Managerial Accounting
Syllabus
Spring 2006

Professor: Margaret R. Garnsey
Office: Siena Hall 433
Phone: 783-2397
E-Mail: garnsey@siena.edu
Office Hours: Mon. 8:30AM – 10:15AM and 5:00PM – 6:00PM, Wed. and Fri. 8:15AM - 10:15AM
Text: Managerial Accounting, 10th edition
         By Louderback & Holmen
         Thomson South-Western Publishing

Note: The course is up on Blackboard (https://Blackboard.siena.edu/Blackboard/). The syllabus and tentative schedule are on the site at this time, and you are expected to check Blackboard and your email frequently for announcements, etc.

Prerequisites:

Acct 200 Specifically, students must thoroughly understand economic transactions, the construction of basic financial statements, and the interrelationships that exist among the basic financial statements.

Students should have an understanding of business statistics (including basic regression analysis and concepts).

The student is expected to possess a working knowledge of spreadsheets, as well as the ability to use quantitative manipulation of information within a decision-making context. The ability to write about and research business topics is also expected.

School of Business Mission Statement

The mission of the School of Business is to offer values oriented, intellectually stimulating educational programs that prepare students for business careers and continuing intellectual and professional development. The School of Business places paramount importance on teaching and learning in an atmosphere enriched by business collaboration, professional activity, and scholarship. This is accomplished by integrating the College’s liberal arts and Franciscan traditions with current business theory, skills, and practices.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

The concept of academic integrity lies at the very heart of any college. This is particularly true of Siena with its strong Franciscan tradition and its dedication to fostering sound moral growth. In such an environment, academic dishonesty cannot be tolerated. Students who commit such acts expose themselves to punishment as severe as dishonorable dismissal from the college.

Academic dishonesty can take several forms, including, but not limited to, cheating [dishonesty in a test situation], plagiarism [dishonesty in the presentation of materials in a paper or report], and computer abuse. In any situation in which a student is unsure what constitutes academic dishonesty, it is the student’s responsibility to raise the question with his or her instructor. It is also the student’s responsibility to be familiar with the student guidelines on academic dishonesty, “ Academic Integrity and the Siena Student.” A thorough discussion of guidelines for applying standards of academic integrity is provided at the Siena website: www.Siena.edu/advising/integrity.html

Course Description

ACCT 205 is the study of Managerial Accounting. As the second half of the accounting introductory course for business majors, it continues to emphasize the role of accounting in management decision making. This course should be viewed as a decision-making course rather than a traditional “accounting” course. The topics covered are vital to all students in understanding the use of financial information in analyzing and making decisions both in business and personal situations. The analytical tools mastered here should be valuable throughout your business career regardless of the field that you pursue.

Specific, Assessable Learning Objectives:

The student will be able to:

1. Demonstrate an understanding of and an ability to ethically analyze and utilize the nature and behavior of costs with respect to various cost drivers and with respect to managerial planning activities (such as Budgeting, Cost-Volume-Profit analysis, and Short Term decisions).
2. Demonstrate an understanding of and the ability to ethically utilize information to evaluate organizational performance.

Additional Major Objectives:

The student will be able to:

1. Explain the difference between managerial (internal) and financial (external) accounting.
2. Extract the relevant information from financial statements in order to analyze and provide information for decision making.
3. Use a spreadsheet to prepare budgets.
   Tentative Course Outline

Managerial compared to Financial Accounting
Cost Volume Profit Analysis
Types of Costs
Regression Analysis
Activity Based Costing
Short Term Decision Making
Budgeting
Control and Performance Evaluation
Responsibility Accounting
Return on Investment (ROI) and Residual Income (RI) Analysis
Cost of Quality
Evaluation of Standard Cost Variances
           Direct Material
           Direct Labor
           Variable Overhead

Ethical Considerations in Management Decision Making

Teaching Methodology:

1. Lectures on each topic incorporating illustrations and examples to enhance understanding.
2. Exercises and problems.
3. Discussion of assignments and cases.

Course Requirements:

1. If I need to get a message to you or make any announcements outside of class I will use e-mail and/or Blackboard, so you are expected to monitor these frequently.
2. Students are expected to attend all classes. The teacher reserves the option that any student missing more than 3 classes will have their final grade dropped by a full letter grade and any student missing more than 5 classes will fail the course.
3. Students are expected to read the assigned chapters prior to class. Students must take an online quiz on Blackboard prior to the first class to be taught on a chapter.
4. Power point slides used in the class are available on Blackboard. Students are strongly encouraged to print out the slides prior to the classes they pertain to.
5. In-class homework is due the day given in the schedule and Lab assignments are due on the day following the date given in the schedule, no late homework will be accepted. Assignments are to be prepared on the computer, using either a spreadsheet or word processing program, and be in good form and easy to read. It is expected that all students will hand in their own work.
6. There will be two cases. These assignments are to be typed and include proper citations if appropriate.
7. In class handouts will be used during class to illustrate the points being discussed. Students should be prepared to explain how the answers were arrived at for these problems.
8. There will be three in class exams and a comprehensive final exam. Exams will include both subjective and objective questions.
9. There will be at least 5 announced quizzes (generally at the end of a chapter) worth 20 points each. If the total of the quiz points for 5 quizzes exceeds the percent correct on the student’s lowest exam grade the quiz total will be scaled up to a percent of 170 points and substituted for the low exam grade in calculating the final grade.
10. There is no extra credit available for this course.
11. Students are encouraged to post any questions which arise outside of class to the discussion in Blackboard. I check the discussion board at least twice a day and will respond well within 24 hrs. in most cases. Students are also encouraged to answer question. This would be considered as part of class participation calculating grades.
12. Grading:

The course grade will be based on the points earned from the total points available throughout the semester (NO extra credit is available):

		Minimum points needed to receive grade indicated:
Exam 1	170	A-	745
Exam 2	170	B-	655
Exam 3	170	C-	565
Final Examination	175	D-	475
On-line quizzes	30	F	< 475
Cases	75
Inn-class problems and participation	40
Ethical Analysis	40
Lab problems	30
Total Points available	900

 

Plus and minus grades will be given to those students who either just missed the next grade or who were very close to dropping down to the next letter grade (within 15 points of the cutoff).

Use of calculators:

The accounting department has adopted a policy of restricting the use of certain programmable calculators on in-class and final exams in the first two accounting courses. Students may choose to bring a simple four-function calculator for exams or may bring their TI-83 with the understanding that the memory will have to be cleared before the test can be administered. What follows explains the steps that need to be followed to clear the entire memory on a TI-83 Plus (anything in brackets is a button on the calculator).

You hit [2nd],[+],[7], then scroll over to the right twice to get to the "ALL" menu.

Then hit [1], [2].

The calculator will respond by wiping itself clean, and a message pops up at the end of this routine that says "Mem cleared"