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Course Description
Making sound business decisions means having good information and using
it effectively. Accounting plays a vital role in this process because
the function of accounting is to keep track of a business' economic resources
and activities and to use that information in the decision-making process.
In this course, we take an innovative approach to learning accounting
by integrating financial accounting and managerial accounting. Thus, this
course covers accounting concepts and practices and includes: classification,
recording, and reporting of business transactions and economic data; corporate
planning; managing liquidity; evaluating operations; and raising, investing,
and accounting for capital.
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:
• Explain the difference between management accounting and financial
accounting
• Prepare budgets and business plans for analysis and planning
• Prepare and analyze internal and external accounting reports using
a balance sheet, an income statement, and ratio analysis
• Record accounting transactions and evaluate the effects these
transactions have on the financial statements
• Evaluate a company's operating performance
• Analyze cash inflows and cash outflows and prepare a cash flow
statement
• Apply accounting skills to analyze operating costs and break-even
points of a company
• Collect and analyze annual reports and other relevant information
to make business decisions
• Perform cost-volume-profit analysis for multiple products to select
the best product to manufacture.
Breadth of Assignments
This course utilizes a variety of assignment types in exploring the basic
principles of Accounting including reading assignments, both online and
textbook based, individual assignments involving online research, essay
writing, and analytical review questions, group projects involving discussion
boards, collaborative thought, and a course-wide research and writing
case study assignment.
Required Texts
Cunningham B., Nikolai, L., and Bazley, J. (2004). Accounting: Information
for Business Decisions (2nd ed.). Mason OH: South-Western. ISBN: 0-324-18599-5
Principles of Accounting I
Business & Management
Module/Topics
Module 1: Overview
• The role of accounting information in business
• Planning, operating, and evaluating activities of managing a company
• The difference between management accounting and financial accounting
• Internal and external accounting reports
• Applying creative and critical thinking in business decisions
Module 2: Planning in an Entrepreneurial Environment
• Composing a business plan
• Preparing a budget and using it to make business decisions
• Collecting and organizing the information needed to start a company
• How a budget contributes to helping a company achieve its goals
• The operating cycles of retail companies and service companies
• The many types of budgets
• How to use the master budget to evaluate the company's performance
• Non-financial business issues that arise in using budgets to make
decisions
Module 3: Operating, Reporting, and Evaluating
• Recording accounting transactions and evaluating the effects of
these transactions on the financial statements
• Preparing a balance sheet from the accounting records
• Evaluating a company's operating performance using a balance sheet,
an income statement, and ratio analysis
Module 4: Cash Flow and Internal Controls
• Cash inflows and outflows and preparing a cash flow statement
• Internal control weaknesses and good internal control procedures
• Analyzing the operations of a company
• Using financial statements to make business decisions
Module 5: Planning in a Corporate Environment
• Analyzing annual reports
• Formulating alternatives to resolve a given problem, and determine
how each alternative will affect a company's costs and break-even point
• Performing cost-volume-profit analysis
Module 6: Budgets, Sales Forecasting, and Course Summary
• Identifying the budget schedules included in the master budget
• Formulating a plan to keep costs in line with a budget
• Recognizing the structure, reports, and analyses of a corporation,
and writing a business plan |
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