This course will emphasize the role of accounting information in monitoring, planning, controlling and decision making.  It will focus on the managerial uses of accounting information and provide students with an understanding of how managers use accounting information to analyze and evaluate operational performance, including what data to collect, how to gather it, how to display it for efficient decision making. Specific skills acquired will be identifying fixed and variable costs, leading to the ability to calculate break-even points; calculating the present value of cash streams leading to the ability to construct capital budgets; and constructing flexible budgets for variance and differential analyses. Students will also learn how to approach non-routine decisions and interpret financial statements using financial trends and ratio analyses.

Learning Objectives and Outcomes:

By the end of this course students will be able to:

• Demonstrate financial statement literacy.
• Create cost-volume-profit-models.
• Develop a flexible budget.
• Organize revenue and cost/expense data in order to provide relevant information for discount cash flows analysis.

Course Schedule and Topics

This course will cover the following topics in eight learning sessions, with one Unit per week.

Week 1: Unit 1 – Review of Basic Accounting

Week 2: Unit 2 – Costing

Week 3: Unit 3 – Cost Analysis Models

Week 4: Unit 4 – Differential Analysis

Week 5: Unit 5 – Budgets: Operations and Flexible

Week 6: Unit 6 – Capital Budgeting

Week 7: Unit 7 – Financial Statement Tools: Financial Ratios and Trend Analyses

Week 8: Unit 8 – Financial Statement Interpretation and Wrap Up

Learning Guide

The following is an outline of how this course will be conducted, with suggested best practices for students.

Unit 1: Review of Basic Accounting

• Review all Unit Learning Guides in the course to get oriented to all course requirements
• Read the Learning Guide and Reading Assignments
• Participate in the Discussion Assignment (post, comment, and rate in the Discussion Forum)
• Complete and submit the Written Assignment
• Respond to the Portfolio Activity

Unit 2: Costing

• Peer assess Unit 1 Written Assignment
• Read the Learning Guide and Reading Assignments
• Participate in the Discussion Assignment (post, comment, and rate in the Discussion Forum)
• Complete and submit the Written Assignment
• Respond to the Portfolio Activity

Unit 3: Cost Analysis Models

• Peer assess Unit 2 Written Assignment
• Read the Learning Guide and Reading Assignments
• Participate in the Discussion Assignment (post, comment, and rate in the Discussion Forum)
• Complete and submit the Written Assignment

Unit 4: Differential Analysis

• Peer assess Unit 3 Written Assignment
• Read the Learning Guide and Reading Assignments
• Participate in the Discussion Assignment (post, comment, and rate in the Discussion Forum)
• Complete and submit the Written Assignment
• Begin working on the Group Activity
• Respond to the Portfolio Activity

Unit 5: Budget – Operations and Flexible

• Peer assess Unit 4 Written Assignment
• Read the Learning Guide and Reading Assignments
• Participate in the Discussion Assignment (post, comment, and rate in the Discussion Forum)
• Complete and submit the Written Assignment
• Continue working on Group Activity
• Respond to the Portfolio Activity

Unit 6: Capital Budgeting

• Peer assess Unit 5 Written Assignment
• Read the Learning Guide and Reading Assignments
• Participate in the Discussion Assignment (post, comment, and rate in the Discussion Forum)
• Complete and submit the Written Assignment
• Continue working on Group Activity
• Respond to the Portfolio Activity

Unit 7: Financial Statement Tools – Financial Ratios and Trend Analyses

• Peer assess Unit 6 Written Assignment
• Read the Learning Guide and Reading Assignments
• Participate in the Discussion Assignment (post, comment, and rate in the Discussion Forum)
• Complete and submit the Written Assignment
• Post final Group Presentation
• Respond to the Portfolio Activity

Unit 8: Financial Statement Interpretation and Wrap Up

• Peer assess Unit 7 Written Assignment
• Read the Learning Guide and Reading Assignments
• Participate in the Discussion Assignment (post, comment, and rate in the Discussion Forum)
• Respond to the Portfolio Activity
• Complete and submit the anonymous Course Evaluation