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JOHN CABOT UNIVERSITY
COURSE CODE: "FIN 202-2"
COURSE NAME: "Managerial Accounting"
SEMESTER & YEAR:
Fall 2014
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SYLLABUS
INSTRUCTOR:
Ian Roberts
EMAIL: [email protected]
HOURS:
TTH 4:30 PM 5:45 PM
TOTAL NO. OF CONTACT HOURS:
45
CREDITS:
3
PREREQUISITES:
Prerequisite: FIN 201
OFFICE HOURS:
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COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course is intended to provide an introduction to how accounting fits into management decision making in two key areas: costing and budgeting. It looks at cost-volume relationships, process costing and job costing. Building on this it goes on to consider master budgets, flexible budgets and capital budgeting.The aim is to enable students to apply the principles of management accounting and budgeting to financial planning.
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SUMMARY OF COURSE CONTENT:
This Managerial Accounting course looks at how managerial accounting is is different from financial accounting before looking more deeply at some of the tools used in used to determine and analyze costs. The main topics covered in the course are cost behavior, process costing, cost, volume-profit analysis, the master budget, flexible budgets, standard costs and Activity Based Costing (ABC). These tools will be used to carry out accounting and strategic analyses for use in the decision making process.
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LEARNING OUTCOMES:
Students having successfully completed the course should be able to:
- Prepare and interpret simple financial statements (income statement, balance sheet and statement of cash flows)
- Use cost-benefit analysis to make business decisions
- Distinguish between job costing and process costing, and use each method appropriately to determine the cost of goods sold
- Use cost-volume-profit analysis to compute breakeven points and to perform sensitivity analysis
- Prepare operating and financial budgets
- Prepare a flexible budget and use it to show why actual results differ from the static budget
- Use activity based costing (ABC) to make business decisions
- Make short and long term decisions based on accounting rate of return and discounted cash flow models
- Identify ethical issues in managerial accounting decisions
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TEXTBOOK:
| Book Title | Author | Publisher | ISBN number | Library Call Number | Comments | Format | Local Bookstore | Online Purchase |
| Accounting (9th Edition) | Charles T. Horngren, Walter T. Harrison, Jr., M. Suzanne Oliver | Prentice Hall | ISBN-10: 0132569051 • ISBN-13: 9780132569057 | | | | | |
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REQUIRED RESERVED READING:
RECOMMENDED RESERVED READING:
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GRADING POLICY
-ASSESSMENT METHODS:
| Assignment | Guidelines | Weight |
| Class preparation and participation | The class participation grade will reflect preparation, attendance, quality and frequency of participation. Class preparation will require students to read all the assigned material and, at the end of each unit, to practice problems at home for discussion in class. Class participation will help students to understand the material better and build confidence in public speaking. In each class at least one student will be asked to make a brief presentation of the material they have prepared. Al students are encouraged to participate in almost every class at least once and actively engage in debate in order to provide a rich, interactive learning experience.
The instructor may also indicate university open lectures that are relevant to the course. Students are expected to attend such lectures (unless there is a scheduling class with another course) as part of their class participation activities.
Assignments will be posted on Moodle. Students are required to sigh nu and keep up to date with all Moodle postings for the course.
The following will favorably impact class participation:
- Thorough preparation for each class, including all the required readings and assignments
- Ability to thing critically about the material provided
- Evidence of careful case analysis
- Additional reading or research on any given topic
- Asking questions that benefit the whole class (clarifying concepts, raising issues, challenging ideas)
- Ability to summarize class discussion at the end of a class or at the beginning of the following class
- Ability to make specific recommendations
- Arguments that are supported with facts and data
- Attendance to lectures recommended by the instructor
The following will negatively impact class participation:
- Lack of preparation for classes
- Missing classes
- Not speaking in classes
- Showing lack of interest in the course
- Failure to attend skills labs (Writing Lab, Accounting Lab and so on) if instructed to | 10% |
| Term paper - financial statement analysis | Students will be required to conduct a financial statement analysis of a company using company reports and other market data.
The analysis should include:
- Industry assessment (overview, trends, risks, opportunities)
- Competition (strengths ,weaknesses, positioning, strategy)
- Company analysis (strategy, positioning, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats)
- Financial analysis (growth indicators, ratio analysis, analysis of cash flow statement)
- Conclusion and recommendations
- Appendices
The group project is designed as a stretch assignment to enable students to apply what they have learned and to help them appreciate how the skills they are acquiring can be used in real life situations. | 20% |
| Master budget | Students will be working in groups in the Computer Lab to prepare a full set of financial statements for a company. At the end of the three-day period, students will submit the resulting spreadsheet. In addition to helping students learn about budgeting, the exercise is intended as practice in developing and presenting a simple Excel model.
The spreadsheet will be evaluated on the basis of accuracy, strength of the model and presentation. | 20% |
| Mid-term examination | The midterm exam will take place half way through the course and will test students on the material covered up to that point. | 20% |
| Final examination | The final examination is comprehensive and will test students on all the topics covered throughout the course. | 30% |
| Writing Lab | Students showing difficulty in expressing accounting concepts in English will be asked to attend the Writing Lab ([email protected]) until improvement is achieved, as reported by the Writing Lab Tutor. This program is designed to enhance students' writing skills, with particular attention to grammar, spelling, vocabulary, language register and organization of ideas. Students who have participated in the program in the past have shown marked improvement in their writing skills and this has impacted positively on their course grades.
Students enrolled in the program should attend the Writing Lab and meet with the Writing Lab Tutor prior to submitting written work. Failure to attend the Writing Lab or engage with the Tutor will result in a detraction of up to 5 percentage points from the overall grade. | up to -5% |
| Accounting Lab | Students showing difficulties in their written assignments or in the mid-term examination will be asked to meet with the Accounting Tutor ([email protected]) to practice or review topics that require reinforcement. Students who have participated in the Accounting Lab program in the past have shown marked improvement in their skills and this has impacted positively on their grades.
At the end of the course the Accounting Tutor will provide the instructor with a report on each student. The report will simply state whether the student has met with a tutor and whether the session was profitable or not. Failure to attend or engage with the Accounting Lab will result in a detraction of up to 5 percentage points from the overall grade. | up to -5% |
| Late submission of work | All assignments should be complete and handed in to the professor no later than the beginning of the specific class meeting. Papers received after this deadline will not be accepted and consequently the grade for that paper will be ZERO - unless prior arrangements have been made with the professor. In any case, should the professor accept laet work, 5 percentage points will be detracted from the assignment's grade as a late penalty. | |
-ASSESSMENT CRITERIA:
AWork of this quality directly addresses the question or problem raised and provides a coherent argument displaying an extensive knowledge of relevant information or content. This type of work demonstrates the ability to critically evaluate concepts and theory and has an element of novelty and originality. There is clear evidence of a significant amount of reading beyond that required for the course.
BThis is highly competent level of performance and directly addresses the question or problem raised.There is a demonstration of some ability to critically evaluatetheory and concepts and relate them to practice. Discussions reflect the student’s own arguments and are not simply a repetition of standard lecture andreference material. The work does not suffer from any major errors or omissions and provides evidence of reading beyond the required assignments.
CThis is an acceptable level of performance and provides answers that are clear but limited, reflecting the information offered in the lectures and reference readings.
DThis level of performances demonstrates that the student lacks a coherent grasp of the material.Important information is omitted and irrelevant points included.In effect, the student has barely done enough to persuade the instructor that s/he should not fail.
FThis work fails to show any knowledge or understanding of the issues raised in the question. Most of the material in the answer is irrelevant.
-ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS:
Students are expected to attend all classes and to arrive on time. Persistent absence (more than three times, whether justified or not) or tardiness usually precludes satisfactory performance in the course and will result in a lower class participation grade.
It should be noted that students are required to cover all the material covered by the syllabus and discussed in class, whether or not they are actually present.
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ACADEMIC HONESTY
As stated in the university catalog, any student who commits an act of academic
dishonesty will receive a failing grade on the work in which the dishonesty occurred.
In addition, acts of academic dishonesty, irrespective of the weight of the assignment,
may result in the student receiving a failing grade in the course. Instances of
academic dishonesty will be reported to the Dean of Academic Affairs. A student
who is reported twice for academic dishonesty is subject to summary dismissal from
the University. In such a case, the Academic Council will then make a recommendation
to the President, who will make the final decision.
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STUDENTS WITH LEARNING OR OTHER DISABILITIES
John Cabot University does not discriminate on the basis of disability or handicap.
Students with approved accommodations must inform their professors at the beginning
of the term. Please see the website for the complete policy.
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SCHEDULE
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| Session | Session Focus | Reading Assignment | Other Assignment | Meeting Place/Exam Dates |
| 9/4/14 | Financial statement analysis | | | |
| 9/2/14 | Course introduction and review of financial accounting | | | |
| 9/9/14 | Financial statement analysis | | | |
| 9/11/14 | Cash flow statement | | | |
| 9/16/14 | Cash flow statement | | | |
| 9/18/14 | Job costing | | | |
| 9/23/14 | Job costing | | | |
| 9/25/14 | Process costing | | | |
| 9/30/14 | Process costing | | | |
| 10/2/14 | Activity based costing (ABC) | | | |
| 10/7/14 | Activity based costing (ABC) | | | |
| 10/9/14 | Activity based costing (ABC) | | | |
| 10/14/14 | Mid-term review | | | |
| 10/16/14 | MID-TERM EXAM | | | 10/16/14 |
| 10/21/14 | Cost-volume-profit analysis | | | |
| 10/23/14 | Cost-volume-profit analysis | | | |
| 10/28/14 | The master buget | | | |
| 10/30/14 | The master budget | | | |
| 11/4/14 | The master budget | | | |
| 11/6/14 | Flexible budgets | | | |
| 11/11/14 | Flexible budgets | | | |
| 11/13/14 | Short-term business decisions | | | |
| 11/18/14 | Short-term business decisions | | | |
| 11/20/14 | Capital budgeting and the time value of money | | | |
| 25/11/14 | Capital budgeting and the time value of money | | | |
| 27/11/14 | Capital budgeting and the time value of money | | | |
| 12/2/14 | Final review | | | |
| 12/4/14 | Final review | | | |
| TBD | FINAL EXAM | | | TBD |
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