International Technological University

ACTN 910 Managerial Accounting

(3 credit hours)
Wednesdays 2:30pm-5:15pm

Instructor: Mr. Hiram Willis,

[email protected]
([email protected])
408-843-6176
Office hours: by appointment, see me to schedule a meeting(s)
For your convenience, with advance, I am generally available to meet on
weekends.

Textbook: Introduction to Management Accounting, Chapters 1-17, 15th Edition,

Horngren, Sundem, Stratton, Burgstahler, and Schatzberg, Prentice Hall,
2011,
ISBN –13: 978-0-13-610265-6
ISBN –10: 0-13-610256-4

Description of the course:

Managerial Accounting covers selecting and using the accounting information necessary
for planning, control and decision making. It is an essential tool that enhances a
manager’s ability to make effective economic decisions.

This course deals with the following topics and concepts: cost behavior, operational and
management systems including inventory management, relevant costs, capital budgeting,
cost allocation and segmented reporting, which are indispensable tools for managers and
business leaders.

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Students Course Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, the students will:
1) Understand how business decisions are made and how accounting (with an
emphasis on costs) influences business decisions.
2) Be able to explain the importance of the different accounting costs and
management control systems.
3) Be able to state the purposes of cost allocation and indicate how cost
allocation information can be tactically and strategically used.
4) Understand the ways different costs behave and state how managers use this
data and information to control total costs.
5) Be able to understand and explain the role of accounting in corporate planning
and control of the business.
6) Understand how the tool of capital budgeting influences the objectives,
strategies, and operations of a firm.
7) Be familiar with the product costing as a tool for providing the cost data
needed to direct the affairs of an organization.
8) Know how to conduct breakeven analysis for a multiple product company and
explain the effects of shifts in the sales mix, as well as discuss the impact of
income taxes.
9) Be able to distinguish between process costing and job-order costing and
identify companies that would use each costing method.
10) Understand the basic accounting concepts, theories, and conventions, as well
as reporting requirements.
11) Be able to analyze and synthesize corporate financial statements.
12) Know, given a business decision scenario, how to decide which of the costs
are relevant and use those to recommend a course of action.

Grade Assigned Weights:

1. Course Student Learning Objective

Course code: ACNT 910 Page 2 of 7

 (CSLO) 15% Points
2. 5-In class quizzes 15% Points
3. Participation 15% Points
4. Midterm 25% (Points Deducted for Late Exams)
5. Final Exam 30% (Points Deducted for Late Exams)

Academic Integrity:
International Technological University expects that students will do their
own work and that their quizzes, tests, examinations, course work, essays,
projects, and all other assignments honestly reflect their own learning and
knowledge in the course.

Attendance Policy:
The University has an attendance policy that mandates an incomplete grade
for students who register then never attends class. In this case an incomplete
grade will be given regardless of work, exams or materials submitted by the
student.

Participation is essential part of the learning process. You are invited to

participate in each class to share your question(s), comments, perspectives
and opinions about the topic(s) being discussed.

Schedule of Content Covered

Below is our pre-planned schedule. My Socratic pedagogy is to integrate theory with
application. I like to start our learning with questions. Often I may answer a question
with a question to suggest deeper thinking about the topic. Each class meeting will have
a combination of lecture, PowerPoint and application discussion. Applications will
include selected problems at the back of each chapter. I will also endeavor to include
applications from recent business articles. The class is designed to move to a pre-planned
pace. However, I do reserve the right to alter the schedule of materials covered
depending on the class’ tempo.

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 Lesson 1: Decision Theory & Decision Making
 Syllabus and Course Objectives Review; General Questions
 What is strategic about costs?
Lesson 2: Cost Behavior and Cost Volume Relationships
 Cost components and Behaviors
 Where do costs come from
 Breakeven Analysis
Lesson 3: Measuring Cost
 Measuring: Not everything we can measure counts; however, not
everything we can measure counts.
 Influences of Cost
 Measuring cost functions
Lesson 4: Cost Management Systems and Activity Based Accounting
 Purpose and objectives; Understanding Cost Management Systems
 Direct and Indirect costs
 Types of organization (including manufacturing costs)
 Monitor, Measuring and managing operational activity
Lesson 5: Pricing Management & Decision
 Pricing, cost, and value
 Decision processes and business decisions
 Influences on price
Lesson 6: Operational Management & Decisions
 Make versus buy decisions
 Optimal production (including EOQs) and product mix decisions
 Keep or replace decisions
Lesson 7: The Master Budget, Flexible Budgets and Variance Analysis
 Budgets and Planning
 Monitor, Measuring and managing operational activity
 Forecasting and the operating budget
Lesson 8: Review and Midterm week

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  Course Review and Midterm hand out. Midterm is due next week
before the beginning of class.
Lesson 9: Management Control Systems & Responsibility
 Organization goals and control systems
 Performance measures and measuring performance
 Monitor, Measuring and managing operational activity
 Computing ROI, economic profit and economic value-added
 MBOs
Lesson 10: Capital Budgeting & Cost Allocation
 Capital Budgeting
 Capital budgeting decisions & the use of NPV
 Strengths & weaknesses of NPV
 Other decision models
Lesson 11: Cost Allocation & Accounting for Overheads Costs
 A general framework for cost allocation
 Operational overheads
 Production overheads
 Variable costing
Lesson 12: Job-Ordering Costing and Processing Systems
 Job-ordering and process costing
 Inventory costing
 Kanban and JIT cost implications, strategies and implementation
Lesson 13: Basic Accounting Concepts, Techniques ad Conventions
 Accrual and cash based accounting
 Reading and analyzing financial statements
 Synthesizing financial statements
Lesson 14: Accounting & Annual Reports
 Corporate annual reports
 Financial statements
Lesson 15: Course & Final Review

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  Accounting Objectives, Strategies, and Implementation
 Cost, Cost Management, Decision Making
 Final Exam (Take Home: Due in 1- Week)

Final Examination Due Next Week, along with any make-up work.

A word about Professor Hiram Willis:

Hiram Willis is both an INC 500 President (#401, 1996) and New York Fortune 50
President (#13, 1997). With past residences in Japan (Shin Yokohama), UK (Reading)
and Germany (Frankfurt & Munich), his background includes: CEO and President of
Visualize Video Corporation (A Taiwan Company) and Voice Technologies Groups,
Inc., as well as GM for Cygron International USA (Budapest), and Cymbolic Sciences
International, Inc. (Geneva, Switzerland). He is a senior business advisor to major US
domestic and international companies in the software, networks, and mobile
communications markets with business and financial strategies. His work includes
international venture capital firms and transnational corporations. Currently, he is the
Managing Director for an international asset and investment management firm, as well as
on the Board of Directors for emerging growth firms.

Mr. Willis served on the adjunct faculty staff for the Fisher Graduate School of
International Business, Monterey Institute of International Studies, as well as San Jose
State University College of Business Center for Entrepreneurship, together with Menlo
College and The Graduate School of Economics and Business, Saint Mary’s College. He
is and invited speaker, published and lectures on International Business Planning and
Finance Strategies for Early Stage & Entrepreneurial Companies; Strategic Finance the
Innovations that Builds Corporate Equity Value; as well as Business and Asset
Valuations Techniques.

With current PhD work and research in Black-Scholes options pricing models for SRIs
and market SRI Beta influence on multi-factor asset pricing models (Walden University),
Mr. Willis holds a MBA from the Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management,

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Claremont Graduate University with post-graduate Advanced MBA work in Finance.
Additionally, he holds a Bachelor in Electrical Engineering, from the University of
Southern California, School of Engineering, and Electro-Physics Department, where he
received the Archimedes Engineering Award in 1977. His background includes Financial
Securities in: equities, derivatives, partnerships and debenture structuring, as well as
balance sheet restructuring, together with professional awards from IEEE Society,
Society of Optical Engineering, American Financial Association, and Inc 500 President,
and New York Fortune 50 President Awards.

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