Managerial Accounting Final Project: Costing Systems and Financial Performance

Financial Strategy

Successful entrepreneurs understand all aspects of business, especially costs and costing systems. Managerial accounting provides a framework for strategic analysis and planning with regard to cost behaviors and costing systems. In this final project, you have the opportunity to act as an entrepreneur and apply managerial accounting principles to evaluate and manage costs related to your products within a costing system. Additionally, you will demonstrate your ability to communicate your findings effectively to internal stakeholders, just as an actual business owner would need to do. 

Specifically, you will assume the role of the owner of a hypothetical small business. In your milestone work, you will develop financial strategies prior to opening your business. For the final submission, you will create a presentation for your investors after your business has been in operation for a certain period of time. You will use the provided scenarios to complete your project. The project is divided into three milestones, which will be submitted at various points throughout the course to scaffold learning and ensure quality final submissions. These milestones will be submitted in Modules Two, Four, and Five. The final product will be submitted in Module Seven.

In this assignment, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following course outcomes: 

1.Apply fundamental costing systems to optimize operations within a business

2.Assess financial performance to communicate financial planning strategies to internal stakeholders

3.Leverage fundamental managerial accounting methods to support the mission of an organization

In a detailed PowerPoint presentation (12 to 15 slides in length, plus speaker notes and an addendum), explain and defend your costing strategies (i.e., the business plan created in your first and second milestones) and share your business’s performance to-date (i.e., the work from your third milestone). Be sure to effectively communicate to your stakeholders by breaking down concepts and using investor-friendly language to build their trust and confidence. 

Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed. Most of the critical elements align with a particular course outcome (shown in brackets). 

I. Introduce your presentation

A. Outline your company’s profile, including its name, location, and mission and vision.

B. Explain for your investors the purpose of the presentation. What do you plan to communicate, and why should your investors pay attention? In other words, try to persuade your investors that the accounting information you are about to share is important.

C. Explain and defend your methods for generating the information that you are about to share in terms of your adherence to industry standards and the AICPA code of ethics. In other words, why should your investors trust that you are delivering accurate financial data and that your decision-making process has been ethical? 

D. Specifically, be sure to illustrate how your managerial accounting methods support the mission of your organization, using examples

II. Financial Strategy: Review your original business plan and costing strategies using the prior-to-opening scenario information

A. Justify your use of job order costing. Be sure to compare and contrast the various costing systems you learned about in this course as part of your defense. 

B. Explain and defend the selling prices that you established for grooming, day care, and boarding. Be sure to reference your cost-volume-profit analysis in your defense. 

C. Explain and defend your selected target profits for each area of your business. Be sure to reference your cost-volume-profit analysis in your defense. 

D. Explain and defend your contribution margin per unit and contribution margin ratio. Be sure to reference your cost-volume-profit analysis in your defense. 

III. Financial Statements: Assess your financial performance to-date using the post-opening scenario information.

A. Financial Statements

1. Share the statement of cost of services and logically interpret the business’s performance against the provided benchmarks.

2. Share the income statement and logically interpret the business’s performance against the provided benchmarks.

B. Variance Analysis

1. Identify all variances for the direct labor time and the materials price. 

2. Evaluate the significance of the variances in terms of the potential to impact future budgeting decisions and planning.

IV. In an addendum, submit your completed workbook, including the following:

 A. Accurately classify all of your costs in the “Cost Classification” tab.

B. Conduct a cost-volume profit analysis:

1. Determine your contribution margin per unit and contribution margin ratio in the “Contribution Margin Analysis” tab.

2. Determine your break-even points for achieving your target profits in the “Break-even analysis” tab.