Accounting 211

DO/S33Edition

Course Outline - Semester 1 2017

Welcome to ACCTG 211 Financial Accounting. This

course provides a foundation for an understanding of the influences on, and practice of, financial reporting in New Zealand. It is a prerequisite for
courses ACCTG 311, ACCTG 312 and ACCTG 371.

Course prescription and goals of the paper

The study of financial accounting principles within New Zealand, to enable students to:
(i) understand how they are developed and influenced;
(ii) understand and apply the New Zealand equivalents to international financial reporting standards;
(iii) report the results of complex business structures involving multiple entities. Completing students will understand the role financial statements
play in investment, analysis and contracting decisions, providing a base for advanced study and supporting other areas, particularly finance.

Learning outcomes
Detailed learning outcomes, for each of the six topics, will be provided in the lectures slides.

Course coordinator
Chris Clarke: Course coordinator Room 260:561 ch.clarke@auckland.ac.nz

Teaching Staff
Chris Clarke: Lecturer for topics 1, 2, 3 and 6. Taking three streams of tutorials. Room 260:561 ch.clarke@auckland.ac.nz
Dr Stephen Kean: Lecturer for topics 4 and 5. Taking two streams of tutorials. Room 260:567 s.kean@auckland.ac.nz

Help provided via Piazza

Piazza is an online platform that facilitates interaction among students and teaching staff in an efficient and intuitive manner. Piazza is highly catered
to getting help fast and efficiently from classmates and teaching staff. Rather than emailing questions to the teaching staff post your questions on
Piazza. There is a link on Canvas for Piazza. Use Piazza to ask questions about the course outline, about assignments, about lecture materials etc.
Please enrol yourself onto Piazza as soon as possible.

Help provided via Piazza continued:

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There are folders set up on Piazza for each of the six topics, for each tutorial and assignment. Use the search function to find questions and answers
i.e. someone else may have already asked the same question.

Piazza statistics from Semester 2 2016 (340 students enrolled):

Contributions* by students: Contributions* by staff:

1630 477 Chris Clarke
95 Stephen Kean
* Contributions are posts, responses, edits, follow-ups and comments to follow-ups

A student comment regarding staff contributions: “Just wanted to say thank you very much for your presence on the Piazza board. It's not something
we see often with lecturers and it really does help a lot.”

Top Student Askers Top Student Answerers Top Student Listeners**

and final grade of student and final grade of student and final grade of student
1. GW A+ 1. MS A+
1. MJK B-
(top overall student in ACCTG 211)
2. RS A 2. LP B+ 2.KSB A

3. BAH B- 3. LM B- 3.CM B

** Many students just ‘listen’ i.e. they do not contribute themselves but simply read questions and answers

A top student comment “I absolutely loved Piazza, I found that people asked questions I often didn't even think existed which really got me thinking at
a higher level. I also found myself answering a lot of questions or at least trying to answer questions, which solidified my own understanding by
forcing me to really think or search through my notes for an answer. It was a great platform to clarify points of views and to seek answers.”

Assessment

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(i) Assignments – 15%

Five assignments are set for the semester; these will be distributed on Canvas. The assignments provide you with an opportunity to test your
understanding of the material covered in lectures and tutorials and therefore form a vital part of the learning process. Detailed assignment solutions
are available on Canvas immediately after 4 pm on the date the assignment is due; this immediate availability is provided so that you can compare
your saved copy of the handed in assignment to the solutions. There is no need to wait until the assignment is marked and returned, your feedback and
dealing with any misunderstandings can be done immediately. Seek help if necessary.

To increase the effectiveness of your learning you are encouraged to:

Step 1. Review lecture materials and tutorial examples before attempting the assignment.
Step 2. Attempt each assignment as if it were a test before going back to the course materials to finish the assignment.
Step 3. Discuss your answers with fellow ACCTG 211 students. If there are differences, explain your thinking/reasoning used to arrive
at your answers. You could do this step using Piazza and/or form study groups. Please do not plagiarise.
Step 4. As soon as possible, compare the saved copy of your assignment to the detailed solutions available on Canvas. Sort out any
misunderstandings, if necessary seek help from staff.

Assignment Due @ 4 pm on: Topic/s predominantly covered: Percentage

Assignment 1 Friday 10th March The basics/revision of ACCTG 102 3
Assignment 2 Friday 24th March Topics 1 and 2 3
Assignment 3* Monday 1st May Topic 3 3
Assignment 4 Friday 26th May Topics 4 and 5 3
Assignment 5 Friday 9th June Topic 6 3
Total 15
*There is the only assignment due on a Monday.

Please note the following as they all apply to YOU:

 No extensions to the Assignment due date/time can be granted because comprehensive solutions for all assignments are posted directly after 4
pm on the day the assignment is due.
Assignments – 15% continued… *You will see ‘EX’ on Canvas/Grades in place of a mark

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 Late assignments will not be accepted for grading.

Ultimately, there has to be an acceptance cut-off time and this is 4 pm on the due day.
 In exceptional circumstances (written verification required) you will be excused* from an assignment. At the end of the semester, you will be
awarded an average mark for the said excused assignment; an average mark will be calculated using your handed-in assignment marks.
The following are examples of non-exceptional circumstances:
the bus was late; the printer jammed/broke down/ran out of paper; the car ran out of petrol; I could not find a car park; I got the date/time wrong
and this is the first time I have ever done this; my friend said he/she would hand it in for me; I completed the assignment but left it at home; I was
only 5 minutes late.
 Assignments must be posted into the appropriate ACCTG 211 boxes (sorted alphabetically) in the assignment drop in area on level 0 of the
OGGB by 4 pm on the date indicated above. Incorrectly posted assignments will not be accepted for grading. Attach a cover sheet to the
front of each assignment; you must sign this.
 Only selected parts of questions in each assignment will be marked. Therefore, obtaining full marks does not necessarily mean your assignment
is 100% correct.
 Any requests for reconsideration of assignments must be made via email to the course coordinator Chris Clarke in the week following the date
when assignments are first made available for collection or the mark will stand.

Feedback:
1. Detailed solutions will be provided on Canvas for you to compare your answers to. This comparison gives you an opportunity to deal with any
misunderstandings immediately and to seek help if necessary. Remember that only selected parts of questions in each assignment will be
marked therefore obtaining full marks does not necessarily mean your assignment was 100% correct.
2. A feedback report will be provided on Canvas (once marking has been completed) detailing the common mistakes and errors plus a summary of
where the marks were allocated.

(i) Mid-semester test – 20%

This 90-minute test is scheduled for Week 7 on Thursday 4 th May, it will commence at 6:30 pm. The venues for the test will be announced later on
Canvas. The test provides you with an opportunity to assess your knowledge of the material covered in lectures, tutorials and assignments relating to
Topics 1, 2 and 3. The test will provide feedback as to your level of comprehension. One piece of A4 paper, that you have hand-written notes onto one
side of, may be taken into the test.

Please note the following as they all apply to YOU:

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Mid-semester test – 20% continued…

 If you have a clash between the times of the ACCTG 211 mid-semester test and with a mid-semester test for another course then please email
Chris Clarke the course co-ordinator immediately. Failure to do so may result in the student not being able to take the test.
 If it becomes necessary: apply for Aegrotat or Compassionate Consideration and submit the form (AS-46) to the University Health Services
within one week of the test. The evidence e.g. a medical certificate, to support the form, must be obtained on the day of the test.
 You will not be able to use your test notes during the test if:
-the piece of paper is larger than A4
-the notes are typed or photocopied
-the notes spread over the two sides of the one piece of paper
 No allowance will be made for ‘forgotten’ or ‘lost’ test notes.

Feedback:
The test questions will be worked through in detail during Tutorial 6 (Week 8) and Tutorial 7 (Week 9). The solutions to the test will not be made
available on Canvas.

(ii) Final exam – 65%

There will be a final examination of three hours’ duration. The date of this examination will be announced during the semester.

Material examined in the mid-semester test will be examinable again in the final examination. You must pass the final examination (obtain at least
50/100) to pass ACCTG 211.

There is no plusage in this course – both coursework and the final examination are used to obtain the overall grade. Each type of assessment must be
completed per the departmental guidelines and with the instructions laid down for the piece of work.

Cheating/Plagiarism
The University of Auckland will not tolerate cheating, or assisting others to cheat, and views cheating (a form of plagiarism) in coursework as a serious
academic matter. The work that a student submits for grading must be the student’s own work, reflecting his or her learning. Work can be plagiarised
from many sources, including books, journal articles, the internet and other students’ work. A student’s assessed work may be reviewed against
electronic source material using computerised detection mechanisms.
Upon reasonable request, students may be required to provide an electronic version of their work for computerised review.

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Text (there is no prescribed text for this course)

New Zealand Equivalents to International Financial Reporting Standards (NZ IFRS). These standards can be downloaded (for free) from
www.xrb.govt.nz

Suggested Readings are from Financial Accounting: Accounting 211 – Custom Book, Pearson New Zealand, Edition 1. This text consists of selected
chapters from four textbooks i.e. a compiled textbook. It is available from the University Bookshop and copies are available in Short Loan. The main
purpose of these readings is to widen your understanding of the topics covered in lectures and provide more examples and explanations if required.

Lectures and tutorials

Lectures
Lectures commence in Week 1. There are 11 weeks of lectures in total; no lectures are held in Week 7.

Stream 1 Stream 2
Time Location Time Location
Monday 9 – 10 am 303-G23 MLT 1 2 – 3 pm 303-G23 MLT 1
Tuesday 9 - 10 am 260-073 OGGB 4 2 – 3 pm 303-G23 MLT 1
Wednesday 8 – 9 am 260-073 OGGB 4 11 -12 mid-day 303-G23 MLT 1

Please note that the teaching staff do not select the lecture times or locations.

Lecture materials per topic will be posted on Canvas in advance of the lecture. You are expected to download the materials and bring them along to the
lectures. The lecture slides include many paragraph quotes from the New Zealand Equivalents to International Financial Reporting Standards. These
selected paragraphs are read, further explained and applied to practical examples.

There is no course book for ACCTG 211 and ACCTG 311. Changes to the accounting standards may occur after course books are required to be
completed.
There are lecture recordings but technical errors may result in the lecture not being recorded or being incorrectly recorded. It is your responsibility to
obtain the missed lecture materials from another ACCTG 211 student. Historically, students who pass very well come to the actual lectures; they use
recordings for the following reasons: illness, timetable clashes (conjoint student), to re-listen to the material to clarify something.

Tutorials

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Tutorials commence in Week 2. There are ten tutorials over the twelve weeks of semester; tutorials are not held in Week 1 and Week 7.

Location: 104-G54 OCH 2 105S-039 Clock tower 104-G54 OCH 2 104-G54 OCH 2
Thursday streams 8 – 9 am - 10 – 11 am 11 – 12 mid-day
Friday streams - 9 – 10 am - 11 – 12 mid-day

Tutorial questions (which will be made available on Canvas) will be worked through in detail.
You are strongly encouraged to read and attempt the questions before attending tutorials. Please ask questions during the tutorials.
Only brief solutions (no detailed workings) will be available on Canvas. Why? To encourage you to attend tutorials.

To quote two A+ grade students:

“I felt that attending the tutorials truly helped me to better comprehend all of the concepts that we covered in the lectures. The recapitulations of key
points covered in class were incredibly useful. I also tried to prepare answers for the tutorials beforehand, which enabled me to see what I had missed
and things that I need to focus on in the future in order to improve.”
“To tell the truth - I only really prepared for about half of the tutorials as I didn't understand what was going on - but I went to them and took the
answers down and worked them out for myself at a later point.”

Student Feedback

1. An online course evaluation was conducted in Semester 1 2016 using SET on Canvas: Agree + Strongly Agree
The course content was well organised. 95.1%
The aims of this course were clear to me. 92.4%
The resources in this course helped me to learn. 94.1%
I was clearly informed how my learning would be assessed. 93.5%
Assessments supported the aims of the course. 95.7%
I received helpful feedback on my learning progress. 78.9%
I found the course intellectually stimulating. 81.6%
I was satisfied with the quality of the small group teaching (e.g. tutorial) associated with this course 78.7%
Overall, I was satisfied with the quality of this course. 89.7%

Student feedback continued…

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 Accounting 211

1. Comparing ACCTG 211 ‘Overall’ score of 4.35 with course averages from:
Business and Economics Faculty 3.94
Accounting and Finance Department 3.96
University 3.99

3. Students who passed with an A+ were asked: “What advice would you want to give to future ACCTG 211 students?”

Long answer:

“With the computational aspects of accounting, you need to practise and comprehend the rationale behind each problem you do in order to master it.
For example, in addition to reviewing the tutorial, assignment and example document problems, one should spend some time thinking about possible
extensions to these questions to cover any concepts that were discussed but not explicitly assessed in that pertinent assessment.

If a student mechanistically regurgitates content without understanding the underlying principles of accounting they will find it difficult to apply their
knowledge in different scenarios, irrespective of the amount of time they have spent studying.

Also, it pays to start studying a few weeks before the actual exam. The reason why I suggest doing a little each day over a long period of time is
because this aids long-term retention and you may struggle to study the content in a detailed manner if you are concurrently juggling a few exam
subjects over a short exam period. This saved me from having to furiously cram the night before the exam.”

Short answers:

“You have to practice quite a lot. I have to say that ACCTG 211 is not one of those subjects where you can succeed just by scanning through the lecture
slides.”

“My word of advice for anyone coming through this course is: Do not stress!! For the first 5 weeks I had absolutely no idea what was going on and
didn't understand anything. This course is best suited to those who work in their own time and don't expect to learn stuff on the first go. Go through and
understand all the example documents and tutorial questions.”

Program including assessment due dates

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Wk Week Topic for Lectures Ten Tutorials Assignments

No. beginning Held on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays Held on Thursday or Due Friday 4 pm *
Monday Friday
Topic 1: The international financial accounting environment
1 06 March Topic 2: The statement of cash flows (SCF) No tutorials Assignment 1 10th March

2 13 March
Topic 2 continued 1/10
Assignment 2 24th March
3
20 March Topic 3: Accounting for equity interest in other entities 2/10

4 27 March Topic 3 continued 3/10

5 03 April Topic 3 continued 4/10

6
10 April Topic 3 continued Note: No Friday tutorial because of Easter Friday 5/10**

Mid-semester break *Only assignment due on a Monday

Assignment 3 1st May
7 01 May No lectures this week. Test on Thursday 4th May 6:30 pm No tutorials
Topic 4: Accounting for EARP
8 08 May Topic 5: Accounting for property, plant and equipment and intangible 6/10 Test review
assets
9 15 May Topic 5 continued 7/10 Test review

Assignment 4 26th May

10 22 May Topic 5 continued 8/10

11 29 May Topic 6: Accounting for leases 9/10

Assignment 5 9th June

12 05 June Topic 6 continued Note: No Monday lectures because of Queen’s Birthday. 10/10

**Friday 14th is Easter Friday therefore no Friday tutorials. Instead, for this week only, attend one of the Thursday April 13th tutorials. Full solutions, for tutorial 5/10, will be
available on Canvas.

Further Study in Financial Accounting

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Students with a clear pass (at least a B grade) may confidently progress to more advanced levels of financial accounting. Students with a strong pass
may be invited to apply to enter the honours programme.

Class Representatives
The course is entitled to class representatives. The class representatives will freely discuss any common student concerns with the course coordinator.
The representatives are also invited to staff/student consultative meetings. This is the appropriate forum for raising any common unresolved concerns
you have about the running of the course. Student representatives and their email address will be made known to the class as a whole. We emphasise
“unresolved concerns” since most problems can be resolved very simply by approaching the course coordinator. We are here to help.

Please email the course coordinator, Chris Clarke, during Week 1 if you would like to be one of the two class representatives for ACCTG 211. In your
email, include a paragraph describing why you would be the best candidate for the position of class representative. If a vote is required, it will be
conducted via a show of hands in a lecture.

Inclusive Learning
Students are encouraged to discuss, privately, any impairment-related requirements. Please send the course coordinator, Chris Clarke, an email to
organise an appointment or simply explain your situation in the email.

In the Event of an Unexpected Disruption

We undertake to maintain the continuity and standard of teaching and learning in all your courses throughout the year. If there are unexpected
disruptions the University has contingency plans to ensure that access to your course continues and your assessment is fair, and not compromised.
Some adjustments may need to be made in emergencies. In the event of a disruption, the University and your course coordinators will make every
effort to provide you with up to date information via canvas and the university web site.

Prizes
The top student (across both semesters) in the paper will be awarded the Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CA ANZ) Prize in
Financial Accounting. There are also several other scholarship opportunities available and you are urged to get the listing of available awards from the
Scholarship Office in the clock tower building. The scholarships are not necessarily awarded to the students with the best academic records and you are
encouraged to apply.

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