Course Description

The course provides an introduction to management accounting, a field of business that develops the financial and nonfinancial information necessary to effectively manage the firm or organization.

Management accounting is a field in transition, moving from a procedural focus on stewardship accounting to a strategic focus on the use of accounting to facilitate the business success of the enterprise--for both manufacturing and service firms. Also, the concepts of management accounting are increasingly applied to government and not-for-profit organizations, to help them succeed in their service missions and to be responsible to citizens and funding agencies.

A principal motivation for the change in management accounting is the change in business processes and organizations in response to increased competition, both global and domestic. These changes include a renewed focus on the customer, aggressive cost reduction, outsourcing, downsizing and reengineering, total quality management, advanced manufacturing technologies, and increased use of information technologies, among others. The management accountant is no longer a reporter and analyzer of financial facts only, but a business partner--developing the financial and nonfinancial information the organization needs to be successful. The goal of this course is to explain the procedures the management accountant uses to play a strategic role in the business, that is, developing and presenting the information that is critical for the firm's success.

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Required Text

Cost Management: A Strategic Emphasis, 4th edition (2008), by Blocher, Stout, Cokins, and Chen.

The text can be obtained from Friday Center Books & Gifts at the Friday Center in person, by ordering online, or by printing and mailing the book order form.

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Course Goals

The course has four main themes:

• strategy
• globalization of business
• service firms
• ethics.

The overall course goals are to develop an understanding of the application of strategic cost management principles for business and not-for-profit organizations, and to provide an opportunity for students to develop skills in applying these principles through exercises and cases. The management accountant's role is to provide timely and accurate information to assist management in achieving the firm's goals. This is an integrative role that requires the management accountant to understand the firm's strategy and how both financial and nonfinancial information are developed across all the management functions.

The five parts of this course cover the five specific goals for students:

1. Understand the fundamentals of management accounting, including strategic focus and other basic cost terms and concepts.
2. Use costs and other critical success factors in management planning and decision making.
3. Learn to determine product costs.
4. Use costs and other critical success factors in operational control.
5. Use costs and other critical success factors in management control.

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Course Requirements and Grading

The course consists of readings, problems, and cases. The readings develop the background for understanding how a particular management accounting procedure can assist in management planning and problem-solving. The problems are exercises that focus on the identification and development of cost and other information to answer a specific management question. The cases involve broad management issues such as a strategic analysis of a particular company situation.

The graded portion of the course is based on your performance on problems and cases.

• Homework (problems and case assignments): 62 percent
• Final case: 28 percent
• Discussion forum participation: 10 percent

Problem and Case Assignments

Each lesson will require you to complete one or more problems and cases, and e-mail it to me as an attached file. The problems and cases are to be done in Word or Excel. Lesson assignments marked C1...C17 are worth 2 points each and should require approximately one to two pages of work or less, Lesson assignments marked L1...L7 are worth 4 points each and should require two pages or more of text, plus supporting tables or graphs. All assignments are due on Friday by 5 pm Eastern Time (unless otherwise specified in the lesson). Unexcused late assignments will receive no credit. A good written case will show the value of a careful selection and presentation of the best ideas in a persuasively written one-page document. Solutions will be provided at 6 pm each Friday in the Homework Solutions section of the Blackboard site. See Course Mechanics for information on how to access Blackboard.

Final Integrative Case

The final assignment of the course is one large case that will involve a number of the management issues and management accounting practices and procedures developed in the course. This case assignment takes the place of a final exam and will be due the last week of the course. There will be no discussion forum for the final case, and each student is expected to work independently on this case. The solution for the final case will be available in the "Final Case" section of Blackboard after the due date (see the course schedule).

Discussion Forum Participation

There will be discussion forums for five of the cases, and during the lesson period in which it is assigned, you are expected to participate in a discussion of the management issues and potential management accounting solutions for those cases. The discussion forums, marked DF1...DF5, are worth 2 points each. Participation will be evaluated based on the number and quality of items you submit to the forums during the semester, including both comments and responses to comments.

You should participate in each discussion forum. View the discussion forum as your opportunity to "raise your hand" and make a point as if you were in a classroom. The nature of your participation can be varied, just as it would in a typical classroom:

• Ask a question about the case requirements. For example, ask about what appears to be an ambiguity in one of the case requirements or in the case information.
• Suggest an answer for one or more of the case requirements. You will get credit for the idea as it appears on the discussion forum. If that idea appears in many of the written assignments of the other students, you and the class will have validation of the importance of your idea, and you will get credit for that.

You may contribute to the discussion forum for a particular lesson from the first day of the lesson period until the day the lesson is due. Although the postings to the forums will still be available for your review, postings made after the due date will not be considered for grading. In order for you to get a better idea of how to respond on the discussion forums, the first one will be for practice. I will grade your responses for this discussion forum and let you know your grade right away, but the grade will not count. The graded discussion forums will begin with Lesson 2.

The "Ask Any Question" forum is a place where you can ask questions about the course at any time, including questions about cases that do not have specific forums. I will read this forum regularly and respond promptly (many times I will be able to respond the day you post, but other times I will be traveling or out of the office and will respond as soon as possible). In addition, all students are expected to read this forum regularly and to respond to the questions of other students (this will count towards participation credit). This discussion forum is one of the important ways you can learn from this course--by sharing your questions and answers with other students, just as you might in a typical class meeting.

I've also included a forum called "Items in the News," where I will post and comment on news items and articles that are related to our course material. These will be posted as relevant news item occur and not on a specific regular basis. You are welcome to add your comments or questions regarding these news items. If you see a news item you would like to include, you are welcome to post it as well, including its link, and a few of your comments. Participation in this forum is NOT required and will NOT affect your course grade in any way. This is a free resource for you. The purpose of this new discussion forum is to provide you an opportunity to increase your understanding of the course material by discussing it in the context of current events.

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Honor Code

The UNC-Chapel Hill Honor Code will be applicable for all assignments. Your work on all assignments, including participation in the discussion forum, is expected to be your individual work. You may (and I encourage you to) study with others in this course and use the discussion forum to develop and refine your ideas, but the ideas posted on the forums and the assignment solutions that you turn in to me are to be your individual efforts.

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Hints for Success

1. To begin each lesson, read the objectives and overview sections and do the textbook reading assignment. Then read through each case to be sure you understand the assignment. Finally, read the Resource material and begin to work on your solutions. The Resource material usually consists of a selection of Frequently Asked Questions as well as worked problems from the text. The worked problems will give you an idea of what a good solution would look like for the problems in the lesson. Use them as models for your own solutions.
2. Discuss cases with your fellow students on the discussion forum.
3. Don't get behind. It is hard to catch up because we deal with many different, essential concepts and techniques, and most of the material later in the course builds on material covered earlier.
4. Don't hesitate to use e-mail or the "Ask Any Question" discussion forum to get help as soon as you need it.

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Course Mechanics

Blackboard

Some of your class components (announcements, discussion forums, homework solutions) are accessed through a software package called Blackboard, and you will need to login to Blackboard using a unique identifier known as your UNC Onyen (Only Name You'll Ever Need) and Onyen password.

There is a link to the Blackboard site in the gray navigation bar at the top of every page in this course. Click on that link, and then use your Onyen to login to Blackboard. Click on the "BUSI 108" link and then you will see navigation buttons on the left taking you to the Announcements, Discussion Forum, and so on.

If you experience problems accessing Blackboard, this is what you should do:

• If you do not already have a UNC Onyen, go to the Onyen Web site and follow the instructions for creating an Onyen.
• If you have an Onyen but have forgotten it (or the password), go to the Onyen Web site.
• If your Onyen password has expired, go to the Onyen Web site and change it.
• If you have your Onyen but can't log in to Blackboard, contact Janice Durham at the Friday Center.
• If you can log in to Blackboard but can't find this course listed, contact Janice Durham at the Friday Center.
• If you can't locate an exam or discussion forum in Blackboard, contact the Instructional Designer.
• If you have other technical problems while using Blackboard, contact Blackboard Help (use the Help button in Blackboard, or call 919-962-HELP).

Library Services

Students enrolled in Carolina Courses Online can access online library resources from the UNC Library System by linking to Library Services for Distance Education Students. This site includes information on using general online reference works as well as accessing e-reserves.

If you are using an off-campus computer, you will need to enter your UNC Onyen and password to access readings that are available through the library system. The UNC library staff is available to assist any students who have difficulties accessing online library resources. If you encounter difficulties, please visit this Web page for reporting a problem.

Using E-mail

You are responsible for checking your UNC e-mail account for messages from your instructor and the Friday Center. Off-campus users can access their UNC e-mail account using Webmail. You can have your UNC e-mail forwarded to a different e-mail address by clicking "Forward e-mail" at the Onyen Web site. Your UNC e-mail address is also the one UNC will use to alert you that you need to change your Onyen password when it is about to expire.

If you use a filter on your e-mail account, you are responsible for ensuring that it does not prevent you from receiving messages from me, the course listserv, or Friday Center staff. Hotmail users should be aware that Hotmail will block messages sent from within Blackboard because Blackboard uses "blind carbon copy" to protect privacy. We recommend that you use your UNC Onyen e-mail account rather than Hotmail for this course.

Submitting Assignments

It is extremely important for you to save copies of any work you send to me via e-mail. If I don't receive your work, you must have a duplicate copy, indicating the date sent, to prove that you submitted the assignment on time. It is your responsibility to maintain copies of your sent e-mails, as there is no way to guarantee that any e-mail message will be delivered.

Please check your e-mail software to see how it manages sent and saved messages. Some software automatically deletes messages one month after they have been sent; others only save messages if they are filed in folders; others save messages received but not those sent. You may need to send yourself a copy of your e-mailed assignment at the same time you send it to me, or you may need to print a copy of the e-mail message and any attachments to keep in your paper files. No matter how your system works, make sure you know how to save a copy of all work that you submit to me and that you save the copy for several months beyond the end of the course.

Other Questions

If you have questions regarding the content of the course and your progress, contact me. There is a link to my e-mail address at the top of every lesson page. Please include "BUSI 108" in the subject line of your e-mail.

If you find a problem with this Web site, including bad links, contact the Instructional Designer at the Friday Center.

If you have any questions about enrollment, Onyen, credits, withdrawal, and so on, contact the Student Services staff at the Friday Center for Continuing Education (phone 919-962-1134 or 800-862-5669).

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Course Schedule

Pay close attention to the schedule and the calendar. It is crucial to keep up with the assignments in order to complete the various components of this course.

Part 1