ACC 303 Managerial Accounting
Fall 2014
Contact Information
Instructor: Professor Kelly Richmond Pope, Ph.D., CPA
Office: 6050 DePaul Center
Office Phone: 312-362-5821
Office Hours: TTH 9:50-10:50am
Email: kpope2@depaul.edu
Required Text Material:
Cost Accounting: A Managerial Emphasis, by Horngren, Datar, and Rajan, Second custom
edition, Pearson, ISBN: 10: 1-269-93415-5.
Trading Places: Understanding Insider Trading in Today’s Economy, Helios Digital Learning
(purchasing instructions will be provided)
Course Description
The principal objective of this course is to learn how to use internal accounting information
to make sound managerial decisions. Students will understand how to use management
accounting analysis to complement their own business intuition and common sense.
Students that master this course will take away a set of tools and a thorough understanding
of their application that is very useful in preparation for future course study and in
answering complex business problems. The course will strive to enhance your ability to
understand and assess the relationship between managerial accounting information and the
underlying economics of the firm and markets in which it competes. The primary focus of
the course is on the informational needs and decisions of internal managers within the
organization (business units), rather than external financial reporting constituencies such as
shareholders, bondholders and banking institutions.
Emphasis will be placed on understanding the underlying economic substance of business
transactions and considering whether the economics of these transactions are accurately
reflected in your cost and managerial accounting analysis. The focus in our course is on
understanding over memorizing formulas. The emphasis in this course is on the
interpretation and use of accounting information rather than its creation and accumulation.
Course topics which will be explored during the quarter will include:
 Understanding inventory valuation & income determination,
 Understanding accounting information systems,
 Analyzing activity-based cost management,
 Understanding cost-volume-profit analysis,
 Understanding budgeting in decision making,
 Understanding how pricing decisions impact business decisions, and
 Setting transfer pricing
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In each class session the ethical dimensions of these selected topics will be rigorously
considered. The course will be integrative from the perspective that the contexts of which
managerial decisions are made could be from marketing (pricing decisions), production &
operations (cost analysis), human resources (human capital, organizational behavior),
macroeconomics (business condition analysis) and microeconomics (competitive strategy).
Method of Instruction
The course will be a combination of lectures and review of selected exercises and problems.
The lectures will focus on the amplification of Cost and Managerial Accounting theory and
practice. The selected exercises and problems will be reviewed in class to solidify your
understanding of the material and develop proficiency in its application. Come to class
prepared and eager to contribute in our pursuit of mastery of these Cost & Managerial
Accounting analysis tools and methods.
Required Reading & Homework Assignments
It is my expectation that the required reading and homework assignments will be completed
before they are discussed in class. Students are expected to be ready to review questions,
exercises and problems just as you would prepare for a business meeting. From my past
experience of teaching this course, students have found it is nearly impossible to do well in
this course without careful study of assigned textbook readings and timely preparation of
homework. The assigned problem sets will be reviewed in class on an “as-needed” basis
depending upon the professor’s perception of class needs and the complexity of the material
involved. For all assigned problems the solution manual will be made available on the
course Blackboard site.
Course Grade
Your course grades consists of (1) homework sets, (2) quizzes (3) Test 1, (4) Test 2, (5)
Test 3, (6) E-case paper and the (6) Final Exam. There are four quizzes for a total of 10%.
There are three exams for 15% each and a comprehensive final which you can count as
either 0%, 20%, 35%, 50% or 65%. The normal percentage for the final is 20%. If you
are happy with your grade prior to the final then you can elect 0% (i.e. not take the final), if
you want to replace one exam then you can count the final for 35%, if you want to replace
both exams then the final will count for 50% and 65% for all three exams. This decision is
up to you and you must make this election, in writing, prior to the final.
Homework Sets
You will be required to complete a homework set at the completion of each chapter.
Answers will be placed on a scantron form and homework set grades will be posted to the
grade book in Desire2Learn. These homework sets are 10% of your total course grade and
are a graded assignment. Homework sets are due at the end of class on the stated due
date.
Quizzes
There are 4 required online quizzes during this course. Quiz due dates can be found on the
course outline. Quizzes are 5% of your total course grades.
Midterm Examination/Final Examination
There will be three in–class examinations and one comprehensive final exam. The exams
will consist of multiple choice questions, short problems, essay questions and cases from
the Cost & Managerial Accounting Sections of professional examinations such as CPA & CMA
exam. Examinations must be taken on the time and date prescribed on the syllabus.
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Absence from an examination will result in a score of zero (0) being assigned to the
examination. The examinations will be closed books and notes, with only pencil (pen) and
calculator permitted.
Grade Point Allocation
Quiz 1-4
10%
Homework set
10%
Test 1
15%
Test 2
15%
Test 3
15%
E-case
15%
Final
20%
Total
100%
I demand academic honesty from you. Work done for this course must adhere to the
University Academic Integrity Policy, which you can review in the Student Handbook or by
visiting http://condor.depau.edu/~handbook/code17.html.
I expect you to come to class on time and ready to learn, this means putting away
distractions – especially your phone. I expect you to take responsibility for your
assignments and getting notes, etc. should you miss a class.
Work done for this course must adhere to the University Academic Integrity Policy, which
you can review in the Student Handbook or by visiting Academic Integrity at DePaul
University (http://academicintegrity.depaul.edu).
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ACC 303 COURSE SCHEDULE
In-class problems
Date
Chapter
9/11
Chapter 1: The
Manager and
Management
Accounting; Chapter 2:
An Introduction to Cost
Terms and Purposes
Chapter 2: An
Introduction to Cost
Terms and Purposes
Chapter 3: CostVolume-Profit Analysis
Chapter 3: CostVolume-Profit Analysis
Chapter 4: Job Costing
9/16
9/18
9/23
9/25
9/30
10/2
10/7
10/9
10/14
10/16
10/21
10/23
10/28
10/30
11/4
11/6
11/11
Chapter 4: Job Costing
(con’t)
REVIEW TEST ONE
TEST ONE
Chapter 5: ActivityBased Costing and
Activity-Based
Management
Chapter 6: Master
Budget and
Responsibility
Accounting
Chapter 7: Flexible
Budgets, Direct-Cost
Variances, and
Management Control
and Chapter 8: Flexible
Budgets, Overhead
Cost Variances, and
Management Control
TEST TWO
Chapter 9: Inventory
Costing and Capacity
Analysis
Chapter 10:
Determining How Costs
Behave
Chapter 11: Decision
Making and Relevant
Information
Chapter 17: Process
Costing
REVIEW FOR TEST
THREE
TEST THREE
Viewing of THE
PROFIT: Key Lim Pie
Co.
Homework
Chapter 2: Ex16,22,27,28,
Start on HW set Chp 1
and 2
P29,30,31,32,39
HS/ Chp 1 due
HS2/Chp 2 due
Ex16,17,18,23,25
P35,
P38,45,47
Start on HS Chp 3
Ex17,19,25,30,
P31
Quiz 1 is due Ch 1-3
20,27,33
HS/Chp 3 due
TEST ONE CHP 1-3
Start on HS/Chp 5
Ex17,18,19
Quiz 2 Chp 4-5 due
HS/Chp 5 due
Start on HS/Chp 6
Chapter7:16,17,18,19,21,23,25,27,28
Chapter 8: 17,18,19,21,29
HS/Chp 6 due
Start HS/Chp 7 and 8
21,24,18,22,16
23,24,27
16,17,28,18,22,24
19,21,24,25,31
TEST TWO CHP 5-8
HS/Chp 7 due
and HS/Chp 8
HS/Chp 8 due
Start on HS/Chp 9
Quiz 3 Chp 7-9
HS/Chp 9 due
Start on HS/Chp 10
HS/Chp 10 due
Start on HS/Chp 11
Start on HS/Chp 17
HS/Chp 11 due
TEST THREE
CHAPTERS 7-10,11)
Quiz 4 Chp 10, 11,17
due
HS/Chp 17 due
Understanding
Managerial Accounting
in Action
4
11/13
11/18
Ethical Decision Making
in Managerial
Final Exam Decision
and Course Wrap Up
Final exam is November 25, 11:45-2:00 PM
Trading Places e-case
THE END
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