Accounting (ACCT) 250

Overview

Accounting 250: Accounting for Managers focuses primarily on how to provide managers with the management information they need for making informed decisions and introduces the role accounting plays in providing reports to external bodies such as the federal government, banks, and other lenders of money.

The course emphasizes the importance of using advanced information systems such as the use of accounting software for small businesses and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems for large companies in managerial accounting and decision making. Managerial accounting uses both financial and non-financial information; the financial accounting topics included in this course include basic financial accounting concepts and analysis of financial reports using online, interactive tools to facilitate learning.

A distinction is made between external and internal reports. External reports are for information users who are external to the organization. Large corporations must prepare and file such reports for governmental and other organizations such as stock markets. An important feature of external reports is that they have a similar format, and those who prepare these reports must follow specific rules when compiling them. Internal reports, on the other hand, help managers make informed decisions in areas such as planning and controlling the organization’s resources. These reports are prepared according to the managers’ needs, and there are no set rules concerning their preparation. However, there is a set of principles that should be followed to ensure that these reports provide meaningful information.

Outline

• Lesson 1: Introduction to Accounting
• Lesson 2: Cost Behaviour and Analysis
• Lesson 3: Cost Management Systems
• Lesson 4: Relevant Information and Special Decision Making
• Lesson 5: Basic Principles of Financial Accounting
• Lesson 6: Interpreting Financial Statements
• Lesson 7: The Budgeting Process and Standard Cost System
• Lesson 8: Capital Investments and Capital Budgeting
• Lesson 9: Performance Evaluation and the Balanced Scorecard

Learning outcomes

When you have completed this course, you should be able to:

• identify the major distinctions between management accounting and financial accounting.
• explain how cost drivers affect cost behaviour.
• calculate break-even sales volume and compute cost-volume-profit relationships.
• explain how costs are accumulated and classified.
• construct income statements using the variable and absorption costing approaches.
• discriminate between relevant and irrelevant information and analyze data to support marketing decisions.
• analyze typical business transactions to determine their effects on the principal elements of financial statements.
• analyze a company’s financial statements to assess its liquidity, profitability, stability, and growth.
• explain the major features and advantages of a master budget and prepare the financial budget.
• prepare flexible budgets and compute flexible-budget variances.
• compute a project’s net present value (NPV) and compute a project’s internal rate of return (IRR).
• use the payback model and the accounting rate-of-return model.
• analyze and compute the impact of income taxes and inflation on capital projects.
• explain the importance of organizational structure and the proper designation of responsibility centres in the design of a management control system.
• explain the importance of evaluating performance, and identify the characteristics of a good performance measurement system.
• identify the four categories of cost of quality and explain how these costs can be identified and reported in a quality cost report.

Evaluation

To receive credit for ACCT 250, you must achieve a course composite grade of at least D (50 percent) and a grade of at least 50 percent on the Final Examination. The following chart describes the credit weight associated with each course requirement. The weighting of the composite grade is as follows:

The final examination for this course must be requested in advance and written under the supervision of an AU-approved exam invigilator. Invigilators include either ProctorU or an approved in-person invigilation centre that can accommodate online exams. Students are responsible for payment of any invigilation fees. Information on exam request deadlines, invigilators, and other exam-related questions, can be found at the Exams and grades section of the Calendar.

To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University’s online Calendar.

Materials

eTexts

Registration in this course includes electronic textbooks. For more information on electronic textbooks, please refer to our eText Initiative site.

There are no print versions of these textbooks; they are available only as eTexts.

Other Resources

All other learning resources will be available online.

Challenge for credit

Overview

The challenge for credit process allows you to demonstrate that you have acquired a command of the general subject matter, knowledge, intellectual and/or other skills that would normally be found in a university-level course.

Full information about challenge for credit can be found in the Undergraduate Calendar.

Evaluation

To receive credit for the ACCT 250 challenge registration, you must achieve a grade of at least D (50 percent) on the examination.

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