonesty may be subject to the imposition of one or more penalties, of which
those listed below shall be exemplary:
a) Assignment of a grade of zero in the assignment, test or exam,
b) Assignment of a grade of zero in the course in which the offence is committed;
c) Suspension from attendance in all courses in which the student is registered at the time the offence was
committed, and loss of credit for any course or courses which have not been completed or in which no
grade or final evaluation has been registered at the time the offence was committed;
d) Suspension from the Faculty;
e) Expulsion from the Faculty;
f) Suspension from the University;
g) Expulsion from the University.