Introduction. This course provides an introduction to cost management and management control. It is concerned with the generation, use and interpretation of management and cost information and related data by managers under various organizational systems. This information is used for planning and control, decision-making, performance evaluation, and reporting purposes. The course also examines the impact of quantitative information on motivation and organizational communication. This class presupposes some basic knowledge of financial reporting, economics and organizational behavior. Management accounting is a dynamic field and reflects many of the changes seen in business today. We will often use product-based companies to initially discuss a topic, and then expand our discussions to the service and not-for-profit sectors.

Financial accounting is externally oriented and governed by fundamental concepts of generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). In contrast, managerial accounting is internally oriented. Managerial accounting is very context driven.

Management accounting is more intuitively understandable than financial accounting. However, the material cannot be learned by ‘thinking’. You must work through the mini-cases, cases and problems, which are assigned for each class. The concepts and techniques must be used to see how they are developed and applied. Discussion in each class assumes you understand the material covered in prior sessions. Therefore, you must not allow yourself to fall behind. If you are not keeping up with the assignments, this was reflected in class discussion.

Course preparation time for this course should be between 2 and 4 hours for each class session. Spending significantly more preparation time is usually ineffective. If you find yourself spending significantly more time preparing for class, contact me