AC 450 - Management Accounting

3 Credits

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:
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able 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.

Garrison, R., Webb, R., & Libby, T. (2020). Managerial Accounting (12th Canadian ed.). McGraw-Hill Ryerson.

Optional Resource Materials:
Laptop

MS Excel

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.

Attendance

Regular attendance is essential for success in any course. Absence for any reason does not relieve a student of the responsibility of completing course work and assignments to the satisfaction of the instructor. Poor attendance may result in the termination of a student from a course(s).

The instructor recommends that the Registrar withdraw any student who does not meet the established attendance requirements. A failing grade of RW (Required to Withdraw) appears on the student’s transcript.

In cases of repeated absences due to illness, the student may be requested to submit a medical certificate.

Instructors have the authority to require attendance at classes.

Content of Course: