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Location: Room 13.56, Nexus 10
Telephone: 8313 8303 (work)
email: max.bessell@adelaide.edu.au

Accounting for Decision Makers I has 2 X 1 hour lectures per week per student. Students can enrol either in the face-to-face lecture or the online recording of lectures.

The course also contains one weekly 1.5 hour tutorial per student. Tutorials begin in the first week of the semester. The first tutorial is introductory, contains a number of activities including a diagnostic test designed to provide feedback to students on their literacy skills.

A knowledge of accounting is a vital skill for everyone. Basic financial literacy is essential in managing one’s own private finances but is also extremely important in any organisation. Many people feel that because they are planning to pursue a career in something other than accounting, the study of that subject is not relevant to them. However, the great majority of decisions in any type of organisation (whether ‘for profit’ or ‘not-for-profit’) have financial implications. For example, someone in the Human Resources section of an organisation will need strong ‘people’ skills but will also have responsibility for the financial budget for the HR section (at a minimum, controlling the costs of that section). Consequently, this course is designed to provide students with an understanding of, and competency in, the language and process of accounting so that you can discuss intelligently the financial implications of your future decisions. The course will also emphasise the use of accounting in basic organisational decision making. The overall aims of this course include the following:
· To provide students with a basic understanding of the economics of business;
o E.g., how cash flows through a business; what are the resources of an entity; how are those resources funded; what are the different sources of funding; short-term liquidity and working capital management
· To introduce students to the role of accounting and how accounting captures information about the economics of an entity. For example:
o accounting provides information about: financial resources and obligations (via the balance sheet), financial performance (via the income statement), and about the cash flows (and their different types) via the cash flow statements)
o Who wants to know?
o Develop an understanding of the ‘language’ of accounting (i.e., accounting uses everyday terms with specialist meanings; alternate names exist for the same items)
o What are the components (elements) of the information in accounting – i.e., assets, liabilities, equity, revenues, expenses

· What are the key questions in financial reporting?
o i.e., What is a ‘transaction’?; Definitions; Recognition; Measurement; and Disclosure
· Introduce students to the reality that alternative but legitimate differences can exist about how the key questions above are answered and the resulting impact upon financial statements
o What are the reasons for diversity in accounting practice?
· To enable students to prepare their own basic financial statements
o Transactions analysis; making choices.
· To enable students to understand the ‘story’ told by financial statements and the implications for the story when different choices are made:
o Develop skills in financial statement analysis throughout the course material; focus students’ understanding on the inter-connectivity and causality between the different components of financial information
o Provide a detailed focus on the use of accounting for decision making by parties both external and internal to an organisation
o Basic internal decision making applications – e.g., cost behaviour, cost-volume-profit analysis, product costing
o To assist students to develop an ‘intuition’ about the impact of transactions on an entity’s financial condition, performance, and cash flows.

By the end of this course students should be able to:
1. explain the concepts that underlie the preparation of general purpose financial reports;
2. explain the purpose of and factors which influence the content of a balance sheet, income statement and statement of cash flows;
3. analyse financial statements;
4. explain the information needs of management;
5. explain and apply the concepts of present value and future value;
6. undertake a simple capital budgeting exercise;
7. discuss and apply cost-volume-profit analysis;
8. apply various management accounting techniques to analyse decisions faced by management; and
9. demonstrate an understanding of the role and preparation of budgets.

Textbook

Birt, J., Chalmers, K., Byrne, S., Brooks, A. and Oliver, J., Accounting: Business Reporting for Decision Making, 2012, 4th edition, Wiley & Sons.

There are many other introductory accounting textbooks in the library and students are encouraged to seek these out to assist their learning. Examples of such textbooks include:

Bazley, M and Hancock, P. Contemporary Accounting, 2013, 8th edition, Cengage Learning.

Hoggett, J., Medlin, J., Edwards, L., Tilling, M. and Hogg, E. Accounting, 2012, 8th edition, Wiley & Sons.

This course makes substantial use of the MyUni website. Information that will be available through MyUni include:
· PowerPoint lecture slides
· MyMedia lecture recordings
· Readings
· Assignment information and feedback
· Messages for students
· Other facilities within MyUni will be activated from time-to-time as needed.

You must ensure that you check the MyUni site several times each week for any announcements or new information. It is your responsibility to remain informed about changes in the course and you will be deemed to know of any new information added to the MyUni site.

This course contains two main avenues for learning (apart from assessment). These are:
1. Delivery of 2 X 1 hour lectures per week for each student. These are the primary source of information on a topic. Students should read the relevant section of the textbook to support and expand on the knowledge gained in these lectures. Lectures will often be supplemented with MyMedia recordings on certain topics.

2. There is a weekly 1.5 hour tutorial. The aims of the tutorials are threefold; to develop a conceptual understanding of key accounting principles, to review and refine the technical competencies required to perform accounting calculations, and to gain an insight into the implications flowing from accounting information including the financial statements.
During the Tutorials students are free to ask any questions or issues about the topic under consideration. The objective here is to provide a more personalised approach to any problems which students have.
It is expected that each student will actively involve him/herself in the discussion during each tutorial. In general, a good participant will, among other things:
· Take the initiative and lead the discussion on a question,
· Be prepared to control the level of their involvement so that other class members can participate equally in the discussion;
· Present their points in a structured manner with reference readings;
· Be prepared to accept and explore alternative viewpoints;
· Be willing to go beyond the suggested readings and resources and use their initiative to present other topical material as examples, e.g., recent newspaper articles;
· Speak clearly;
· Assist other members of the class with understanding the material;
· Be prepared to work cooperatively and productively in small groups;
· Be sensitive to the needs and feelings of other participants; and
· Be punctual.

It is not expected that you will always have the “right” answer and, indeed, it should be recognised and understood that valid alternative points of view might well exist on an issue. This does not mean that “anything will do” when trying to find a solution to controversial topics – rather a “good” answer will be one that is grounded in, among other things, references to relevant and valid accounting concepts.

Preparation prior to attending your workshop is vital to your successful completion of this course and if you have not prepared beforehand you will have significant difficulties in understanding what is going on in the tutorial. Solutions generally will NOT be provided out for the tutorial activities. However, the teaching staff members are very happy to spend time assisting you with a question PROVIDED you have made a sincere written attempt beforehand. Ensure that you make good use of staff consultation times and the first year learning centre.

The University expects full-time students (i.e., those taking 12 units per semester) to devote a total of 48 hours per week to their studies. This means that you are expected to commit approximately 9 hours of private study outside of your regular classes.

Students in this course are required to attend all lectures and Tutorials throughout the semester, tutorial preparation and participation will form part of the overall assessment as outlined in the assessment section below.

Topic 1 -- Introduction – What is Accounting?
Topic 2 -- The Economics of Business
Topic 3 -- The Balance Sheet Part 1
Topic 4 -- The Balance Sheet Part 2
Topic 5 -- The Income Statement
Topic 6 -- Cash Flow Statement
Topic 7 -- Financial statement analysis
Topic 8 -- Capital Investment Decisions
Topic 9 -- Basic Concepts and Cost Volume Profit 1
Topic 10 -- Basic Concepts and Cost Volume Profit 2
Topic 11 -- Budgeting

The Small Group Discovery Experience strategy of the University is not utilised by this course at present.

There are four main summative assessment tasks, each designed to provide students with opportunities to demonstrate their level of comprehension and understanding of each of the topics covered in this course. The summative assessment tasks are:

1. Tutorial attendance -- 5%
2. Three Assignments totalling -- 15%
3. A Mid-Term Test -- 15%
4. A Final Exam -- 65%

1. To pass the course students must achieve 50% of the overall course assessment. In addition there is requirement to achieve at least 50% in the final exam. Students who achieve an overall course result of 50% or greater but achieve less than 50% in the final exam will be recorded with 49% and be awarded an additional assessment (ie an academic supplementary exam).
2. All summative assessment tasks are compulsory and none are redeemable.
3. Students are not permitted to submit or use assessment from any previous or other course towards the assessment in this course.
4. Legible hand-writing and the quality of English expression are considered to be integral parts of the assessment process. Marks may be deducted in the final examination because of poor hand-writing.
5. Students are permitted to take any calculator into any of the invigilated assessments, including the final exam.
6. The final exam is a closed book exam and no materials are permitted to be taken into the exam except for a calculator referred above.

TUTORIAL ATTENDANCE -- 5%

To gain a mark of 5% for Tutorial Attendance, students must attend a minimum of 10 tutorials out of a total of 11 tutorials that will be held.   The tutorials are the Introductory Tutorial (in week 1) and tutorials for Topics 1-10.  A tutorial for Topic 11 will not be held in class but solutions will be available online.
It is a student’s responsibility to ensure that their attendance at a tutorial is recorded by their tutor. This can be done by producing a student ID card (or similar) and having the attendance noted on a class roll. However, a student's attendance will only be recorded if the student is present during the entire duration of a tutorial.
If a student attends less than 10 tutorials they will receive a NIL mark for this assessment component, unless the non-attendance is due to the student’s illness or compassionate circumstances. Such students must provide a complete Application form at

This form needs to be completed and then emailed to Mr Tony Trimboli at tony.trimboli@adelaide.edu.au who will then attend the necessary processes.
Note that students relying on medical reasons must visit their medical practitioner, with that approved University form, and have the medical practitioner complete it. A normal doctor's certificate will not be accepted.

ASSIGNMENTS -- 15%
There are three Assignments totalling 15% of the overall course assessment. Details are:

Assignment 1 worth 5% on Cash Flow Statements - due date Tuesday 13th May 2014 at 11:00pm
Assignment 2 worth 6% on Financial Statement Analysis - due date Tuesday 20th May 2014 at 11:00pm
Assignment 3 worth 4% on Present Values/Future Values - due Sunday 1st June 2014 at 11:00pm

The Assignments will be submitted electronically through MyUni and in pdf format and in one file only. Further details of the submission process will be advised in due course.  Penalties for late lodgement of each Assignment will be applied at the rate of 20% per day or part thereof of the achieved mark.
 
MID TERM TEST -- 15%
The Mid Term Test will cover the topics 1 to 4 (inclusive). More details on the Mid Term Test will be provided as they become available. This is a closed book exam and no materials are permitted except for a calculator.

FINAL EXAM -- 65%
There will be a three (3) hour exam. This will be a closed book exam and no materials are permitted except for a calculator.

The only submission issue for summative assessment relates to the Assignments. The Assignments will be submitted electronically through MyUni and in pdf format and in one file only.  Further details will be provided in due course.