COST MANAGEMENT

This course contributes to the Bachelor's Degree Programme primary objective of training undergraduates able to work in public and private organizations, by developing knowledge and skills in the business administration area. In particular, the course aims at providing basic knowledge of the main management accounting tools to support decision-making, as well as the skills to apply these tools to concrete situations and specific decision-making problems.
To this end, the course deals with the study of cost classifications, the main costing systems, standard costs and differential costs configurations, deepening and illustrating the applications of these notions to profitability analyses, to the programming and controlling function, and to the analysis of economic convenience and choice between alternatives.

1) KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
At the end of this course, students are expected to have developed a solid knowledge of the following basic notions:
- the nature, uses and purposes of management accounting;
- the main classifications and configurations of costs and their uses;
- the main analytical tools connected to the different cost configurations, their formulas and meanings.

2) APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
At the end of this course, students are expected to be able to select and apply the main management accounting tools to support decision-making. In particular:
- to be able to identify specific decision-making or analytical issues in different contexts (e.g. profitability analysis, calculation of operational risk, choices between alternatives, programming choices, performance evaluation, etc.);
- to be able to identify the most appropriate cost configuration for a given decision-making or analytical issue;
- to be able to apply in each case the most appropriate management accounting tool(s), with the relative formulas;
- hence, to be able to solve simple management accounting problems.

3) MAKING JUDGEMENTS
At the end of this course, students are expected to be able to:
- critically discuss the nature and uses of management accounting;
- reason on the informational benefits or decision-making support that management accounting tools can give to organizations in different contexts;
- evaluate the preferability or otherwise of the application of certain management accounting tools, for a given decision problem.

To attend this course, it is necessary to have already learnt the basic concepts and language of the economic analysis of business processes and the basic skills of accounting for business events and preparation of financial statements, which have been developed in the Business Administration course.
Those who have not passed the Business Administration exam cannot take the Cost Accounting course.

1. The nature of management accounting;
2. The classification of costs according to their behavior;
3. The contribution margin and the relationship between income and volume;
4. Full costs and their use;
5. Additional aspects of costing systems;
6. Activity-based costing;
7. Standard costs, variable cost systems, quality costs and joint costs;
8. Variance analysis in production costs;
9. Variance analysis in non-production costs;
10. Strategic planning and budgeting (operational, cash, and investments budgeting);
11. Short-term decisions between alternatives;
12. Environmental and social costs.

The same program is also intended for non-attending students.

Mandatory textbook:
Anthony R., Hawkins D., Macrì D., Merchant K. SISTEMI DI CONTROLLO. ANALISI ECONOMICHE PER LE DECISIONI AZIENDALI. Mc Graw-Hill , tredicesima edizione.
Chapters 1-9, chapter 12 and chapter 14

Students' final assessment consists of a written test and an oral test.
The written test lasts 30 minutes and is composed of 3 exercises to ascertain students' skills in solving simple management accounting problems + 1 multiple choice question to test students' knowledge of the basic notions of the subject. During the written test, the use of books, notes, or electronic devices is not permitted. The evaluation of the written test consists of a "pass / fail": students pass having successfully completed at least the 3 exercises. Passing the written test allows admission to the oral exam.
In the oral exam students must demonstrate that they have developed a solid knowledge of the basics of the course, that they are able to expose them in a formal way, and that they are able to reason about their meaning and uses. The oral exam will be evaluated on a 30/30 grading scale.

The same evaluation policy is applied to non-attending students.

The course includes lectures during which the theoretical aspects are presented and examples of the analysis tools are carried out.
The course is associated with tutorials that insist on the most applicative aspects of the program, and that are meant as a support in training students for the written test.

REGISTRATION FOR EXAM. Online registration is COMPULSORY. In case of registration problems, students are required to contact the economic campus a reasonable number of days BEFORE deadline.

written and oral