I really hope that you will enjoy the Management Accounting unit.  

 

By the end of the study period, you should meet the objectives of this unit and finish, fully equipped with a wide range of management accounting tools and techniques.

 

Firstly, you will have an understanding of how management accounting information plays a critical role in assisting in organisational planning, controlling and decision-making. Secondly, you will be equipped with the conceptual and practical understanding necessary to prepare, use and interpret management accounting information. Finally, you will gain knowledge of how management accounting assists in significant business activities, and helps to create a competitive advantage. 

This unit revolves around the online unit website and it is essential that all students interact regularly with the instructions and materials posted on this website. Continuous assessment will provide all students with the opportunity to assess their understanding of management accounting concepts and tools and to obtain feedback based on these assessments. An assignment that will consist of an argumentative essay and presentation, will give you the opportunity to research independently and enhance your presentation and argumentative essay skills, time management and critical thinking capabilities. Tools such as MyAccountingLab will enable you to gain proficiency in solving management accounting problems. The format of the topic material will enable you to work on your conceptual, technical, communication and presentation skills and make you aware of the importance of impressing management and, if conducted in a group, group dynamics to accomplish tasks successfully. All these activities will prepare you for the final exam which is an examination of your conceptual and technical learning in this unit.

 

We will also make use of Excel in order to assist, and to demonstrate some of the calculations.  It is therefore important that you have access to Excel.  A basic working knowledge of Excel will also be beneficial.  

I hope that you will be able to apply the skills acquired in Management Accounting to practical situations in your future careers.

All the best in your studies.

Mrs Christa Viljoen
Unit Coordinator

 

 

Primary Coordinator: Mrs Christa Viljoen

Location: School of Commerce

WL4-47

Email:christa.viljoen@unisa.edu.au

Telephone: +61 8 830 20797

Fax: +61 8 8302 0992

Staff Home Page: people.unisa.edu.au/Christa.Viljoen

 

 

School of Commerce

Postal Address:
OUA Unit, University of South Australia
School of Commerce
City West Campus, Way Lee Building
GPO Box 2471
Adelaide 5001

School Phone:
(08) 8302 7231

School Fax:
(08) 8302 0992

School Email:
cmr_oua@unisa.edu.au

UniSA Student Advisers
Tel: +61 8 8647 6145
Fax: +61 8 8647 6082
Tel: 1300 361 450 (local call cost - mobile and payphone extra)
Email: ouainfo@unisa.edu.au
Website: https://i.unisa.edu.au/Campus-Central/OUA/

Online resources for this unit can be accessed from your unit homepage via your UniSA student portal https://my.unisa.edu.au. 

Please also check the OUA @ UniSA website for frequently asked questions and information on administrative processes for OUA students studying with UniSA. https://i.unisa.edu.au/Campus-Central/OUA/

OUA students enrolled in UniSA units are eligible to use the Library to support their study. Regardless of where you live UniSA’s Off Campus Library Service can help you. Services include phone and online assistance, electronic document delivery to your desktop and postal delivery of loan items and documents. unisa.edu.au/library-ocls

The Co-op is UniSA’s preferred textbook supplier and textbooks can be purchased online at www.coop.com.au.

ACG 11 Accounting for Business

There are no corequisite Subjects to be completed in conjunction with this Subject.

To provide students with an overview of how management accounting information plays a critical role in organisational planning, controlling, decision-making and learning and to equip students with the conceptual and practical understanding necessary to use and interpret management accounting information.

On completion of this Subject, students should be able to:

CO1. describe the roles of management accounting in planning, control and decision-making

CO2. outline the various costing systems used by organisations for control, planning and decision-making and be able to calculate product costs using conventional and contemporary approaches to costing

CO3. identify the information needs and produce financial analyses and reports for management for a range of decisions such as costing, cost estimation, pricing, profitability analysis, product mix, working capital management and outsourcing

CO4. develop budgets and long-term financial plans

CO5. evaluate types of organisational structures including concepts for responsibility accounting, authority delegation and control

Upon completion of this Subject, students will have achieved the following combination of Graduate Qualities and Subject Objectives:

Management accounting information that creates value; cost terms, concepts & behaviour; product costing systems; job and process costing; overhead costs; ABC; budgeting; tactical decision-making; cost decision-making and product-mix; CVP analysis and product mix; working capital; organisational structures; reporting for management decision making.

4.5 unit points

Students must achieve 50% or more for the entire course with a minimum of 50% in the final examination to pass this course.

Students must achieve 50% or more for the entire unit with a minimum of 50% in the final examination to pass this unit.

This unit involves a supervised exam. Please be sure to read the section entitled 'Assessment Summary' later in this Unit Information. Alternatively, you can also access information about exam processes online at

https://i.unisa.edu.au/Campus-Central/OUA/

A table outlining the unit structure and study schedule is printed at the back of this guide. Please refer to it for important information regarding due dates for assignments.

Facebook Groups- Important Note
The preferred means for you to communicate about an OUA unit, its content, assessment and any queries, is

via the discussion forum(s) in the course website. Some students choose to set up Facebook discussion pages to promote social contact and to discuss the unit, where they can control who participates.
Whether or not you are using the official discussion forum(s), those of you who are using Facebook or any other social media need to be aware that:
1. There are risks in sharing assessable information in a public forum as other students may copy your ideas and they will be in breach of paragraphs 9.2.2 (c) and 9.2.1 (f) of the UniSA Assessment Policies and
Procedures Manual. Both of these breaches usually incur a minimum penalty of zero for an assignment.
2. Discussion on Facebook sites is not monitored by the unit coordinators and so may be misleading or wrong; without this supervision, you must be very careful in assuming that any technical discussion is accurate or relevant.

3. Under no circumstances should you engage in defamatory exchanges on Facebook or other social media sites – whether the postings relate to other students or to academic staff or to the University. If we become aware of any comments that are defamatory, the matter will be referred for formal action by the University’s lawyers if those comments are not retracted or removed upon request. Accordingly, we strongly suggest that your discussion on any forum must be of a professional standard and not involve any personal attack or openly derogatory statements.

You will need continual access to the following text(s) to complete this course. Where possible the Library will make the book available for student use. Please check the Library catalogue before purchasing the book(s). The Library will always seek to purchase resources that allow an unlimited number of concurrent users, however availability is dependent on license arrangements with book publishers and platforms. http://www.library.unisa.edu.au

Horngren, CT, Datar, G, Rajan, M, Wynder, M, Maguire, W & Tan, R (2013). Cost accounting: a managerial emphasis (2nd edn). Pearson Education Australia.

Nil

All other unit related materials can be accessed through your learnonline unit site which you will be able to access from the my Courses section in myUniSA.

All study related materials can be accessed through: https://my.unisa.edu.au

This unit will involve the production of audio and/or video recordings of UniSA students. To protect student privacy, you must not at any time disclose, reproduce or publish these recordings, or related material, in the public domain including online, unless the videoed students give consent for reproduction, disclosure or publication. This requirement is consistent with University statutes, by-laws, policies, rules and guidelines which you agreed to abide by when you signed the Student Enrolment Declaration.

The feedback proforma is available on your course site.

The continuous assessment requires students to do online quizzes in the learnonline unit website on a weekly basis. These quizzes will have a limited time for completion (20 minutes). You will only be allowed one attempt per quiz. The best seven scores (out of nine quizzes) will count towards your final grade.   

 

 

Also refer to the learnonline unit site for additional information as well as unit updates throughout the unit.

 

VERY IMPORTANT - For topic number 3, 5 and 7 there will also be Excel assessments. For these three topics, the best mark (either the online quiz OR Excel assessment for that specific topic) will be used to determine your final continuous assessment mark.  

The assignment requires a student or group (maximum 3 students per group) to do an argumentative essay AND individual presentation about a specific management accounting issue. Please note that if you work in a group, the argumentative essay that will be submitted will be the same for all group members.  However, each of you will have to do a separate, individual video presentation that needs to be uploaded onto the learnonline site.

 

A list of management accounting issues will be provided to you.  You have to choose any ONE of these in order to do your assignment (argumentative essay and presentation).

 

The intention is to assist students to develop an understanding of the nature of an argument and what preparation as well as research and evidence are required to make a successful argument-based essay and presentation to management and/or clients. 

 

Further details on the essay and presentation guidelines and the criteria for assessing this assignment will be made available on the unit website. Resources on what is an argument, on what constitutes a persuasive argument and what are the required essay and presentation skills will also be made available on the unit webpage.

 

Students are encouraged to work on this assignment throughout the unit consistently.
 

The argumentative essay must be submitted in a Word document.  The required word count for the Word document is 1 200 words, with a maximum word count of 1 500.  Word counts up to 10% below 1 200 words (thus, 1 080 words) will not be penalised due to word count, however, it is unlikely that you will be able to address your topic in enough detail in less than 1 200 words.  In addition to your word document, a presentation (in the form of a video recording) will have to be uploaded.  The recording should be between 2 - 4 minutes in duration. Your name must be clearly identified on the submitted assignment.  For further details on the assignment please refer to the learnonline site.  

 

Also refer to the learnonline unit site for additional information as well as unit updates throughout the unit. 

Final Exam

The exam will assess a student's understanding of and ability to apply various management accounting concepts under examination conditions. The specific date will be available via www.open.edu.au/exams after week 7 of the study period.  

 

The final exam will assess all topics. The exam assesses a student's progress towards meeting the unit objectives and fulfilling the qualities of a University of South Australia graduate.

 

The final exam is a closed book exam and only non programmable calculators are permitted. Mobile phones and other electronic devices are not permitted. The duration of the exam will be 2 hours plus 10 minutes reading time.  

 

Special arrangements in examinations for Non-English Speaking Background (NESB) students

For students from a Non English Speaking Background, please be advised that it is your responsibility to contact the Exams and Results Team at UniSA by the end of week 8 of the study period to ensure that the correct arrangements for extra time in the exam are in place if you qualify. Students who qualify are also permitted to bring a hard copy English language or bilingual dictionary. This dictionary must not be enhanced or tampered with in any way. Electronic dictionaries are not permitted.

The requirement is accessible at http://w3.unisa.edu.au/oua/exams/ and this is also accessible via the link provided in the Unit Outline, under 'Online Resources for your unit'.

 

Supplementary examinations are available in this unit.  

 

Under certain circumstances, with special consideration, a deferred exam will be available to students.

A standard penalty of 10% per calendar day, or part thereof, will be deducted from the total available mark for the assignment, for up to 7 calendar days. After 7 calendar days the assignment will no longer be accepted.

Example: If a student scores 15/20 on assignment which is submitted two days late, four marks in total will be deducted (2 marks deducted per day – or 10% per day).

Unlike assignments received by the due date, where every endeavour will be made to provide grading and comments as soon as possible, assignments received after the due date for whatever reason will receive feedback at the Unit Coordinator's convenience.

Occasionally assignments go missing during submission and return, although this is unusual. It is expected that students will make copies of all assignments and be able to provide these if required.

If this unit includes an exam as part of the assessment your exam will be managed by OUA Exam Services including examination centre allocation. More information can be found on the OUA Exam Services website https://www.open.edu.au/student-admin-and-support/exams-and-results/

Supplementary assessment or examination offers students an opportunity to gain a supplementary pass (SP) and is available to all students under the following conditions unless supplementary assessment or examination has not been approved for the unit:

1. if the student has achieved a final grade between 45-49 per cent (F1) in a unit
2. if a student who has successfully completed all of the units within their program, with the exception of two units in their final study period, a supplementary assessment or examination may be granted where the final grade in either or both of these units, is less than 45 percent (F1 or F2)

More information about supplementary assessment is available in section 7.5 of the Assessment Policy and Procedures Manual.
http://w3.unisa.edu.au/policies/manual/default.asp

For this unit and all units undertaken within the School of Commerce, students who receive an F2 grade (below 40) will not be awarded a supplementary examination or assessment.  

 

Note: special consideration cannot be granted for a supplementary assessment or examination (APPM 7.7.6).

All students must adhere to the University of South Australia's policies about assessment:
http://w3.unisa.edu.au/policies/manual/default.asp.

Students with disabilities or medical conditions or students who are carers may be entitled to a variation or modification to standard assessment arrangements. See Section 7 of the Assessment Policy and Procedures Manual (APPM) at: http://w3.unisa.edu.au/policies/manual/default.asp

Students can register for an Access Plan with UniSA Disability Service.  If you indicated you have a disability when you enrolled through Open Universities Australia, you will be sent a letter about UniSA services for students with disabilities. See the UniSA OUA Disability Services for more information: 

http://www.unisa.edu.au/Disability/Current-students/Open-University-Australia

Students are advised there is a deadline to finalise Access Plan arrangements for examinations. Further information is available at: http://i.unisa.edu.au/campus-central/Exams_R/Before-the-Exam/Exams-for-OUA-students

 

Deferred assessment or examination is available for the unit.

 

Note: special consideration cannot be granted for a deferred assessment or examination (APPM 7.7.6). 

 

Special consideration is available 

 

Special Consideration Exams

The Assessment Policies and Procedures Manual (APPM 2017) defines 'Unexpected or exceptional circumstances are those which were outside the control of the student and/or for which there was no opportunity to prepare in advance.' Special consideration will only be granted where something unforeseen and unexpected happens either on the day of the exam or during the exam.  For example, if students are ill for the first time before the exam begins and choose to sit the exam will not be granted special consideration as they have had the opportunity to apply for a deferred exam instead.  

 

A special consideration application will be assessed if:

1.  An Exam Incident Report is completed in conjunction with the exam invigilator; and

2. The student leaves the exam early; and

3. The student does not complete the exam or a significant portion of it.

Variation to assessment methods, tasks and timelines may be provided in:

Unexpected or exceptional circumstances, for example bereavement, unexpected illness (details of unexpected or exceptional circumstances for which variation may be considered are discussed in clauses 7.8 - 7.10 of the Assessment Policy and Procedures Manual). Variation to assessment in unexpected or exceptional circumstances should be discussed with your unit coordinator as soon as possible.

Special circumstances, for example religious observance grounds, or community services (details of special circumstances for which variation can be considered are discussed in clause 7.11 of the Assessment Policy and Procedures Manual). Variations to assessment in expected circumstances must be requested within the first two weeks of the unit (or equivalent for accelerated or intensive teaching).

 

  

Extra time in exams (ENTEXT) and the use of a dictionary may be available to some students (for example, Indigenous Australian students and those of non-English speaking background) as follows:

• extra time for reading or writing. This will be an extra ten minutes per hour for every hour of standard examination time, and
• the use of an English language or bilingual print dictionary (without annotations). (APPM 7.2.2)

More information about variation to assessment is available in section 7.2 of the Assessment Policy and Procedures Manual. http://w3.unisa.edu.au/policies/manual/default.asp (section 7)

 

Eligible OUA students must apply to receive this variation. More information can be found on the Exams for OUA students webpage http://i.unisa.edu.au/campus-central/Exams_R/Before-the-Exam/Exams-for-OUA-students/

Academic integrity is the foundation of university life and is fundamental to the reputation of UniSA and its staff and students. Academic integrity means a commitment by all staff and students to act with honesty, trustworthiness, fairness, respect and responsibility in all academic work.

An important part of practising integrity in academic work is showing respect for other people's ideas, and being honest about how they have contributed to your work. This means taking care not to represent the work of others as your own. Using another person's work without proper acknowledgement is considered Academic Misconduct, and the University takes this very seriously.

The University of South Australia expects students to demonstrate the highest standards of academic integrity so that its degrees are earned honestly and are trusted and valued by its students and their employers. To ensure this happens, the University has policies and procedures in place to promote academic integrity and manage academic misconduct. For example, work submitted electronically by students for assessment will be examined for copied and un-referenced text using the text comparison software Turnitin http://www.turnitin.com.

More information about academic integrity and what constitutes academic misconduct can be found in Section 9 of the Assessment Policies and Procedures Manual (APPM): http://w3.unisa.edu.au/policies/manual/default.asp. The Academic Integrity Module explains in more detail how students can work with integrity at the University: https://lo.unisa.edu.au/mod/book/view.php?id=252142

Students are encouraged to complete the student evaluation of the unit (myCourseExperience) that will be available from the beginning of week 10 of the study period on the unit home page.

The information below show the suggested alterations/considerations for assessment items and exam dependent on the duration of the unplanned outage

 

less than 1 hour outage. No impact on either assessment or examination

 

1 to 4 hour outage.     Assessment  - Consider an extension. Examination - No impact.

 

4 to 24 hour outage.     Assessment - 24 hour extension. Examination - Be mindful of outage when marking

 

Over 24 hour outage.   Assessment - 48 hour extension. Examination - Be mindful of outage when marking