ACCTING 7025OL - Accounting Essentials for Decision Makers (M)

Online - Trimester 2 - 2016

This course introduces students to both financial accounting and management accounting. It provides an overview of accounting concepts and principles, the major external financial accounting reports and accounting systems and the accounting cycle. Management accounting tools of costing and budgeting are introduced, as well as performance analysis and capital investment decisions. Students are also provided with the tools for analysing and interpreting the financial statements of an organisation and managing the working capital and long term financing of the business.

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Course Details

Course Code	ACCTING 7025OL
Course	Accounting Essentials for Decision Makers (M)
Coordinating Unit	Adelaide Business School
Term	Trimester 2
Level	Postgraduate Coursework
Location/s	Online
Units	3
Available for Study Abroad and Exchange	Y

Course Staff

Course Coordinator: Ms Cathryn Harris

Kate Harris B.Sc. (Hons), Dip. Ed., Dip. Acc., M. Com (Research).

Kate has been teaching in the University of Adelaide Business School for over 20 years. Her main teaching areas are financial accounting and accounting theory. She has published in both professional and academic journals, is the co-author of an accounting theory textbook, and has taught in France and Malaysia. Her main research interests are in financial reporting and accounting education.
The University of Adelaide Business School, The University of Adelaide
10 Pulteney Street
Adelaide SA 5005

Work: +61 8 8313 8124
Fax: +61 8 8223 4782
Email: kate.harris@adelaide.edu.au

Course Timetable

The full timetable of all activities for this course can be accessed from Course Planner.

This course begins on 24th May, 2016 and runs for 12 weeks.

Course Learning Outcomes

At the end of this course, students will be able to:

1. Discuss the issues relating to corporate governance and sustainability for an entity;
2. Explain the concepts that underly the general purpose financial reports;
3. Know the definition and recognition criteria for the elements of the financial statements;
4. Explain the purpose of a statement of financial position (balance sheet), statement of comprehensive income (income statement), and statement of cash flows;
5. Analyse the effects of business transactions on the financial statements;
6. Discuss the various business structures through which an entity can operate;
7. Discuss the accounting system (source documents, journals, ledgers) used to record, classify and summarise accounting information;
8. Prepare financial statements using a worksheet;
9. Analyse financial statements;
10. Explain the information needs of management;
11. Discuss and apply cost-volume-profit analysis;
12. Explain and apply the concepts of present value and future value;
13. Demonstrate an understanding of the role and preparation of budgets;
14. Undertake a simple capital budgeting exercise;
15. Discuss the different techniques available to managers to make investment decisions; and
16. Discuss the different forms of finance available to an entity

University Graduate Attributes

This course will provide students with an opportunity to develop the Graduate Attribute(s) specified below:

University Graduate Attribute	Course Learning Outcome(s)
Deep discipline knowledge informed and infused by cutting edge research, scaffolded throughout their program of studies acquired from personal interaction with research active educators, from year 1 accredited or validated against national or international standards (for relevant programs)	All
Critical thinking and problem solving steeped in research methods and rigor based on empirical evidence and the scientific approach to knowledge development demonstrated through appropriate and relevant assessment	1,4,5,9,12
Teamwork and communication skills developed from, with, and via the SGDE honed through assessment and practice throughout the program of studies encouraged and valued in all aspects of learning	5,9,15,16
Career and leadership readiness technology savvy professional and, where relevant, fully accredited forward thinking and well informed tested and validated by work based experiences	15,16
Intercultural and ethical competency adept at operating in other cultures comfortable with different nationalities and social contexts able to determine and contribute to desirable social outcomes demonstrated by study abroad or with an understanding of indigenous knowledges	5,10,13,15,17

Learning Resources

Required Resources

Text Book:
Accounting: Business reporting for decision making, 5th edition, Birt, Chalmers, Maloney, Brooks, and Oliver., Wiley, 2014
ISBN 978-1-118-62418-0
An ebook is available from:

http://www.wileydirect.com.au/buy/accounting-business-reporting-decision-making-5th-edition/

Students will need to create an account prior to adding the product to the shopping cart to obtain the advertised discounted price.
This is a perpetual licence and therefore does not have an expiry date and provides students with two downloads to the same account, first download to PC/laptop and second download to Laptop/iPhone/iPad

Recommended Resources

The financial press – both newspapers and business magazines cover a wide range of business topics.
Some relevant information is also available on various websites. Each of the topics in the course gives some additional online resources that may be helpful.

Online Learning

This course is taught entirely online.
Learning & Teaching Activities

Learning & Teaching Modes

This course provides students with relevant material for each topic. There are no formal lectures or tutorials. Students will be required to complete work on a continuous basis. This comprises short tests and exercises for each topic, a major project which extends across the course, a discipline specific project and an examination. Students are also expected to submit responses to discussion questions on selected weeks as well as comment on other students responses to these questions. Feedback and additional comments will be added by teaching staff if required. The short tests and exercises are non-assessable. Details of thee are given below. It is recommended that students attempt these tests and exercises as they provide valuable feedback and revision for each topic.

The short tests and exercises for each topic are as follows:

1 In-class questions
These questions should be done as you view the powerpoint slides. They complement material covered in the topic. No extra preparation is required. Solutions will be provided.

2. Self-study questions
For each topic there are self-study questions and problems. These should be attempted at the end of the topic. Solutions will be provided.

3. Quizzes
For each topic here will be an on-line quiz for students to attempt. It is recommended that students attempt these exercises as they provide valuable feedback. Marks will be awarded for attempts at these quizzes rather than the results of the quiz

Workload

The information below is provided as a guide to assist students in engaging appropriately with the course requirements.

The information below is provided as a guide to assist students in engaging appropriately with the course requirements.

It is expected that students will spend several hours each week familiarising themselves with the course material in order to complete tests and assignments, as well as make informed responses to discussion questions

Learning Activities Summary

The table below lists the topics for each week of the course.

Week 1 An Introduction to Accounting
Week 2 Analysing Business Transactions
Week 3 The Balance Sheet and Working Capital Management
Week 4 The Income Statement and Statement of Changes in Equity
Week 5 The Statement of Cash Flows
Week 6 Different Types of Business Structures
Week 7 Analysing Accounting Information
Week 8 Cost Analysis and Costing
Week 9 Budgeting
Week 10 Performance Analysis
Week 11 Capital Investment Decisions and Financing the Business
Week 12 Revision

The University's policy on Assessment for Coursework Programs is based on the following four principles:

Assessment must encourage and reinforce learning.
Assessment must enable robust and fair judgements about student performance.
Assessment practices must be fair and equitable to students and give them the opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned.
Assessment must maintain academic standards.

Assessment Summary

Assignment Title	%	Due Day /Week	Learning Objective
Quiz – multiple choice Formative	10% (1 mark each for attempting at least 10 quizzes)	Available Day 6 for 48 hours	All
Discussion Contributions – discussions on set questions Summative	5%	Day 3-7 Wks. 2, 3, 7 and 9	All
Application Activities – Discipline specific Summative	10%	Day 7 Week 10	All
Major project (case study) Summative	50%	Day 7 or earlier Wks. 4, 8, 11	All
Examination Summative	25%	End of Week 12	All

Assessment Detail

How students will be assessed and marking guidelines for each assessment task are included in the detailed assessment information provided to the students. The following is an overview of each assessment task.

Quiz 10%
At the end of each topic a short quiz on material studied in that topic. Each quiz consists of some multiple choice questions and some include short exercises. Students are encouraged to complete each quiz as it provides valuable feedback. The score for each quiz is not included in the formal assessment, however, students will be awarded a maximum of 10 marks for attempting at least 10 quizzes.

Discussion Board Contributions 5%
Students are expected to submit their responses to the set discussion questions and to also respond to other students’ postings on the discussion board. There will be at least three set questions for which responses will be required

Application Activity 10%
Students are expected to complete and submit online a discipline based assignment which will apply concepts developed n the course o the students’ area of study.

Major Project 50%
Students will be allocated a company listed on the stock exchange. This company ill be the basis of the major case study. As each topic is completed, students will be able to answer questions relating to that topic which will be assigned as part of the case study. This may mean extracting information from the company's publicly available information or researching in more detail a particular issue that is addressed in a topic. This research requires accessing academic and/or professional articles related to the issue in question.
The case study is to be completed in three stages: submission dates will be discussed with students

Examination 25%
An examination will be held at the end of the course. It will be an open book examination and will cover most of the course material.

Submission

All work is to be submitted online.

Please retain a copy of all assignments submitted for assessment.

Students must not submit work for an assignment that has previously been submitted for this course or any other course without prior approval of the lecturer-in-charge.

Late assignment submission

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 a minimum of 5 days before the due date. Each request will be assessed on its merits. A late assignment (without prior arrangement) will be penalised by 20% of the total assignment mark for each day that it is late.

Return of assignments

Markers aim to mark and return assignments to students within two (2) weeks of the due date with written feedback.

Course Grading

Grades for your performance in this course will be awarded in accordance with the following scheme:

M10 (Coursework Mark Scheme)
Grade	Mark	Description
FNS		Fail No Submission
F	1-49	Fail
P	50-64	Pass
C	65-74	Credit
D	75-84	Distinction
HD	85-100	High Distinction
CN		Continuing
NFE		No Formal Examination
RP		Result Pending

Further details of the grades/results can be obtained from Examinations.

Grade Descriptors are available which provide a general guide to the standard of work that is expected at each grade level. More information at Assessment for Coursework Programs.

Final results for this course will be made available through Access Adelaide.

Student Feedback

The University places a high priority on approaches to learning and teaching that enhance the student experience. Feedback is sought from students in a variety of ways including on-going engagement with staff, the use of online discussion boards and the use of Student Experience of Learning and Teaching (SELT) surveys as well as GOS surveys and Program reviews.

SELTs are an important source of information to inform individual teaching practice, decisions about teaching duties, and course and program curriculum design. They enable the University to assess how effectively its learning environments and teaching practices facilitate student engagement and learning outcomes. Under the current SELT Policy (http://www.adelaide.edu.au/policies/101/) course SELTs are mandated and must be conducted at the conclusion of each term/semester/trimester for every course offering. Feedback on issues raised through course SELT surveys is made available to enrolled students through various resources (e.g. MyUni). In addition aggregated course SELT data is available.
Student Support
Policies & Guidelines
This section contains links to relevant assessment-related policies and guidelines - all university policies.
Fraud Awareness

Students are reminded that in order to maintain the academic integrity of all programs and courses, the university has a zero-tolerance approach to students offering money or significant value goods or services to any staff member who is involved in their teaching or assessment. Students offering lecturers or tutors or professional staff anything more than a small token of appreciation is totally unacceptable, in any circumstances. Staff members are obliged to report all such incidents to their supervisor/manager, who will refer them for action under the university's student’s disciplinary procedures.

The University of Adelaide is committed to regular reviews of the courses and programs it offers to students. The University of Adelaide therefore reserves the right to discontinue or vary programs and courses without notice. Please read the important information contained in the disclaimer.

Authorised by:	Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Academic)
Maintained by:	Course Outlines Administrator