AC 450 - Management Accounting

3 Credits
Outline Effective Date: Academic Year 2025/2026
Revised Date: Sep 3, 2025
Date Approved: Sep 3, 2025

Lecture Hours: 59

Course Description:
The course looks at how to prepare and use accounting information to plan operations, control activities and make decisions. Topics include product costing, cost-volume profit analysis, relevant costs for decision making, and budgeting.

Rationale:
This is a required course for the Business Administration Accounting Major. Management Accounting is important to set the framework for business decision making. Management Accounting deals with the information relevant for analysis, decision-making, planning and control. Concepts such as contribution margin, opportunity cost, budgeting and incremental analysis are fundamental to any serious analysis of business cases in the real world.

Prerequisites: AC 230
Corequisites: None

Course Learning Outcomes:
A student who successfully completes the course will have reliably demonstrated the ability to

1.differentiate between various costs and their purposes.

2.prepare and analyze a contribution format income statement.

3.apply understanding of costs to cost-volume-profit scenarios.

4.apply job order costing concepts.

5.apply activity-based costing as an aid in decision-making.

6.prepare a master budget and a flexible budget.

7.prepare and analyze segmented income statements.

8.prepare transfer pricing calculations.

9.apply relevant costing techniques to management decisions.

Required Resource Materials:
Garrison, R., Libby, T., & Webb, A. (2024). Managerial Accounting (13th Canadian ed.).

McGraw-Hill Ryerson.

Optional Resource Materials:
None

Conduct of Course:
The 59 hours of instruction consist of lecture, problem-solving demonstration, and exams.

The course consists of four main sections.

1.Overview and Foundations of Management Accounting

2.Cost Behavior, Analysis, and Function

3.Planning and Control

4.Short-Term and Long-Term Decisions

Students are expected to:

1.Come to class and participate

2.Read the text material

3.Practice homework problems as assigned

4.Complete assignments and exams as scheduled

The focus is on developing the ability of the student to analyze situations, find the problems, and propose solutions. Flexibility and an open-minded approach are much more successful than memorizing cut and dried examples.

The course is based on current practice in the real world of business and stresses applications more than theory or procedure.

It is highly recommended that students acquire and make use of a laptop in and away from the classroom in order to successfully engage in and complete the course. All examples and demonstrations are done in Microsoft Excel, and it is recommended that students do so as well.

Content of Course:

Managerial Accounting and the Business Environment
Cost Terms, Concepts, and Classifications
Cost Behaviour: Analysis and Use
Cost-Volume-Profit Relationships
System Design: Job Order Costing
Activity-Based Costing: A Tool to Aid Decision-Making
Variable Costing: A Tool for Management
Budgeting
Reporting for Control
Relevant Costs for Decision Making

Course Assessments:
The final grade is an aggregate of the following components:

Exam (3)	80%
Assignments/Projects	20%
Total	100%

Official final grades will be available on My Lakeland. Grades posted in D2L should be considered interim grades.
“Lakeland College is committed to the highest academic standards. Students are expected to be familiar with Lakeland College policies and to abide by these policies. Violations of these policies are considered to be serious and may result in suspension or expulsion from the College.”

Course Pass Requirements:
A minimum grade of D (50%) (1.00) is required to pass this course.

Letter	F	D	D+	C-	C	C+	B-	B	B+	A-	A	A+
Percent Range	0-49	50-52	53-56	57-59	60-64	65-69	70-74	75-79	80-84	85-89	90-94	95-100
Points	0.00	1.00	1.30	1.70	2.00	2.30	2.70	3.00	3.30	3.70	4.00	4.00

Students must maintain a cumulative grade of C (GPA - Grade Point Average of 2.00) in order to qualify to graduate.

Every effort has been made to ensure that information in this course outline is accurate at the time of publication. Lakeland College reserves the right to change courses if it becomes necessary so that course content remains relevant.

In such cases, the instructor will give students clear and timely notice of changes.

No part of this course outline may be reproduced in any form or resold without written permission from Lakeland College.

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