Management Accounting - ATAX0059

 
Faculty: Faculty of Law
 
 
School:  Australian School of Taxation
 
 
Course Outline: See below
 
 
Campus: ATAX Campus
 
 
Career: Undergraduate
 
 
Units of Credit: 6
 
 
EFTSL: 0.12500 (more info)
 
 
Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 0
 
 
Enrolment Requirements:
 
 
Prerequisite: ATAX0010
 
 
Fee Band: 3 (more info)
 
 
Further Information: See Class Timetable
 
 

Description


Management accounting systems are designed to provide managers in all types of organisations with information to assist them in decision making, planning and control. This course addresses how management accounting provides information to meet the organisation's and manager's compliance, control and competitive support needs. The goals of this course are to acquaint students with the fundamentals of management accounting, and to permit students to analyse the impact of choices that are made in the design, implementation and operation of management accounting systems.


Recommended Prior Knowledge


ATAX0010 Accounting 2 is a prerequisite for this course.

Course Objectives


Having completed this course, students will:
  • Understand the fundamentals of management accounting
  • Have a working knowledge of a variety of management accounting technologies available to address organisational issues
  • Appreciate the differences and linkages between management and financial accounting
  • Be competent in a variety of product costing systems and appreciate their uses and limitations
  • Understand the role of budgets in organisational functioning and be able to prepare a set of operating budgets and a master budget
  • Prepare segment performance reports and evaluate segment performance and related issues
  • Analyse interdependencies using your understanding of cost allocation and transfer pricing techniques
  • Prepare budget reports for assessing cost performance
  • Analyse the behavioural effects of budgetary processes, including both functional and dysfunctional effects flowing from the use of accounting controls.

Main Topics


  • An overview of management accounting
  • Cost concepts, behaviour and analysis
  • Product costing systems
  • Accounting information and decision making
  • The master budget
  • Performance management

Assessment


As a guide, 2008 assessment was:
Assignment - 25%
My eLearning Vista MCQ Quizzes, 3 quizzes (5% each) - 15%
Final Exam, Open book, 2 hours duration - 60%

Course Texts


Prescribed
Hilton RW, Managerial Accounting (McGraw-Hill, 7th ed, 2008)

Citation and Style Guides
The following is a selection of acceptable citation and style guides, which you may use as the basis for your written work. You must purchase or have access to one of the following publications:
  • Rozenberg P, Australian guide to uniform legal citation (Sydney: Lawbook Co, 2nd ed, 2003)
  • Stuhmcke A, Legal referencing (Sydney: Butterworths, 3rd ed, 2005)
  • Australian guide to legal citation (Melbourne University Law Review Association, 2nd ed, 2002) - Available from http://mulr.law.unimelb.edu.au/aglc.asp

Note that in disciplines other than Law (ie, Accounting and Economics) the literature in these courses has, for the most part, been written in the Harvard style and in these courses you may prefer to use the Harvard style of referencing. Guides to using the Harvard style can be accessed at the following websites:

http://www.lc.unsw.edu.au/onlib/ref.html
http://www.usq.edu.au/library/infoabout/ref_guides/default.htm

In this course, it is acceptable to use either one of the prescribed legal styles, or the Harvard style. However, whatever style you adopt must be used consistently and correctly - you must not mix one style with another.

Recommended
Refer to Course Profile supplied by Lecturer.