01Syll6001Fall2020.pdf - B6001 – Accounting 1 – Financial...

B6001 – Accounting 1 – Financial Accounting
Fall 2020
Copyright © 2020
You may only share these materials with current term students.
Instructor:
Professor Amir Ziv, [email protected]
Office: 523 Uris Hall, Tel: [phone], Fax: [phone]
Class Hours: August 25, 26, 31 and September 2 - Varies
Starting September 8: Tuesday, 5:40–8:55PM, Warren 310
Office Hours: Tuesday, 3:00-4:00PM, and by appointment
Admin Assistants: Katie Brucas, [phone], [email protected]
Terrance Gabriel, [phone], [email protected]
Teaching Assistants: Ted Pan, [email protected]
Review Sessions: Friday 12:00–1:30PM
The purpose of this course is to provide a comprehensive, graduate level introduction to financial
reporting. It is designed to provide globally oriented managerial users of accounting products
with the foundations of accounting concepts, mechanics, and a perspective upon which
intelligent use of financial information rests. The fundamental perspective is that financial
reports (balance sheet, income statement, statement of cash flows and more) provide information
useful for a variety of purposes.
The course design emphasizes the fact that the information content of financial reports is jointly
determined by the accounting methods used to generate the reports and the environment in which
the reports are produced and used. Thus, the course integrates the study of accounting methods
and the study of the accounting environment. Accounting concerns, in turn, vary with market
opportunities, instruments, and the organizational arrangements at hand.
The course is organized into three interrelated modules. First, we provide a brief overview of
accounting institutions, the nature of financial reports, and disclosure. This includes an
examination of the main financial statements, the nature of accrual measurement, financial
statement analysis, revenue recognition and the information perspective that is central to the
course. Second, we explore accounting methods in detail, focusing on assets, liabilities, and
equity. We explicitly consider accounting issues related to global organizations. Lastly, we
briefly explore a variety of settings in which these products are used, emphasizing ethics, data
integrity, auditing regulations, financial statements analysis (again), and valuation settings.

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The recommended text is Financial Accounting for MBAs , by Easton, Wild, Halsey & McAnally
(EWHM), 8th edition, Cambridge Business Publishing, 2021. The course design and conduct
presume you have worked through the online Pre-MBA content (a joint product of Columbia
Business School’s Accounting Division and Cambridge Business Publishers). While our class
will start without assuming any prior knowledge in Accounting (that is, the topics covered in the
online resource will also be covered in class), having familiarity with the terminology and
accounting mechanics prior to starting the course proved to be useful in the past, in particular for
students who have had limited formal exposure to financial reporting. This resource will be
available for you also during the semester.