EXC 3442 Managerial Accounting

EXC 3442 Managerial Accounting

Course code: 
EXC 3442
Department: 
Accounting and Operations Management
Credits: 
7.5
Course coordinator: 
April Nafstad
Course name in Norwegian: 
Managerial Accounting
Product category: 
Bachelor
Portfolio: 
Bachelor - Common Courses
Semester: 
2021 Spring
Active status: 
Active
Level of study: 
Bachelor
Teaching language: 
English
Course type: 
One semester
Introduction

Managerial accounting is a fundamental course regarding internal management with theory, concepts and methods relating to use of information and design of systems to aid in planning, controlling, decision making, evaluating performance and reporting financial results to company leadership.

Learning outcomes - Knowledge

During the course, students should have acquired:

  • Knowledge of concepts within the management accounting discipline.
  • Understanding of the purpose of financial versus managerial accounting.
  • The model of cost-volume-profit analysis.
  • Broad understanding of how to define key cost categories, and how different ways of grouping costs can effect corporate decisions.
  • Knowledge of the consepts of the opportunity cost and sunk cost.
  • Knowledge of the distinction between job-order costing and process costing.  
  • The principles of cost-volume-profit analysis.
  • A deep understanding of how pricing decisions affect profitability.
Learning outcomes - Skills

After completing the course, students shall be able to:

  • Characterize costs and differentiate what costs should be included for a range of corporate decisions. 
  • Argue which costs and revenues are relevant to decision making.
  • Compute cost of goods manufactured, allocate costs, reconcile costs and produce total costs for products/activities/departments. 
  • Apply the theory of cost-volume-profit analysis to example problems.
  • Differentiate between absorption and variable costing and solve problems. 
  • Calculate standard costing variances and assess the root cause. 
  • Calculate the profit maximizing price, break-even point, and elasticity for various scenarios.
  • Justify capital investment decisions.
  • Create budgets and statements of profit and loss, balance sheets and cash flows for management’s analysis.
General Competence

Students must be capable of critical thinking to debate any specific assumptions underlying management accounting concepts used in their analysis. Students must be adept at combining knowledge and applied skills to solve complex problems.

Course content
  • Management accounting, planning, directing, and controlling
  • Comparison of financial and managerial accounting
  • Cost terms, concepts, and classifications
  • Cost behavior: analysis and use
  • Job order costing
  • Process costing
  • Cost-volume-profit relationships
  • Profit reporting under variable costing and absorption costing
  • Performance measurement
  • Relevant costs for decision making for adding and dropping product lines, make or buy decisions, special orders, pricing, and constrained resources
  • Profit planning and budgeting
  • Standard costs and variance analysis
  • Capital investment decisions
Teaching and learning activities

The course will include/entail a combination of active learning activities including mini-lectures, in class group exercises, and plenary tutorials to illustrate appropriate accounting resolutions. Excel will used during the course to solve exercises.

Required work (mandatory quizzes)
There are eight mandatory quizzes during the semester; students must earn approval on five of the quizzes in order to qualify to sit for the course exam. The quizzes are short, limited exercises that the students should be able to answer in about 1,5 hours if they have followed the recommended work schedule. Students who have not adequately prepared must allow more time. Quizzes will be submitted through itslearning.

Students earn approval on the mandatory quizzes by achieving a minimum score of 50%. Quiz requirements will be discussed in class and information will be presented on itslearning. All quizzes will have a minimum of three attempts before the deadline. Quiz deadlines will be discussed during class time and published on itslearning.

Students that have not earned approval on five of the mandatory eight quizzes must retake the quizzes during the next scheduled course.

Feedback to the students will be given:

  1. In class and on itslearning.  Students will be told which assignments are to be completed for the next lecture on itslearning. The lecturer will review some of these assignments in class. Feedback will consist of the students comparing their solutions with the one lecturer explains.
  2. Scores and detailed solutions for the mandatory quizzes will be automatically available through itslearning.

Software tools

A basic understanding of and ability to use Excel spreadsheets is required.  Please note: it is recommended that students use non-Mac operating system computers for the course.  Excel has more limited functionality on Mac platforms. 

Software tools
Software defined under the section "Teaching and learning activities".
Additional information

Re-sit examination
Students must earn approval on five out of the eight mandatory quizzes if they wish to sit for the exam; those students that do not meet this requirement must re-take the quizzes during the next scheduled course and earn approval identical to requirements for students currently enrolled in the course.

Students who have not passed the written examination or who wish to improve their grade may re-take the examination during the scheduled exam period. 

Qualifications

Higher Education Entrance Qualification

Covid-19

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there may be deviations in teaching and learning activities as well as exams, compared with what is described in this course description.

Required prerequisite knowledge

EXC3452, "Financial Reporting and Analysis"

Mandatory courseworkCourseworks givenCourseworks requiredComment coursework
Mandatory85Students must earn approval on five out of the eight mandatory quizzes in order to qualify to sit for the course exam.
Mandatory coursework:
Mandatory coursework:Mandatory
Courseworks given:8
Courseworks required:5
Comment coursework:Students must earn approval on five out of the eight mandatory quizzes in order to qualify to sit for the course exam.
Assessments
Assessments
Exam category: 
Submission
Form of assessment: 
Written submission
Invigilation
Weight: 
100
Grouping: 
Individual
Support materials: 
  • All printed and handwritten support materials
  • BI-approved exam calculator
  • Simple calculator
  • Bilingual dictionary
Duration: 
4 Hour(s)
Comment: 
Students must earn approval on five out of the eight mandatory quizzes if they wish to sit for the exam; those students that do not meet this requirement must re-take the quizzes during the next scheduled course and earn approval identical to requirements for students currently enrolled in the course.

Students who have not passed the written examination or who wish to improve their grade may re-take the examination during the scheduled exam period.
Exam code: 
EXC34421
Grading scale: 
ECTS
Resit: 
Examination every semester
Type of Assessment: 
Ordinary examination
Total weight: 
100
Student workload
ActivityDurationComment
Teaching
40 Hour(s)
Prepare for teaching
60 Hour(s)
Preparation for lectures and plenary tutorials (approximately 1,5 hours per lecture hour)
Submission(s)
15 Hour(s)
Mandatory 8 tests
Examination
85 Hour(s)
Exam incl. preparations
Sum workload: 
200

A course of 1 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of 26-30 hours. Therefore a course of 7,5 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of at least 200 hours.