UNIVERSITY OF GHANA

(All rights reserved)

UNIVERSITY OF GHANA BUSINESS SCHOOL

DEPARTMENT OF ACCOUNTING

FIRST SEMESTER
COURSE SYLLABUS

ACCT 403: COST ACCOUNTING

CREDITS: THREE (3)

LECTURE PERIODS:
Monday: 15:30 – 17:20 ( Grp 1) Venue: A1

Wednesday: 13:30 – 15:20 (Grp 2) Venue: B1

15:30 – 17:20 ( Grp 3) Venue: A1

Prerequisites: There is no prerequisite for this course

Course Instructors:

Name: Professor William Coffie

Office Location: Ground Floor, Rooms G4 & G8
Office Hours: Monday 10.00am – 12.00noon
Email: wcoffie@ug.edu.gh

Name: Dr Richard Amankwa

Office Location: Ground Floor, G3
Office Hours: TBA
Email: richardamankwa@yahoo.com

Teaching Assistant:

Name: Kingsley Owusu

Email: owusukingsley64@gmail.com

Course Description

ACCT 403 provides skills and competencies on how to generate accumulate and analyse
product or service cost information for management planning, decision making, performance
evaluation and control. The course emphasises the fundamental cost concepts and behaviour,
the importance of costs and drivers of costs in the production of goods or provision of
services, and the use of such cost information to manage organisational resources. It covers
the nature, source and purpose of cost and management information, the traditional cost

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accounting techniques, short-term decision techniques (emphasising only cost-volume-profit
analysis).

Course Objectives

The main aim of this course is to expose students to the basic concepts and tools in cost
accounting. The course will also acquaint students with the various methods involved in cost
ascertainment systems and equip them with the basic skills required to use cost accounting
information to aid management functions. It will also help students to analyse cost behaviour,
and complete cost-volume-profit analyses.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this course, students should be able to:

1. Identify and explain the different types of costs and demonstrate how to determine the
cost of goods manufactured and services provided by organisations,
2. Describe the different elements of cost of production – material, labour and overheads
and explain how to account for each of these elements,
3. Distinguish between marginal costing and absorption costing techniques and explain
how changes in sales and production levels affect income using these costing
techniques.
4. Describe the characteristics of job costing, process costing and service costing
systems, distinguish between these costing systems and explain how these systems are
used to accumulate product or service cost.
5. Explain cost volume profit (CVP) analysis and break-even analysis and how these
analysis tools are used by companies producing or providing both single and multiple
products or services.

Course Delivery

The course will be delivered through lectures, class discussions (where appropriate), group
work and individual student practice exercises. Students are required to read any of the
reference textbooks before class to fully understand new topics covered and be able to
participate in class discussions fully. Tutorial sessions will be organised separately from the
normal class by the teaching assistant to assist students in problem-solving.

Plagiarism policy

Plagiarism in any form is unacceptable and shall be treated as a serious offence. Appropriate
sanctions, as stipulated in the Plagiarism Policy, will be applied when students are found to
have violated the Plagiarism policy. The policy is available at
http://www.ug.edu.gh/aqau/policies-guidelines. ALL students are expected to familiarise with
the contents of the Policy.

Assessment and Grading

1. Assignments and continuous assessment – TBA

 The continuous assessment consists of ??? marks in-class tests/quizzes after each
topic and the assignment consists of ??? marks group project work.

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2. Final Examination – TBA

Grading Scale

Grade Marks
A 80-100
B+ 75-79
B 70-74
C+ 65-69
C 60-64
D+ 55-59
D 50-54
F 0-49

Reading list

Recommended Textbooks
1. S. Andoh-Kwofie (2016), Cost and Management Accounting. Gpak Publishing House,
Accra.
2. W. Coffie (2018), Cost & Management Accounting Questions and Answers Bank, 2 nd
Edition, Digibooks, Accra.
3. C. Drury (2018), Cost and Management Accounting, 9th Edition, Cengage Learning,
Boston.
4. M. N. Arora (2012), Cost and Management Accounting, 10th Edition, Vikas Publishing
House, New Delhi

Supplementary Textbooks
5. E. J. Vanderbeck and M. R. Mitchell (2016), Principles of Cost Accounting, 17 th Edition,
Cengage Learning, Boston.
6. M. N. Arora (2013), Cost Accounting, Vikas Publishing House, New Delhi.
7. T. Lucey (2009), Cost Accounting, 7th Edition, Cengage Learning, Boston.
Course Content

PART ONE
Overview of cost and management accounting
a. Nature and purpose of cost accounting
b. Cost classification
c. Cost behaviour and cost estimation

PART TWO
Cost accounting techniques
a. Accounting for materials or inventories
b. Accounting for labour
c. Accounting for overheads
d. Absorption and marginal costing
e. Product costing methods

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PART THREE
Short-term decision techniques
f. Cost-volume-profit (CVP) analysis

Course Delivery Schedule

Period Topic Reference

Week Overview of cost accounting Andoh-Kwofie

1&2 a. Nature and purpose of cost and management (Chap. 1 & 6)
accounting Drury
i. Relationship of cost accounting to other (Chap. 1, 2 &
branches of accounting 10)
ii. Definition of cost and costing terms Arora
b. Cost classification (different cost for different (Chap. 1)
purposes) Coffie (Q&A,
c. Cost behaviour and cost estimation
pp. 89 & 368)
i. Classification of cost by behaviour
 Fixed cost, Variable cost, Mixed cost and Stepped
cost
ii. Methods of cost estimation
 High low, Scatter graphs, Account analysis and
Regression analysis methods

Week Accounting for materials or inventories Andoh-Kwofie

3&4 a. Types of inventories (Chap. 2)
b. Cost associated with inventories Drury
c. Inventory management (Chap. 3)
i. Documentation and coding Arora
ii. Inventory control and inventory recording (Chap. 2)
iii. Pricing of issues and valuation of inventories Coffie (Q&A,
iv. Inventory taking and reconciliation pp. 1 & 211)
d. Just-In-Time (JIT) inventory system.

Week Accounting for labour Andoh-Kwofie

5 a. Payroll accounting (Chap. 3)
i. Computation of gross pay Drury
ii. Methods of remuneration (Chap. 3)
 Time, Piece, Scale and Incentive schemes Arora
b. Labour cost accounting (Chap. 3)
i. Direct and indirect labour cost Coffie (Q&A,
ii. Accounting treatment of idle time, overtime, pp. 16 & 238)
annual leave, holidays, employment cost.
c. Labour related issues
i. Labour turnover (causes and costs)
ii. Merit rating and job analysis

Week Accounting for overheads Andoh-Kwofie

6&7 a. Charging overheads to cost units (Chap. 4)
i. Allocate and apportion overheads to cost Drury

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 centres (Chap. 4 & 12)
ii. Absorb or apply overheads to cost units Arora
b. Activity-Based Costing (ABC) (Chapter 4)
Coffie (Q&A,
pp. 24 & 250)

Week Product costing methods Andoh-Kwofie

8, 9 & a. Specific order costing (Chap. 5)
10 i. Job and Batch costing Drury
ii. Contract costing (Chap. 5, 6 &
b. Continuous operation costing 7)
i. Process costing Arora
 Accounting for losses, scraps, waste (Chap. 6, 7,8,9
& 10)
 Accounting for joint, by-products and work-
Coffie (Q&A,
in-progress
pp. 54 & 289)
ii. Operating (service) costing

Week Absorption and marginal costing techniques Andoh-Kwofie

11 a. Theory of absorption costing and marginal costing (Chapter 7)
techniques Drury
i. Arguments for and against absorption costing (Chapter 8)
technique Arora
ii. Arguments for and against marginal costing (Chapter 17)
technique
b. Income statement under absorption and marginal Coffie (Q&A,
costing pp. 128 & 439)
i. Effects of production on profits
ii. Reconciliation of marginal costing and
absorption costing profits

Week Cost-Volume-Profit (CVP) Analysis Andoh-Kwofie

12 & a. Approaches to CVP analysis (Chap. 6)
13 i. Equation, contribution margin and graphical Drury
approach (Chap. 9)
b. CVP analysis for single product firms Arora
i. Break-even point (Chapter 17)
ii. Profit planning
Coffie (Q&A,
 Income tax considerations
pp. 89 & 368)
c. CVP analysis for multiple Products
i. Break-even point (Sales mix analysis)
ii. Profit planning
d. Sensitivity analysis of CVP results
i. What if Analysis
ii. Margin of safety
iii. Degree of Operating leverage
e. Limitation of CVP analysis

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