6 ECTS credits
172 h study time

Offer 1 with catalog number 1021578BNR for all students in the 2nd semester at a (B) Bachelor - advanced level.

Semester
2nd semester
Enrollment based on exam contract
Impossible
Grading method
Grading (scale from 0 to 20)
Can retake in second session
Yes
Enrollment Requirements
Students must have taken ‘Financial Accounting’, before they can enroll in this course.
Taught in
English
Faculty
Faculty of Social Sciences & SolvayBusinessSchool
Department
Business
Educational team
Marie-Laure Vandenhaute (course titular)
Thomas Selleslagh
Activities and contact hours
13 contact hours Lecture
25 contact hours Seminar, Exercises or Practicals
134 contact hours Independent or External Form of Study
Course Content

The course deals with the fundaments of managerial accounting that every business economics student should master.
Specifically, the course consists of 4 parts:

  1. The first part provides an introduction to management accounting, cost terms and cost behavior
  2. The second part sheds light on product costing. After a general introduction to cost allocation, different product costing systems (job-costing, process-costing, activity-based costing) are discussed in depth.
  3. The third part focuses on information for decision making and address valuable management tools and concepts such as cost-volume-profit analysis, the comparison between variable and absorption costing, and relevant costs.
  4. Finally, the fourth part examines the accounting for planning and control. This part introduces the master budget and the use of flexible budgets and variance analysis.
Course material
Handbook (Required) : Introduction to Management Accounting (Global Edition) Plus MyAccountingLab with Pearson eText, Horngren Charles T., Sundem Gary L., Burgstahler D. and Schatzberg J., 17th edition, Pearson, 9781292412559, 2022
Digital course material (Required) : (1) Video tutorials; (2) Case studies and exercises; (3) Supplementary study material such as knowledge clips and end-of-chapter summaries, will be made available via electronic learning environments.
Handbook (Recommended) : Management Accounting, Seal, W., Rohde, C., Garrison, R. and Noreen E., 6th edition, McGraw-Hill Eduation, 9780077185534, 2019
Handbook (Recommended) : Horngren's Financial & Managerial Accounting. The Managerial Chapters, Miller-Nobles, T., Mattison, B. and Matsumura E., 6th edition, Pearson, 9781292412337, 2021
Additional info

Throughout the course, students will be asked to do homework assignments via a.o. the online homework and practice environment MyLabAccounting by Pearson. Therefore, the access to MyLabAccounting is mandatory for this course. There are two access options: 1) an access code can be purchased together with the textbook or 2) an access code can be purchased separately.

Teaching Methods

- Lecture (HOC): collective contact-dependent moments during which the lecturer engages with learning materials
- Seminar, Exercises or Practicals (WPO): collective or individual contact-dependent moments during which the students are guided to actively engage with learning materials
- Independent or External Form of Study (Self): independent study

This description of the teaching methods is indicative, in order to assess the expected study load:

Lecture: 13 hours

  • Introductory and closing session (1 hour)
  • Gaining necessary theoretical knowledge by means of video tutorials (12 hours)

Practicals: 25 hours

  • Students practice applying key concepts by solving exercises and case studies in peer groups in class: (7x3 hours (21 hours))
  • Individual guidance via a.o. e-mail, Q&A discussion forums (4 hours)

Self: 134 hours

  • Doing homework assignments to check the understanding of the video tutorial and to prepare to participate in class activities (24 hours)
  • Solving exercises to extend the learning (30 hours)
  • Consulting additional study material, keeping up with the course material during the semester (48 hours)
  • Preparation for the exam (4 days of 8 hours (32 hours))

 

Learning Outcomes

General Competences

The objective of this course is to clearly present the basic concepts and techniques in management accounting and to recognize current trends. The focus of the course is mainly the understanding of costs and cost behavior. Further the course sheds light on different product costing systems and the use of cost information for decision making, planning and control decisions.

The purpose of this course is to provide students with the competences to:

  • describe, explain and apply the basic concepts and terminology within the domain of management accounting;
  • distinguish between management accounting and financial accounting, describe and explain the importance of both;
  • classify costs according to their use (preparing external reports, predicting cost behavior, assigning costs to cost objects, or decision making);
  • measure, mathematically express and interpret cost functions;
  • describe, distinguish, identify and apply different product costing methods;
  • prepare and analyse a cost-volume-profit analysis and explain its significance.
  • compute the degree of operating leverage and explains, calculate and interpret how the degree of operating leverage can be used to predict changes in profit
  • distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information and interpret this information for making decisions;
  • prepare and interpret a master's budget;
  • calculate, discuss and interpret budget variances.

Grading

The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Written Exam determines 85% of the final mark.
Other Exam determines 15% of the final mark.

Within the Written Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

  • Written Exam with a relative weight of 85 which comprises 85% of the final mark.

Within the Other Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

  • Homework Assignments with a relative weight of 15 which comprises 15% of the final mark.

Additional info regarding evaluation

The component "homework assignments" cannot be resumed in the second session. No replacement assignments will be organised. The grade on this component is transferred from the first to the second session, but is not transferred to the following academic year. If the homework assignments were not carried out during the semester, the grade on this component will be zero in the first and second exam session. As such the final grade will be limited to a maximum of 85% out of 20.

Homework assignments have strict due dates. No grades will be assigned in case of late submission.  

 

Allowed unsatisfactory mark
The supplementary Teaching and Examination Regulations of your faculty stipulate whether an allowed unsatisfactory mark for this programme unit is permitted.

Academic context

This offer is part of the following study plans:
Bachelor of Business Economics: Startplan Business Economics
Bachelor of Business Economics: Business and Technology
Bachelor of Business Economics: International Business
Preparatory Programme Master of Science in International Business: Default track
Preparatory Programme Master of Science in Business Engineering: Business and Technology: Default track