GA515 - Managerial Accounting

Credit Points: 15 credit points

Workload: 36 hours

Prerequisite: GA501 Foundations of Accounting

Co-requisite: N/A

Aims & Objectives

This is a core unit in the Graduate Diploma of Accounting. For Course Learning Outcomes and further information relating to the Graduate Diploma of Accounting program please visit our website: http://www.mit.edu.au/study-with-us/programs/graduate-diploma-accounting.

GA515 Managerial Accounting covers an understanding of budgeting, product and service costing, control and performance evaluation, and strategic management accounting. Management accounting is concerned with the future, operates under varying time frames and has no set of rules. Global competition, advances in information and other technology and changes in the economic environment leaves managers needing management accounting information to contribute to strategic decision making of business and government. Over the decades management accounting has developed to become more integrated with the process of management, with management accountants playing a vital role in management decision making.

The overall objective of this unit is to give students an understanding of the role of management accounting information in management in planning, decision making and monitoring the organization. This unit elaborates how managers use cost and management accounting information to help them make different types of decisions, which include developing organizational strategies, creating operating plans and monitoring and motivating organizational performance. It achieves this by enabling students to apply cost and management knowledge and skills in diverse and novel settings.

This unit focuses on contemporary approaches to measuring and managing costs by focusing on their underlying causes. Its aim is to provide students with knowledge about processes and technologies that enable the effective use of organizational resources to support managers in increasing customer value and shareholder wealth. The processes and techniques of management accounting that increase customer and shareholder value are evolving overtime and require an enormous knowledge of the nature of the business, its markets, competitors, its strategy and people. Unlike the financial accounting area there are no accounting standards in management accounting. This unit considers some of the concepts and tools used by accountants to provide information for planning and control. There is an emphasis on developing the students’ capability to apply management accounting information in problem definition, analysis and solution.

This unit will cover the following topics:

  • Introduction to management accounting
  • Cost and costing systems
  • Information for managing resources
  • Information for creating value.
     

Learning Outcomes

Course Learning Outcomes

The Course learning outcomes applicable to this unit are listed on the Melbourne Institute of Technology’s website: https://www.mit.edu.au/study-with-us/programs/graduate-diploma-accounting.  

Unit Learning Outcome

At the completion of this unit students should be able to:
a. Demonstrate advanced and integrated understanding the function and role of management accounting in the contemporary business environment. 
b. Demonstrate advanced and integrated understanding of management accounting and explain appropriate approaches to generating cost information. 
c. Produce business reports that present critical analysis and evaluation of financial solutions to management issues in writing. 
d. Apply knowledge to critically review and analyse problems and generate adaptable, flexible, and ethical approaches to problem solving and decision making. 
e. Apply management accounting practices and theories to critically analyse and solve business and management problems. 
f. Design accounting information reports by choosing appropriate financial management information to critically generate and evaluate problems and solutions to assist management decisions. 

Assessment

Assessment Task Due Date A B Unit Learning Outcomes
1. Contribution and Participation Weeks 1-12 - 6% a-f
2. Formative Assessment Week 3 - 4% a
3. Assignment [Individual] Week 7 15% - a,b
4. Project [Group] Week 11 20% - c,d
5. Presentation [Individual] Week 11 - 5% c,d
6. Case Study Presentation [Individual](3 hours) TBA - 50% a-f
TOTALS   35% 65% 100%

Task Type: Type A: unsupervised, Type B: supervised.

Contribution and Participation (6%)

This unit has class participation as an assessment. The assessment task and marking rubric will follow the Guidelines on Assessing Class Participation (https://www.mit.edu.au/about-us/governance/institute-rules-policies-and-plans/policies-procedures-and-guidelines/Guidelines_on_Assessing_Class_Participation). Further details will be provided in the assessment specification on the type of assessment tasks and the marking rubrics.

Teaching Methods

NOTE: All School of Business units 3-hour workshops Flipped Classroom Mode.

Textbook and Reference Materials

Note: Students are required to purchase the prescribed textbook and have it available each week in class.

Copies of the textbook are available in the MIT Library.

Prescribed Text Book

  • Langfield-Smith, K., Smith, D., Andon, P., Hilton, R., & Thorne, H. (2018). Management Accounting: Information for Creating and Managing Value 8e. McGraw-Hill Higher Education (Australia) North Ryde NSW.

Other recommended references

  • Horngren, C.T., Datar, S.M., Foster, G., Rajan, M.V. and Ittner, C. (2014) Cost accounting: A managerial emphasis 2e. McGraw-Hill Higher Education (Australia) North Ryde NSW.
  • Langfield-Smith, K., Thorne, H., & Hilton, R. W. (2015). Management accounting: Information for creating and managing value 7e. McGraw-Hill Higher Education (Australia) North Ryde, NSW. 
  • Mowen, M, Hansen, D., Heitger, D., Sands, J., Winata, L. and Su, S. (2016). Managerial Accounting 1e.Cengage Learning, South Melbourne, Australia.
  • Weygandt, J.J., Kimmel, P.D., and Kieso, D.E. (2014) Managerial accounting: Tools for business decision making, 7e. John Wiley & Sons, New Jersey. 

Journal articles

  • Anessi-Pessina, E., Barbera, C., Sicilia, M., & Steccolini, I. (2016). Public sector budgeting: A European review of accounting and public management journals. Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, 29(3), 491-519. 
  • Christ, K. L., & Burritt, R. L. (2015). Material flow cost accounting: A review and agenda for future research.
  • Gullberg, C. (2016). What makes accounting information timely? Qualitative Research in Accounting and Management, 13(2), 189-215. 
  • Wall, F. (2016). Agent-based modeling in managerial science: an illustrative survey and study. Review of Managerial Science, 10(1), 135-193.
  • Unger, O., Szczesny,A., Holderried, M. (2019) Does performance pay increase productivity? Evidence from a medical typing unit. Management Accounting Research, Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mar.2019.100649.

Check the unit Moodle page for additional recommended readings throughout the trimester.

The Referencing style for this unit is APA: See the MIT Library Referencing webpage: https://library.mit.edu.au/referencing/APA and the Unit Moodle page for additional referencing support material and weblinks.

Graduate Attributes

MIT is committed to ensure the course is current, practical and relevant so that graduates are “work ready” and equipped for life-long learning. In order to accomplish this, the MIT Graduate Attributes identify the required knowledge, skills and attributes that prepare students for the industry.
The level to which Graduate Attributes covered in this unit are as follows:

Ability to communicate Independent and Lifelong Learning Ethics Analytical and Problem Solving Cultural and Global Awareness Team work Specialist knowledge of a field of study

Legend

Levels of attainment Extent covered
The attribute is covered by theory and practice, and addressed by assessed activities in which the students always play an active role, e.g. workshops, lab submissions, assignments, demonstrations, tests, examinations.
The attribute is covered by theory or practice, and addressed by assessed activities in which the students mostly play an active role, e.g. discussions, reading, intepreting documents, tests, examinations.
The attribute is discussed in theory or practice; it is addressed by assessed activities in which the students may play an active role, e.g. lectures and discussions, reading, interpretation, workshops, presentations.
The attribute is presented as a side issue in theory or practice; it is not specifically assessed, but it is addressed by activities such as lectures or tutorials.
The attribute is not considered, there is no theory or practice or activities associated with this attribute.