NORTH CENTRAL TEXAS COLLEGE

COURSE SYLLABUS

 

COURSE AND INSTRUCTOR INFORMATION

 

Course title: Principles of Financial Accounting

 

Course prefix, number, and section number: ACCT 2301.0401

 

Semester/Year of course: Fall, 2025

 

Semester start and end dates: Aug. 25-Dec. 13 2025

 

Modality: Face-to-face

 

Class meeting location, days, and times: MW, 9:30-10:50 am—Corinth 211

 

Lab meeting location, days, and times: there is no lab with this course.

 

Semester credit hours: 3

 

Course description: This course is an introduction to the fundamental concepts of financial accounting as prescribed by U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and applied to transactions and events that affect business organizations. Students will examine the procedures and systems to accumulate, analyze, measure, and record financial transactions. Students will use recorded financial information to prepare a balance sheet, income statement, statement of cash flows, and statement of shareholders' equity to communicate the business entity's results of operations and financial position to users of financial information who are external to the company. Students will study the nature of assets, liabilities, and owners' equity while learning to use reported financial information for purposes of making decisions about the company. Students will be exposed to the similarities and differences between GAAP and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

 

Course prerequisites: MATH 1314 & BCIS 1305 or equivalent are recommended. MATH 1324-Mathematics for Business and Social Sciences is co-recommended.

 

Required course materials: The text is Horngren’s Financial & Managerial Accounting, 8^th edition: The Financial Chapters. The authors are Miller, Nobles, and Mattison. You must purchase the text and access to MyLab. You may obtain both as a package from either the NCTC bookstore or from Pearson. I encourage you to check prices with both since there may be significant differences between them. However, wherever you obtain them, be sure your purchase includes access both to the text and to MyLab.

 

Name of instructor: Richard W. Walker

 

Office location: Corinth campus, Room 313, C-1

 

Telephone number: (214) 507-4610

 

E-mail address: rwalker@nctc.edu

 

Office hours for students: My office hours are 8-9 am & 1-3 pm, M-R. All other times are by text/phone or by appointment. I can meet with you at the Corinth, Denton, or Flower Mound campuses if you wish to meet in person, or you could just call/text or send me an email in Canvas.

 

SYLLABUS CHANGE DISCLAIMER

 

The faculty member reserves the right to make changes to this published syllabus if it is in the best interest of the educational development of this class. Any changes will be announced as soon as possible in person and/or writing.

 

SUMMARY OF COURSE ASSIGNMENTS

 

Graded Assignments are weighted as follows:

 

                        Chapter Homework                       15%

                        Excel Exercises                              15%

                        Chapter Quizzes                             15%

                        Unit Exams                                      20%

                        Learning Outcomes                         5%

                        QEP-Aspire to Be Hired                 5%

                        Semester Project:

                                    Fin. Stmt. Analysis             10%

                        Program Outcome                          5%

                        Attendance                                      10%

                                                                                 100%

 

Final grade scale:  NCTC’s standard, round up grade scale is used in this class.

 

                                    A = 89.5-100

                                    B = 79.5-89.49

                                    C = 69.5-79.49

                                    D = 59.5-69.49

                                    F = 0-59.49

 

Late work policy: Consult the Instructor’s Late Work Policy by clicking the Start Here tab on the home page.

 

Refer to the COURSE ASSIGNMENT CALENDAR for a complete list of all assignments and the open and due dates for them. The Assignments Calendar is filed under the Syllabus tab in Course navigation.

 

COURSE POLICIES

 

LATE SUBMISSION POLICY: Students may not submit late work without prior approval from the instructor. There is no such thing in an accounting practice for late submission of assignments. And so it is for this class. There are two exceptions.

 

1. A documented excuse. If, but only if, a student has both a legitimate reason for missing the assignment and s/he submits documentation for it, the instructor will allow a make-up within three calendar days of the due date.

 

Legitimate reasons for missing an assignment:

1. 1. 1. Birth in the family
      2. Death in the family
      3. Illness documented by an attending physician (MD or DO)
      4. A hospital report or bill
      5. Irregular Military deployment—i.e., deployment that was not scheduled.

 

2. No excuse. The instructor realizes that life sometimes just happens. So, once—and only once—during the semester if a student misses a due date due his/her own error, s/he may make up the assignment within three calendar days, but with a 10-point penalty for late submission.

 

In both cases, student must inform the instructor within one day—not one business day, one day—that the assignment has been missed. Then, once the instructor has extended assignment, the student must complete and submit it as soon as possible. Only under extreme circumstances may an assignment three calendar days after the due date.

 

Finally, no assignments due during the last week of the semester may be made up. There simply is no time to do so at that time.

SEE CANVAS FOR THE COMPLETE COURSE CALENDAR, OUTLINE, DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF GRADED WORK, AND OTHER RELATED MATERIAL.

 

*EXTRA CREDIT: I do not offer individual extra credit. It is not fair to other students who completed their work on time and sometimes at great sacrifice. Besides, ample opportunities for extra credit already are provided—attendance and LO scores (see Attendance below).

 

However, if a student scores greater than 70% on each LO assignment, I will add 10 points to their lowest exam grade at the end of the semester. If the student scores greater than 80% on each LO assignment (not on average, but on each LO), an additional 10 points will be added to her/his lowest exam score at the end of the semester. That’s total of 20 points—two letter grades.

 

I will take attendance as the semester progresses. However, it is up to the student to notify the instructor that the extra credit for LO scores has been earned.

 

Academic Integrity Policy: I have zero tolerance for academic misconduct or dishonesty. ZERO! For NCTC policy about academic misconduct, refer to the student handbook.

 

AI Statements—Institutional & Course requirements: Absent a clear statement from a course instructor, use of or consultation with generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) or other similar technologies shall be treated analogously to assistance from another person, agency, or entity. In particular, using generative AI tools to substantially complete an assignment or exam is not permitted. Students should acknowledge the use of generative AI (other than incidental use) and default to disclosing such assistance when in doubt.

 

When students use generative AI to replace the rigorous demands of and personal engagement with their coursework, it runs counter to the educational mission of the college and undermines the heart of education itself. Artificial Intelligence, large language models, and technologies hold promise for deploying knowledge in service to others and accelerating the discovery of new knowledge. However, such technology poses new challenges to pedagogy and to integrity. Within the context of the teaching mission of the college, and consistent with the Student Code of Conduct, the authority to define the appropriate use, study, and deployment of these technologies rests with the faculty.

Individual course instructors, in coordination with their divisions, set policies regulating the use of generative AI tools in their courses, including allowing or disallowing some or all uses of such tools. Course instructors will set such policies in their course syllabi and clearly communicate such policies to students. Students who are unsure of policies regarding generative AI tools are encouraged to ask their instructors for clarification.

 

This course assumes that all work submitted by students will be generated by the students themselves, working individually or in groups. Students should not have another person/entity do the writing of any substantive portion of an assignment for them, which includes hiring a person or a company to write assignments and using artificial intelligence tools.

 

Attendance Policy: Attendance will be taken in class.

 

Withdrawal Policy: A student may withdraw from a course on or after the official date of record (census date). It is the student’s responsibility to initiate and complete a Withdrawal Request Form.

 

Last day to withdraw from the course with a “W” is Nov. 3, 2025.

 

Student Learning Outcomes: After successfully completing this course the student will be able to:

 

• Use basic accounting terminology and understand the principles, assumptions, and constraints of the accounting environment.
• Identify the differences between cash and accrual accounting.
• Analyze and record business transactions in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) in the U.S.
• Prepare adjusting entries and close the General Ledger to complete the accounting cycle.
• Prepare financial statements in accordance with GAAP, including but not limited to the Income Statement, Balance Sheet, Statement of Cash Flows, and the Statement of Stockholder’s Equity.
• Analyze and interpret financial statements using financial analysis techniques.

 

CORE CURRICULUM FOUNDATIONAL COMPONENT AREA (For classes in the Core)          

         Communication

         Mathematics            

         Life and Physical Science

         Language, Philosophy & Culture

         Creative Arts

         American History

 

         Government/Political Science

         Social and Behavioral Sciences

         Component Area Option

 

         Critical Thinking

         Communication

         Empirical and Quantitative

 

         Teamwork

         Personal Responsibility

         Social Responsibility

√          Academic General Education Course (from ACGM but not in NCTC Core)

         Academic NCTC Core Curriculum Course

         WECM Course

 

Students are expected to follow all rules and regulations found in the student handbook and published online.

 

COLLEGE POLICIES