Name: Ashley Miller
Telephone: 0421 276 464
Email: ashley.miller@adelaide.edu.au
Course Website: www.myuni.adelaide.edu.au

Ashley Miller (ashley.miller@adelaide.edu.au) is a Chartered Accountant and an adjunct lecturer. He has substantial experience in teaching at postgraduate levels in Australia and Asia with the University of Adelaide and the Institute of Chartered Accountants. Ashley works for KPMG, one of the largest accounting and advisory firms. Previously he had been in private banking for 12 years (NAB & ANZ), and prior to that worked at KPMG for 11 years, in Australia, Asia and the United States.

He has a Bachelors degree in Economics and a Masters in Business Administration both from the University of Adelaide. He is also enrolled in a Master of Business Research.

Each week involves intensive classes on Saturdays from 8:30am to 3pm.  

Topic	Readings
Topic 1: An Overview of Accounting & Financial Statements	Chapter 1
Topic 2: The Accounting Information System	Chapter 2
Topic 3: Accrual Accounting & Measuring Performance	Chapter 3 Article: ‘Fuzzy Numbers’
Topic 4: Working Capital	Chapter 4 Chapter 5 (pp. 264 – 274, 282 – 287, Appendix 5B) i.e. ignore section on inventory cost flow methods and Appendix 5A and 5C) Chapter 7 (pp. 402 – 425 only) (you can ignore the Appendix to this chapter) Chapter 9 (pp 510 – 517 and 535 – 538 only). Article: ‘Current or Non-Current?’
Topic 5: Non-Current Assets, Debt & Equity	Chapter 8 Chapter 9 (pp. 517 – end) Chapter 10 (pp. 571 – 573, 574 [dividends] – end). Article: ‘Companies should come clean on the value of leases on their books’ Article: ‘Leasing rules new liability for top 20’ Article: ‘Dividend Mess to be Corrected’
Topic 6: Cash Flows	Chapter 11 Article: ‘One.Tel’s cash SOS’
Topic 7: Financial Statement Analysis + IN-CLASS TEST	Chapter 12 Article: ‘How to use the P/E ratio’ Article: ‘How to use the P/B ratio’
Topic 8: Introduction to Management Accounting, Costing Concepts & CVP Analysis.	Chapter 14 Chapter 16
Topic 9: Costing of Goods and Services	Chapter 15 (pp. 896 – 905 only) Langfield-Smith chapter reading Article: ‘Nurturing the Right Customers’
Topic 10: Incremental Analysis & Short-Run Decision-Making	Chapter 18 (pp. 1056 – 1066 only) Horngren, Datar and Foster chapter reading Article: ‘Take a Cost-Benefit Approach to Ethics’
GROUP ASSIGNMENT DUE	To be submitted online by midnight.
Topic 11: Budgeting & Control	Chapter 17 Article: ‘Who needs budgets’ Article: ‘Comparing Budgets’
Exam Revision & Preparation
EXAM

1. Understand the nature and role of the four principal financial statements (i.e., the Income Statement, the Statement of Financial Position, the Statement of Cash Flows, and the Statement of Changes in Equity) ;
2. Develop an awareness and understanding of the accounting process and fundamental accounting principles that underpin the development of financial statements (e.g. accrual accounting vs. cash accounting, definition, recognition, measurement and disclosure of assets, liabilities, revenues, expenses; inventory valuation methods, provisions, depreciation; accounting for intangibles);
3. Ability to read, interpret and analyse financial statements; combine financial analysis with other information to assess the financial performance and position of a company;
4. Understand and apply course concepts to analyse common business management decisions such as pricing and outsourcing decisions from a financial perspective;
5. Understand the role of budgets in organisations, their limitations and the behavioural issues to consider when developing and using budgets for planning and control;
6. Develop an awareness of the need to consider ethical, social and other relevant issues, in addition to financial information, in the management decision-making process.
7. Develop group work and communication skills.

 The textbook for this course is:

Carlon, S., Mladenovic-McAlpine, R., Palm, C., Kimmel, P.D., Kieso, D.E,. Weygandt, J.J. (2012), Accounting: Building Business Skills, 4th Edition, Wiley - Milton, Qld. ISBN 978-1-742-466347

You will need continual access to the above text in order to complete this course.

As stated earlier, you should begin your reading of the textbook as soon as possible – chapter one should be read before the first class session. The pedagogical approach of the textbook [and this course] is based upon “active learning” and you should carefully read through the “Student Owner’s Manual” section of the textbook [pp. xix – xxxvii] BEFORE you start to use the book. This Manual will provide you with valuable information about how you can maximise the benefits from the textbook’s different features and how to study accounting in a way that best suits your own learning style.
Optional

The textbook also has a companion student study guide that contains summaries of the key points of each chapter and additional problems and questions [with solutions]. It is not necessary to purchase this study guide and it will not be referred to in class sessions. However, as accounting techniques are often best learnt with lots of practice, you may wish to access this guide for such a purpose. Prior students have reported that they have found the study guide to be a very valuable study resource. At the time of preparing this course information booklet, the textbook publisher had not made available the details of the study guide that accompanies the latest edition of the textbook. Details of the study guide for the 3rd (previous) edition of the textbook are:

Kang, H. and Petzke, S. [2009], Study Guide to Accompany Accounting: Building Business Skills, 3rd Edition, J. Wiley & Sons, Australia, Ltd. ISBN 978 0 470 81777 3.

As the study guide is for your own self-study purposes and because essentially the same topics are being covered in the third and fourth editions, you are free to use either edition of the study guide.

Some course topics have brief readings provided to supplement the chapters in the textbook and these are indicated in the relevant topic in the topic schedule above. In addition, there are many textbooks that students can use as references. Students will find any financial accounting textbook useful in supplementing the materials provided in the financial accounting section of the course text. Three such books are:

• M Bazley, et al., [2004], Contemporary Accounting, [5th edition], Thomson. ISBN 017 011136 9.
• Birt, et al., [2005], Accounting: Business Reporting for Decision Making, J. Wiley. ISBN 0 4708 0473 4.
• D. Marshall, et al., [2005], Accounting: What the Numbers Mean, Mc-Graw Hill Irwin. ISBN 0 07 471350 7.

Likewise any management accounting textbooks will be useful in supplementing the materials provided in the management accounting section of the course text. Three such books are:

• K. Langfield-Smith, H. Thorne and R. Hilton, [2003], Management Accounting: An Australian Perspective, [3rd edition], Mc Graw-Hill, Sydney. ISBN 0074711903.
• R. H. Garrison and E. W. Noreen [2000], Managerial Accounting, [9th edition], Irwin McGraw-Hill, Boston. ISBN 0256260737.
• D.R.Hansen and M.M. Mowen [2005], Management Accounting, [7th edition], Thomson South-Western, Mason, OH. ISBN 0324234848.

Students should also consult weekly business journals and the daily press. Many newspapers and business journals can be accessed from their websites. These sources contain regular reports of the results and activities of local companies and other organisations and they may raise accounting issues of contemporary interest. Examples include: Australian Financial Review; Business Pages of The Australian; Business Pages of the Adelaide Advertiser.

In addition to using material contained in the course notes and prescribed textbook, useful resources will also be made available through the course’s MyUni website. These include answers to selected in-class exercises / activities and exam revision questions. Please remember to visit the website regularly for updates.

Accounting is very much an applied activity that is best understood and learnt through practice and utilisation. Class sessions in Accounting for Managers have been designed to reflect this “active learning” approach to the study of accounting. Only a small proportion of each class session will be delivered in a “lecture” style and the majority of class time will be spent working through and discussing various exercises and case studies in a “seminar” style. The course folder contains a “topic outline and activities” handout for each of the topics covered in this course. The topic outline handouts contain information about the readings, objectives, and activities/exercises that will be covered in each topic. It is vital that you cover the allocated readings and attempt in writing all the exercises for a topic PRIOR TO attending class sessions. There is a lot of material to cover from class to class and all later topics necessarily build on your learning from prior topics. If you have not conducted sufficient preparation for a class session, you will almost certainly find the discussion incomprehensible. Clearly this will also impact on your understanding of later material and your ability to achieve success in the course. To develop independent learning, all lecturers in this course have been instructed NOT to handout solutions to all the class exercises under any circumstances. If you miss a class session or have difficulty understanding a particular exercise or activity, your lecturer will be more than happy to discuss a suggested solution with you but only on the proviso that you have made some written attempt at a solution beforehand. However, some selected questions and solutions will be posted at regular intervals on the MyUni website to provide you with extra practice and feedback.

In your preparation for each class session, you should attempt the activities and exercises in the order listed in each topic outline because the activities have generally been structured from the least to most complex. During a class session your lecturer may choose to discuss activities in an order different to that listed in the topic outline and may even ask you to attempt previously unseen questions as a means of extending or testing your understanding of the relevant concepts, techniques, and skills.

Given the importance of preparation and participation to the successful completion of the course, it is important that you plan your studies ahead of time. Some topics will require more preparation than others and you will also have to allow for preparation for the test, group assignment and the exam. The topic schedule includes information that will help you to plan your studies in this course.

The workload in this course is not light, particularly topics 4 and 5 were there is a considerable amount of reading. Students normally find topics 7-11 easier in terms of preparation hours required compared to earlier topics. As a guide, students will need to spend around 7 hours (not including class time) per topic for reading and attempting/revisiting the in-class activities prescribed for each topic.

Please refer to the ‘course timetable’ for a breakdown of the topics to be covered during each intensive as well as the prescribed reading for each topic.

Assessment item	% of Total Mark	Objectives	Due or scheduled date
Test	15%	Understanding of Topic 1 – 6 concepts.	29th March
Group Project	30%	Ability to read, interpret and analyse financial statements; combine financial analysis with other information to assess the financial performance and position of a company.	Midnight 24th April [submitted online]
Final Exam	55%	Understanding and apply course concepts to analyse common business management problems from a financial perspective.	To be advised

Attendance at Intensives:

The MBA program is largely undertaken through face-to-face class sessions to facilitate interactions between the lecturing staff and fellow students. Accordingly there is an expectation that you will attend all of the scheduled classes. If work commitments, illness or other circumstances require you to be absent from some lectures, please inform your lecturer in advance by either phone or email so that you may discuss the topic(s) to be covered in the class session and the tasks you need to complete before the next session. It is your responsibility to make arrangements with the lecturer or other students to catch up on information discussed in class, however, it is unlikely that lecturers will be able to repeat a class to cover your absence.

Please note that if you have not attended at least 80% of the class sessions for a course you will forgo your right, on academic grounds, to any supplementary assessment opportunities.

In-Class Test
The in-class test is a low-cost opportunity to test your understanding of the concepts and accounting practices taught in the early topics of the course. The timing of the test is indicated in the topic schedule and will be held at the start of the class session [so please ensure you arrive on time for this class session]. The test will take one hour and fifteen minutes and will have five minutes reading time. The format may include both multiple choice and short-answer questions. One major objective of the test is to provide you with timely feedback on your command of material that students typically find challenging. A sample of the in-class test [with solutions] is contained at the end of the materials in your course folder but you should be aware that the sample test is only indicative of the type of test you might face. More specific details on the test will be provided by your lecturer prior to its administration.

The test will be conducted in an open book format, which means you may bring all your learning materials into the test room. The paper may include discussion and numerical questions, so please remember to bring your calculator to the test. While all MBA courses for which there is an examination are run in an open book format, candidates should note that they will not be given credit for work copied from textbooks, websites or other materials distributed during classes.

Group Assignment
The assignment for this course can be downloaded from the MyUni website.
The group assignment is a financial statement exercise and may be attempted in teams of up to four/five people. All members of the group will receive the same mark unless they indicate that the work was not performed equally by all members.
This assignment has the following broad aims and objectives:

• To allow you the opportunity to employ the concepts and techniques introduced in the first seven topics of the course to “real world” examples and to gain an understanding of the limitations of financial reporting;
• To gain an appreciation that financial success or failure is driven by a wide ranging set of factors and influences;
• To develop skills in conducting research into a company. For example, you may find it helpful to explore the newspaper databases available on the University of Adelaide Library website;
• To develop skills in team work;
• To develop written communication skills.

As this assignment will require you to examine a variety of sources of information, you should start your work on it as soon as possible. A lot of preparatory and background work can be done even though at any point in time you may still have some topics of relevance to the assignment to cover in class sessions.

Plagiarism and Other Forms of Cheating
Plagiarism is a serious act of academic misconduct. The School adheres strictly to the University’s policies on examination and assessment. The University’s Policies on Assessment, including plagiarism and other forms of cheating, can be found at:
http://www.adelaide.edu.au/policies/230/  
Students must not submit work for an assignment that has previously been submitted for this course or any other course.

Final Exam
There will be a three-hour [plus 10 minutes reading time] final examination. Students will be informed of the topics to be covered in the exam later in the trimester. It will be an open book exam, which means you may bring all your learning materials into the exam room. The paper may include discussion and numerical questions, so please remember to bring your calculator to the exam. A sample [with solutions] of the final exam is contained in your course materials.

While all MBA courses for which there is an examination are run in an open book format, candidates should note that they will not be given credit for work copied from textbooks, websites or other materials distributed during classes. Appropriate referencing in examinations is required where others’ work is referred to.

Students are expected to submit their work by the due date to maintain a fair and equitable system. Extensions will generally only be given for medical or other serious reasons. All requests for extensions must be emailed to the lecturer in charge of the course before the due date. Each request will be assessed on its merits. A late assignment (without prior arrangement) will be penalised by a 5% mark reduction for each day that it is late.
Submission of Group Assignment

1. Assignments should be submitted ONLINE by the due date using Turnitin.
2. Only one assignment should be submitted per group.
3. Each student must retain a copy of the submitted group assignment.
4. Please attach a ‘Group Assignment Cover Sheet’ (available from the MyUni website), which should be signed and dated by each group member before submission. All team members are expected to contribute approximately equally to a group assignment. Lecturers can refuse to accept assignments, which do not have a signed acknowledgement of the University’s policy on plagiarism.

Assignment Presentation Guidelines Including Referencing Details
A copy of the MBA/ Communication Skills Guide will have been given to you at the beginning of your program. This guide will assist you structure your assignments. A copy of the guide can also be downloaded from http://www.adelaide.edu.au/professions/hub/downloads/MBA-Communication-Skills-Guide.pdf

Return of Assignments and Feedback
Lecturer’s aim to mark and email each student a scanned version of their marked group assignment [with written feedback] within two (2) weeks of the due date.

Replacement/ Additional Assessment (formerly supplementary) Exams:

R/AA are offered to provide an opportunity for students whose academic performance was impaired by circumstances beyond their control in the primary examinations. Schools may offer students another alternative form of assessment, instead of an exam. Schools and Faculties will inform students of their policy on R/AA at the commencement of each course.

As a general rule, the University does not consider minor ailments such as colds and respiratory infections as grounds for being certified unfit to sit an exam. Students are encouraged to sit the primary examination. There is no guarantee that a R/AA will be offered. Students who have a medical condition of a temporary or permanent nature may be able to complete their examination under Alternative Exam Arrangements.

Before the primary exam: Students with an illness and/or exceptional personal circumstances must submit their application for R/AA to their School or Faculty no later than 5 business days after the occurrence of the condition, illness and/or exceptional personal circumstances, which form the grounds on which their application is made, regardless of the date of the primary exam.

During the exam: Students with an illness and/or exceptional personal circumstances on the day of the primary exam must notify an exam supervisor at the venue and apply for R/AA within 5 business days of the date of the primary exam.

R/AA is discretionary. Students are encouraged to attend the primary exam wherever possible, as there can be no guarantee that a R/AA will be offered.

For more information, please visit: http://www.adelaide.edu.au/student/exams/supps.html

Occupational Health and Safety Arrangements
The School is committed to upholding the University’s Policy on Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S). All staff and students have a legal responsibility to act in the interests of themselves and others with respect to OH&S. To assist us, and to comply with your responsibilities, you are required to become informed about emergency evacuation procedures and the evacuation areas for the classes you attend.

Evacuation Procedures
Staff and students must leave the building via the fire stairs once the notice to evacuate has been given. The lifts should not be used. Those experiencing difficulties leaving the building should notify the floor warden. Staff and students may return to the building only after the Warden has granted permission.

Medical Emergencies & First Aid In a life threatening situation only please telephone 8303 5444.

Representatives and Officers
First Aid officers are trained to deal with first aid situations. School Safety Officers represent the Head of School in OH&S matters. The elected OH&S Representative can represent staff and students in OH&S issues.


Accident and Incident Reporting
OH&S legislation demands that all accidents and near-miss incidents be reported to the School Manager or Head of School. In the event of an accident or incident the person involved, and their supervisor, must complete an Accident/Incident Report and Investigation Form, within 48 hours of the accident/incident. A copy of the completed form is to be forwarded to the OH&S Safety Officer. Copies of the form are available from the OH&S Representative or Safety Officer.