DIABLO VALLEY COLLEGE

Syllabus
Managerial Accounting
BUSAC 187-5651
Spring 2016
Instructor Information
Instructor:
Phone:
Email:

My Lab Course ID

Grace Hill
(925)286-6531
Use the email function in
MyAccountingLab (see Email section
below)

hill17647

Use the exact name you use

at DVC!!!

COURSE
DESCRIPTION
A 4 unit second semester theory and procedures course required for many business
administration and accounting majors. Emphasis is on fundamental managerial accounting
concepts that aid in decision making, performance evaluation, planning and cost control.
This is a "late start" course lasting 15 (vs. 18) weeks; but you should have no problem completing
all the requirements if you stay active. There are 13 Managerial chapters for the semester: 1-12,
15. (Chapters 13 & 14 are topics from Financial Accounting and are excluded.)

DVC COURSE STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES

Upon satisfactory completion of the course, students will be able to:

A. Explain the difference between financial and managerial accounting, the role of managerial
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
H.
I.
J.

K.
L.

accounting and the primary informational needs of managers.

Define various cost terms and explain their use for different decision purposes.
Identify ethical issues and apply ethical standards to managerial accounting situations.
Prepare and analyze information and reports for job costing, process costing, and activitybased costing systems.
Perform cost-volume-profit analysis, including calculation of contribution margin,
breakeven, target net income, safety margin, and use it as a predictive tool.
Compare and contrast variable costing and absorption costing.
Prepare operating and financial budgets as parts of the master budget and identify the four
types of responsibility centers.
Describe the development and use of the flexible budget and standard costs.
Identify and interpret performance measurements including return on investment, residual
income and the use of a balanced scorecard.
Perform incremental analysis identifying opportunity costs and sunk costs, and criteria for
special orders, outsourcing, adding/dropping a product or service, and selling or
processing a product further.
Identify and use relevant costs in making decisions for capital budgeting decisions which
incorporate the use of time value of money techniques.
Describe the role of management accounting in supporting sustainability and creating

environmental accounting systems.

TEXTBOOK/ MATERIALS
The materials below can be purchased at the DVC Book Center. You can also purchase your
books online from the DVC Book Center by visiting http://www.bookcenter.dvc.edu/.

MATERIALS
Required textbook found at the DVC Bookstore:
Braun,Tietz Managerial Accounting, DVC 2nd Custom ed copyright 2015. [3 ring binder
version]with MyAccountingLab. ISBN 1269954547; Comes with access code to
MyAccountingLab
OR if purchased from another source : Braun,Tietz Managerial Accounting, 4th ed. [Standard
hardbound edition] ISBN 0133428370 AND an access code to MyAccountingLab (purchased
separately)
Required website access code: My Accounting Lab (MAL) (6 month access code)
Publisher: Pearson Prentice Hall
The above book center text has been custom printed in 3 ring binder form and packaged with an
access code to MyAccountingLab and e-text for DVC students at a special negotiated price of
$117.25(plus tax) and is available at the DVC Book Center. If you already have a hard copy of the
text, an access code to MAL can be purchased separately from the publisher for $65 (w/o e-text)
or $120 (w/e-text) when registering for MAL at http://pearsonmylab.com.
Both the textbook and MAL software access are required for this course.

TIME REQUIREMENTS
The standard time requirement for this course is 14 hours per week. The actual time required will
depend on the background of each student.

POLICY ON LATE WORK

I will not accept late assignments (even one minute late) except for a verifiable emergency
hospital visit involving yourself (very serious and sudden). If you do have an acceptable
medical emergency, you must contact me within a week of being admitted to the hospital if you want to
get an extension on your assignments. I recommend that you adopt the policy of never turning in an
assignment last minute. Computer problems, illness, and family problems can crop up preventing you
from turning in an assignment on time.
Because I do realize that unexpected situations may come up, there are 30 points extra credit available
by doing extra problems. Please see Extra Credit below for details. Computer problems will not be an
excuse for turning in late work. Computers are available at public libraries, from family, friends, and
neighbors, at the DVC Pleasant Hill campus, etc. Please have a back-up plan ready! I will expect you to
turn in your assignments on time even though your own computer/internet has crashed.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
DVC defines and explains academic dishonesty as follows:
Academic dishonesty is defined as: an act of deception in which a student claims credit for the work or effort of
another person or uses unauthorized materials or fabricated information in any academic work. Academic

dishonesty is a violation of the DVC Student Code of Conduct and will not be tolerated. Academic dishonesty
diminishes the quality of scholarship at Diablo Valley College and hurts the majority of students who conduct
themselves honestly.
Acts of academic dishonesty include, but are not limited to, the following:
Cheating
Unauthorized copying or collaboration on a test or assignment, or the use or attempted use of unauthorized
materials;
Tampering
Altering or interfering with evaluation instruments and documents;
Fabrication
Falsifying experimental data or results, inventing research or laboratory data or results for work not done, or falsely
claiming sources not used;
Plagiarism
Representing someone else's words, ideas, artistry, or data as ones own, including copying another person s work
(including published and unpublished material, and material from the Internet) without appropriate referencing,
presenting someones elses opinions and theories as one s own, or working jointly on a project, then submitting it
as ones own;
Assisting
Assisting another student in an act of academic dishonesty, such as taking a test or doing an assignment for
someone else, changing someones grades or academic records, or inappropriately disturbing exams to other
students.

The consequences of academic dishonesty range from receiving a zero on the assignment in question to
receiving an F in the course. Repeated offenses can result in expulsion from the college. Remember
that the highest level of ethical behavior is required and expected. Online students are expected
to do their own work like all students and must adhere to this academic integrity code.

STUDENTS RESPONSIBILITY
It is the students responsibility to drop this course. The drop dates for this semester are:
Last Date to Drop with no 'W':
Last Date to Drop with 'W':

02/28/16
04/29/16

GRADING
My Accounting Lab Media Assignments (13)
Chapter Quizzes (in MAL) (13)
My Accounting Lab Homework Assignments (13)
Exams (4)
Discussions Board (6)
Total Points
A Students Grade will be determined as
follows:

39 Points (3 points each)

260
(20 points each)
325
(25 points each)
400
(100 points each)
90
(15 points each)
1,114
A: 90-100%
B: 80-89%
C: 70-79%
D. 60-69%
F: Below 60%

The official grade roster for all your work is available and maintained in My Accounting
Lab. Verify/confirm your grades periodically throughout the course and manage your work so you
do not end up disappointed by being a few points short of the next higher grade. In fairness to all
students, I do not "adjust" grades at the end of the semester for any reason or allow unscheduled
extra credit or make-up work.

OFFICE HOURS
Office hours will be held as follows:

Monday from 3:30 to 5:00 pm on Skype (by prior arrangement) or by phone call (925286-6531). Skype name is grace.hill4.
MY AVAILABILITY
I am available to return emails and phone calls from Monday Friday from about 8:00 am to 5:00
pm. During this time, please allow a few hours for me to get back to you as I may be out of the
office meeting with clients. If you choose to call, please leave a message and indicate the best
time for me to return your call. If you email me or call me in the evenings or on weekends, I
will return your email/call the next weekday morning.
I ALWAYS return messages promptly. If 24 hours (during my hours available) have passed
without a response from me, then I never received your message and you will have to email me
again.

GETTING STARTED
Please follow these steps to get started:
1. D2L will NOT be our class website. However, it is a DVC requirement that all online
students log into the D2L classroom the first day of class or be in danger of being
dropped. In order to do this, go to https://desire2learn.4cd.edu. Log into the site with your
InSite Portal username and password.
You will be taken to a list of D2L courses for which you are registered. To access the
classroom, click on the link for this class. After you do this, you will have logged into the
class and met the school requirement.
2. Register for My Accounting Lab (MAL) using the access code that came with your
textbook. This will be our class website. Make sure to use the exact name (first AND
last name) that you used to register at DVC for the course.
See the last page of this syllabus for registration instructions. If you are waiting for
financial aid payments, you may register for this website for FREE for 17 days.
3. Once you have access to My Accounting Lab, click on the menu item Instructions and
Documents for Each Week, then click on Week of Feb 8 Feb 15. There will be a
separate content module for each week of the semester. In each module, you will see
instructions and other documents that will appear as links on the right. Click on the
Instructions for the Week link, print out the instructions and follow them step-by-step. If
you attempt to complete your homework before reading the instructions, you will be
missing important information about the week. Each week will begin on Tuesday at
12:00 am and end on Monday at 11:59 pm (except last week--see Course Calendar
below).
All course information is located in the My Accounting Lab classroom
including your homework, quizzes, and exams

EXAMS
You can access your exams in MAL during the week they are assigned. The exams are timed,
but are not cumulative. You will only be allowed to access the exams once. You should prepare
well for the exams since, if you are not comfortable with the material, you may run out of time.
The best way to prepare for the exams is to practice the homework problems over and over
again. For more information about each exam, see the instructions for the appropriate week.

QUIZZES
You can access your quizzes (one per chapter) in My Accounting Lab during the week they are
assigned. Quizzes consist of 10 multiple choice questions and are worth 20 points in total. There
is one quiz for each chapter. There is no time limit for these quizzes, but they must be completed
once they are accessed. You will be allowed take each quiz two times with the higher score
counted. Make sure you are very comfortable with the homework problems (practice, practice,
practice) before taking each quiz.

HOMEWORKPROBLEMS
The homework problems are found in My Accounting Lab. Once you have entered the site, you
will click on the Assignments tab, then Do Homework and find the appropriate assignment.
The homework will be graded and posted automatically to this site. The computer will not accept
any homework submitted after the deadline and you will not receive credit. All homework
problems can be repeated an unlimited number of times. Instructions related to
completing your homework on this site are available in the content module for the first
week. Please read this information very carefully. The homework is due the last day of the
module by 11:59 pm. PLEASE NOTE THAT THE NUMBERS IN MY ACCOUNTING LAB WILL
BE DIFFERENT THAN THOSE IN THE PROBLEMS AT THE END OF THE CHAPTER IN THE
TEXTBOOK.
Problems identical to your homework problems except for the numbers and other practice
problems are found by clicking on the Study Plan tab and then selecting the appropriate
chapter. These problems are not graded but can help you understand the homework problem
before actually working on it. These study plan problems are also a great way to prepare for
exams.
Working Ahead: All homework problems are available at the beginning of the semester so feel
free to work ahead. Working ahead also allows you to work around those busy times in your own
life.

HOMEWORKMEDIA
The homework media assignments are found in My Accounting Lab. Once you have entered the
site, you will click on the Assignments tab, then Do Homework and find the appropriate
assignment. The media assignments will consist of PowerPoints and videos that you must view
in their entirety to earn the points. You should complete the media assignment before
completing the problem assignment as you need the information you learn by viewing the media
assignment to complete the problems.

DISCUSSION BOARD
The discussion board is where both instructor and students are able to post messages. There
are six discussion board assignments. To access the discussion board, log into My Accounting
Lab, click on Communication Tools, then click on the Discussion Board. First read my
Introduction for important information about using the discussion board. Then scroll down and
click on the topic for the week we are in.
Your initial response to my question is worth 11 points and your responses to two other students
are worth 2 points each. Responses to other students must show that you have read their
post, must include the name of the student to whom you are responding and must be at
least three full sentences long (Good job is not a full sentence).
All discussion board responses are due Mondays by 11:59 pm. Late postings will not receive
credit. All thoughtful responses that follow all the directions made by the deadline will get full
credit. I also encourage you to read as many of the postings on the discussion board as you can.

I will be monitoring your postings and occasionally responding to them.

Lets all take
advantage of the knowledge base that exists among all the students in this class!!
All discussion board postings are marked with a time stamp using Eastern Standard Time. Do
not be concerned as I will convert the time to Pacific Time before determining if the post was
submitted on time.
Working Ahead: All discussion questions will be available to view at the beginning of the
semester. However, you will not be allowed to post responses before the first day of the
week we are covering. If you do post early, I will delete your response. If you want to work
ahead, you may type your response in MS Word and then copy it into your discussion response
when we reach the appropriate week.

EXTRA CREDIT
All assignments are due by the stated deadline-no exceptions other than verifiable medical
emergencies involving a hospital visit (see my policy on late work above). I do realize that
unexpected situations do arise for students. Because of this I have included 30 points extra
credit that is available by completing extra problems in MAL. The category is called Extra Credit
and is listed as the last homework assignment. You may work on these problems throughout the
semester. All extra credit must be completed by last module. Extra credit points will be omitted
from your total points showing in MAL until after the end of the semester because they will skew
your percentage grade that is updated after you complete each assignment.

CLASS ANNOUNCEMENTS
Class announcements will be emailed to you in addition to being available on the
Announcement/Calendar page.
You will be held responsible for all class
announcements.
E-MAIL
Until all students are registered for My Accounting Lab (MAL), I will send out important emails to
your DVC incite email address. Please make sure to forward all mail from this address to the
email address you use the most. You can sign into Webadvisor to forward your email.
After the first week of school, I will send you emails from MAL. Make sure to use an email
address that you check frequently when you register for MAL. Please make sure and read
your mail on a timely basis as you will be held responsible for all messages from me!!
If you would like to email me, please do so by using the email function in MAL. Click on
Communication Tools, then Email. Choose me from the list of class members and click on
Add. Type a subject, your message, then click on Send Message. All emails should be
constructed using business appropriate writing. My reply will be sent to the personal email
address you used when establishing your My Lab account. If we are on the same topic, you may
return my emails from your personal email address. However, all new topics should originate
from MAL so that they are routed to the correct mailbox.

If, for some reason, you are unable to access MAL to send an email, you may email me
at grace_hill@sbcglobal.net.
HOW TO SUCCEED IN AN ONLINE ACCOUNTING CLASS
Here are some tips that should help you succeed.
1. Follow ALL steps found in the instructions for the week.
Check them off as you finish them.

2. You must be self motivated and disciplined. Between work, other classes, and this online
class, you will be extremely busy. Set up a schedule for yourself and follow it faithfully
3. Calendar ALL assignments the first day of class and check your calendar daily. Missing an
assignment will mean zero credit.
4. Never turn in an assignment last minute. Computer problems, illness, etc. can crop
up. Always turn in an assignment or take a quiz one or two days before it is due. That way, if
you do have problems, you can get help. Missing an assignment will have a significant
negative affect on your grade.
5. Get help as soon as you have a problem. Do not allow yourself to fall behind. Contact
me ASAP if you have a special situation come up. I will do the best I can to work with you so
that you can successfully complete the class. Email me your questions as soon as they come
up. There will be tutoring help available in the business computer labs (BFL 107). Check the
hours for the lab posted on the door.
6. Actively participate and ask lots of questions. I do not have a quota for questions. All
questions are welcome and encouraged, and there are NO dumb questions. Check your email
daily for messages from me.
7. Take the advice of a former student:
This is the fifth online class that I have taken at DVC. I think that the best advice that I
have for success in an online class is to plan a schedule early. Keep a separate calendar
with due dates for all of your assignments and quizzes. Plan ahead and decide when you
are going to do each assignment. Make sure that you stick to your schedule because it is
very easy to get off track. ONLINE CLASSES ARE NOT EASIER THAN REGULAR
CLASSES. They are actually harder from my experience. You must be very motivated to do
a good job in this class. If you start blowing off assignments, you will get behind and it will
be very hard to get back up to speed. Work hard and plan well and you will do a good job.

BAD LIASON COUNSELOR

Who: Taylor Harrison is a counselor in the Counseling Office. While any counselor can
help you with your academic and career goals, Taylor is also the liaison for the Business
Administration Department.
What: Taylor is here to help you succeed at DVC. You can meet with her to identify your
academic and career goals, create an educational plan, receive referrals to campus
resources and much more.
Where: Taylor is located in the SSC Building on the second floor, room 229.
How: You can schedule an appointment with Taylor by phone: 925-969-2140, in person
on the second floor of the SSC building, or online at
http://www.dvc.edu/enrollment/counseling/online1.html Taylor also provides limited dropin advising in the Counseling Center and in the Transfer and Career Center.
Contact: Taylor is available via e-mail at Tharrison@dvc.edu.

Course Calendar
Each week will have its own instructions and documents which are found in My Accounting Lab.
Click on the menu item Instructions and Documents for Each Week, then on the week you are
working on. You will see instructions and other documents that will appear as links on the right.
Click on the Instructions for the Week link. Print out the instructions and follow them step-by-step.
If you attempt to complete your homework before reading the instructions, you will be missing
important information about the week. Each week will begin on Tuesday at 12:00 am and end on
Monday at 11:59 pm (except last week). All assignments are due Mondays by 11:59 pm.
Remember that I do not accept late work (even one minute late!).

Week
Feb 8-Feb 15

Feb 16-Feb 22

Feb 23-Feb 29

Chapters/Topics

Assignments Due (All graded items)

Get familiar with

the class
Chapter 1
Intro to
Managerial Acct
Chap 2
Building Blocks of
Managerial Acct
Chap 3
Job Costing

Read the Instructions for the Week in MAL

Chapter 1 Homework (Media and Problems)
Chapter 1 Quiz
Discussion Question-Topic 1

Mar 1-Mar 7

Exam 1
Chap 4ABC/Lean Ops
Costs of Quality

Mar 8-Mar 14

Chap 5
Process Costing

Mar 15-Mar 28

Chap 6
Cost Behavior

Mar 21-27 is
Spring Break!
Mar 29-Apr 4

Exam 2
Chap 7-C-V-P
Analysis

Apr 5-Apr 11

Chap 8
Relevant Costs
for Short-Term
Decisions
Chap 9
Master Budget

Apr 12-Apr 18

Apr 19-Apr 25

Exam 3
Chap 10
Performance

Read the Instructions for the Week in MAL

Chapter 2 Homework (Media and Problems)
Chapter 2 Quiz
Read the Instructions for the Week in MAL
Chapter 3 Homework (Media and Problems)
Chapter 3 Quiz
Discussion Board-Topic 2
Read the Instructions for the Week in MAL
Exam 1 (Chapters 1-3)
Chapter 4 Homework (Media and Problems)
Chapter 4 Quiz

Read the Instructions for the Week in MAL

Chapter 5 Homework (Media and Problems)
Chapter 5 Quiz
Discussion Board-Topic 3
Read the Instructions for the Week in MAL
Exam 2 (Chapters 4,5,15)
Chapter 6 Homework (Media and Problems)
Chapter 6 Quiz
Read the Instructions for the Week in MAL
Exam 2 (Chapters 4-6)
Chapter 7 Homework (Media and Problems)
Chapter 7 Quiz
Read the Instructions for the Week in MAL
Chapter 8 Homework (Media and Problems)
Chapter 8 Quiz
Discussion Board-Topic 4
Read the Instructions for the Week in MAL
Chapter 9 Homework (Media and Problems)
Chapter 9 Quiz
Read the Instructions for the Week in MAL
Exam 3 (Chapters 7-9)
Chapter 10 Homework (Media and Problems)

Evaluation

Chapter 10 Quiz

Apr 26-May 2

Chap 11
Standard Costs
and Variances

May 3-May 9

Chap 12
Capital
Investment
Decisions - Time
Value of Money
Chap 15
Sustainability

Read the Instructions for the Week in MAL

Chapter 11 Homework (Media and Problems)
Chapter 11 Quiz
Discussion Board-Topic 5
Read the Instructions for the Week in MAL
Chapter 12 Homework (Media and Problems)
Chapter 12 Quiz

May 10-May 16

May 17-May 23

Exam 4

Read the Instructions for the Week in MAL

Chapter 15 Homework (Media and Problems)
Chapter 15 Quiz
Discussion Board-Topic 6
Read the Instructions for the Week in MAL
Exam 4 (Chapters 10-12,15)
Extra Credit

Registering for MyLab :

Remember to use the exact same name you are registered with at DVC.