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ACCT 5341 ACCOUNTING THEORY - SPRING SEMESTER
Last Updated on April 23, 2006

Bob Jensen Retired on May 14, 2006.
This is no longer a current syllabus but some of Jensen's great works are timeless.

Project Assignment --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/acct5341/ProjectAssignments/sp2006/000index.htm 

Table of Contents

Project Assignment --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/acct5341/ProjectAssignments/sp2006/000index.htm 

Preliminary Information

Preliminary Course Activities

Click Here to View Student Web Sites

Notes and Paths to Files

Helpers and Internet Links

Assignment Date Hotlinks Are Shown Below:

January 16 --- No Class (MLK Holiday)

Week 01 January 23

Week 02 January 30

Week 03 February 06

Week 04 February 13 

Week 05 February 20 

Week 06 February 27 

Week 07 March 06

Week 08 March 13

Week 09 March 20

Week 10 March 27

Week 11 April 03

Week 12 April 10

Week 13 April 17

Week 14 April 24

Week 15 May 01

May 8 FINAL EXAMINATION

Preliminary Information

Also email help is available at rjensen@trinity.edu

Important notice for accounting students:  
The CPA Examination now tests current FASB, AICPA, IRS, and SEC pronouncements within the six months of issuance of the pronouncements.  Students should make use current pronouncements electronically via such services as FARS from the AICPA or Comperio from PwC?  FASB standards may now be downloaded free.  Are they making you track current summaries in the Journal of Accountancy (which is free online at http://www.aicpa.org/pubs/jofa/joahome.htm )?

I think that accounting instructors sometimes focus too much on textbooks that can be years out of date even for current editions because of delays in the publication and revision process.  Your instructors should be assigning monthly readings from latest pronouncement summaries in the Journal of Accountancy.  Also they should be recommending that students frequently access their textbook's supplemental online service provided by the publisher.  

This advice may sound obvious, but I think that instructors sometimes need reminders to build the free Journal of Accountancy and textbook publisher Websites into their syllabi.  This is becoming more evident to me while I scan online syllabi that often only assign chapters from a textbook.  Remember that it only takes six months for the latest pronouncements to commence appearing on the CPA examination.  The latest pronouncements are not likely to be covered in published textbooks.

This is a reminder that all Trinity faculty and students can access databases provided by Trinity Library annual subscriptions at http://lib.trinity.edu/dbs/dbs.asp  

In particular, note that one of these databases is the PwC Comperio database of accounting literature and news.  For example, many publications that you must pay to download from the FASB, CICA, and IASB are free downloads from Comperio.

Our old login routine for Comperio no longer is valid.  You must access the Comperio database from http://lib.trinity.edu/dbs/dbs.asp

When prompted to give a user name and password, simply use the same entries that you use to access the Tiger network.

All students are covered by a policy that prohibits dishonesty in academic work.  The Academic Integrity Policy (AIP) covers all students who entered Trinity before the fall of 2004.   The Academic Honor Code covers all those who entered the fall of 2004 or later.

The Integrity Policy and the Code share many features:  each asserts that the academic community is based on honesty and trust; each contains the same violations; each provides for a procedure to determine if a violation has occurred and what the punishment will be; each provides for an appeal process.

The main difference is that the faculty implements the AIP while the Code is implemented by the Academic Honor Council.   Under the Integrity Policy, the faculty member determines whether a violation has occurred as well as the punishment for the violation (if any) within certain guidelines. Under the Code, a faculty member will (or a student may) report an alleged violation to the Academic Honor Council.  It is the task of the Council to investigate, adjudicate, and assign a punishment within certain guidelines if a violation has been verified.

Students who are under the Honor Code are required to pledge all written work that is submitted for a grade:  “On my honor, I have neither given nor received any unauthorized assistance on this work” and their signature.  The pledge may be abbreviated “pledged” with a signature.

Dr. Sandlin wrote the following Excused Absence Policy and requested that all accounting instructors in graduate courses adopt the following policy.

Excused Absence Policy

Master of Science in Accounting Program

 The Master of Science in Accounting policy regarding absences from graduate classes is as follows:

 The final grade (on a 100-point basis) will be reduced by three points each time a class that meets once a week is missed as the result of an unexcused absence and by one and a half points each time a class that meets twice a week is missed as the result of an unexcused absence.

 Examples of unexcused absences include, but are not limited to, absences resulting from studying for other exams, finishing term papers, working, or engaging in non-emergency related travel. 

Trinity University rules and regulations spelled out in the Student Handbook fully apply to this course.

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Required Textbook:   Strong
Derivatives:  An Introduction by Robert A Strong, Edition 2 (Thomson South-Western, 2005, ISBN 0-324-27302-9)
 

Required SFAS 133, Amendments, and DIGs

Please purchase a large spiral notebook for this course and bring it to the first class.

ACCT 5341 is one of those courses that will be appreciated more after you have been on the job for several years and discover that auditing and accountancy in general are about value and risk. The failure of the Enron audit dramatically brings to light how bad value and risk are accounted for under GAAP and managerial accounting.

Note that the grading structure calls for documented student participation in class discussions and in partnership presentations. In most classes, a partnership will be randomly chosen to make a presentation of a case solution.

There will be few, if any, surprise quizzes this semester, but there are one examination prior to the final examination. Of course a surprise quiz is possible if it appears that students are falling behind on weekly assigned readings.

Unless noted otherwise, students will only be allowed to use hand-written notes in spiral notebooks (on the basis that spiral notebook paper will not feed through photocopy machines). Reasons for requiring spiral notebooks will be explained in the first class. Some students have complained that not all students play fair under requirements that students write their own notes and not borrow from notes of others.

Please purchase a large spiral notebook for this course and bring it to the first class.

ACCT 5341 focuses on the theory of evaluating value and risk from accounting information. In the first half of the course the main focus is on FAS 133 on Accounting for Derivative Financial Instruments. Note that FAS 133, however, is not limited to derivative financial instruments. This complex standard is the best piece of literature ever generated by the FASB on accounting for risk of hedged items (traditional assets and liabilities) and hedges (usually derivative instruments). Most all types of risk can be hedged in these days of modern technologies and newer types of derivative instruments such as interest rate swaps and options.

Derivative financial instruments have exploded in popularity in world economies. For example, interest rate swaps were not invented until 1984 when Salamon Brothers and Bankers Trust invented them in an IBM contract. Since then, interest rate swaps have grown to nearly 10 trillion dollars in financial contracting each year.

There are four main readings in the ACCT 5341:

• The Strong text has relatively short chapters but they can be somewhat difficult.  Although the focus is on derivative financial instruments, this textbook deals with valuation and risk and hedging of risk.  Virtually all of the theory of accounting concerns accounting for value and risk.
  
  
• FAS 133 (the "green book" that I asked you to bring to the first class) is a reference book that is vital to this course. It is also vital to the next few CPA examinations. New standards tend to be given priority on CPA examinations about two years after they become required. FAS 133 became required in 1998.
  
  
• On given weeks, I will focus on accounting theory materials linked at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory.htm
  
  

ACCT 5341 is one of those courses that will be appreciated more after you have been on the job for several years and discover that auditing and accountancy in general are about value and risk. The failure of the Enron audit dramatically brings to light how bad value and risk are accounted for under GAAP and managerial accounting.

Grading Policy

Grades will be determined on the basis of point rankings as follows:

0380 Points --- In-class Quizzes and preliminary examinations

0200 Points --- Project Assignment --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/acct5341/ProjectAssignments/sp2006/000index.htm  

0020 Points --- Online learning AECM and CPA-L listserv subscribers.  

Students are encouraged to ask questions or respond to questions raised by other subscribers.  For course credit, each student should submit an email message report before the end of the semester summarizing what was learned about accounting and accounting theory from the listservs.

Points will be allocated based upon your report subscribing to each listserv

0400 Points --- Final Examination 

1000 Points --- Total Possible Points

Students must take their own notes in handwritten spiral notebooks.  Paper other than spiral notebook paper is not allowed during examinations except were noted otherwise.  The only typed items permitted to be taped into the spiral notebooks are the Possible Quiz Questions each week.  Since there will be few, if any, quizzes this semester, the Possible Quiz Questions are really Possible Examination Questions.

The grading scale is: 90%-100% = A Range; 80%-89% = B range; 70%-79% = C range; below 70% = F. Class participation and attendance are important and will be considered as subjective elements of your final grade, particularly in borderline cases.

Dr. Sandlin wrote the following Excused Absence Policy and requested that all accounting instructors in graduate courses adopt the following policy.

Excused Absence Policy

Master of Science in Accounting Program

 The Master of Science in Accounting policy regarding absences from graduate classes is as follows:

 The final grade (on a 100-point basis) will be reduced by three points each time a class that meets once a week is missed as the result of an unexcused absence and by one and a half points each time a class that meets twice a week is missed as the result of an unexcused absence.

 Examples of unexcused absences include, but are not limited to, absences resulting from studying for other exams, finishing term papers, working, or engaging in non-emergency related travel. 

Professor Jensen is in his Chapman 313 office most every day of the week.  You see him during office hours or at most any other time.  You may also schedule an appointment by sending an email request to  rjensen@trinity.edu

Student Teaching Assistant Michelle Roberts

Sundays 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Mondays 12:15 PM - 1:45 PM
Wednesdays 12:15 PM - 1:45 PM

By appointment at michelle.roberts@trinity.edu

The above graduate assistant will be available to help students in private appointments or student partner appointments  (please schedule via email) in the Computer Lab on the main floor level in the back on the right hand side (Level 3) of the library.

Preliminary Course Activities

What are the major types of derivatives risk?

[Hint 1:  In addition to FAS 133, students may find definitions and examples in  "Summary of Derivative Types"  ---  http://www.rutgers.edu/Accounting/raw/fasb/derivsum.exe
Trinity University students may download from
J:\courses\acct5341\fasb\sfas133\derivsum22 
Especially note pp. 19-21 and 84-85.]

Please subscribe to the AECM and CPA-L listservs linked at
 http://pacioli.loyola.edu./ 

You can unsubscribe according to instructions at 
http://pacioli.loyola.edu/aecm/ 
http://pacioli.loyola.edu/cpas-l/ 

If you have not done so already, I recommend that you obtain a relatively inexpensive student membership in the AICPA.  Have a look at this good deal at http://www.aicpa.org/nolimits/index.htm 

Helpful Internet Links

Helpful Documents at Bob Jensen's Web Site
(Will open in a new browser window.)

Helpful Links for This Course
(Will open in a new browser window.)

Search engine for education sites --- http://www.searchedu.com/   
My gosh, there were 421 hits for "Bob Jensen," 52 hits for "FAS 133," and 109 hits for "SFAS 133!  I am truly impressed.

Over 20 million university and education pages indexed and ranked in order of popularity.

Search for electronic books --- http://www.searchebooks.com/ 
There were 293 hits for accounting books.

For more help in online searching go to http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm 

Helpful Documents at Bob Jensen's Web Site

• Bob Jensen's Main Index to Public Documents

• Document 03: Bob Jensen's Bookmarks

• Bob Jensen's FAS 133, FAS 138, and IAS 39 Helpers
  
• Bob Jensen's FAS, FAS 138, and IAS 39 Glossary
  
• Freddie Mac
  
• Bob Jensen's Accounting Theory Documents
  
• Bob Jensen's Documents on Electronic Commerce
  
• Campus Network Path to Files J:\courses\acct5341

Notes and Paths to Files

The main path to materials for this course that can be accessed from my Drive J on a TUCC lab computer can be found on the path  J:\courses\acct5341

In particular, note the folder called Readings

ACCT 5341 ACCOUNTING THEORY

Trinity University

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