Introduction

I took Financial Accounting from Chris Paisley in Fall 2007, my first quarter in the MBA program. This was the first quarter that financial and managerial accounting were taught in separate introductory courses to evening MBA students. Previously a single course covered both subjects.

Instructor Profile

For someone hoping as an MBA student will to learn the fundamentals of financial accounting along with a understanding of how the concepts impact board room decisions, there could hardly be a better instructor than Paisley. Beyond his former role as CFO of 3COM, he continues to serve on boards of private and public companies, including chairing audit committees. He teaches the fundamentals of accounting to undergrads, graduate students, and corporate executives.

Classroom experience

Each class followed a simple lecture format. Lecture outlines were available beforehand on ERES, and also displayed on overhead projector during the lecture.

During the first class, Paisley distributed the Brocade 10-K and presented an overview of the document. He referred back to specific parts during many lectures.

Paisley’s lectures covered the fundamentals principles and rules of U.S. financial accounting while tying them to Brocade’s filings and relevant stories of real-world situations he has experienced.

Paisley had a few particular points where his opinion differed from the textbook. If you take his class you will learn which technique for “managing earnings” is frowned upon by the text but considered completely legitimate by this experienced CFO. He was very clear that these opinions were part of the course content, and they were mentioned in his lecture notes and reflected in the exams as well.

Several classes ran late, including one that was interrupted by a medium-intensity earthquake! After each midterm, sessions were scheduled after regular class time to review each problem.

Two classes were devoted to presentations of the group projects.

Coursework, exams, and grades

Course grade consisted of two midterms, a final exam, and a group project.

Each exam consisted of true/false questions and a number of accounting problems. Many students felt that the true/false questions were trickier than they expected – some depended on carefully evaluating details of the sentence.

The group project involved digging into the public filings and earnings calls of a public company and producing a powerpoint slide with summaries and recommendations for investing in or lending to the chosen company.

Homework problems were assigned but not collected. Paisley monitored the ERES discussion board for questions about homework and responded promptly.

What I learned

I definitely learned the fundamental principles and rules of accounting and I got a sense for how they play out when company leaders make decisions and approve financial statements. The group presentations gave me some interesting insight into the different practices followed by some companies in particular industries.

Criticisms

Paisley’s lecture format and style is not well suited to a student who is falling behind. This is because the content moves quickly and he does not use alternative presentation styles to illustrate a concept that some students don’t “get” the first time. That being said, the core concepts of financial accounting are fairly standard and many resources are available to students who need extra explanation and examples, including free tutoring at SCU.

Recommendation

If you consider yourself to be a smart student and you see yourself in the board room someday, go out of your way to take this course from Paisley. If you have reason to think accounting may be a difficult subject for you or if this course description sounds intimidating, there may be another instructor with a style that works better for you. Like many graduate courses, you will need to do ungraded homework with discipline in order to keep up with the course.

Many students will benefit from recording the lectures and having them available for reference when studying for the exams.

Trailer

This article was first written in 2008 by Dylan Salisbury for dylansalisbury.com. All rights reserved. I added this paragraph because spam blog sites pick up copies of my blog posts.

For a list of course reviews and a disclaimer, visit my Course Reviews page.