ACCOUNTG 341 - Managerial Accounting

ACCOUNTG 341 - Managerial Accounting

Course Description

Managerial Accounting (ACCOUNTG 341) emphasizes the use of accounting information for internal purposes as opposed to the external disclosure focus of the financial accounting course. The design of management accounting systems for planning and controlling operations and for motivating personnel is covered. The course integrates accounting with ideas from microeconomics, data analysis, decision analysis, finance, and operations management. There are no prerequisites for this course.

Managerial accounting information is directed to users internal to the firm, such as managers, auditors, and directors. Financial accounting information, such as financial statements and other regulatory filings, is directed to external constituencies of the firm, such as regulatory bodies, securities analysts, and (current/potential) shareholders. The primary differences between financial and managerial accounting are:

	Financial accounting	Managerial accounting
Users	Outside the firm	Inside the firm
Time period	Historical transactions	Future transactions
Format	Standardized	Customized
Feature	Auditable: comparable and precise	Useful: improved decision making
Unit	Macro: organization as a whole	Micro: level desired (product, unit)
Regulation	Mandatory (GAAP)	Optional (Benefits must justify cost)
Nature	Publicly available	Proprietary

The Fuqua managerial accounting course is divided into two parts. First, we examine firms' managerial accounting systems and their use in decision-making. Second, we examine these accounting systems and their use in planning, control, and performance evaluation. The course begins with a discussion of the basic vocabulary and mechanics of managerial accounting systems. For the remainder of the course, students focus on identifying and extracting relevant information from managerial accounting systems as an input to decision making and performance evaluation. The course objectives are reinforced through the lecture notes and course packet readings, assigned case write-ups, class and group discussions and problem-solving, and numerical problems.