Instructor:
Email:
John Savignano
John@Savignano-CPA.com
Office Hours: By Appointment
Office: Hughes Hall, 5 th
Floor
Term:
Class Meets:
Section Number
2015
Monday and Thursday
Location: Dealy Hall/Room 302
I.
Course Overview
The course Management Accounting is concerned with how information is derived and used for internal purposes. The course covers cost accounting systems, planning and control, and decision making.
II.
Learning Goals
One objective of this course is for students to have an understanding of how costs associated with products and services are both derived and used in decision-making. In addition, students are to have an understanding of budgets and how they are used in planning and control, and will become familiar with other topics relevant to the area of management accounting.
III.
Required Texts (Choose one version of the textbook from the list below)
Managerial Accounting, 15th Ed., Garrison, Noreen and Brewer: McGraw Hill (Customized version in bookstore, ISBN 9781308149004), or
Managerial Accounting, 15th Ed., Garrison, Noreen and Brewer: McGraw Hill (Customized version in bookstore with Connect Plus access card, ISBN 9781308376929), or two e-book options TBA.
IV.
Basis for Course Grade
Assessment Percent of Course Grade
1. Midterm Exam 1
2. Midterm Exam 2
3. Dechow Case
4. Sloan Variance Case
5. Final Exam
6. Homework Problems
7. Participation
20%*
20%*
7%
7%
30%
10%
6%
Total 100%
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*Based on your two midterms, I will make the lower midterm exam score worth only 15% and your higher midterm exam score worth 25%.
V.
Course Policies: Grades
Extra Credit Policy:
There is no extra credit work. Your grade is determined solely on the basis of the grading policy stated above.
Participation Grade Policy:
Attendance will be taken daily. Attendance only pays off when you participate in the class. This means: you have prepared for the class before you come, you sit in the classroom with an interest in learning, and you ask questions and respond to questions asked in class. If you are ill or have a family emergency, please obtain all missed materials from a classmate. To get full score for attendance and class participation, you must (1) not violate the group work policy described later in the syllabus, and (2) not violate the following technology and media policy:
Laptops, netbooks, tablets, and phones are not recommended in class, since you have hardcopies of handouts to take notes and solve problems. Calculators are allowed in class. Usage of laptops, financial calculators, or phones is not allowed during exams. Surfing internet, texting, tweeting, Facebooking,
IM-ing, playing games, or any other similar activity, are very distracting, not only for you, but for those sitting around you. Please practice professional and courteous deportment.
Late Work Policy:
1.
Midterms and Exams
A student missing an exam will be given a grade of 0 on that exam except if there is an approved excused absence. A student must notify me of the approved excused absence prior to the exam (or if not humanly possible, shortly after the exam). Failure to notify me of the emergency condition in a timely manner will automatically result in a grade of 0. If an excused absence arises and notification is given in a very timely manner, then I will use my discretion in how a grade will derived including the possibility of a make-up exam. (For more information on excused absences, please read the Course
Attendance Policy discussed later in the syllabus.)
2.
Homework Problems
There are 11 problem sets which are marked in bold . Solutions to these problems are to be turned in at the beginning of the class on the due date . Assignments not handed in on time will result in late penalty of 50% or more.
Please note that your worst problem set will be dropped from your grade.
Therefore, if you miss only one class assignment for any reason, it will not harm your grade since only 10 of the 11 problem sets will be counted toward your grade. Homework is graded based on completion, not correctness.
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3.
Dechow Case and Sloan Variance Case
The maximum grade on each of these assignments will be reduced by 25% for each day the assignment is handed in late. Therefore, four days after the due date, a grade of zero will automatically be assigned.
The two cases will be handed out in class.
Submission Policy :
Solutions to cases and homework assignments are to be handed in at the beginning of the class on the due date.
Group Work Policy :
Each student is expected to coordinate, cooperate and contribute to all group work. If a student chooses to not actively participate and/or delay the progress of their group, their participation grade may be impacted as well as their grade on the deliverable submitted by the group.
VI.
Course Policies: Student Expectations
Integrated Core Attendance Policy:
Students are expected to attend every class. Absences will be excused only if they are due to a religious holiday, serious illness, and death in the student's immediate family, or required participation in a university-sponsored event. All requests to have an absence excused must be processed through sophomore class dean who will notify your instructors. Such requests must be made in writing within one week of an absence. Once an absence is excused, if an exam has been missed then I will use my discretion in how a grade will derived including the possibility of a make-up exam.
Absences due to any other reasons than those listed above will be considered unexcused. Each student can have one unexcused absence from an integrated core course without effect on your grade. For each additional unexcused absence, a student’s course grade will be reduced a half letter grade.
Students are expected to arrive to class on time and are expected to remain in the classroom for the full time period. Students arriving late or leaving the room at times prior to the end of class will be considered late for that class and it will impact their participation grade.
Fordham University’s Policy on the Integrity of Full-Time Study:
Fordham University cannot compromise on its objective of the honest and wholehearted pursuit of academic excellence. Students must guard against allowing outside activities, including part-time employment, from interfering unduly with their academic pursuits. Full-time student status means just that. Therefore, students should not compromise their academic careers by losing sight of the primary objective of academic excellence.
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Fordham University’s Academic Conduct Policy:
In this course—and in every course—you are expected to abide by Fordham University’s Code of
Conduct which includes, but is not limited to, the following Standards of Academic Integrity:
STANDARDS OF ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
Academic integrity is the pursuit of scholarly activity in an honest, truthful, and responsible manner.
Violations of academic integrity include, but are not limited to, plagiarism, cheating on exams, falsification, unapproved collaboration, and destruction of library materials. Below are instances of violations with which all members of the academic community should be familiar.
A. Plagiarism:
Plagiarism occurs when individuals attempt to present as their own what has come from another source.
Plagiarism takes place whether such theft is accidental or deliberate. It is no defense to claim that one has
“forgotten” to document ideas or material taken from another source.
Examples of plagiarism include, but are not limited to: i. Using the ideas of another person, whether or not such ideas are paraphrased, from whatever source including oral, print, broadcast, or computer-mediated communication; ii. Rewriting borrowed material by simply dropping a word here and there, substituting a few words for others, or moving around words or sentence; iii. Presenting borrowed material, whether a phrase, sentence, or whole paragraphs without placing quotation marks around the borrowed material in the approved style; iv. Presenting, as one’s own an assignment, paper, or computer program partially or wholly prepared by another person, whether by another student, friend, or by a business or on-line service that sells or distributes such papers and programs; v. Failing to use proper citation for information obtained from print sources or the internet, according to citation criteria specified by the instructor or in cases where instructor guidance is not given, by standard manuals of style (e.g. The Chicago Manual of Style).
B. Cheating
Cheating occurs when individuals use course materials, information or devices (e.g., programmable calculator, cell phone) when such is unauthorized or prohibited.
Examples of cheating include, but are not limited to: i. Having or using unauthorized materials, information or an unauthorized device at an examination, test or quiz; ii. Copying from another student at an examination, test or quiz, or copying another student’s assignment, data or laboratory report; iii. Permitting another student to copy from an assignment, paper, computer program, project, examination, test or quiz; iv. Obtaining and/or using an unauthorized examination, test, or quiz prior to its administration; v. Having another person act as proxy to take an examination, test or quiz or to complete an assignment, paper, computer program, or project.
C. Falsification
Falsification occurs when individuals make false statements that mislead others.
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Examples of falsification include, but are not limited to: i. The submission or presentation of a falsified excuse for an absence from a course requirement, examination, test or quiz; ii. The presentation of false identification or credentials in order to gain admission to a course, examination, test, quiz or degree program; iii. The creation of a false or misleading citation; iv. The manipulation or falsification of data for an academic assignment.
Sanctions for violations of academic integrity outlined in the Fordham University Student Handbook include a receiving a failing grade on the assignment/examination, and possibly of receiving a failing grade for the course.
VII.
Details on Project Assignments
1. Dechow Case : covers activity based costing in Chapter 7 and is primarily quantitative in nature.
2. Sloan Variance Case : covers variance analyses which are discussed in Chapters 9 and 10. It is a comprehensive case and is quantitative in nature.
For both cases, students can work by themselves or in teams of up to four persons all from your own class.
Students should not discuss the case with anyone except their teammates (if any). If a student chooses to work alone, the student should not ask others for help. The entire solution must be typed. If you work in groups, hand in only one copy of the solution with all team member names on it.
VIII.
Course Schedule
The Course Schedule enclosed shows the subjects that will be covered in each class. There are 11 problem sets which are marked in bold in the column “Class Deliverable”. Solutions to these problems are to be turned in at the beginning of the class on the due date . THE CALCULATIONS BEHIND
NUMERIC SOLUTIONS MUST BE PROVIDED; OTHERWISE A GRADE OF ZERO WILL BE
GIVEN. ONLY ONE STUDENT NAME SHOULD APPEAR ON THE SOLUTION. The rest of the problems in the column “Class Deliverable” are those that I attempt to go over in class time. Problems in the column “After Class Homework” are additional recommended problems, which may not be covered in class (solutions will be provided).
Please Note:
1.
The Schedule is subject to revision at the instructor discretion.
2.
The final exam for this course is scheduled for Saturday, May 9 at 9:30 am. As soon as the location of the exam becomes available, it will be announced in class.
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