Course Syllabus

Spring Semester 2023

Sections: 14506, 14507, 14508

Location: JFF 241

Class Sessions: MW 9:30 – 10:50 am, 11 am – 12:20 pm, 12:30 – 1:50 pm

Professor: Lorien Stice-Lawrence

Office:ACC 308B

E-mail:[email protected]

Office Hours:In-Person Office Hour (walk-in): Wednesday, 2:15 – 3:15 pm

Virtual Office Hour (by appointment only): Tuesday, 4:30 pm – 5:30 pm

Link to sign up for appointment for virtual office hour:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/508084BA5AC2FA3F49-46963705-sticelawrence

TA Office Hours: TBD

Course Description

This is an introduction to accounting course for undergraduate students whose majors require: understanding the impacts business transactions have on organizations; knowledge of basic accounting principles and techniques; and the ability to leverage the variety of information the accounting discipline provides managers, owners and other stakeholders. The primary focus of the course is the development, presentation and understanding of financial accounting information useful to a variety of stakeholders when analyzing results and supporting decisions related to business operations and financial position, cash flows, income generation, asset acquisition, and financing activities.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:

1. Demonstrate an understanding of the key principles and assumptions used by accountants when providing information to management and other stakeholders by answering questions and solving problems. (Marshall Learning Goal 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 6.1)

2. Demonstrate an understanding of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and their impact on the conduct of management and business leaders by answering questions and solving problems. (Marshall Learning Goal 4.1)

3. Explain how management, other stakeholders and the business community use key sections of the balance sheet, income statement and statement of cash flows to make decisions by evaluating business transactions, preparing financial statements and analyzing relevant financial statement information. (Marshall Learning Goal 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 2.2, 5.2 )

4. Analyze the cash impact of business transactions by creating a statement of cash flows from a series of transactions and account balance changes. (Marshall Learning Goal 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 2.2)

5. Evaluate the impacts of accrual based accounting and management decisions on financial statement presentation and stakeholder choices by analyzing a variety of business activities / scenarios and developing journal entries. (Marshall Learning Goal 1.2, 1.3., 1.4, 2.1)

6. Describe a business operating cycle and demonstrate the impact of various operating activities by applying accounting principles and techniques to produce journal entries,  develop appropriate adjustments, and produce a multi-step income statement in good form. (Marshall Learning Goal 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 6.1)

7. Describe a business financial position and demonstrate the impact of various financing and investing activities by applying accounting principles and techniques to produce journal entries, develop appropriate adjustments, and produce a classified balance sheet in good form. (Marshall Learning Goal 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 6.1, 6.2 )

8. Evaluate the general financial performance of an organization and the impact of management decisions on financial results by analyzing a variety of financial ratios and developing an opinion on potential employment by and / or investment in a large public company. (Marshall Learning Goal 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 4.2)

9. Demonstrate the ability to leverage technology to generate and analyze accounting information by leveraging basic financial accounting systems to record and report financial accounting data and spreadsheets to develop and analyze financial accounting information. (Marshall Learning Goal 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 6.4)

Course Materials

Note: None of the assignments in this class will require access to a particular textbook or textbook edition, but this is the textbook that is used by the other 280 classes. You may purchase a copy as additional reading. There is a document on Blackboard in the syllabus folder called “Course Topics and Rough Mapping to Textbook Chapters” that lists the relevant textbook chapters for each topic we cover.

Course Notes

Course notes and other materials such as lecture slides and any in-class handouts will be available on Blackboard. I will do my best to make these materials available before class but will at the latest post them by the end of the day on which they are used in class.

Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites for this course.

Classroom Policies and Virtual Attendance

Remote attendance via Zoom is not permitted in any of the BUAD 280 sections.

Class recordings for each class will be made available after the fact, barring unforeseen technical difficulties. You can access classroom recordings through Blackboard: Class Recordings->Cloud Recordings. You may need to sign in to access the recordings; be sure to choose the SSO login option and type “usc” as the domain name.

E-mail Communication

I am happy to answer short questions and requests via e-mail. Questions that require multiple back-and-forth communications should be asked during my office hours or in class, not via e-mail.

Do not e-mail me expecting an immediate response. I will not respond to e-mails sent to me on weekends or holidays. You can expect a reply by the end of the next business day. This means that if you e-mail me Friday afternoon about an assignment due on Friday evening, I will respond by the end of the day on the following Monday. Keep this in mind when making decisions about when to complete an assignment.

Please review the Rules of Academic Etiquette available at the end of this syllabus and make sure to follow these guidelines when communicating with me. Students who send requests via e mail that do not follow these basic guidelines will be referred back to them. If you ask a question that is clearly outlined in the syllabus, I will not respond to your e-mail.

Grading Policies

Determining Final Grades

As your professor, I do not “give” you a grade; I calculate your grade based on your performance on the items outlined below. Feelings and thoughts about what grade you “deserve” are irrelevant, and it would be unfair for me to give one student a higher grade than another student with a similar or higher point total just because one student complained more.

Your grade in this class will be based on your weighted points total (weightings given below). I use the following minimum grade cutoffs:

A	93.0% – 100%
A-	90.0% – 92.99999999999999999%
B+	86.0% – 89.99999999999999999%
B	80.0% – 85.99999999999999999%
B-	75.0% – 79.99999999999999999%
C+	72.0% – 74.99999999999999999%
C	69.0% – 71.99999999999999999%
C-	65.0% – 68.99999999999999999%
D+	60.0% – 64.99999999999999999%
D	55.0% – 59.99999999999999999%
D-	50.0% – 54.99999999999999999%
F	Below 50%

Note: I reserve the right to relax these grade requirements (i.e., give students higher grades than indicated by these cutoffs) in order to be more aligned with the recommended Marshall average of a 3.3 GPA (B+), if needed. However, you will never receive a lower score than what is indicated by the grade distribution given above. (I am not a monster). Okay, actually you can get a lower score if I catch you cheating or plagiarizing. Please do not do those things.

Components of Final Weighted Points Total

Your final weighted points total is based on your performance on multiple categories including exams, homework, a final project, an accounting experience, and in-class work. A point in one category is not necessarily worth the same as a point in another category. For example, one point on an exam is worth more than one point in a homework assignment.

Weight
Exam I	21%
Exam II	21%
Exam III	21%
Homework Assignments (including Syllabus Quiz)	6%
Post-Class Quizzes	5%
In-Class Poll Participation	6%
Accounting Experience	5%
In-Class Excel Ratio Quiz	7%
Ratio Analysis Report	8%
100%

Office Hours

Professor’s Office Hours

I have two office hours per week: one virtual and one in-person. My in-person office hour does NOT require an appointment; you may come and go as you please (but you may need to wait if I am already speaking to another student). My virtual office hour is conducted over Zoom, and you MUST make an appointment to attend. I hold a mixture of in-person and virtual hours at different times during the week in order to accommodate a variety of schedules. I will only schedule meetings outside of my normal office hours for those students who have classes during the entirety of both of my office hours. Do not send me meeting requests via e-mail if you wish to attend one of my normal office hours; if you want to come to my in-person office hour, just show up! If you want to come to my virtual office hour, sign up online and arrive at the designated time.

In-Person Office Hour: Wednesday, 2:15 – 3:15 pm, Location: ACC 308B

Virtual Office Hour: Tuesday, 4:30 pm – 5:30 pm

If you sign up for a virtual office visit slot and then fail to attend without giving notice TWICE then you are no longer permitted to make office visit appointments, but you may attend my walk-in office hour.

TA Office Hours

The TA office hour times and locations will be posted on Blackboard after the beginning of the semester. Currently you do not need to sign up to attend these office hours. The TAs are accounting major students who have previously taken BUAD 280. They can answer questions about the course content or help you work through problems. However, it is not their job to do your homework for you.

PALS Tutoring

Leventhal is providing free tutoring to all BUAD 280 students through the PALS program. You can sign up for 30-minute tutoring slots. For more information, see the Blackboard section “Office Hours and Tutoring.”

Study Groups

I highly encourage you to set up a study group with peers in the class. Sometimes it can be difficult to find people to study with, so I have set up a class GroupMe group that you can use to communicate with other students in the class about setting up study sessions.

Assignments and Grading Detail

Late and Make-Up Work

As you will see from the information below, I do not accept late or make-up work under any circumstances. I am generous in dropping quizzes to account for the fact that sometimes people get sick, experience family emergencies, or have conflicting obligations. These policies are intended to automatically make allowances for these types of legitimate emergencies so that I do not need to subjectively evaluate the merit and veracity of student excuses. Also, experience hasshown that some students with legitimate extenuating circumstances never ask for accommodations, while some students (often without legitimate extenuating circumstances) always ask for accommodations. Because it is not equitable to reward those students who simply complain the most, I do not allow any late or make-up work. If you ask me, I will say no.

Exams

Exams are administered in-person via Blackboard so that I can monitor students and ensure that they are not using unauthorized resources. During exams you may access only the following resources: the exam itself through Blackboard, Microsoft Excel, a calculator app, anything written or printed on a physical piece of paper (including textbooks, class notes, homework, etc.). You may not open previously saved Excel documents; you must start with a completely blank worksheet.

You may NOT use AI resources. You may not consult a phone or smartwatch, but you may use a physical calculator. If I see you accessing any applications or resources other than those listed above, you will receive a grade of zero.

Please be cognizant of the fact that you CANNOT access electronic notes (for example those saved in PDFs or Word documents) during the exam—you must print them out, so plan ahead. If I were to allow students to flip through every imaginable document on their computer, it would become almost impossible for me to monitor for unauthorized resources.

Exams include multiple-choice and short answer questions. Students who participate in class, complete homework and quizzes, and do the practice exams will be very unsurprised by the exams.

The exam dates for this semester are as follows:

Exam 1	Monday, February 12, 2024
Exam 2	Monday, March 25, 2024
Exam 3 (not comprehensive)	Saturday, May 4, 2024 (8:00 – 10:00 AM) – No Exceptions

During the semester, each exam will be available for you to review starting a week after it has been given. You will have one week to review your exam and discuss your grade. After this time, grades on tests become final. All other grades are final once given.

Emergencies and Missed Exams

The Leventhal School of Accounting policy is exams should not be missed unless there is a very serious emergency, university-sponsored travel, or religious holiday. To the extent possible, you  must inform the instructor of an emergency prior to the exam. All other excused absences must be approved in advance. If you miss an exam for any other reason, you will receive a zero grade for the exam. If you miss the final exam for an unexcused reason, you will fail the class.

If there is a serious emergency and/or you have the absence excused ahead of time, I have the following policies:

- Missing a midterm exam: You may not take a midterm exam late for any reason. Students who miss a midterm will instead take a cumulative final exam that covers the content from the missed midterm (the final exam normally only covers the content in the last third of the course). You must communicate with me about this option so I can make arrangements to provide you with a different final exam. If you fail to make the proper arrangements and instead take the non-comprehensive final exam assigned to the rest of the class, you will receive a grade of 0 on the midterm that you missed.

- Missing the final exam: You must take the final exam to receive a passing grade in this class. If an emergency prevents you from taking the final exam at the scheduled time, then you must contact me as soon as possible; I will work with you to reschedule the exam during the final exam period. If you are not able to take the final exam during the final exam period, then you must contact me about assigning you a grade of Incomplete. If you do not contact me by the end of the final exam period, you will automatically fail the class.

If you think you may miss an exam, you must contact me as soon as possible to make arrangements. Missing an exam because of travel plans, family gatherings, stress, or other normal aspects of life is not a valid excuse.

You MUST take your exam in person with an approved proctor. If you leave the country hoping that your aunt can proctor your exam for you, you will be very disappointed.

Class Preparation & Optional Definitions Quizzes

I expect students to come to class prepared to learn. If there is an assigned recorded lecture, I will assume that you have watched it. The slides are almost always available the day before class so that you can review them ahead of time and look up any concepts you are confused about in the textbook. I will spend little time lecturing in class about basic definitions and instead use more of the class time working through practice problems. A useful way to make sure you understand the basic concepts of a topic is to skim the textbook and complete the optional definitions quiz for that topic. I recommend you try taking the quiz after class on the day we start each new chapter (or before class if you are adventurous!). These optional quizzes do not affect your grade and can be taken as many times as you like. It should take you about 5 minutes to take each optional quiz.

In addition, you will find it helpful to bring a calculator to class to work discussion problems and in class assignments. Often a computer will also be useful (to use Excel). You must bring a computer on exam days.

Homework

There will be homework assignments assigned during the semester that will give you an opportunity to practice the concepts learned in class. Each assignment is due by the end of the day (11:59 pm) on the due date listed in the schedule. Homework problems will be provided on Blackboard and you can spend as long as you want before the due date working through the problems off-line. You are welcome to work with your colleagues on this portion, and you may also use AI. However, I warn you that if you have not actually mastered the content of the homework on your own, you will find the exams incredibly difficult. After you have completed the problems to your satisfaction, you will need to submit your answers via a quiz on Blackboard; this quiz should be completed on your own with no assistance from your peers. In other words, with the homework assignments, maximum collaboration is permitted before you start the quiz, but once the quiz begins, you may not consult any other living person. The homework quizzes on Blackboard will ask you to provide your answers on a subset of the homework problems. The quiz can remain open for 59 minutes, but it should take you just a few minutes to fill in the answers based on the work that you have already done. Only one attempt is permitted.

There are two additional assignments that will count toward your homework grade: the Syllabus Quiz and the Accounting Careers Assignment. The Syllabus Quiz tests basic knowledge of classroom policies, as outlined in this syllabus. The Accounting Careers Assignment is intended to give you an overview of careers in accounting and is useful to complete before your Accounting Experience. Instructions for this assignment are provided on Blackboard.

The lowest 2 homework scores are dropped. Because of this generous grading policy, no late or make-up homework assignments are accepted.

Post-Class Quizzes

As shown in the class schedule, after some class periods, I will assign post-class quizzes reviewing the materials that we covered in class. The best way to prepare for these quizzes is to come to class, actively participate in activities and practice problems, and ask questions about anything you are confused about. These quizzes are either multiple-choice or short answer and must be completed by 11:59 pm on the due date. You may not collaborate with your peers on these quizzes, but you can consult your class notes, the lecture recordings, the textbook, and online resources. You will have 59 minutes to complete the post-class quiz after you have launched it on Blackboard. I drop the 2 lowest post-class quiz scores. Because of this generous grading policy, no late or make-up post-class quizzes are accepted. The Mid-Course Survey will count toward your post-class quiz grade.

In-Class Polls

I will use Poll Everywhere to gauge learning and keep students engaged in class. These poll questions are graded purely on participation (whether you submitted an answer or not). Each day of poll questions is worth 1 point, no matter how many questions I ask on that day so that attendance on certain days is not worth more than others. I drop the 2 lowest days of poll questions. These dropped days are intended to account for illness (too sick to attend class), other emergencies, technical difficulties, late registration, and “oops” moments. The only cases where poll questions can be made up is for students with university-excused travel who contact me in advance.

You must register with Poll Everywhere in order to take polls and get credit. Registration is free.

Poll Everywhere is linked with Blackboard, and I will sync our class roster to Poll Everywhere. If you do not have a Poll Everywhere account, you will receive an e-mail inviting you to create one; this might happen if your Poll Everywhere and Blackboard accounts are linked to different e-mail addresses. I will provide more information after class starts about making sure your Poll Everywhere account is linked with Blackboard.

In-Class Participation

Throughout the semester we will engage in a variety of in-class activities such as group work, discussions, games, and competitions. The purpose of these activities is to gauge and reinforce learning. In many cases, homework and post-class quizzes will be based on the content covered in these activities. I strongly urge you to participate, and in some cases will conduct these activities with the aid of Poll Everywhere. In addition, I encourage you to ask questions, and sometimes I will ask you questions. I don’t do this to stress you out, but in order to gauge your learning. If I ask a question and no one can answer it, it means that I need to do a better job explaining the concept. Help me be a better instructor by telling me when you don’t understand and by asking questions!

Accounting Experience

In order to expose you to the accounting profession and the many ways in which accounting can be used, I am requiring you to complete an accounting “experience” during the semester. This experience is an opportunity to talk with people who can give you a sense of the importance of  accounting in business and the economy and show you the wide range of accounting activities.

This experience can take many forms but has the following basic requirements:

1. Must take at least 30 minutes of your time (excluding time to prepare the write-up)

2. Must provide interaction with individuals who provide information about the accounting profession (i.e., your Accounting Experience can’t just be doing research online)

Leventhal will sponsor three events that may be used for your Accounting Experience, but other events and experiences also qualify.

• Meet the Firms: January 30th (5 – 7 pm via Handshake)
• Leventhal impACCT Panels:
• January 23rd
• March 5 th

A detailed assignment description with grade breakdown is available on Blackboard. Please consult it before completing your experience and submitting your write-up.

DUE DATE: Saturday, April 13th by 11:59 pm, submitted via Blackboard

Excel Ratio Quiz

Throughout the semester, I will demonstrate the use of Excel to you in class, and we will discuss common accounting-based financial ratios. This quiz will be completed entirely in class and will require you to demonstrate mastery of these topics by using Excel to calculate financial ratios of two companies. More information will be provided throughout the semester.

Ratio Analysis Report

The Ratio Analysis Report assignment will be handed out during the semester. It is a research-based assignment requiring you to compare the performance of two public companies based off of their financial ratios over the last few years (which I will provide) and other firm and industry information that you will find through your own research. You will present your conclusions in a professional, high quality report submitted via Blackboard.

DUE DATE: Saturday, April 27th by 11:59 pm, submitted via Blackboard

Note that you will have over a month to complete this assignment and it can be submitted at any time before the due date. All late assignments will receive a 5-point (out of 100) penalty. 69

A detailed grade breakdown will available on Blackboard. Please consult this before submitting your write-up.