Fall, 1999

Charles Johnson, Visiting Lecturer

Office: Pierce 003

Telephone: x3344

Home: 9 Hickory Drive, Florence, MA

Telephone: (413) 584-6880 Home; (413) 567-7000 Office

Office Hours: Tu & Th, 2:30-4:00PM or by appointment

Web Page: sophia.smith.edu/~cljohnso

Financial accounting information is essential to many forms of communication concerning business enterprises, and it is important to be aware of its strengths and limitations. In this light, it is important to understand how that information is developed and used. Accordingly, my objectives in this course are to help you understand the content and nature of Financial Statement information, as well as how that information is produced and used conventionally. Further, my intent is for you to not only learn how concepts and procedures are often applied in practice, but also for you to learn to critically evaluate their use.

This course may make rigorous demands on your time as a large amount of material is covered in a relatively short time-span. In general, if you keep up to date with the work, your understanding (and hence your grade) should benefit accordingly. It is very difficult to "catch-up" given the demands from all your courses (not to mention life outside this setting), and thus you should avoid getting into a situation where this becomes necessary.

My principal focus is to help you develop a critical, working understanding of the concepts discussed in this course. You will be asked to demonstrate the level of your understanding by applying these concepts to specific problems and by evaluating their use. You will not achieve this type of understanding merely by reading materials and passively attending class. There is no substitute for working problems thoughtfully and with reflection to develop a solid foundation in these topics.

You should read the assigned materials and make a genuine attempt to complete the problems assigned for class discussion prior to each session. The reasons for the assignments are: (1) to reinforce your understanding of materials and to provide a self-examination of that understanding, (2) to enhance the quality of classroom discussions, (3) to provide a guide to the scope and difficulty of examinations. The problems are challenging. You should solve the review problem at the end of each Chapter. Homework assignments, consisting of problems and cases will be found on my web page. Do not solve the problems and cases in the text book, use the web page , please!

I will divide the class into working groups. Each group will complete the problems for each Chapter and will be asked to present their solution in class. These problems will be the basis of classroom discussion. The purpose of this organization is to get you accustomed to group problem solving, a skill that you will find is a necessity in any modern business entity. I will leave the internal dynamics of each group to its members, but I am willing to meet and work with any groups that need assistance. Groups will be evaluated on the quality and brevity of their presentations! Please remember though, your study groups should not be used as a crutch, since exams require a solo effort.

Homework assignments consist of two sets of problems. The first set will be solved in class and the answers will be available to all students on my web page. The second set is to be solved by your working groups and will be the basis for class discussion. Each working group should come to class prepared to present the solutions to your classmates. You will find that the first problem, say 1-3, will deal with the same concepts as problem 1-3a, the one you will be asked to solve. Solutions to problems solved in class are posted on my web pages. Solutions to the homework will be posted after assignments are collected in class. Cases have also been assigned and students should be prepared to discuss them in class. Please note that the course is divided into thirteen chapters and two class meetings are devoted to each chapter. The first class meeting will involve a short lecture on the assigned reading material with the balance of the time devoted to solving the first set of problems. The second class meeting is reserved for working group presentations of the second set of problems. Students are REQUIRED to solve all problems using EXCEL spreadsheets. All take-home exams and homework MUST be submitted in this format.

Homework will be collected from each student on a weekly basis to help ensure that students remain current. Students are expected to attend class and actively participate in problem solving with their work groups and presentations to the class. Grades will be reduced to reflect inconsistent class attendance and/or lack of class participation.

Our mutual objective is for you to develop a sound foundation in financial accounting fundamentals. I will do all I can towards that end, however, I can only facilitate the learning process. The primary determinant of what you will accomplish is the amount and quality of your efforts. I believe that if you make the appropriate effort, you will find this course to be a highly valuable educational building block.

Your grade for the course will be based on the following:

Examinations (3) 20 percent each

Final Examination 40 percent

All examinations are take-home.