Syllabus for FAM-540

FINANCE AND ACCOUNTING FOR MANAGERS


COURSE DESCRIPTION

Finance and Accounting for Managers is designed to provide the non-accountant and financial manager with the knowledge necessary to interact with professionals from those disciplines. The majority of the material draws from the theory and practice of financial management. Sufficient accounting background is provided to enable the student to understand and work with information provided by accounting and finance professionals. Emphasis is placed on understanding terms, concepts, and uses of information rather than on the actual performance of calculations.

Student Advisory: Working knowledge of Microsoft Excel is required.

COURSE TOPICS

COURSE OBJECTIVES

After completing this course, you should be able to:

     CO1    Interpret a company’s basic financial statements.

     CO2    Analyze the financial reporting conceptual framework.

     CO3    Critique the integrated framework of internal controls.

     CO4    Examine the relationship between fraud risk and internal controls.

     CO5    Evaluate the role of budgetary planning and responsibility accounting.

     CO6    Examine the impact of interest rates and time value of money on the manager’s

                decision-making process.

     CO7    Assess factors to consider in choosing sources of funds for organizations.

     CO8    Examine capital structure theory and break-even analysis.

     CO9    Evaluate capital budgeting.

COURSE MATERIALS

You will need the following materials to do the work of the course. The required textbook is available from the University’s textbook supplier, MBS Direct.

Required Textbook

ISBN-13: 978-0134083285

Other Required Resources

COURSE STRUCTURE

Finance and Accounting for Managers is a three-credit, eight-week online course consisting of discussions, written assignments, a midterm project, and a final project.

        Course objectives covered in this module: CO1

        Course objectives covered in this module: CO2

        Course objectives covered in this module: CO3, CO4

        Course objectives covered in this module: CO5

        Course objectives covered in this module: CO6

        Course objectives covered in this module: CO7, CO8

        Course objectives covered in this module: CO9

ASSESSMENT METHODS

For your formal work in the course, you are required to participate in online discussion forums, complete written assignments and case analyses, and complete a midterm project and a final project. See below for details.

Consult the Course Calendar for assignment due dates.

Promoting Originality

One or more of your course activities may utilize a tool designed to promote original work and evaluate your submissions for plagiarism. More information about this tool is available in this document.

Discussion Forums

You are required to participate in eight discussion forums. You can find the Rubric for Online Discussions in the Evaluation Rubrics folder in the course website.

Written Assignments

You are required to complete seven written assignments.The assignments vary according to module but always involve the creation of a short paper.

For all of your written assignments you should be sure to:

You will find the written assignment rubrics within each assignment link on the course site.

Midterm Project

You are required to complete a midterm project. This project will evaluate your mastery of the concepts presented in the first four modules of the course. Your emphasis should be on applying and analyzing content rather than on the actual performance of calculations.Your project will consist of an academic paper of between 2000 and 2750 words (8 to 10 pages).

Full guidelines and instructions are provided in the Midterm Project area of the course site. You will find the Midterm Project Rubric within the assignment link on the course site.

Final Project

The final project allows you to demonstrate a grasp of the market valuation of bonds and stocks as well as how companies manage their assets and make capital budgeting decisions to generate maximum value.

You will utilize the financial reporting packages of two publicly-traded companies: AT&T and Verizon. You will complete a careful financial analysis of each company, including the development of the common size financial statements and financial ratios in a paper of between 3000 and 4125 words (12 to 15 pages).

Full guidelines and instructions are provided in the Final Project area of the course site.You will find the Final Project Rubric within the assignment link on the course site.

Note about research: The use of Wikipedia or other online encyclopedias for graduate-level papers is inappropriate. Aside from the uneven quality of the information that may be found in these sources, the real issue is that the information presented in these sources is "already digested." Use of such sources is an unacceptable shortcut for the graduate student. Students gathering information from these sites are essentially obtaining analyses done by someone else, not doing the work themselves. Rather than exploring the literature on a subject, such students are merely using the words of others who have already taken this vital step in academic research. It is imperative that graduate students be able to search the more academically-oriented literature; sift through useful (and not so useful) information; and analyze, synthesize, and report the results of their activities. All of these steps are bypassed if information is cited from an online site such as Wikipedia. To sum up: Using information summarized or annotated by someone else is an unacceptable shortcut for a graduate student.

GRADING AND EVALUATION

Your grade in the course will be determined as follows:

All activities will receive a numerical grade of 0–100. You will receive a score of 0 for any work not submitted. Your final grade in the course will be a letter grade. Letter grade equivalents for numerical grades are as follows:

A

=

93–100

B

=

83–87

A–

=

90–92

C

=

73–82

B+

=

88–89

F

=

Below 73

To receive credit for the course, you must earn a letter grade of C or higher on the weighted average of all assigned course work (e.g., assignments, discussion postings, projects). Graduate students must maintain a B average overall to remain in good academic standing.

STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS

First Steps to Success

To succeed in this course, take the following first steps:

Study Tips

Consider the following study tips for success:

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

Thomas Edison State University is committed to maintaining academic quality, excellence, and honesty. The University expects all members of its community to share the commitment to academic integrity, an essential component of a quality academic experience.

Students at Thomas Edison State University are expected to exhibit the highest level of academic citizenship. In particular, students are expected to read and follow all policies, procedures, and program information guidelines contained in publications; pursue their learning goals with honesty and integrity; demonstrate that they are progressing satisfactorily and in a timely fashion by meeting course deadlines and following outlined procedures; observe a code of mutual respect in dealing with mentors, staff, and other students; behave in a manner consistent with the standards and codes of the profession in which they are practicing; keep official records updated regarding changes in name, address, telephone number, or e-mail address; and meet financial obligations in a timely manner. Students not practicing good academic citizenship may be subject to disciplinary action including suspension, dismissal, or financial holds on records.

All members of the University community are responsible for reviewing the Academic Code of Conduct Policy in the University Catalog and online at www.tesu.edu.

Academic Dishonesty

Thomas Edison State University expects all of its students to approach their education with academic integrity—the pursuit of scholarly activity free from fraud and deception. All mentors and administrative staff members at the University insist on strict standards of academic honesty in all courses. Academic dishonesty undermines this objective. Academic dishonesty can take the following forms:

Plagiarism

Thomas Edison State University is committed to helping students understand the seriousness of plagiarism, which is defined as using the work and ideas of others without proper citation. The University takes a strong stance against plagiarism, and students found to be plagiarizing are subject to discipline under the academic code of conduct policy.

If you copy phrases, sentences, paragraphs, or whole documents word-for-word—or if you paraphrase by changing a word here and there—without identifying the author, or without identifying it as a direct quote, then you are plagiarizing. Please keep in mind that this type of identification applies to Internet sources as well as to print-based sources. Copying and pasting from the Internet, without using quotation marks and without acknowledging sources, constitutes plagiarism. (For information about how to cite Internet sources, see Online Student Handbook > Academic Standards > Citing Sources.)

Accidentally copying the words and ideas of another writer does not excuse the charge of plagiarism. It is easy to jot down notes and ideas from many sources and then write your own paper without knowing which words are your own and which are someone else’s. It is more difficult to keep track of each and every source. However, the conscientious writer who wishes to avoid plagiarizing never fails to keep careful track of sources.

Always be aware that if you write without acknowledging the sources of your ideas, you run the risk of being charged with plagiarism.

Clearly, plagiarism, no matter the degree of intent to deceive, defeats the purpose of education. If you plagiarize deliberately, you are not educating yourself, and you are wasting your time on courses meant to improve your skills. If you plagiarize through carelessness, you are deceiving yourself.

For examples of unintentional plagiarism, advice on when to quote and when to paraphrase, and information about writing assistance, click the links provided below.

Examples of Unintentional Plagiarism

When to Quote and When to Paraphrase

Writing Assistance at Smarthinking

Disciplinary Process for Plagiarism

Acts of both intentional and unintentional plagiarism violate the Academic Code of Conduct.

If an incident of plagiarism is an isolated minor oversight or an obvious result of ignorance of proper citation requirements, the mentor may handle the matter as a learning exercise. Appropriate consequences may include the completion of tutorials, assignment rewrites, or any other reasonable learning tool in addition to a lower grade for the assignment or course. The mentor will notify the student and appropriate dean of the consequence by e-mail.

If the plagiarism appears intentional and/or is more than an isolated incident, the mentor will refer the matter to the appropriate dean, who will gather information about the violation(s) from the mentor and student, as necessary. The dean will review the matter and notify the student in writing of the specifics of the charge and the sanction to be imposed.

Possible sanctions include:

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