One of the ways that I like to supplement the Spiceland Intermediate Accounting textbook is to create financial statements from the journal entries in the lessons. Generally, the textbook shows the journal entry that is used for the transaction, but it sometimes does not show what happens to the balance sheet after the journal entry […]
Realized and unrealized gains and losses on the income statement vs OCI statement
Here is a table I made to show students where realized and unrealized gains and losses are reported. This table could be used when teaching the following chapters in the Spiceland Intermediate Accounting textbook (10th edition): Chapter 4: the Income Statement, Comprehensive Income, and the Statement of Cash Flows Chapter 12: Investments Chapter 17: Pensions […]
Accountants in the news: lawsuit alleges racism against Black accountant
I’m originally from San Diego county, so the title of this story in the San Diego Union Tribune caught my eye: Accountant applied for 80 jobs, promotions and got zero. Was it racism? City of San Diego employee says in a lawsuit he wasn’t promoted because he is Black; says city has few Blacks in […]
Debits and credits: first thing you need to know
In the world of financial accounting, one bookkeeping transaction has two effects. We call these two effects “debits and credits.” This is the first thing all accounting students need to understand about them. Let us consider a few analogies to better understand this fundamental idea. Accounting term Debit Credit Analogy: coin Heads Tails Analogy: Newton’s […]
Excel VLOOKUP to calculate grades
In the ACCY department, we curve courses to an average of 3.3 grade points (B+). I had over 70 students across three sections in my ACCY 301 course for the fall of 2021, and wanted the accuracy of using an algorithm to calculate and apply the curve rather than trying to do it by hand. […]
How to name a fiscal year
How should a fiscal year be named? In March of this year, I received a question from a student about the correct way to name a fiscal year. The student asked this question because of the way the fiscal years were named in a case project that was due the following week. I had never […]
For audit: tracing/vouching timeline
I created this image to help students easily understand the difference between tracing and vouching in a financial statement audit. Many thanks to my colleague Dawn Kink for her positive feedback about this image. Feel free to use this image if you think it will be helpful to your students. I would appreciate attribution as […]
Which time value of money table to use?
When first learning about time value of money, it can be confusing to know which table to use in accounting problems. I use the tables in my instruction so that my students won’t be surprised by them if they encounter them on the CPA exam. However, I believe that for FAR and BEC, Excel is […]
Hello world!
I’m excited to start this blog. I plan to use it to post unique content that I create for my students. If you would like more information about me, here is a link to my university bio.