Time Schedule:
William L. Wells
ACCTG 215
Seattle Campus
Nature and social setting of accounting; uses of accounting information; introduction of basic accounting concepts and procedures; interpretation of financial statements. May not be repeated. Offered: AWSpS.
Class description
All of you should learn that accounting is an information system that supports economic decision-making. Specifically by the end of this course, you should:
• Have 1) a beginning knowledge of double-entry bookkeeping and be able to use that knowledge to interpret and record basic business events in journals and ledgers, 2) be able to prepare from those records four financial statements according to U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, 3) understand the characteristics and limitations of those statements, and 4) understand how those statements are used when making personal and/or organizational decisions.
• Have had the opportunity to improve your analytical, communication and interpersonal skills.
• Be better positioned to decide whether business and/or accounting is a career possibility. To that end, I will make every effort to make this class relevant, interesting, and enjoyable.
Student learning goals
Regardless of your motivation and/or interest, this course should prove to be of lasting value to you for one or more of the following reasons:
• Practically all of you will work for a profit-orientated business. As your responsibilities increase, you will discover that your compensation and advancement will be determined in part by the information generated by the accounting system: Accounting is the language of business.
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For every enrolled student, you will learn many business terms and become familiar with financial reports, both of which will be used or referenced when you invest funds excess to your immediate needs.
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Some of you are future business majors. Besides fulfilling a prerequisite for entrance to the Business School, this course is a building block for practically all future business classes.
General method of instruction
All courses involve two 80 minute lectures and two 50 minute quiz sessions per week. The lecture sessions are taught by many persons; each has his or her own style and techniques. In lectures taught by Wells, teamwork is stressed with three assignments graded as a team effort (all receive the same grade.) Also in Wells's courses, copies of overhead transparancies are made available on Blackboard, an online couorse-management system. The overheads allow students more time to think about what is being said rather than taking notes.
Recommended preparation
In Wells's course, the approach is to attend and listen. Then after the class and before the following day's quiz session, assigned reading and homework should be completed. If the material is not understood, assistance should immediately be sought from the instructor, teaching assistant or other student groups. The volume of the material makes it very difficult to catch-up.
Class assignments and grading
Homework problems from the text for discussion in quiz session. Team assignments performed/discussed in and/or out of lecture sessions.
One paper.
220 points may be earned from the quiz section. Those points are earned by completing the following: Three team assignments 3-5 Internet search assignments Periodic quizzes Class participatioin Instructor discretion
450 points are earned from three equally-weighted examinations.
