Accounting (ACCT) 355

Overview

ACCT 355 will take you through the details of cost accumulation and product costing, as well as the measurement and identification of relevant costs for managerial decision making, planning, control, and performance measurement.

Lesson 1 serves as a foundation for the course, providing a general perspective of management accounting and how it relates to financial accounting. The first part of the lesson discusses the three broad functions of management and the role of management accountants in an organizational structure. It also describes how the ever-changing business environment has affected the practice of management accounting and the accountant's role in an organization. The second part of Lesson 1 looks at management accounting practices and terminology, and provides an overview of basic concepts in identifying and classifying costs.

Lessons 2 through 10 are organized according to three themes:

• Lessons 2 to 4 focus on cost accumulation and product costing for inventory valuation and income determination. This theme focuses mainly on assigning costs to products and services to separate costs incurred during a period between costs of goods sold and inventories.
• Lessons 5 to 7 discuss the measurement and identification of relevant costs for different types of managerial decisions.
• Lessons 8 to 10 concentrate on the processes involved in planning, control, and performance measurement. The emphasis is on the accounting process as a means of providing information to help managers control the activities for which they are responsible.

Outline

• Lesson 1: Accounting, Business, and Competitiveness
• Lesson 2: Product Costing—Job Order Costing
• Lesson 3: Product Costing—Process Costing
• Lesson 4: Activity-Based and Service Department Costing
• Lesson 5: Decision-Making: Cost-Volume-Profit (CVP)Analysis
• Lesson 6: Incremental Analysis and Absorption versus Variable Costing: A Decision-Making Perspective
• Lesson 7: Pricing and Inventory Decisions
• Lesson 8: Budgetary Planning: The Master Budget
• Lesson 9: Budgetary Control and Responsibility Accounting
• Lesson 10: Planning for Capital Investments

Evaluation

To receive credit for this course, you must write a final examination and pass it with a grade of at least 50%. In addition, you must achieve a minimum overall course grade of D (50 percent). Any quizzes or assignments not submitted will receive a grade of 0%.

The following chart describes the credit weight associated with each assessment activity:

The examination for this course will be written in the traditional pen and paper format. To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University's online Calendar.

Your performance in ACCT 355 will be evaluated on the basis of the work conducted on assignments and on the results of the examination. Because the assignments and the examination have been designed to assess analytical skills, you will need to synthesize the concepts learned throughout the course.

Course Materials

Textbook

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

A print version of the eText can sometimes be purchased from the publisher through a direct-to-student link provided on the course website; you can also acquire the textbook on your own if you wish.

Other Materials

Students will access all other course materials online.

Challenge for Credit Course Overview

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

Full information for the Challenge for Credit can be found in the Undergraduate Calendar.

• Undergraduate Challenge for Credit Policy
• Undergraduate Challenge for Credit Procedures

Challenge Evaluation

To receive credit for the ACCT 355 challenge registration, you must achieve a grade of at least D (50 percent) on the examination.

Paper Exam

Undergraduate Challenge for Credit Course Registration Form

• Challenge for Credit Form