Course
Administration
Course
Objectives:
After successfully completing this course, students will be able to
-
Choose from among common capital budgeting techniques for planning and
performance evaluation purposes;
-
Evaluate divisional and company performance using return-on-investment,
residual income, and commonly-used financial ratios;
-
Judge product profitability using a variety of techniques, including
sales variance analysis and activity-based costing;
-
Assess the appropriate role of cost in setting price in a variety of
market settings, including regulated industries and cost-plus contracts;
-
Converse on recent developments and trends in management accounting,
and on developments and trends in operations management that affect management
accounting systems, including lean production, the balanced scorecard, Economic
Value Added, and backflush costing;
-
Appraise whether a management accounting performance evaluation system
achieves goal congruence;
-
Compare and contrast the value of management accounting information,
financial accounting information, and microeconomic information, in various
decision-making contexts;
-
Judge the extent to which a management accounting system supports
corporate social responsibility and sustainable business practices.
Course
prerequisites: ACTG 321 (Cost Management I),
and BA 357, with grades of C or better (or equivalent courses and grades at
another university), senior standing, and departmental approval. Students must
be reasonably proficient at expressing themselves in writing, and in performing
simple mathematical calculations without a calculator.
Course
materials:
The following materials will be used in this course:
1.
Management Accounting: Concepts and Techniques, by Dennis Caplan. This
on-line text may be viewed on the web at www.IntroToCost.info.
A Word file of the text, suitable for printing, is available from the
instructor.
2.
A coursepacket of readings, available from
the OSU Bookstore.
3.
Management Accounting: Concepts, Techniques, and Controversial Issues, by James R. Martin. This
on-line text may be viewed on the web by clicking on the link for “Maaw’s book” at http://maaw.info/.
We will also use this website for a summary of The Balanced Scorecard:
Translating Strategy into Action, by Kaplan and Norton.
4.
Principles of Accounting, by Larry Walther. This on-line text is on the web
at http://www.principlesofaccounting.com/.
5.
Managerial Accounting: A Decision Focus, by Hermanson,
Edwards and Ivanevich. The required chapters from
this book can be downloaded from Freeload Press. There is no cost, but students
must register with the publisher. The website is http://www.freeloadpress.com/.
6.
Statements on Management
Accounting,
issued by and available from the Institute
of Management Accountants
(www.imanet.org). There is no cost, but
students must register with the IMA. On the syllabus, these statements are
abbreviated as SMA’s.
Some students will benefit from referring to a traditional
textbook for supplementary explanations of the material, for additional
numerical examples, and for the end-of-chapter problems. I encourage those
students to obtain a used copy of any recent edition of Cost Accounting: A Managerial Emphasis, by Horngren,
Datar and Foster, such as the 11th edition
(copyright 2003). Because the 11th edition of this textbook is now
out of print, new and used copies are available on the web for approximately
$20.
Additional required readings and homework
assignments will be distributed in class or otherwise made available throughout
the term.
Course
format: The
course is four credit hours, and meets twice each week, in 110-minute blocks on
Mondays and Wednesdays. Class time will consist of lectures, case discussions,
student team and individual exercises, and guest speakers.
Course requirements: Your course grade will be based on the following
components:
|
Component
|
Points
|
Dates
|
|
Exam 1
|
25
|
Wednesday, October 15
|
|
Exam 2 (a closed-note exam)
|
25
|
Wednesday, October 29
|
|
Exam 3
|
40
|
Wednesday, November 19
|
|
Individual “mini”
presentations
|
15
|
November 24, 26, December
1, 3
|
|
Class participation and
written assignments
|
30
|
Throughout the term
|
|
Final exam (this exam is
cumulative)
|
65
|
Tuesday, December 9, 2:00
PM
|
|
Total points
|
200
|
|
Exams
during the term: There will be three in-class exams during the term. The format of
these exams will vary, and the format of each exam will be announced in class
approximately one week before the exam. If you become aware of a conflict that will
cause you to miss an exam, you should inform me immediately.
Individual “mini”
presentations: Each student will
deliver a five-minute presentation to the class covering a topic assigned by
the instructor at the beginning of the term. The text of the student’s talk
must be submitted, as a one to two-page paper, prior to the presentation
itself. A grade will be assigned based upon the perceived thoroughness of the
student’s research into the topic, the accuracy, clarity and succinctness of
the written document, the quality of the oral presentation and accompanying
slides, and the length of the presentation (should be close to five minutes,
without running over).
Class participation and
written assignments: This portion of
your grade depends on the quality of your participation in class discussions,
including discussion of case assignments and your participation on in-class
group assignments. This portion of your
grade also depends on the quality and timeliness of written assignments. Frequent unexcused absences will
significantly negatively affect this portion of your grade.
Final
exam: The
final exam will be held during finals week, on Tuesday, December 9th,
from 2:00 to 4:00. The final exam will
be comprehensive. If you become aware of
a conflict that might cause you to miss the final exam, you should inform me
immediately.
Blackboard: Grades will be posted to
Blackboard throughout the term. Please do not send me email via the
communications link in Blackboard. Email correspondence should be sent to
capland@bus.oregonstate.edu.
Calculation
of Overall Grade: Your course grade will be determined by comparing your total points
and your class rank against the following criteria, beginning at the top and
proceeding down the list, until your total points or class rank satisfy the
cutoff:
If you rank in the top 10%
of the class, or earn at least 186 points overall, you will receive an A.
If you rank in the top 15%
of the class, or earn at least 180 points overall, you will receive an A-.
If you rank in the top 25%
of the class, or earn at least 174 points overall, you will receive a B+.
If you rank in the top 50%
of the class, or earn at least 166 points overall, you will receive a B.
If you rank in the top 55%
of the class, or earn at least 160 points overall, you will receive a B-.
If you rank in the top 65%
of the class, or earn at least 154 points overall, you will receive a C+.
If you rank in the top 80%
of the class, or earn at least 146 points overall, you will receive a C.
If you fail to receive a C
or better, but earn at least 140 points overall, you will receive a C-.
If you fail to receive a C- or better, but earn at least 120 points
overall, you will receive a D. Grades of D+ and D- will not be assigned.
Students who earn less than 120 points overall can expect to fail the course.
Class rank will be determined as the percentage of
students with your score or higher, divided by the total number of students
registered for the course at the end of the term. Note that this grading system
assures that at least half of the class will receive a grade of B or better, at
least 80% of the class will receive a grade of C or better, and it places no
upper limit on the overall class GPA.
At
my discretion, I may consider class participation and other subjective
course-related factors when assigning grades to students whose overall score is
just below 140 or 120.
If
you have any questions about any aspect of the grading, please speak with me as
soon as possible.
Students
with disabilities: Accommodations are
collaborative efforts between students, faculty and Services for Students with Disabilities
(SSD). Students with accommodations approved through SSD are responsible for
contacting the faculty member in charge of the course prior to or during the
first week of the term to discuss accommodations. Students who believe they are
eligible for accommodations but who have not yet obtained approval through SSD
should contact SSD immediately at 737-4098.
Academic
integrity:
I define academic dishonesty in this class as offering or receiving help on an
exam, or failing to provide proper attribution (i.e., plagiarism) on a graded
assignment. All cases of suspected
academic dishonesty are handled in strict accordance with University policy,
which can be viewed at the following University web address: http://oregonstate.edu/admin/stucon/achon.htm.
The University’s definition of plagiarism can be
found at the following web address: http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/instruction/tutorials/engage/cite/plagiarism.htm.
Tips for success: Plan on spending about eight
hours weekly on this course, outside of class. Read the assigned materials
before class. Be an active learner in class. Focus on following class
discussion, not on taking extensive notes. Most students will benefit from
working in study groups.
