COURSE NUMBER: EWMBA 223-1*, this course is cross-listed

COURSE TITLE: Corporate Financial Reporting

UNITS OF CREDIT: 3 Units

INSTRUCTOR: John Briginshaw

E-MAIL ADDRESS: http://www.briginshaw.net/prep1.asp?function=email&ident=John&calling_page=http://haas.berkeley.edu

CLASS WEB PAGE LOCATION (HTTP URL):

MEETING DAY(S)/TIME: Thursday, 6:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

PREREQUISITE(S): EWMBA Core Curriculum

CLASS FORMAT: Lecture, discussion, case study discussion and/or student presentations

REQUIRED READINGS: Financial Reporting and Analysis, Revsine, Collins & Johnson, Pearson Prentic Hall; Course reader.

BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE:
Assessment will be by a combination of closed book tests, class participation (including case discussions), homework and projects. Do not register for class unless you can attend the whole class session on January 31st (minitest). Please bring nameplates to class sessions.

ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES:
Corporate Financial Reporting (CFR) is often described as the “footnotes course” and this is an apt starting point to describe the purpose of the course. It is intended to assist students in understanding the detail of company financial statements (right down to the detailed “footnotes” at the back of the financial statements), as an aid to financial analysis of the firm. As mentioned by White et al, some financial analysis is nothing more than journalism – with analysts accepting the financial statements at face value, and unable to do more than observe and track changes in reported earnings. This course is intended to prepare you to go behind the earnings numbers, and develop your knowledge from the core financial accounting course to understand in deeper detail how various accounting decisions are taken, and how accounting numbers are arrived at. For that we have to go right into the “nitty gritty” of the accounting statements, so if accounting detail puts you off, this course is not for you.

This course builds on the core financial accounting course, and encompasses discussion of detailed accounting issues, so a good performance in that course is essential. Incoming students should be familiar with the debit and credit terminology, and should review in detail the journalizing of transactions before commencing the CFR course. Because of the complexity of some of the accounting transactions, alternative methods of describing transactions, such as the financial statement effects template used in Financial Accounting for MBAs by Easton et al, will frequently not be suitable for use in this course (Easton et al (3rd edition) do briefly discuss debit and credit terminology in module 3, and show the journal entries and T-account effects for most transactions in the book margins). Incoming students should also have excellent facility with financial ratios, and understand the purpose and conduct of basic financial analysis (Easton et al Module 4 (3rd edition) or Module 3 (2nd edition) or the equivalent discussion in your text should be reviewed in detail). An understanding of the purpose and content of the four basic financial statements, the main accounts that appear in each, and the meaning of those accounts, is also taken as read. You should at least have thought about the concept of “quality of earnings.” There will be a minitest (closed book multiple choice quiz) counting towards the course grade during week 2 of the course to test understanding of financial accounting among students.

NOTE: There will be no make ups for this quiz, so do not register for the class unless you can attend the entire class session on January 31st 2008.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:
John Briginshaw is currently an Assistant Professor of Accounting at Pepperdine University. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a Ph.D. in Accounting in 2003. Prior to entering the PhD program he worked in commodity trading and management consulting and has an MBA from London Business School where he graduated with Distinction. He teaches financial and managerial accounting at Pepperdine, has taught the Accounting section of the pre-MBA “bootcamp” at Haas since 2005, and has also taught at London Business School, UC Davis and on several executive courses. John is the author of a book, Internet Valuation, published by Palgrave MacMillan.