BUS1103 Financial Accounting First Term 2025/26

Brief Course Description:

Financial accounting is primarily concerned with the reporting of the operational performance and financial condition of a business organization to external users for investment, credit and other relevant decisions. For comparability purposes, financial reports are prepared based on a set of generally accepted accounting principles and in a general-purpose format.

Aims:

The objectives of this course are to enable undergraduate students to understand the accounting process that generates reports and to analyze financial reports, to apply the accounting conceptual framework  to  analyze  business  situations  and  problems,  to  be  equipped  with  foundational financial accounting skills and knowledge, to be able to apply information technology in business situations and to identify and resolve ethical issues in business settings.

Learning Outcomes (LOs):

Upon completion of the course, the student should be able to:

1.      discuss the role of accounting in business organization and in the capital market;

2.      make judgments on the ethical issues involved in financial reporting;

3.      discuss the accounting assumptions, principles and limitations underlying the preparation of financial statements and apply them to different circumstances;

4.      prepare the four essential financial statements; explain their basic uses and their inter- relationship; and

5.      manually  work through the  accounting cycle and use accounting software to prepare financial statements based on a given set of business transactions.

Indicative Contents:

•        An overview of the role of accounting and accounting information in business organizations and capital markets;

•        Accounting ethics in general and specific issues relating to financial accounting;

•        An overview of the basic accounting model including how business transactions affect the model, how basic financial statements are generated from the model, the relationships among the financial statements and their primary uses;

•        Basic  accounting  principles  and  assumptions  underlying  the  preparation  of  corporate financial information and the limitations of accounting information;

•        Basics ofthe manual accounting process which includes:

°        how to record transactions;

°        how to summarize and organize the accounting data periodically;

°        how to report summarized data in a set of general-purpose financial statements; and °        how to close the temporary accounts of the current cycle to restart the next cycle;

•        Measurement issues of major assets, liabilities and shareholders’ equity:

°        Concepts and methods for reconciling cash records and bank statement balances;

°        Concepts   and   methods   for   measuring   uncollectible   accounts   receivable   and

comparisons oftheir impact on the book values of accounts receivable;

°        Concepts and methods for measuring cost of goods sold and ending inventory and

comparisons oftheir impact on profits and asset values;

°        Concepts and methods for measuring the book value of property, plant and equipment and  intangible  assets,  including  various  methods  of  computing  depreciation  or

amortization and comparisons oftheir impact on financial statements; °        Types of liabilities and accounting for liabilities; and

°        Accounting for the issuance of shares, dividend declaration and payment, stock splits,

stock dividends, treasury stock transactions and their impact on financial statements;

•        Preparation and understanding of the statement of cash flows.

Teaching Method:

1.    Classes

Instructors will use PowerPoint slides in most classes.   Other  teaching  materials may be supplemented from the instructor.

2.    Assignments

Students will be asked to complete assignments covering essential topics of Chapters 1 to 12 (excluding Chapter 5).

3.    Computerized Accounting Project using Mind Your Own Business (MYOB) software

Students will learn how to use the software to complete a project which includes each step of the  accounting  cycle.    Other  accounting  platform  may be  adopted  and  pre-approved  by instructors.

4.    Ethical Dilemma Analysis

Students will learn how to analyze ethical dilemmas based on the HKICPA’s ethical principles and will be given an analysis assignment immediately preceding the midterm exam.

5.    Midterm and final examinations

Students will be given one mid-term exam covering Chapters 1 to 4 and Chapter 6 (Sales Revenue), and one final exam covering chapters 1 to 12 (excluding Chapter 5). Both exams will be closed-notes and closed-book.

Measurement of Learning Outcomes:

1.    Class Participation (5% towards final grade)

Students are expected to contribute to all classes and will be assessed on their attendance, their contribution to class discussion, and their preparedness for class. (LO1, LO3, LO4, LO6).

2.    Online Assignments (10% towards final grade)

The assignments are accessed online and cover  essential  topics  from  various chapters. The assignments are  used to measure students’ understanding of conceptual and basic technical questions for the  chapters that have been covered. (LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4, LO6).

Students are required to submit the online assignments on a weekly basis, each contributing equal weighing towards your  final  grade.  In  order  to receive  full  credit  for  each  online assignment, students need to both submit it on time and obtain at least 40% of the available marks. Any late submission is not granted any credit. Students are allowed two attempts for each assignment, and the higher score out of the two will be counted.

3.    Computerized Accounting Project using Mind Your Own Business (MYOB) software (5% towards final grade)

This is an assignment used to assess whether students can use information technology to record various business transactions and prepare financial reports based on a given set of information. Students are expected to learn how to use this software themselves in completing the project, although workshops to aid understanding of the software may be made available. (LO5).

4.    Ethical Dilemma Analysis (5% towards final grade)

Students are expected to complete an Ethical Dilemma Analysis based on a hypothetical case following the ethical standards taught in class. This assessment is used to test students’ ethical awareness in business dealings so they will be able to make judgments regarding ethical issues involved in financial reporting. (LO2). This assessment is given together with the midterm exam, below.

5.    Midterm and Final Examinations (75% towards final grade)

The closed book written exams are used to enhance and assess students’ overall ability to apply and integrate past learning in addressing specific financial accounting issues and problems. The midterm exam (25% towards final grade) includes multiple choice questions and long problems while the final exam (50% towards final grade) includes long problems only. (LO1, LO3, LO4, LO6).

Assessment:

Class Participation                                          5%

Online Assignments                                      10%

Computerized Accounting Project                5%

Ethical Dilemma Analysis                             5%

Mid-term Examination                                25%

Final Examination                                        50%

Total                                                             100%

Notes:

1.      Students  absent  from  the  exams  will  receive  zero  marks  except  for  highly  unusual circumstances  that   cannot  be   controlled  and  avoided  by  the   students.   Should  such circumstances occur, students concerned must provide valid documentary proof.

2.     If the University adopts the real-time online teaching mode, students will be required to submit their assignments and exam answers online at the scheduled time.

Required/Essential Readings:

Financial Accounting, McGraw-Hill Education (12th  International  Student Edition), by Libby, Libby and Hodge.

Students must purchase the e-edition of the textbook, which is bundled with CONNECT access license.  This  CONNECT  access  license  allows  students  to  access  and  complete  the  online assignments accounting for 10% of course assessment.

Course Policy:

1.    Class attendance and participation: Students are required to attend all classes and are strongly encouraged to participate in class discussions and all other activities in the classroom. Students will not be penalized for expressing something incorrect. Students are also required to observe appropriate classroom behaviour, such as turning off their mobile phones and refraining from talking among themselves. Please be punctual.

2.    Course preparation: Students are required to read the relevant chapter(s) ahead of each class.

This allows students to pay more attention during the lecture to issues that they have difficulty understanding on their own.

3.    Homework assignments: Students are required to submit all homework assignments and online exercises before the specified deadlines. The purpose of the assignments and exercises is to encourage active learning and mastery of the materials taught in the class. It is essential to work on these assignments and exercises in order to achieve good performance in the course.

4.    Examinations: Both mid-term  and final  exams are closed-book and closed-notes. The final exam is cumulative and will include topics covered in the mid-term exam.

5.    University  Guidelines  and  Regulations:  Students  must  read  and  follow  the  University’s Guidelines  for  Learning  (http://www.ln.edu.hk/reg/info/englearning.pdf)  and  Regulations Governing University Examinations (http://www.ln.edu.hk/reg/docs/ar_exam.pdf).

Important Notes:

1.    Students are expected to spend a total of 9 hours (i.e., 3 hours of class contact and 6 hours of personal study) per week to achieve the course learning outcomes.

2.    Students shall be aware of the University regulations about dishonest practice in course work, tests  and  examinations,  and  the  possible  consequences  as  stipulated  in  the  Regulations Governing University Examinations and Course Work. In particular, plagiarism, being a kind of  dishonest  practice,   is  “the  presentation  of  another  person’s   work  without  proper acknowledgement  of the  source,  including  exact  phrases,  or  summarized  ideas,  or  even footnotes/citations,  whether  protected  by  copyright  or  not,  as  the  student’s  own  work”. Students are required to strictly follow University regulations governing academic integrity and honesty.

3.    Students  must  adhere  to the University’s guidelines and practices when using Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools. The official documents “Guidelines for Using GAI Tools at Lingnan University” and “Best Practices for Ethical and Responsible Use of GAI Tools in Course  Assessments”  can  be  found  here: https://www.ln.edu.hk/tlc/generative-artificial- intelligence/gai-guidelines-best-practices.

4.    Students are required to submit written assignment(s) using Turnitin.

5.    To   enhance  students’  understanding  of  plagiarism,  a  mini-course  “Online  Tutorial  on Plagiarism Awareness” is available on https://pla.ln.edu.hk/.