COURSE NUMBER: MBA 224A.2

COURSE TITLE:  Managerial Accounting

UNITS OF CREDIT:  2

INSTRUCTOR:  Nicole Johnson

E-MAIL ADDRESS:  njohnson@haas.berkeley.edu

INSTRUCTOR STREAMING VIDEO: http://video.haas.berkeley.edu:24874/ramgen/media-services/professors/johnson.rm

Note: You need RealPlayer to view this video.  If you don't have it, go to http://www.real.com/realplayer.html?src=trial_redct and select the basic player, which is free.  Also, you need to put "haas\" before your regular user name on the login screen, e.g., haas\username.

CLASS WEB PAGE LOCATION (HTTP URL): CATALYST

MEETING DAY(S)/TIME: Tuesday 2:00-4:00PM

PREREQUISITE(S): MBA202

CLASS FORMAT:  Lecture and Case discussion

REQUIRED READINGS:  Course Reader (cases, articles, and lecture notes) and a text

BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE:  Class Participation/Attendance, Cases/Problem Sets, Midterm, Final

ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES:

This course provides an introduction to the uses of accounting information for a variety of purposes including tactical decision-making, product costing, inventory valuation, organizational planning, cost control, and performance evaluation.  The course shows how financial and non-financial information is used to help managers improve day-to-day operations and achieve strategic objectives.  It is divided into three parts: (a) cost analysis for decision-making; (b) cost measurement systems; and (c) cost planning & control systems.  The focus is on the internal use of cost data by management rather than external financial reporting.  Topics include: cost behavior and forecasting; cost-volume-profit analysis; decision analysis; cost application & allocation systems; variable, throughput & activity-based costing; budget preparation & variance analysis; segment reporting & performance evaluation.   The course will emphasize that there is no perfect (cost) accounting system and will present the trade-offs that managers have to make between designing systems for reporting, decision-making, control and performance evaluation.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

 Nicole Johnson has been an Assistant Professor in the accounting group in the Haas School of Business since 2005.  Her areas of expertise include managerial performance measurement, incentive alignment and transfer pricing.  She received a Ph.D. in Accounting from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University in 2005 and a Master’s Degree in Statistics from Stanford University in 2002.  She has worked previously as a database developer and a lecturer at Brigham Young University.  See http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/faculty/johnsonnicole.html.