Cost Accounting Course is designed to provide an overview of cost concepts and cost calculation methods in contemporary organizations. This course will focus on how costs behave, what relevancy is and how the accurate and timely cost information can be created. While financial accounting provides information for external users, cost accounting provides information for both external and internal users. Cost Accounting will address the usage of cost information which is used for product costing, planning and control processes .
The objective of this course is to allow students to understand fundamentals of cost accounting needed for a business or professional accounting career. It provides students with a solid understanding of the principles of cost accounting, and involves both formal cost accounting principles and practical application in a business context.
| Week | Topics |
|---|---|
| 1 | Cost Accounting: Information for Decision Making. Describe the way managers use accounting information to create value in organizations. Distinguish between the uses and users of cost accounting and financial accounting information. Explain how cost accounting information is used for decision making and performance evaluation in organizations. Identify current trends in cost accounting. (Chapter 1: 1-37 pg)) |
| 2 | Cost Concepts and Behavior. This chapter will explain ; how costs are presented in financial statements, the process of cost allocation, material, labor, and overhead costs and the way they are added to a product at each stage of the production process, and also it will identify the components of a product’s costs. (Chapter 2; 38-83 pg) |
| 3 | Fundamentals of Cost-Volume- Profit Analysis. This chapter will teach the students the fundamentals of CVP analysis through graphic presentation model and profit-volume model. Also the use of CVP to analyze the effect of different costs structures in the decision process. (Chapter 3- pg 84-113 pg) |
| 4 | Fundamentals of Product and Service Costing. This chapter will teach the students the cost management systems and the reasons to calculate product or service cost , cost flow diagram, cost allocation and product costing, basic cost flow models , costing in single product or multiple product. (Chapter 6, 207-235 page) |
| 5 | Job Costing. This chapter will define what a job is and computing the cost of a Job. It will later on proceed with manufacturing overhead costs and the way how they are recorded. Lastly the chapter will focus on Job costing in service organizations and the ethical issues that arise with job costing such as ; misstating stage of completion, charging cost to a wrong job and misrepresenting the cost of jobs. (Chapter 7 , 237-279 page) |
| 6 | Process Costing. This chapter will first determine the equivalent units and later on proceed with the usage of product costing in process industry and the way how this information is reported to managers. This chapter will make an overview of the assigning costs method such as FIFO and LIFO in process costing and defining which one of them is a best. Lastly this chapter will focus on a detailed comparison between process costing and job costing |
| 7 | Activity Based Costing. This chapter will first explain what activity-based costing it through a business application and then proceeding with the two-stage cost allocation and cost hierarchies. Later on the chapter will focus on illustrating the activity based costing and the way how cost flows through the accounts. (Chapter 9 340-369 page) |
| 8 | Review Before Midterm Exam |
| 9 | Midterm Exam |
| 10 | Activity Based Cost Management. This chapter will explain the fundamentals of activity based cost management and the way how it is used in order to add value. The chapter later will continue with teaching the ways how to manage the cost of costumers and suppliers, cost of capacity and quality. (Chapter 10 370-390 page) |
| 11 | Capital Budgeting, This chapter will focus on planning and budgeting. How strategic planning increases competitiveness and what is the overall plan in terms of the organization goals, strategic long-range profit plan, what is the value of the employee participation, direct labor and overhead costs and completing the budgeted cost of goods sold and pulling it together into the income statement. (Chapter 13 488-520 page |
| 12 | Business Unit Performance Measurement. This chapter will focus on computing the divisional income and considering the advantages and disadvantages of it. Also will introduce, Return on Investment, Residual Income measures and Economic value added (EVA) as a performance measure for control. (Chapter 14 530-550 page) |
| 13 | Presentation of the Projects |
| 14 | Review before Final Exam |
| Method | Qty | % Each |
|---|---|---|
| Midterm Exam(s) | 1 | 30 |
| Presentation | 1 | 10 |
| Project | 1 | 10 |
| Final Exam | 1 | 50 |
| Other | 1 |
Fundamentals of Cost Accounting, 6th Edition, 2020, By William Lanen and Shannon Anderson and Michael Maher Financial and Managerial Accounting , 18th Edition, 2021, By Jan Williams and Mark Bettner and Joseph Carcello