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The most essential difference between management accounting in the United States and Japan is philosophical. Accounting plays more of an "influential" than an "informational" role in Japan. In general, Japanese accounting systems are designed to be consistent with corporate strategy, not independent of it. There is a more direct linkage than in the United States between management accounting practices and overall corporate goals.

Home Depot, founded in 1978, pioneered the warehouse retailing concept in the home center industry. The company's niche strategy resulted in rapid growth in sales. By 1986, however, the company began experiencing deteriorating profitability. Students are asked to analyze the company's performance using ratio analysis and sustainable growth framework, and to recommend a plan of action.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 188148.

Describes the new material-burdening system they have implemented and the cycle-time-burdening system they are proposing. Asks students to analyze the new cost system.

Provides the rationale behind the design of the new cost system.

Schulze Waxed Containers has recently lost 20% of its business. The firm's cost accounting system spreads fixed costs over the volume produced. The 1987 costs reflect the lower production volume and are higher. The firm has recently adopted a minimum mark up. The result is increased minimum prices and lost business. The firm introduced a capacity-based cost system that identifies the cost of excess capacity. The case analyzes the design of this new cost system.

No one cost system gives managers all the information they need to promote operational efficiency and produce the highest quality product at the lowest cost. Cost systems must serve three functions--inventory valuation, operational control, and product cost measurement. This system for operations management performs three functions: it reports information according to production cycles, differentiates between fixed and variable costs, and allocates costs only to cost centers directly related to production activities. A more subjective system is advised for measuring product costs, starting with interviews with supervisors and including transaction measures as well as traditional volume-related measures.

Arbor Capital must choose a method of revenue recognition in the pre-need funeral and cemetery services industry. Since three accounting firms expressed differing opinions on the type of revenue recognition method Arbor should employ, the student must examine the complexity of revenue recognition and the alternatives available to Arbor for recognizing revenue. The case allows the student to determine the effect the alternatives have on the financial statements and the actual economic impact which results from these changes. As an outside director of Arbor's Audit Committee, the student is expected to make a recommendation to Arbor's Board of Directors.

Forbes Magazine criticized the revenue recognition policy of Patten Corp. As a result, the company's stock price dropped by a significant amount. The students are asked to discuss if the criticism by Forbes is justified, and if not, what the company should do.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 188027.

Turnaround management is not just for troubled companies. Today's managers must earn the right to compete every day. The basics that will help them do that are the same ones that turnaround managers use to bring failing companies back to life. The rapidly changing environment can dump an otherwise untroubled company into new bankruptcy. Relying on summary reports from distant department heads to learn about the company's cash position can therefore be dangerous. It is better to scrutinize each line item in a cash projection and to use spreadsheet programs to design a number of possible scenarios.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 187108.

Having installed an activity-based system, the division is now exploring the insight provided by that system. In particular, it is studying the economics of lot-size process planning and product mix management.

American Bank is developing a new system to compute product costs. The deregulated, more competitive environment for commercial banks has created both problems and opportunities for banking operations. In order to price existing products and assess the desirability of new product introduction, a system is needed to estimate the demands that each banking product places on the organization's resources.

The division has recognized the inadequacies of its existing, traditional cost system for estimating product costs. Describes the innovative activity-based system that was developed to more accurately trace overhead costs to individual products. Provides students with the opportunity to critique a standard cost system and to assess the characteristics of the proposed system that traces costs to production activities.

After a record year in 1983, Murray Ohio's earnings declined in 1984. The company was faced with competition from cheap imports and was experiencing declining margins. Students are asked to analyze the company's 1984 financial statements and predict whether there is likely to be a change in the company's dividend policy.

Spreadsheet supplement for case number 187107.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 187081.

Detailed description of the planning and control systems in use at Johnson & Johnson. Focuses on the actions of managers in one subsidiary in revising budget targets. Illustrates intensive strategic planning and financial planning process in a large, decentralized company. Includes interviews with the president and senior executives concerning benefits of the system. Raises issue of the role of formal control systems in decentralized organizations.

Spreadsheet supplement for case number 197085.