ACCT215 - Financial Accounting

Description:
This course is an introduction to accounting, emphasizing how general-purpose financial statements communicate information about the business corporation's performance and position for users external to management. Approximately one third of the course emphasizes how the accountant processes and presents the information and includes exposure to recording transactions, adjusting balances and preparing financial statements for service and merchandise firms according to established rules and procedures. The balance of the course examines major elements of the statements such as cash, receivables, inventory, long-lived assets, depreciation, time value of money, payroll, bonds, and other liabilities and stocks. Concepts of this course are applied to ACCT 225 (Managerial Accounting). Students are advised to avoid any time lapse between these two courses.

Outcomes:

• Differentiate service and merchandise business transactions to properly record them in the accounting records
• Illustrate the end-of-period work, including adjusting & closing journal entries and the four basic financial statements
• Describe how cash accounts and notes receivable properly setup valuation allowances for bad debt accounts
• Describe how merchandise inventory & long-lived assets are properly reported on the balance sheet along with the "income statement" impact of alternative reporting methods
• Explain the accounting procedures used to record bonds issued at face value, a premium, and a discount
• Describe how common and preferred stock are reported in the balance sheet and adjusted for stock splits, stock dividends, and treasury stock transactions
• Evaluate the significance of a good accounting "internal control" system to the security of the firm's assets
• Outline financial statements from the perspective of outside users of accounting information, including creditors and owners
• Illustrate the end-of-period work, including adjusting & closing journal entries and the four basic financial statements
• Explain the accounting procedures used to record bonds issued at face value, a premium, and a discount

Required Text(s):

Miller-Nobles, T., & Mattison, B. (2021). Horngren’s financial and managerial accounting: The financial chapters (7th ed.). Pearson.