Course Outline

RSM 326 H1 S
Data Analytics with Financial Accounting Information
Winter 2023
Lecture Meets: Thursday 9-11 (L0101) and 11-1 (L0201) in RT 142, Thursdays 3-5 (L0301) in
SS1085
Tutorials Meet: Friday 10-11 (Online)

Instructors: Scott Liao (L0101 and L0201), Abdul Khizer (L0301)

Email: scott.liao@rotman.utoronto.ca, Abdul.khizer@ utoronto.ca
Webpage: https://q.utoronto.ca
Phone: 416-946-8599
Office Hours: by appointment

Teaching Assistants: Jitesh Kumar (jitesh.kumar@rotman.utoronto.ca),

Course Scope and Mission

This course introduces the analytical mindset and data analytics skills that accounting
professionals need to analyze and evaluate a variety of data in order to create insights for making
decisions. In particular, you will learn to ask the right questions, prepare the relevant data, apply
the appropriate data analytics methods, and interpret the results to answer the questions. You
will also learn to use common data analytics tools, such as Excel, Access (SQL), and Tableau to
prepare, analyze, and model financial data. Finally, you will apply the analytical mindset and data
analytics skills to address various accounting, finance, and general business problems.

Course Prerequisites
RSM219H1, ECO220Y1/ECO227Y1/(STA220H1, STA255H1)/(STA237H1, STA238H1) /
(STA257H1, STA261H1)

Statement on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

The University of Toronto is committed to equity, human rights and respect for diversity. All
members of the learning environment in this course should strive to create an atmosphere of
mutual respect where all members of our community can express themselves, engage with each
other, and respect one another’s differences. U of T does not condone discrimination or
harassment against any persons or communities.

Required Readings
Highly recommended: Introduction to Data Analytics for Accounting, Richardson, Terrell and
Teeter, McGraw Hill.

Evaluation and Grades

Grades are a measure of the performance of a student in individual courses. Each student shall
be judged on the basis of how well they have command of the course materials.
Work % Weight Due Date
Homework Not graded Weekly
Class Participation 10% Weekly
Midterm Group Project 30% March 9
Final Individual Project 25% April 6
Final Exam 35%

Course Format and Expectations

Class Participation

Students are required to prepare thoroughly and make every effort to make contributions to the
class discussion. The success of this class will depend on students’ participation. Active
participation will make the class more enjoyable and interesting. Participation in class is evaluated
based on the quantity and quality of comments made during each week’s class.

Homework

There will be weekly take-home problems. The problems will be covered by the TA during the
tutorial session and are therefore not graded. They serve as a practice and will significantly
enhance the learning and preparation for the projects and the final exam. Completion of
homework is highly encouraged.

Midterm Group Project

The midterm group project requires students to work in teams of 4-5. Learning to work together
in teams is a crucial transferrable skill you will use not only in your coursework, but also in your
future careers. Support is available if you encounter common teamwork challenges such as:
• Team members feeling left out of the team.
• Team members not responding in a timely manner to communication.
• Division or quality of work among team members being unequal or unfair.
Consult the Centre for Professional Skills Teamwork Resources page for tips, strategies, and best
practices. You can also book an appointment with a teamwork mentor through the RC Centre for
Professional Skills Writing Centre. Teamwork mentors can help you resolve or mitigate conflict,
strategize on planning, or improve team communication.
If you are a student registered with Accessibility Services, and extensions are one of your
academic accommodations, consult with your Accessibility Advisor about the teamwork in this
course.

Final Individual Project

While the final project will be similar in nature to the midterm project, it will be done individually
rather than in groups. Details of the project will be revealed closer to the mid-semester.

Final Exam

Final exam will be in-class, scheduled for during the final exam period (date TBD). It will cover
the entire semester and unlike the projects, which are aimed at testing students’ ability to perform
analyses using data, it will be focused on testing conceptual knowledge and ability to interpret
analyses.
Ouriginal:

Normally, students will be required to submit their course essays to the University’s plagiarism
detection tool for a review of textual similarity and detection of possible plagiarism. In doing so,
students will allow their essays to be included as source documents in the tool’s reference
database, where they will be used solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism. The terms that
apply to the University’s use of this tool are described on the Centre for Teaching Support &
Innovation web site (https://uoft.me/pdt-faq).

Writing Assignments or Presentations

How well you communicate your ideas, in writing or orally, will be considered in the evaluation of
the assignment. In your written assignments, you should aim for clarity, strong organization,
concision, professionalism, and correct grammar. Your presentations should reflect strong
planning and organization, clarity of speech, and an engaging demeanour. Sources, whether in
written or presentation assignments, should always be correctly attributed.
Support is available through the RC Centre for Professional Skills (CPS) for students who would
like help or feedback on their writing or speaking (presentations). CPS offers both individual and
group appointments with trained writing instructors and presentation coaches who are familiar
with the RC program and common types of business assignments. You can also access your
college Writing Centres for help with written assignments.
You can book an appointment with a writing or presentation coach through the RC Centre for
Professional Skills Writing Centre. For more information about writing centres, student supports,
and study resources, see the Writing and Presentation Coaching academic support page.

Electronic Course Materials

This course will be using the following electronic course materials:

Electronic access to the textbook listed above (highly recommended, but not required), $99.

The required materials will cost no more than $65.00. The use of these materials complies with
all University of Toronto policies which govern fees for course materials.
Weekly Schedule

Session Date** Topic Readings

1 Jan 12 Using Data Analytics to Ask and Answer Chapter 1
Accounting Questions Appendices 1A & 1B
2 Jan 19 Introduction to Accounting Data Chapter 2
Data Types and How They Are Used Chapter 3
3 Jan 26 Preparing Data for Analysis 1 Chapter 4
(Relational database, VLOOKUP, & Data Model)
4 Feb 2 Preparing Data for Analysis 2 Appendix 4A
(Power Query & SQL)
5 Feb 9 Types of Data Analytics Chapter 5 (pp. 224-235)
Descriptive Analytics Chapter 6

6 Feb 16 Review of Basic Statistics Chapter 5 (pp. 236-245)

Diagnostic Analytics Chapter 7

Reading Week – No classes

7 Mar 2 Diagnostic Analytics (continued) Chapter 7

8 Mar 9 Predictive Analytics Chapter 8

9 Mar 16 Predictive Analytics (continued) Chapter 8

10 Mar 23 Prescriptive Analytics Chapter 9

11 Mar 30 Prescriptive Analytics (continued) Chapter 9

Share the Story & Visualization Chapter 10

12 Apr 6 Catch up and Selected topics (may be TBA

asynchronous)
Final Exam Period
* The schedule is subject to change.
** Please attend the section that you are officially registered in.

Please note that the last day you can drop this course without academic penalty is March
19, 2020.

Policies and Procedures

Missed Tests and Assignments (including mid-term and final-term
assessments)

Students who miss a test or assignment for reasons entirely beyond their control (e.g. illness)
may request special consideration.
In such cases, students must:
1. Notify the instructor AND the Rotman Commerce Program Office on the date of the
missed course deliverable, e.g. missed test, final assessments, assignment or class (in
the case of participation marks).
 2. Complete a Request for Special Consideration Form and submit it along with your
Absence Declaration on ACORN (please read the instructions on how to use the
Absence Declaration in ACORN) within 2 business days of the originally scheduled
course deliverable. Please email your documents to rotmancommerce.info@utoronto.ca
.
Students who do not provide this information will be given a grade of 0 (zero) for the missed
course deliverable.

Missed assignments/homework may be reweighted to other components by the discretion

of the instructor.

Late Assignments

All assignments are due on the date and at the time specified in Quercus. Late submissions will
normally be penalized by 20% if the assignment is not received on the specified date, at the
specified time. A further penalty of 5% will be applied to each subsequent day.

Students who, for reasons beyond their control, are unable to submit an assignment by its
deadline must obtain approval from the instructor for an extension. Supporting documentation will
be required as per the policy on missed tests and assignments.

Commitment to Accessibility

The University is committed to inclusivity and accessibility, and strives to provide support for,
and facilitate the accommodation of, individuals with disabilities so that all may share the same
level of access to opportunities and activities offered at the University.
If you require accommodations for a temporary or ongoing disability or health concern, or have
any accessibility concerns about the course, the classroom or course materials, please email
Accessibility Services or visit the Accessibility Services website for more information as soon as
possible. Obtaining your accommodation letter may take up to several weeks, so get in touch
with them as soon as possible. If you have general questions or concerns about the accessibility
of this course, you are encouraged to reach out to your instructor, course coordinator, or
Accessibility Services.

Academic Integrity
Academic Integrity is a fundamental value essential to the pursuit of learning and scholarship at
the University of Toronto. Participating honestly, respectively, responsibly and fairly in this
academic community ensures that the U of T degree that you earn will continue to be valued
and respected as a true signifier of a student's individual work and academic achievement. As a
result, the University treats cases of academic misconduct very seriously.

The University of Toronto’s Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters outlines the behaviours
that constitute academic misconduct, the process for addressing academic offences and the
penalties that may be imposed. You are expected to be familiar with the contents of this
document. Potential offences include, but are not limited to:

In papers and assignments:

• Using someone else's ideas or words without appropriate acknowledgement.
• Submitting your own work in more than one course without the permission of the
instructor.
• Making up sources or facts.
 • Obtaining or providing unauthorized assistance on any assignment (this includes
collaborating with others on assignments that are supposed to be completed
individually).

On test and exams:

• Using or possessing any unauthorized aid, including a cell phone.
• Looking at someone else's answers
• Misrepresenting your identity.
• Submitting an altered test for re-grading.

Misrepresentation:
• Falsifying institutional documents or grades.
• Falsifying or altering any documentation required by the University, including (but not
limited to) medical notes.

All suspected cases of academic dishonesty will be investigated by the following procedures
outlined in the Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters. If you have any question about what is
or is not permitted in the course, please do not hesitate to contact the course instructor. If you
have any questions about appropriate research and citation methods, you are expected to seek
out additional information from the instructor or other U of T resources such as College Writing
Centres or the Academic Success Centre.

Tutorial and TA Office Hours

TA would be conducting a Tutorial every Friday from 10:00 AM to 11:00 PM. These tutorials
would be held online and are not mandatory to attend but will be helpful if students need any extra
help. Tutorials would be recorded for students. Tutorials would run from Jan 20th till the end of
the term.

Moreover, TA would also be available for office hours which may be booked online any day
through an appointment.

Zoom Details for Tutorial

Meeting URL: https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/86243971604

Meeting ID: 862 4397 1604
Passcode: 772823

Email
At times, the course instructor may decide to communicate important course information by email.
As such, all U of T students is required to have a valid UTmail+ email address. You are
responsible for ensuring that your UTmail+ email address is set up and properly entered on
ACORN. For more information visit help.ic.utoronto.ca/category/3/utmail.html.

Forwarding your utoronto.ca email to a Gmail or other type of email account is not advisable. In
some cases, messages from utoronto.ca addresses sent to Gmail accounts are filtered as junk
mail, which means that important messages from your course instructor may end up in your spam
or junk mail folder.
Quercus and the Course Page
The online course page for this course is accessed through Quercus. To access the course page,
go to q.utoronto.ca and log in using your UTORid and password. Once you have logged in, you
will be at the Quercus Dashboard. On this page you will see all of the courses you are presently
enrolled in. If you don’t see the course listed here but you are properly registered for the course
in ACORN, wait 48 hours.

Recording Lectures
Lectures and course materials prepared by the instructor are considered by the University to be
an instructor’s intellectual property covered by the Canadian Copyright Act. Students wishing to
record a lecture or other course material in any way are required to ask the instructor’s explicit
permission, and may not do so unless permission is granted. Students who have been previously
granted permission to record lectures as an accommodation for a disability are excepted. This
includes tape recording, filming, photographing PowerPoint slides, Quercus materials, etc.

If permission for recording is granted by the instructor (or via Accessibility Services), it is intended
for the individual student’s own study purposes and does not include permission to “publish” them
in any way. It is forbidden for a student to publish an instructor’s notes to a website or sell them
in any other form without formal permission.

FIPPA Language
Notice of video recording and sharing (Download permissible; re-use prohibited)
This course, including your participation, will be recorded on video and will be available to students
in the course for viewing remotely and after each session.

Course videos and materials belong to your instructor, the University, and/or other source
depending on the specific facts of each situation, and are protected by copyright. In this course,
you are permitted to download session videos and materials for your own academic use, but you
should not copy, share, or use them for any other purpose without the explicit permission of the
instructor.

For questions about recording and use of videos in which you appear please contact your
instructor.

Other Useful Links

• Become a volunteer note taker
• Accessibility Services Note Taking Support
• Credit / No-Credit in RSM courses
• Rotman Commerce Academic Support

URL links for print

• Request for Special Consideration Form: https://rotmancommerce.utoronto.ca/current-
students/forms-requests-and-appeals/forms/
• ACORN: http://www.acorn.utoronto.ca/
• Email Accessibility Services: accessibility.services@utoronto.ca
• Accessibility Services website: http://studentlife.utoronto.ca/as
• University's Plagiarism Detection Tool FAQ: https://uoft.me/pdt-faq
• The University of Toronto’s Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters:
http://www.governingcouncil.utoronto.ca/policies/behaveac.htm
• Information Commons Help Desk: http://help.ic.utoronto.ca/category/3/utmail.html
• Become a volunteer note taker: https://studentlife.utoronto.ca/program/volunteer-note-
taking/
• Accessibility Services Note Taking Support: https://studentlife.utoronto.ca/service/note-
taking-support/
• Credit / No-Credit in RSM courses: https://rotmancommerce.utoronto.ca/current-
students/degree-requirements/credit-no-credit-option/
• Rotman Commerce Academic Support: https://rotmancommerce.utoronto.ca/current-
students/academic-support/
• Book an appointment with a writing or presentation coach: http://uoft.me/writingcentres
• Writing and Presentation Coaching academic support page:
https://rotmancommerce.utoronto.ca/current-students/academic-support/writing-and-
presentation-coaching/
• Centre for Professional Skills Teamwork Resources page:
https://rotmancommerce.utoronto.ca/teamwork-resources
• Book an appointment with a Teamwork Mentor: http://uoft.me/writingcentres