Course Number/Section
ACCT 6305.OI1
Course Title
Accounting for Managers
Term and Dates
Fall 2014 (08/25/14 - 12/18/14)
Professor Contact Information
Professor
Surya Janakiraman
Office Phone
972 883 6370
Email Address
Send email using the “Message” option in eLearning Pilot (Preferred option). Do not use the Email Tool of eLearning Pilot
If for some reason, you can’t communicate through eLearning, then send email to suryaj@utdallas.edu (please indicate ACCT 6305 in the subject line
Office Location
4.806
Office hours
By appointment
About the Instructor
I have been with UTD since 1998. Prior to that, I was teaching at Carnegie Mellon University. I have a Ph.D. in accounting from the University of Pennsylvania. I teach valuation and cost management related subjects. My research interests include executive compensation and cost management.
Course Description
This course is organized into two parts – Financial Accounting and Managerial Accounting. Financial accounting deals with financial reports prepared for external parties such as shareholders and creditors whereas managerial accounting deals with the preparation and use of financial and nonfinancial information by internal decision-makers.
Learning Objectives
1. Be able to summarize the information provided by the balance sheet, income statement and statement of cash flows and interpret individual amounts (assets, liabilities, equities, revenues and expenses, cash flows from operating, investing and financing activities).
2. Be able to compute financial ratios and use financial ratios and other information to compare companies competing in an industry in terms of profitability and liquidity (short and long term).
3. Be able to use cost and management accounting concepts to assess challenges and develop solutions in production and service entities
4. Learn to analyze the accounting systems designed for performance measurement and appraisal to arrive at optimum solutions.
5. Learn to analyze and evaluate specific aspects and apply the course concepts in a team mode to "real world" situations.
Part I – Financial Accounting
The objectives in the financial accounting part are to help students obtain skills in reading and using information in financial statements. The financial accounting section includes nine modules. Working through suggested exercises and problems from the textbook is critical to understanding the concepts and is the most effective means of preparing for the module tests.
Part II – Managerial Accounting
This part of the course provides an introduction to accounting techniques used by managers when they are faced with planning, directing, controlling and decision-making activities in their organizations. Accounting information can be used to identify and analyze alternatives and to guide the manager to a course of action that will yield the greatest benefit to the firm. While the major emphasis in financial accounting is on the accumulation and presentation of accounting data to external decision makers, the emphasis in managerial accounting is on the presentation and analysis of accounting data by internal decision makers.
One of the main objectives of the Managerial Accounting part of the course is to familiarize you with the requisite technical skills for problem solving; for example, determining unit product costs, measuring production process costs, budgeting, performance reporting, allocating resources efficiently within the firm, and maximizing profits while maintaining the ability to meet long-term goals. As mangers, you will need to identify the relevant information, the appropriate method for analyzing that information, and the manner in which to communicate
