ACCT3210: Advanced Managerial Accounting
HKUST Department of Accounting
Spring 2023 Syllabus
Instructor:
Dr. Arthur Morris
Email: acarthur@ust.hk
Office Hours:
Teaching Assistant:
Nicholas Wu
Email: jhn.wu@ust.hk
Office Hours:
- TBA
Class sessions:
| Section | Days | Time | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| L2 | Tue & Thu | 10:30-11:50 | LSK1007 |
| L3 | Tue & Thu | 13:30-14:50 | LSK1010 |
| L1 | Tue & Thu | 16:30-17:50 | LSK1034 |
Course description:
Managers rely on accounting information to guide operations. This course builds on Principles of Accounting II (ACCT 2200) to prepare students to produce and use this information. Topics covered include decision-making techniques, analysis of cost behavior, allocation of common and joint costs, use of cost information in operational and strategic decisions, transfer pricing, and performance measurement, and incentive compensation, with an emphasis on using data science to bring accounting information into the decision process.
Course Objectives:
By the end of this course, you should be able to:
- Use real data to make business decisions.
- Understand both the importance of management accounting for companies’ strategic and operational decisions and the pitfalls of misusing management accounting information and techniques.
- Solve problems arising in business planning, with the aid of mathematical and statistical tools.
- Evaluate various techniques for control and performance evaluation in a decentralized environment, and provide recommendations for an effective control system.
- Understand how managerial and financial accounting relate to data analytics, data science, and business intelligence.
The course will also provide you with opportunities to:
- Think through a variety of business problems.
- Demonstrate team-work and leadership skills in solving operational and strategic planning problems.
- Demonstrate communication skills through class participation and case discussions.
Textbook and Cases:
Required Textbook:
Accounting For Decision Making and Control 10e
Any format. “Connect” is not required. Exercises may not match if you use an earlier edition.
Cases and Class notes:
These materials will be provided via the Canvas site. We may also use HBP cases later in the semester. These will be available from the publisher at minimal cost.
Course Structure and Mode of Instruction:
| Mode of Instruction: | The course will be conducted in-person and will involve extensive class participation (random cold calling) which will be graded (see Grading below for details). |
| Lectures and Cases: | Class discussions will involve both lectures and cases. Case discussions will occur on days when the cases are assigned in the course schedule below. |
| Preparation for Class: | Students should prepare for class by completing the assigned reading and problems or case. All assignments and cases are due before class. |
| Video Recordings: | No recordings of this class will be distributed. This is to facilitate class participation. |
| Canvas: | Assignments will be turned in via Canvas, and I will use canvas to send updates. Please note that this website, and not Canvas will host the slides and syllabus . Also note that the Canvas gradebook will only track assignments turned in via Canvas and not your final grade. |
Grading
Grading Scheme
| Description | Weight |
|---|---|
| Class Participation | 16% |
| Cases & Problems | 16% |
| Midterm | 18% |
| Final Exam | 50% |
| Total | 100% |
Class Participation:
Both lecture and case discussions will rely on random cold calling, you are expected to attend the session for which you are registered. Student’s names will be randomly selected without replacement until all students have been called on. Answers need not be correct to receive full credit, attendees who answer will receive full credit, absentees will receive no credit for the question. Exception for verified illness, students are required to notify TA & instructor of illness via email in a timely manner.
Cases & Problems
Cases and problems will be due at 2200 the night before the class in which they are discussed. All assignments should be submitted in the formats specified in Canvas.
Exams
Exams will be conducted in-person and will be closed book. Times and locations TBA.
-
Midterm Exam: The midterm examination is scheduled from 7:00pm to 8:00pm, Tuesday, 21 March 2022 in person. Locations: LTD, LTG, and 1103 (see Canvas for maps, and room assignments). The exam is closed book and communication with others is cheating and not allowed. All students are required to take the midterm exam at this pre-scheduled time, and there will be no make-up exam for it. Students absent from the midterm exam will receive zero mark for this component, except for highly unusual circumstances that cannot be controlled and avoided by the student—in which case the grade weight on the midterm exam will be loaded to the final examination component.
-
Final Exam: The comprehensive final examination is scheduled from 4:30 PM to 7:30 PM on 18 May 2023 in the S H Ho Sports Hall. The exam is closed book and communication with others is cheating and not allowed. All students are required to take the final exam at this pre-scheduled time, and there will be no make-up exam for it. Students absent from the final exam will receive zero mark for this component.
Grading Scale:
Points on all work will be weighted as shown above and graded as shown here:
| Grade | % |
|---|---|
| A+ | 97.00% - 100% |
| A | 93.00% - 96.99% |
| A- | 90.00% - 92.99% |
| B+ | 87.00% - 89.99% |
| B | 83.00% - 86.99% |
| B- | 80.00% - 82.99% |
| C+ | 77.00% - 79.99% |
| C | 73.00% - 76.99% |
| C- | 70.00% - 72.99% |
| D | 60.00% - 69.99% |
| F | Below 60.00% |
Course Schedule and Outline:
| 1. 7 Feb. | Expectations and Conceptual Framework |
| Read: | Zimmerman, Ch 1 |
| Introduction to Management Accounting (class note) | |
| Survey: | Pre-class survey (in canvas) |
| 2. 9 Feb. | The Nature of Costs |
| Read: | Zimmerman, Chapter 2 |
| Problem: | P1: Cost in a Multiproduct Firm |
| 3. 14 Feb. | Cost estimation (regression) |
| Read: | Cost behavior (class note) |
| Problems: | P2: Data Collection Issues I |
| P3: Data Collection Issues II | |
| 4. 16 Feb. | Constraints and (non-)linear programming |
| Problem: | P4: Cost in a Multiproduct Firm Part 2 |
| 5. 21 Feb. | Solving Linear Programs |
| Problems: | P5: Shadow Prices, Component Searches, and Product Cost |
| P6: Ava Catering | |
| P7: Builder of Garages and Sheds | |
| 6. 23 Feb. | Comprehensive review |
| Survey: | Submit review topics for in class discussion |
| 7. 28 Feb. | Time Value of Money and Capital Budgeting |
| Read: | Zimmerman, Chapter 3 |
| Case: | C2: Special Electric Case read before class |
| 8. 2 Mar. | Taxation of returns |
| Read: | Before- and After-tax Returns (class note) |
| Taxable versus Tax-exempt Bonds (class note) | |
| Problem: | P8: Alternative Savings Vehicles |
| 9. 7 Mar. | Real and Financial Assets |
| Read: | Net-of-tax returns on real and financial assets (class note) |
| Note: No problems are due today | |
| 10. 9 Mar. | Economics of Agency |
| Read: | Zimmerman, Chapter 4 |
| Incentives and Managerial Compensation (class note) | |
| 11. 14 Mar. | Organizational Architecture |
| Problems: | P10 4–18 Rothwell |
| 12. 16 Mar. | Mid-term Review |
| in class. | |
| 21 Mar. | Midterm No class |
| 1900-2000, in rooms LTD, LTG, and 1103. | |
| See Canvas for room assignments. | |
| 13. 23 Mar. | Responsibility Accounting and Transfer Pricing |
| Read: | Zimmerman, Chapter 5 |
| 14. 28 Mar. | Transfer Pricing: Additional Considerations |
| Case: | C4: Vik-Giger Corporation read before class |
| 15. 30 Mar. | Exam paper review |
| 16. 4 Apr. | Cost Allocation: Theory |
| Read: | Zimmerman, Chapter 7 |
| 4 Apr. | Supplementary Exam Solution Review |
| 6:30 PM - 7:30 PM in LSK 1026 | |
| Mid-Term Break No class Thursday and Tuesday. | |
| 17. 13 Apr. | Cost Allocation: Traditional Practice |
| Read: | Zimmerman, Chapter 8 |
| 18. 18 Apr | Modern Cost Allocation |
| Read: | Chapter 8 Appendix A |
| 19. 20 Apr. | Absorption Costing Systems |
| Read: | Zimmerman, Chapter 9 |
| Problems: | P11: 9–9 DeJure Scents |
| P12: 9–24 Kitchen Rite | |
| 20. 25 Apr. | Absorption Costing Problems |
| Read: | Zimmerman, Chapter 10 |
| Problems: | P13: 10–8 Aspen View |
| P14: 10–11 Kothari Inc. | |
| P15: 10–17 Navisky | |
| 21. 27 Apr. | ABC |
| Read: | Zimmerman, Chapter 11 |
| 22. 2 May. | Budgeting |
| Read: | Zimmerman, Chapter 6 |
| 23. 4 May. | Standard Costs and Variances |
| Read: | Zimmerman, Chapters 12 and 13 |
| 24. 9 May. | Final Review in class |
| 18 May 2023 | Final Exam |
| 4:30 PM to 7:30 PM in the S H Ho Sports Hall. |
Acknowledgements:
Like Bob Dylan, this course was born a long way away from where it’s from, but the starting point was reading Joel Demski’s Managerial Uses of Accounting Information, Zimmerman’s Accounting for Decision Making and Control, and reviewing Steve Huddart’s excellent Accounting 440 taught at Penn State. Similarities to those approaches are absolutely intentional, and any shortcomings are my attempts at innovation.