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Acct 354 Outline W2016
Acct 354 Outline W2016
Acct 354 Outline W2016
Zvi Singer
Bronfman 334
Email: zvi.singer@mcgill.ca
Phone: (514) 398-6240
Class Schedule:
Section 1 5617 Monday and Wednesday 1:05 2:25 pm, Room 046
Section 2 4597 Monday and Wednesday 2:35 3:55 pm, Room 045
Office Hours: Monday and Wednesday 4:00 5:00 pm, or by appointment
Course Overview and Objectives: The main purpose of the course is to teach you the
processes and methods of financial statement analysis by which users extract
information to answer questions about the firms performance. This course takes an indepth look into financial statements and shows how information therein can be analyzed
and processed to assist various stakeholders (investors, managers, regulators, etc.) in
their business decisions. The course will help you to discriminate substance from form of
corporate financial reports, including assessing the impact of alternative accounting
methods, management biases and stakeholder interests in the analysis and valuation of
the firm. The course uses cases and real world examples to convey the material and to
highlight important issues.
Course Prerequisites:
MGCR 211, Introduction to Financial Accounting, MCGR 341, Finance 1
Course Evaluation:
Homework (4 individual cases; no more than 1 per topic)
Participation
Midterm Exam (Friday February 26)
Term Team project (Due April 20)
Term Team project presentation (last week, April 11&13)
Final Exam (during final exam period, TBD)
Total
5%
5%
30%
15%
5%
40%
100%
Right to submit written work in English or French: In accord with McGill Universitys
Charter of Students Rights, students in this course have the right to submit in English or
in French any written work that is to be graded.
Academic Integrity: McGill University values academic integrity. Therefore all students
must understand the meaning and consequences of cheating, plagiarism and other
academic offences under the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures
next 3 years. The report should be 8 to 10 pages long, plus numerical appendices &
graphs if needed. The information in the appendices should only complement the report,
and not be used to shift information from the report. For the report, each team should
first pick a public company to analyze. You should send me the information about the
team members and the company no later than Wednesday, Feb.24th. Feel free to come
and discuss with me potential companies. You may work with students from the other
section, but you need to make sure to be available for the project presentation if most of
the group members are from the other section.
Term project report format
1. The report should begin with executive summary, A 1-page overview of your paper,
your main findings and your conclusion.
2. Main body of the report should include the following components:
a. Industry and Competitiveness analysis
b. Business models and corporate governance analysis
c. An overview of the accounting policies
d. A critical assessment of the reporting quality of the balance sheet, income
statements, statement of cash flows, and the note disclosure
e. The analysis in (d) should lead to identification of some adjustments (at least 2) to
the financial statements.
f. Using the insight from (D) and (e) should lead to the projection of the income
statement for the next 3 years
g. Conclusion
Sections d-f should be the heart of the analysis.
Term project is due on Wednesday April 1 because term papers due dates must be
before the last 2 weeks of the end of the semester. None-the-less, I will accept late
submission with no penalties until April 11, the date of the first presentation.
Term project presentation
In the last week, each team will be asked to present its term project analysis in class,
using PowerPoint slides. Presentation should be of between 10 & 15 minutes. The
presentation must be conducted by all team members.
Exams
The midterm will be held Friday February 26. (closed-book, 1 double-sided formula
sheet).
The final exam will be held during the final exam period (closed-book with 1 formula
sheet allowed)
There will be NO make-up exams for students who miss the midterm. The weight of the
mid-term exam will then be transferred to the final exam.
Practice Problems:
Robinson text these are multiple choice type questions.
The suggested problems from Robinson & Hoskins are listed on Mycourse for each
Topic. Though the completion of the practice problems is not mandatory, they may be a
good way to understand and internalize the course material.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
TOPIC
Robinson
Chapt
er
Mini Cases
Jan.
7&11
Jan.
13&18
Jan.
20&25
Jan. 27
& Feb.1
Feb.
3&8
Feb.
10&15
Feb.
17&22
Introduction to FSA
Financial Reporting Environment
Income statement
Ch 1
Ch 3
Ch 4
Balance Sheet
Cash Flow Statement
Earnings Quality
Ch 5
Ch 6
Ch 11&17
Ch 7
Apple
Feb. 24
&Mar.7
Ch 9
Ch 12
Ch 8
Mar.
9&14
1
0
1
1
1
2
Mar.
16&21
Mar.
23&30
Apr.
1
3
Apr.
11&13
Ch 10, 13
Pensions
Ch 14
Pensions article
4
&
6
Term project presentations
Final Exam (Cumulative) - TBA