BA 071 - PRINCIPLES OF FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING



New York University

Leonard N. Stern School of Business

FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING AND REPORTING B01.1306

Spring 2008

Professor Christine Petrovits Class: 6:00 – 9:00 pm

Email: petrovits@stern.nyu.edu Section 31, Tuesday, Room 3-110

Phone: 212-998-0988 Section 33, Wednesday, Room 3-110

Office: KMC, Room 10-82 Section 34, Thursday, Room 3-110

Office Hours: By appointment

Course Description and Objectives

This course develops the student’s ability to measure, communicate, and evaluate financial information. Rather than solely focusing on technical competencies, this course also emphasizes the underlying rationale for accounting practices and the effectiveness of these practices. An understanding of financial accounting is essential to anyone who will use financial information as in input to economic decision making, including managers, investors, regulators, creditors and analysts. Specific objectives include:

1. Recognizing accounting’s role in business and government;

2. Identifying the basic financial statements, the interrelationships between them and the information they provide to decision makers;

3. Understanding basic vocabulary, definitions, measurement methods, and double-entry procedures associated with accounting and financial management;

4. Understanding the difference between cash flow and accrual accounting; and

5. Becoming familiar with common analytical methods to measure business financial performance.

Course Materials

There is no required book for this class. All required materials are included in the lecture notes. However, you may find one of the following introductory financial accounting texts to be a useful reference for this class, your job, or future accounting and finance courses:

1. Horngren, Sundem, Elliott & Philbrick, Introduction to Financial Accounting

2. Stickney and Weil, Financial Accounting

3. Easton, Wild, Halsey and McAnally, Financial Accounting for MBAs

The lecture notes, solutions, and other course documents are available on Blackboard at .

Class Format and Grading

This course consists of a combination of lecture and class discussion of mini-cases and example problems. I will also provide supplementary practice problems and solutions that you can work through on your own should you like additional practice to master the material. It is important that you keep up with the coursework. Accounting is not conducive to cramming for exams because new material always builds on prior concepts.

Your course grade will be computed as follows:

Class Participation 10%

Mini-Cases 15%

Mid-Term Exam 35%

Final Exam 40%

100%

Mini-Cases: The top five of eight assigned cases will be used in determining your grade. Cases are due in the next class after the material has been discussed. In order to receive credit for the cases, they need to be turned in before class begins. I strongly prefer that you turn in a hard copy to me at the beginning of class. However, I will accept emailed solutions beforehand. If you do email me your case, you must make sure that your name and section appears on the attached document itself, not just in your email. I suggest printing out a hard copy for yourself to bring to class, as we will (briefly) discuss the cases as time permits.

You may choose to work in groups (five students maximum) and may hand in one copy per group. You may also choose to work in smaller groups or to work the cases individually.

Exam Policy: You are expected to take all exams at the scheduled times. If you must miss an exam, you must notify the professor before the exam is given. Failure to do so or lack of a valid reason for your absence will result in a score of zero for the missed exam. The format of the exams will be discussed in class. I expect to include multiple choice questions, short answers and problems on your exams. Students who believe that an exam has been incorrectly scored should submit a written request for re-grading within two class days from the time the exam is returned to you.

Upon enrollment in this course, you agree to adhere to the Stern MBA Honor Code and accept the consequences of your actions should you violate that code. Any instances of academic misconduct will be immediately reported to the appropriate University authorities.

Teaching Assistants

If you are struggling with the material in this course, please set up an appointment with me as soon as possible. If you require further help, I will arrange for you to meet with one of the teaching assistants:

Casper Munch (casper.munch@stern.nyu.edu)

Miguel Robledo (miguel.robledo@stern.nyu.edu)

Aimee Shih (ashih@stern.nyu.edu)

Schedule

|Date |Topic |Case |

|February 12, 13, 14 |Overview of Financial Statements and Reporting Process |JetBlue |

|February 19, 20, 21 |Recording Transactions and Preparing Financial Statements |Panera |

|February 26, 27, 28 |Accrual Accounting and Adjusting Entries |AOL |

|March 4, 5, 6 |Revenue Recognition and Accounts Receivable | |

|March 11, 12, 13 |MIDTERM EXAM |

| |(Extra office hours on Monday, March 10 from 4:00 – 7:00) |

|March 18, 19, 20 |SPRING BREAK |

|March 25, 26, 27 |Inventory and Cost of Goods Sold |Reliance |

|April 1, 2, 3 |Long-Lived Tangible and Intangible Assets |Constellation Brands |

|April 8, 9, 10 |Liabilities |TBA |

|April 15, 16, 17 |Stockholders’ Equity |TBA |

|April 22, 23, 24 |Cash Flow Statement |Outback |

|April 29, 30, May 1 |Special Topics / Review | |

|May 6, 7, 8 |FINAL EXAM |

| |(Extra office hours on Monday, May 5 from 4:00 – 7:00) |

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