ACCTG 225

Fundamentals of Managerial Accounting

Course Introduction

What Is Managerial Accounting?

The goal of managerial accounting is to provide business decision–makers with strategically important information.

Your study of financial accounting through such courses as Accounting 215 gave you an understanding of how to prepare financial statements for use by investors, creditors, and auditors. Financial accounting's goal is to provide external users of financial reports with objective information about the financial condition of an organization. In contrast, managerial accounting focuses on providing internal users with timely and relevant information for use in planning, controlling, motivating, and decision making.

This internal focus is what I find exciting about managerial accounting. An organization's financial success depends upon its leaders' ability to identify and capitalize on its strengths, to recognize and remedy its weaknesses, and to seek out profitable new opportunities. As a managerial accountant, you will play a key role in confronting and overcoming these challenges.

My goal for this course is to help you successfully complete it. Along the way, I will help you make sense of the wealth of data that business organizations collect.

Course Objectives

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to

• sift through data and pick out the information that is important to making good decisions;
• analyze complex business challenges; and
• determine the critical questions that require answers, and know how to develop the answers to those questions.

You will also have furthered your ability to add value to any organization to which you apply your talents.

About the Online Environment

Your online course offers several advantages to the traditional classroom, including the comprehensive Online Student Handbook, the ability to communicate electronically with students and with your instructor, and links to a rich array of online resources.

Online Student Handbook

This handbook answers questions about your online learning course, such as how to purchase your text, schedule an exam, obtain a transcript, and get technical help if you need it. The handbook also provides additional resources, such as how to order books or journals from the library and how to study for an online course.

Communication with Your Instructor

• You can use e-mail to ask me a question.

Online Resources

As an online student, you have access to a wealth of Web resources compiled to provide fast, easy access to information that supports your online learning experience. Organized by subjects, Online Resources link you to sites with help for writing and research, study skills, language learning, and library reference materials. All links have been assessed for credibility and reliability, and they are regularly monitored to ensure their usability.

Required Text

Ray H. Garrison, Eric Noreen, and Peter C. Brewer, Managerial Accounting, 12th ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007).
ISBN: 0073526703

I like this text. The authors do a good job of presenting and explaining the foundational concepts of managerial accounting. They also provide many examples of how the concepts are applied in practice, and note some of the pitfalls that confront companies, large and small, famous and not-so-famous.

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