ACCT 245 (Accounting for Managers of Not-for-Profit Organizations) is a three-credit introductory accounting course teaches the basic financial and managerial accounting concepts and how to read and analyze financial statements. This course is intended to provide managers and potential managers with an overview of the subject of accounting for not-for-profit organizations. There are no prerequisites for this course and there is a challenge for credit option if you are interested!
Accounting for Managers of Not-for-Profit Organizations is made up of ten lessons, eleven quizzes weighing a total of fifteen percent, one assignment weighing fifteen percent, and a pen and paper final examination weighing fifty percent. The ten lessons within this course cover topics, such as an overview of financials management, the language of accounting, statement of cash flows, decision making, planning, budgeting, and financial markets. To receive credit for ACCT 245, students must achieve a cumulative course grade of fifty percent and at least fifty percent on the final examination.
Dr. Fathi Elloumi has been with Athabasca University since August 1, 2000 and has been the course coordinator for ACCT 245 since 2016. Alongside ACCT 245, Dr. Elloumi also coordinates courses ACCT 355 (Cost Analysis), ACCT 454 (Decision Analysis), and EISM 622 (Implementing Strategy Through Management Evaluation). He states, “I have a PhD in Business Administration, a CPA and CGA, and I have been teaching several accounting and taxation courses since 1995. My teaching focus was on managerial accounting.”
He continues, “My work at Athabasca University has given me experience in teaching, course revision and development, and research, including obtaining and effectively using research funding. Athabasca University offers an interesting and respectful work environment and is helping me to invest and excel in my main interests: scientific research and teaching.”
When asked about the structure of the course, he notes that “The course has eleven mini easy quizzes worth fifteen percent, two assignments worth a total of thirty-five percent, and a final exam worth fifty percent of the mark. The difficulty level ranges from low to average. This course is not a difficult one for an average student. The quizzes, assignments and examinations are the basic means of evaluating your knowledge and understanding of course content. Your final grade for a course is normally determined by a weighted average of the marks for all assignments and examinations completed in the course.”
He also gave more detailed information about what you’ll be doing in the course: “Problem-Solving Examples are found throughout the textbook. Each lesson will direct you to specific examples that have been selected to help ensure that you understand certain concepts. These examples include the answers. You can challenge yourself by attempting the examples before looking at the answers.
Self-Test Exercises follow the Problem-Solving Examples in the textbook. Each lesson will direct you to specific self-test exercises that have been selected to help ensure you understand certain concepts. If you want to do additional exercises, feel free to do so, but note that exercises that are not assigned often contain complexities that are beyond the scope of this course.
Practice Problems have been selected from the Learning Exercises listed at the end of each chapter in the textbook to illustrate the application of key concepts in the chapters.
Mini-Quizzes are interactive multiple-choice questions that test your grasp of key concepts from each chapter. Feedback is provided. These questions are at the same level of difficulty as the multiple-choice questions on your final examination. Access the quizzes from the Activities page in each lesson. Mini-quizzes do not contribute to your final grade for the course
Graded Quizzes are interactive, timed exercises that test your understanding of the concepts presented in the lessons. Since the marks you receive on the quizzes contribute to your final grade, you should not attempt the quiz(zes) for the applicable lessons until you have worked through the problem-solving examples, self-tests, and practice problems for the lesson. You only have one attempt at each quiz.
A Day in Your Life Practice Activity describes some “real-life” situations and transactions that you translate into accounting language (i.e., journal entries). This practice activity is a helpful primer for the Day-to-day Accounting timed quiz that you complete after Lesson 2.
The Day-to-day Accounting Quiz is an interactive, timed exercise that will allow you to apply some basic accounting and journal-entry principles to scenarios that depict typical day-to-day events and transactions. This exercise is worth 2% of your course mark and should be completed after Lesson 2.
Assignments must be submitted for marking. Assignment questions vary in length; some address single concepts, whereas others address multiple concepts. Assignment 2 draws on multiple concepts learned throughout the course; it should not be attempted until after Lesson 10 has been completed. Solutions to assignment problems will not be provided; assignment marking will provide guidance on the correct answers to assignment problems, but full solutions will not be provided.”
When asked if he had any advice for students currently enrolled or about to enroll in the course, Dr. Elloumi responded “Good study habits, time management, reading to understand and remember, frequent reviews, and relating your studies to your everyday life all go a long way toward preparing you for examinations. Anxiety can prevent you from doing well in examinations. Many of our students have benefited from coping strategies offered by Athabasca University’s Counselling Services. Athabasca University also produces a brochure “Mastering Exam Anxiety,” and provides online resources. Before you request your examination, discuss your preparedness with your tutor or learning facilitator. If you are having difficulties preparing for your examination, please review Athabasca University’s Counselling Services Mastering Exam Anxiety website or email an AU counsellor.”
So what does he think students will take away from ACCT 245? “Students will learn basic financial and managerial accounting concepts and how to read and analyze financial statements. The focus of the course is on not-for-profit organizations. It will take the student from the basic bookkeeping skills and to learning and applying tools that are commonly used in the decision-making process and financial analysis.”
Dr. Elloumi concludes, “There is no specific difficult or challenging topic in the course. It is all about your work method. We strongly discourage you from spending time on textbook problems that you are not required to do. The problem-solving examples, self-test exercises, practice questions, and mini-quizzes suggested in each lesson are adequate for mastering the material covered in this course. Furthermore, the examination in this course will reflect the content of these suggested problems. Other problems in the textbook may deal with issues that will not be covered on the examination; this means that time spent on these problems will not contribute to your success in this course. In addition, we will not provide you with solutions to these additional problems or any guidance in trying to solve them.”
Whether ACCT 245 (Accounting for Managers of Not-for-Profit Organizations) is a degree requirement of yours or the topics that were discussed above are of interest to you, this course will have you learning the subject of accounting for not-for-profit organizations!