ACC 311 is SNHU’s Cost Accounting course. It centers on measuring and using product cost: cost behavior and classification, job order and process costing, overhead rates and their errors, activity-based costing, cost-volume-profit analysis, budgets, standard costs and variances, relevant costs for decisions and the ethics of cost allocation. Every module below opens a full sample paper or takes a free request for one; searches like "acc 311 module 3", "ACC311 sample paper" and "ACC 311 milestone example" land on this page.
What ACC 311 is really about
ACC 311 is SNHU's cost accounting course for accounting majors, and it is less about recording transactions than about building cost numbers that someone will use to set a price, bid a contract or drop a product. Strong work shows every calculation in a table a reader can follow, states the assumptions behind each rate and then interprets the result in plain words for a manager. A correct unit cost with no explanation of what it means for the bid earns fewer points than a slightly rounded one that is read correctly.
The samples on this shelf share one composite company, a family-owned truck equipment shop in central Minnesota that upfits plow trucks for cities and counties one job at a time and also runs a continuous line that forms and paints steel plow moldboards for dealers. Having both a job shop and a process line under one roof lets the samples show why the two costing systems exist and where overhead allocation goes wrong. The company, its customers and its figures are illustrative.
What ACC 311’s modules ask for
Across eight modules, ACC 311 typically asks for a discussion on why cost information matters, worked assignments on job order and process costing, a first project comparing traditional and activity-based overhead allocation, a cost-volume-profit analysis, a flexible budget and variance analysis, a second project recommending a decision on relevant costs, and a closing discussion on ethics. Most pieces mix tables of calculations with a written explanation of what the numbers mean.
Where students lose points in ACC 311
The most common ACC 311 deduction is a calculation with no interpretation: equivalent units or variances computed correctly and then left without a sentence on what a manager should do. The second is a mistake that carries through, such as a wrong predetermined overhead rate that spoils every later figure. Graders also mark down decision papers that count sunk or allocated fixed costs as relevant, and analyses that ignore qualitative factors such as quality or supplier risk. Showing each step in a labeled table and ending every section with its meaning fixes most of these.
The ACC 311 drawers
ACC 311 Module 1 Discussion example
An opening post set at a composite Minnesota truck equipment shop that lost money on a county snowplow contract it thought was profitable, using the loss to explain what cost accounting adds to financial accounting: product and period costs, direct and indirect costs, why overhead allocation decides whether a bid is real, and what managers need from a cost system, with Kaplan and Cooper, Labro and Datar and Rajan. Full sample paper, read it free.
ACC 311 Module 2 Job Order Costing Assignment example
A job order costing assignment in which a composite Minnesota truck equipment shop costs one city's order for six plow trucks: the predetermined overhead rate, a job cost sheet with materials, labor and applied overhead, the summary journal entries, gross margin on the bid and year-end overapplied overhead and how to dispose of it, with Datar and Rajan and Balakrishnan, Labro and Sivaramakrishnan. Full sample paper, read it free.
ACC 311 Module 3 Process Costing Assignment example
A process costing assignment for the forming department of a composite Minnesota shop's steel plow moldboard line: the physical flow of units, equivalent units for materials and conversion under the weighted-average method, cost per equivalent unit, the cost of units transferred out and ending work in process, a reconciliation, and a FIFO comparison that reveals a mid-season steel price rise, with Datar and Rajan and Labro. Full sample paper, read it free.
ACC 311 Module 4 Project One example
Project One at a composite Minnesota truck equipment shop compares its single labor-hour overhead rate with an activity-based costing model built on five activity pools, finds that custom municipal upfits are undercosted by $300 a truck and standard dealer plow packages overcosted by $52.50 a unit, restates the margin on one city job and recommends how to use the results in bidding and dealer pricing, with Banker and colleagues, Kaplan and Anderson and Balakrishnan and colleagues. Full sample paper, read it free.
ACC 311 Module 5 Cost-Volume-Profit Assignment example
A cost-volume-profit assignment in which a composite Minnesota truck equipment shop tests a new tailgate salt spreader for dealers: contribution margin and its ratio, break-even in units and dollars, the volume needed for a $140,000 target profit, margin of safety and the operating income multiplier at a 300-unit forecast, and what a steel price rise or a price cut would do to break-even, with Datar and Rajan and Hansen, Otley and Van der Stede. Full sample paper, read it free.
ACC 311 Module 6 Flexible Budget and Variance Assignment example
A flexible budget and variance assignment for a composite Minnesota shop's moldboard line in a warm winter: why the static budget makes labor look favorable, a flexible budget at actual output, materials price and quantity, labor rate and efficiency, variable overhead spending and efficiency and fixed overhead spending and production-volume variances, their likely causes and who should answer for each, with Datar and Rajan, Libby and Lindsay and Hansen and colleagues. Full sample paper, read it free.
ACC 311 Module 7 Project Two example
Project Two as a memo to the owner of a composite Minnesota truck equipment shop on whether to keep machining 900 hydraulic valve kits a year or buy them from a supplier at $520 plus freight: the relevant costs of making, why allocated overhead and a sunk machine cost do not count, the opportunity cost of freed capacity for the new spreader line, qualitative risks such as quality and lead time, and a recommendation with safeguards, with Gilley and Rasheed, Balakrishnan and colleagues and Datar and Rajan. Full sample paper, read it free.
ACC 311 Module 8 Discussion example
A closing post in which a composite cost analyst at a Minnesota truck equipment shop is asked to shift overhead onto a state cost-plus pilot contract and away from fixed-price dealer work, and works through the IMA Statement of Ethical Professional Practice, the research evidence that cost-reimbursement contracts invite cost shifting, and the steps for resolving the conflict, with the Institute of Management Accountants, Thomas and Tung and Datar and Rajan. Full sample paper, read it free.
Your classroom shows something else?
Southern New Hampshire University revises courses; module counts and deliverables shift between terms. Send what your classroom shows and the desk matches it exactly.
Using a ACC 311 sample the right way
Read an ACC 311 sample by checking the tables first: can you trace every number to an input or to the line above it? Then read the sentence after each table and ask whether it tells a manager what to do. Use the samples to see how a full answer is laid out, not to copy figures, since every section of the course uses different data. For ACC 311, send your module's problem data, the instructions and the rubric, and the first custom sample comes back free within 24-48h.
ACC 311 questions, answered
Is ACC 311 harder than ACC 202?
It goes deeper into the same ideas. ACC 202 introduces job and process costing, budgets and variances; ACC 311 asks for more complex allocations, activity-based costing and written decision analysis built on them.
Do ACC 311 assignments need written explanations or just numbers?
Both. Most rubrics give separate credit for correct calculations and for explaining what they mean and what a manager should do with them.
What software is used in ACC 311?
Many sections use Excel for calculations and an online homework platform for practice problems. The written projects are usually submitted as Word documents with tables.