Managerial Accounting – Learning Journal Outline

Executive MBA | Managerial Accounting Course | Learning Journal Outline Guide

Construct an outline that will be the framework of your Learning Journal.  The first level of the full outline (before any sub points) should be as follows:

1. INTRODUCTION
2. GROWTH
3. APPLICATION
4. ANALYSIS
5. SYNTHESIS
6. CONCLUSION

For purposes of this deliverable, you are to expand (with subpoints) only the GROWTH, APPLICATION, and ANALYSIS sections of the outline.  Eventually, the rest of this outline should be completed in preparation for the final Learning Journal draft (which will be in full narrative form).  The content of your outline should be written in a business-writing format that is crisp and to point.  Complete sentences and proper grammar should be used in the narrative form of your Learning Journal but are not necessary in this outline format.

Your subpoints for these two sections should be structured as follows (Note: Italicized lines are just suggestions):

2. GROWTH
3. Managerial Accounting Topic: Cost concepts (Direct Cost, Indirect Cost, Manufacturing Costs, Direct Materials, Direct Labor, Manufacturing Overhead, Non-Manufacturing Costs, Product Costs, Period Costs, Variable Cost, Fixed Cost, Mixed Cost, Differential Cost and Revenue, Opportunity Cost and Sunk Cost)
4. Give examples of how your original ideas/concepts/beliefs about managerial accounting were challenged and adjusted. Growth may include:
5. New knowledge that has been learned but has yet to be applied.
6. Contrary notions that have trumped your old ideas/concepts/beliefs.
7. Reinforcements and extensions to tried-and-true ideas/concepts/beliefs that you continue to retain.
8. etc.
9. Managerial Accounting Topic: Cost-Volume-Profit relationships (Contribution Margin, Contribution Ratio, Variable Expense Ratio, Cost-Volume-Profit, Break-Even Analysis, Target Profit Analysis, Margin of Safety, Operating Leverage, Sales Mix)
10. Managerial Accounting Topic: Activity-Based Costing (Non-Manufacturing Costs, Manufacturing Costs, Cost Pools, Allocation Bases, Activities, Activity Cost Pools, Activity Measures, Assigning Overhead Costs to Activity Cost Pools, Calculate Activity Rates, Assign Overhead Costs to Cost Objects, Management Report, Comparison between Traditional and Activity-Based Costing)
11. Managerial Accounting Topic: Master Budgeting (How & Why Do Organizations Create Budgets, Seeing the Big Picture, Beginning Balance Sheet, Budgeting Assumptions, Sales Budget, Production Budget, Inventory Purchases, Direct Materials Budget, Direct Labor Budget, Manufacturing Overhead Budget, Selling and Administrative Expense Budget, Cash Budget, Budgeted Income Statement, Budgeted Balance Sheet)
12. Managerial Accounting Topic: Flexible Budgets (Characteristics of a Flexible Budget, Deficiencies of the Static Planning Budget, How a Flexible Budget Works, Flexible Budget Variances, Activity Variances, Revenue and Spending Variances, Performance Report Combining Activity and Revenue and Spending Variances, Performance Reports in Nonprofit Organizations, Performance Reports in Cost Centers)
13. Managerial Accounting Topic: Balanced Scorecard (Constructing a Balanced Scorecard, Selecting Balanced Scorecard Measures, Tying Compensation to the Balanced Scorecard, Corporate Social Responsibility Performance Measures)
14. Managerial Accounting Topic: Differential Analysis (Identifying Relevant Costs & Benefits, Total Costs and Differential Cost, Why Isolate Relevant Costs, Dropping Product Lines and Other Segments, Allocated Fixed Costs, Sourcing Decisions, Opportunity Cost, Special Order Decisions, Constraint, Utilizing a Constrained Resource tom Maximize Profits, Managing Constraints)

3. APPLICATION
4. Managerial Accounting Topic: Cost concepts (same sub-topics as above)
5. Apply lessons learned in the course to your own real-world experiences/environment.
6. These applications may have already occurred in your experience, or you may point out potential applications that you are now able to foresee.
7. Go further than merely telling how a particular idea/concept/lesson would be applied.
8. In addition, give compelling reasons why this particular application is appropriate and will likely be successful.
9. etc.
10. Managerial Accounting Topic: Cost-Volume-Profit relationships (same sub-topics as above)
11. Managerial Accounting Topic: Activity-Based Costing (same sub-topics as above)
12. Managerial Accounting Topic: Master Budgeting (same sub-topics as above)
13. Managerial Accounting Topic: Flexible Budgets (same sub-topics as above)
14. Managerial Accounting Topic: Balanced Scorecard (same sub-topics as above)
15. Managerial Accounting Topic: Differential Analysis (same sub-topics as above)

4. ANALYSIS
5. Describe a complex managerial problem that you are attempting to solve
6. Break the complex problem down into smaller parts which can each be addressed with lessons learned in the course.
7. Demonstrate how your analytical skills developed in this course may be used to solve the various problems
8. Apply as many of the following principles of analytical thinking as possible:

• Analysis involves drawing connection among ideas.
• Key words related to analysis include: execute, implement, solve, use, demonstrate, interpret, operate, schedule, sketch.
• Analysis is a systematic approach to problem solving
• Complex problems are made simpler by separating them into more understandable elements
  • This involves the identification of purposes and facts, the statement of defensible assumptions, and the formulation of conclusions
• Analytical skills involve seeing relationships, determining if-then causalities, finding evidence to support a theory, and making judgments and decisions using a set of criteria.