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SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

BEEDIE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
FACULTY OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
BUS 251 Financial Accounting I
DETAILED COURSE OUTLINE
D1 (14-1) Anne Macdonald

Office: Burnaby: WMX 3359 Office hours: To be announced

Phone: (778) 782-4225 E-mail: amacdond@sfu.ca


Textbook: Financial Accounting: A Critical Approach by John Friedlan,
Fourth Edition, Mc-Graw-Hill Ryerson, 2013.


Week Date Chapters Lecture Topic
1 Jan 7 1 The Accounting Environment (No tutorials this
week)

2 Jan 14 2 Financial Statements: A Window on an Entity

3 Jan 21 3 The Accounting Cycle

4 Jan 28 4 Income Measurement and the Objectives of
Financial Reporting

5 Feb 4 5 Cash Flow, Profitability, and the Cash Flow
Statement

Feb 11 READING BREAK No class

6 Feb 18 6 Cash, Receivables and the Time Value of Money

7 Feb 25 MIDTERM

(No tutorials this week)

8 Mar 4 7 Inventory

9 Mar 11 8 Capital Assets: Property, Plant, and Equipment,
Intangibles, and Goodwill

10 Mar 18 9 Liabilities

11 Mar 25 10 Owners Equity


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Week Date Chapter Lecture Topic

12 Apr 1 12 Analyzing and Interpreting Financial Statements

13 Apr 8 12 & 11 Analyzing and Interpreting Financial Statements
and a brief discussion of Investments in Other
Companies


Lecture notes, weekly assignments and tutorial presentation questions, will be posted
through Canvas.

You are strongly encouraged to have read the assigned chapter in the text before class
each week. Class time will be used to discuss the chapter material at a high level. It is
essential that you are familiar with the material when you come to class, in order to
participate fully in the class discussion and the evaluation of concepts.

As part of the course grading, you will required to do weekly homework assignments,
which will consist mainly of questions from the textbook, and will focus on mastery of
technical skills. Homework assignments will be evaluated mainly on the basis of
completion (the occasional question may be marked for effort). Late assignments will
not be accepted.

Tutorials will not be used to discuss the homework assignments, unless students have
specific questions on the assignment. Solutions to assigned questions will be posted for
students self-review. Instead, tutorials will be used for general discussion of qualitative
questions, and in learning to apply concepts learned to the evaluation of real-company
financial statements.

During the semester, we will be analyzing the financial statements of one company
through tutorial presentations. Each week in tutorial, a group of 2 students will do a 5-10
presentation. Each student will present once during the semester. The presentation
questions will be posted through Canvas, and each week groups will look at a different
aspect of the financial statements of the selected company. In order for all students to
maximize the benefit of the presentations, everyone is encouraged to attempt to answer
the presentation questions in advance.

To encourage you to keep up with the reading in the course, and to use lecture time
more efficiently, there will be 5 pre-lecture quizzes during the semester. These will be
done through Canvas, and will require completion prior to lecture. They will consist of
multiple choice and/or technical questions which should be easily answered if you have
completed the textbook reading for that week. Each quiz will be worth 1% of the overall
mark, and there will be no marks awarded if a quiz is completed after the deadline. The
first quiz must be completed before Lecture 3.





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GRADING:
Tutorial Mark 10% Includes 5% for participation in tutorial
discussions, and 5% for assignments (which
are generally marked for effort, see
comment above).
Presentation 5% In the first tutorial (week 2), each student
will sign up for one presentation to be
completed during the semester. Students
will present in groups of 2.
Quizzes 5% A total of 5 quizzes will be available during
the semester, administered through
Canvas. Each quiz is worth 1%, and
deadlines will be strictly enforced.
Midterm 30% Chapters 1 - 6
Final exam 50% Comprehensive (covers Ch. 1-12)
100%

Note: There will be an alternate marking scheme available. The midterm can be
dropped to 20% and the final exam increased to 60% of the overall mark. The
alternative will be calculated for each student, and each student will receive whichever of
the two methods results in the highest overall mark.


If a student misses the midterm, with a valid medical excuse, the midterm marks will
either be moved to the final exam, or a make-up midterm exam may be offered at the
instructors discretion. In no circumstances will the make-up midterm exam be
scheduled more than one week after the date of the original exam.