Program(s): Business Human Resources
Program Coordinator(s): Judith Hunter
Course Leader or Contact: Multiple Course Leaders
Version: 7.0
Status: Approved - Under Rev (AREV)

Section I Notes: N/A

Detailed Description
In this course Human Resources students are introduced to finance and accounting concepts and skills relevant to their professional future. Students develop an understanding of the impact of accounting on the field of Human Resources. Students learn tools used to help an organization analyze its past and plan its future, standard cost systems, cost-volume-profit relationships, various forms of budgeting, and relevant costs for decision making. HR applications and scenarios provide the context for finance and accounting concepts in the course. Students learn through practice and repetition after concepts and skills are taught and demonstrated. Individual assignments and quizzes reinforce the concepts learned in class.

Program Context

 Critical Performance
By the end of this course, students will have demonstrated the 
ability to apply some of the important tools used to evaluate a 
company's financial performance and to plan and direct its future 
operations.

Learning Outcomes
To achieve the critical performance, students will have demonstrated 
the ability to: 

1.  Describe the role and functions of both managerial and financial
    accounting in a business organization.
2.  Understand the differences between Job Costing, Process Costing 
    and Activity Based Costing systems.   
3.  Prepare budgets for: sales, production; direct materials; direct 
    labour; manufacturing overhead; selling & administrative 
    expenses; cash receipts and disbursements.
4.  Describe how to use fixed and variable costs to predict costs.
5.  Explain how changes in activity affect contribution margin and 
    net operating income 
6.  Determine the level of sales needed to achieve a desired target 
    profit, after computation of the break-even point.
7.  Explain the significance of direct materials and direct labour 
    variances after computation.
8.  Contrast flexible budgets with static budgets.
9.  Prepare a performance report for both variable and fixed costs 
    using the flexible budget approach.
10.  Distinguish between relevant and irrelevant costs in decision 
    making.
11. Prepare an analysis showing whether a product line or other 
    organizational segments should be dropped or retained.
12. Prepare a well-organized make-or-buy analysis and an analysis   
    showing whether a special customer order should be accepted.
13. Outline the basic approach in activity-based costing as distinct 
    from traditional costing, and the computation of product costs 
    under the two systems.
14. Understand the content and purpose of financial statements, 
    including the financial ratios and other measures used to
    evaluate a company's financial performance.
15. Understand the basics of capital budgeting analysis. 

Quizzes / Assignments                             30%
Test 1 Chapters 1, 2, 3 (4, 5, 6 overview only)   20%
Test 2 Chapters 7, 8, 9, 10                       25%
Test 3 Chapters 11, 12, 14, 15                    25%
Total                                            100%

Introduction to Managerial Accounting, Brewer, Garrison, Noreen, 
Kalagnaham & Vaidyanathan, 4th Canadian Edition., McGraw-Hill Ryerson 
(2014)

Unit 1

Reference: Chapter 1 - An Introduction to Managerial Accounting 
- Differentiate between financial and managerial accounting.

Reference: Chapter 2 - Cost Concepts 
- Define and give examples of variable and fixed costs; direct and  
  indirect costs; differential costs, opportunity costs and sunk 
  costs; manufacturing and non-manufacturing costs; and product and 
  period costs.
- Explain how costs are classified in the financial statements of 
  merchandising and manufacturing companies.
- Prepare an income statement and a schedule of costs of goods sold.
- Prepare a schedule of cost of goods manufactured. 
- Assignments/quizzes/labs

Reference: Chapter 3 - Cost Behaviour: Analysis and Use
- Describe the behavior of variable costs, fixed costs, and mixed
  costs.
- Describe the high-low method of analyzing mixed costs and set up a 
  cost equation using the high-low method.
- Explain the concept of contribution margin and prepare a 
  contribution margin income statement.
- Assignments/quizzes/labs

Reference: Overview of Chapter 4 Systems Design: Job-Order Costing, 
Chapter 5 Process Costing, and Chapter 6 Activity-Based Costing.

Test 1 (20%): Chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4, 5, 6 (overview)

Unit 2

Reference: Chapter 7 - Budgeting 
- Describe a master budget and the relationships among its components.
- Prepare a sales budget, including a schedule of cash collections.
- Prepare a production budget, a direct materials budget, a direct
  labour budget, a manufacturing budget, an ending finished goods
  inventory budget, and a selling and administrative expense budget.
- Prepare a cash budget.
- Prepare a budgeted income statement and a budgeted balance sheet.
- Assignments/quizzes/labs

Reference: Chapter 8 - Cost-Volume-Profit Relationships 
- Explain how changes in activity affect contribution margin, the CM
  ratio, and net income.
- Compute break-even sales, and the sales needed to achieve a target
  profit.
- Explain and compute the margin of safety.
- Compute the degree of operating leverage and explain its
  usefulness. 
- Assignments/quizzes/labs

Reference: Chapter 9 - Relevant Costs: The Key to Decision Making 
- Understand the relevant cost approach to decision making.
- Apply the relevant cost analysis framework to an equipment
  replacement decision.
- Apply the relevant cost analysis framework to a business  
  addition/deletion decision.
- Apply the relevant cost analysis framework to a make-or-buy
 (outsourcing) decision.
- Apply the relevant cost analysis framework to a special-order
  decision.
- Assignments/quizzes/labs

Reference: Chapter 10 - Capital Budgeting Decisions
-Understand the basics of capital budgeting analysis.
-Understand and apply alternative methods to analyze capital 
investments.
- Assignments/quizzes/labs

Test 2 (25%): Chapters 7, 8, 9, 10

Unit 3

Reference: Chapter 11 - Standard Costs and Variance Analysis 
- Understand standard costing and compute standard costs.
- Understand variance analysis and compute variances.
- Understand management control in a standard costing environment.
- Assignments/quizzes/labs 
- Understand static and flexible budgets
- Understand variable overhead variances
- Understand fixed overhead variances
- Assignments/quizzes/labs

Reference: Chapter 12 - Organizational Structure and Performance 
Measurement 
- Explain segmented reporting and prepare a segmented performance
- Define and compute the return on investment (ROI) measure.
- Explain how changes in sales, expenses, and operating assets can
  influence the ROI.
- Define and compute the residual income (RI) measure.
- Assignments/quizzes/labs

Reference: Chapter 13 - How Well Am I Doing? -  Financial Statement 
Analysis (Online chapter)
- Prepare and interpret financial statements in comparative and
  common-size forms. 
- Compute and interpret the financial ratios used to measure the well-
  being of shareholders and creditors.
- Assignments/quizzes/labs

Reference: Chapter 14 - How Well Am I Doing? - Cash Flow Statement 
(Online chapter)
- Prepare a cash flow statement.

Test 3 (25%): Chapters 11, 12, 13, 14