Management Accounting I: Towards Profitable Decision Making

Learning outcomes
 After this course students will:

• Understand and apply basic concepts of costs and profitability
• Understand and apply basic and advanced cost tracing and assignment methods (job costing, process costing, traditional costing, ABC) to accurately determine profitability
• Understand and apply tools for profitable operational and strategic decision making (cost volume profit analysis, pricing and product mix decisions, customer analysis)

Content
 Managing costs (understood as capacity and material inputs to the implementation of organizational strategy) is essential for achieving product and service profitability and ultimately organizational profitability. Understanding what gives rise to costs is hence essential for the survival of any kind of organization. This course focuses on developing an actionable understanding of profitability from the costing perspective.

Students will gain an intermediate-level understanding of profitability and profitability management from the costing perspective. They will also explore various cost assignment and tracing techniques, and discuss their applications, as well as their strengths and weaknesses. After arriving at a basic understanding on costing we explore uses of cost information for profitable decision making performance management.

Teacher
 David Derichs

Study material
 Required: Rajan Datar Horngren (2021). Cost Accounting: A Managerial Emphasis 17th Edition, Global Edition

Alternative (please check chapter mapping provided in MyCourses – students take responsibility for assuring content fit of all chapters): Rajan Datar Horngren (2015). Cost Accounting, Global Edition.

Online learning environment for the course & Activating Aalto ID

MyCourses online learning environment is a tool for both students and teachers for communication and managing everyday course work. You need an Aalto User ID to log in to the course's MyCourses workspace and participate in teaching. You can activate your Aalto User ID the day after the registration and you should activate it no later than the day before the start of the course.Instructions for activating your Aalto User IDDigital workspace of the course:
MyCourses

More details on completing the course will be available at MyCourses closer to the start of the course.

Workload
 Period II implementation - main, campus implementation:

• Live teaching 12 h (f2f - interactive; unless announced otherwise).
• Pre-recorded lectures: 18 h
• Case work (group (intended) or individual (if necessary)): 18 h
• Individual home assignments: 18 h
• Independent study: 86 h
• Exam 2 h - booked through the EXAM system and taken in EXAM facilities

Period IV implementation - secondary, online asynchronous only!

• Pre-recorded lectures: 18 h
• Case work (group (intended) or individual (if necessary)): 18 h
• Individual home assignments (about 60% more individual work): 30 h
• Independent study: 86 h
• Exam 2 h - booked through the EXAM system and taken in EXAM facilities

Prerequisites
 22A00110 Laskentatoimen perusteet / ABL-A1300 Yrityksen talouden johtaminen ja raportointi

or similar course

Evaluation
Exam
Cases (group work)
Exercises
Oppotunity to earn bonus points - detailed info provided on the course page

To pass the course the student has to get: (a) at least 50% of the exam and (b) + cases / exercises of at least 50% 
 

Teaching time and location

The teaching time and the location of the course can be found at Sisu information system

1. The link leads to Completion methods tab of the course page  
2. From the top of the page (Version drop-down menu), check that academic year 2023-2024 is selected  

3. From the blue bar, click Lecture and open the Groups and teaching times tabto see the teaching time and the location of the course. Exam times can be seen by clicking Exam.
    

   Exam instructions at the Open University

Registration and course fee

Registration for Open University courses is done in Sisu-service. 

Course registration

Registration for this course starts on 29.1.2024 at 9.00  
Registration for this course ends on 4.3.2024 at 23.59

The number of participants is limited to 20.

This course is organized by the Aalto University School of Business.

The course fee is paid upon registration for each course at a time and it is binding. Familiarize yourself with registration and payment rules as well as other guidelines for students:
Registration, payments and rulesAccess Token on Aalto University Campus

To be able to enter campus premises and classrooms you need the student access token of Aalto University. You can get the student access token from campus lobby services. The access token need to be activated with your Aalto account and password before you can use it. Please, arrive the campus well in advance before your first class so that you can make the access token work. Please, see the instructions how to get and activate the access token:How to get an access tokenOtaniemi Campus, Espoo:Campus mapFurther information
Points from the exercises are valid only in the course exam and the re-exam after that. If the students take the course again, they need to gain the exercise points again.

Replaces course 22C00200 Johdon laskentatoimi I (Management Accounting I)

Individual study arrangements

If you need individual study arrangements in order to attend a course, contact the Open University office ([email protected]) in good time, at least 14 days before the start date of the course or the examination date. Further information about individual study arrangements:
Individual study arrangements at Open University