PROVIDING EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING IN ACCOUNTING THROUGH A FIELD STUDY PAYROLL PROJECT Developments in Business Simulation & Experiential Learning, Volume 26, 1999 PROVIDING EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING IN ACCOUNTING THROUGH A FIELD STUDY PAYROLL PROJECT Gretchen N. Vik, San Diego State University Martha Doran, San Diego State University Carol Venable, San Diego State University ABSTRACT Academic accounting programs cover a great deal of technical material and its application, but are not always able to give students much hands-on experience in accounting without an added internship course. Our accounting communication course includes a payroll project that gives students some field experience in interviewing and compiling materials, then producing written workpapers and giving an oral presentation on their findings. An advantage of our project over some more structured ones is that it requires very little professor involvement-students choose and set up the company interviews themselves. INTRODUCTION In our junior-level accounting communication course, one of the team projects we assign to groups of 4-6 students toward the end of the semester asks them to gather information on a company’s payroll process from hire to fire through interviews and observation, document the system in appropriate workpaper format, and then present the process and the team evaluation of it to the class in a 12-minute presentation using visuals. Since payroll is not taught in detail in the accounting courses, this is a good way to get them more familiar with workpaper format, cross- referencing, and flowcharting a process. It also teaches them how to interview for information, how to write up results clearly for someone who was not at the interview, and how to show a reader where and when information is related. We’ve had students look at companies as diverse as San Diego Gas and Electric, the Navy Exchange, Aztec Shops, a small fishing trip company, a local muffin bakery, and SCRUBS, a manufacturer of medical clothing. Companies students present can have very few or hundreds of employees, and these companies may control their own payroll process or send it out to a company such as ADP. PROJECT BENEFITS TO STUDENTS The project blends a real-life setting, the company chosen by the team, with the assignment simulation; each team acts as a group of auditors assessing the control environment of the client, along with gaining an understanding of the client’s payroll processing. The team must then prepare workpapers and present highlights of the findings to the “rest of the firm” in 12 minutes, using visuals (most use a computer presentation package such as PowerPoint and overheads). PROJECT BENEFITS TO THE ACCOUNTING COMMUNITY Students enter the work force with at least some experience applying what they have learned in class about accounting systems, interviewing clients, and working in teams to produce professional-level work. PROJECT BENEFITS TO SCHOOL OF ACCOUNTANCY In listening to the calls for change in business education, both AACSB and AECC, we recognized that this assignment has many of the same attributes described as necessary for a better integrating or capstone experience for students. The AACSB indicates that the integrating process can take the form of student intemships, cases, and 356 Developments in Business Simulation & Experiential Learning, Volume 26, 1999 team-based experiential learning. Our assignment captures some aspects of internship, by placing the students inside actual companies, to observe, interview and analyze a company payroll process. The experience requires a variety of skills and can only be accomplished by a team, thus making the team-based experiential learning an integral component, instead of only an artificial design constraint of the course. We accomplish these projects semester after semester with no instructor involvement with the companies. The presentation at ABSEL covers the advantages to this assignment, which have been widely acknowledged, along with how we have avoided some of the disadvantages (additional faculty compensation and support) by our assignment structure. Observations by practicing accountants on the worth of field studies to students are included. 357 Table of Contents Volume 26, 1999 ABSEL's Historical Research Interests Back From the Future: An ABSEL Merlin Exercise for the Year 2005 The Contributions of ABSEL During the 1980's ABSEL's Contributions to Experiential Exercises in the 90's ABSEL's Contributions to Experiential learning/Experiential Exercises: The Decade of the 1970's Business Simulations - Algorithms and Model Enhancements: A 25 year Review A Study of the ETS General Field Test as an AACSB Assessment Tool and the Impact of Experiential Exercises and Simulation on Learning A Framework for Assessing the Competencies Reflected in Simulation Performance Developing A Learning Culture: Assessing Changes in Student Performance and Perception Financial Simulation Using Distributed Computing Technology Analyzing Managers' Judgements and Decisions with an Educational Business Simulation Understanding Your Business through Home-Made Simulator Development An Examination of a Reanalysis of the Impact of a Market Leader on Simulation Competitors' Strategies Applying Shocks to TE Simulations: A Demonstration Increasing Efficiency of Management Skill Assessment A Testbank for Measuring Total Enterprise Simulation Learning Developing Leadership Skills - Video Live! LEADSIMM: Collaborative Leadership Development for the Knowledge Society A Team Approach to Producing Multi-Media Laptop and Video Formatted Presentation Tinkertoys Revisited: Exploring Trust Based Relationships Overall Dominance in Total Enterprise Simulation Performance Success or Bankruptcy: The Relationship between Personal and Goal Orientation and Simulation Performance Assessing the Effects of Feedback: Muti-method and Muti-directions in Multi-pedagogical Courses The Missing Ingredients in Experiential Learning Purpose and Learning Benefits of Business Simulations: A Design and Development Perspective Building Capabilities for Change through Laboratory Simulations Modeling Innovation as a Process of Design in Educational Business Simulation The Need to Measurer variance in Experiential Learning and a New Statistic to do so Assessing Effectiveness of an Experiential Oriented Course Over Time Developing Participant Satisfaction Models of Experiential Exercises in Business Education Perceptions of Learning in TE Simulations Students' View on the Use of Business Gaming in Hong Kong Management Gaming's Lost Opportunity: Meditations about the Russian Experience and Prospects for the Future Unanticipated Enhancements in the Business Strategy and Policy Game when Running in Windows 95 Using a Business Game to Demonstrate Broad Business Concepts A New Model for Business Courses (Getting the Student Connected) Seeing the Forest and the Trees: Integrating Knowledge Using Large Scale Simulations in Capstone Business Strategy Classes Is It Here To Stay? A Roundtable Discussion of the Inter-Group Interaction Interactive Tools Used in Applying Financial Concepts Strengthening Essential Skills through a Finance Exercise: Calculation of Beta A Model of Currency Exchange Rates Understanding Currency Exchange Rates: A three-part Exercise Student Experiences in the World Intercollegiate Business Game Competition Student Experiences in the International-Collegiate Business Policy Game Competition Using Boards of Directors in Simulation Environments: Comments From Board Members Sharing Best Practices: Teaching Smarter, Not Harder Star Power: A Simulation for Understanding Power and Empowerment The Marketing Game: A Marketing Principles Simulation Alexander Islands: GSSM Tiny Business Simulator on the WWW Putting Strategy into Strategic Business Games Industry Analysis, Porter's Five Forces Model and Strategic Group Maps in the Business Strategy Game Simulation The Use of Concept Mapping to Improve Student Performance and Understanding of Strategic Management Concepts: A Comparison of Techniques Transformational thinking in the Organizational Behavior Course: The Use of Metaphor as an Assessment Tool Creation of a Virtual Learning Community for the Global Virtual Enterprise Project Inter Institutional use of Educational Resources: Joint Use of Management Simulation Games Business Insights: Theory and Practice with the Aid of a Business Simulation Progress: An Experiential Exercise in Development Marketing The ABC's of teaching the Theory of Constraints to Undergraduate Business Students Demonstrating Principles of Organizational Purchasing Behavior through an Experiential Exercise The Virtual Manager: A Different Simulation for Managing Complexity When the Rules are changing and Chaos Breeds Innovation: Recapturing the Value of Constructive Thinking and Play in Simulation Training The Pitfalls, and Potential, of Actual Events as Problem Drivers Using Business Games to teach Environmental Awareness and Green Management: The International Experience with the ENSIM Game A Review of my ABSEL-Related Work Simulation of Government: A Workshop Using GEO Creating Internet-Based Games Using Perl and JavaScript Who's on First? Exploring the Concepts of Problem-Based Learning, Experiential Learning, and Lifelong Learning Students Learn Customer Service and Selling while Conducting Research So You Want to Run an NFL Football Team–An Honors Interdisciplinary Project Supervised Internship: The Employer's Perspective Using Computer Assisted Simulation to Teach International Business Strategy: A Case of the Multinational Management Game (MMG) Multi-Cultural Experiential Learning: A Computer Simulation in China An Appreciative Stance on Diversity as We Move into the 21st Century: A Timeline Exercise to Identify Key Experiences in Good Work Relationships between Black and White Peers A Day in the Life of an Interactive, Real Time, and Internet Delivered Course: A Demonstration Comparing Internet Search Engines: An Experiential Learning Exercise Total Enterprise Simulations and the Internet: Assessing Student Perceptions and Preferences Teaching Accounting Information Systems in a Practicum Format Providing Experiential Learning in Accounting through a Field Study Payroll Project A Spreadsheet Based Business Simulation Game Computer-Behavioral Simulations Training for Project Managers Simulation Scenarios - Rationale and Illustration