Prior to beginning work on the final paper, read the entire assignment and rubric, then review Chapters 6, 7, 8, and 9 in your textbook and any chapters from earlier weeks that are relevant to areas of this paper.

The purpose of the final paper is for you to demonstrate the learning achieved in the course by describing your understanding and application of knowledge in the field of accounting.

The paper must

Identify the main issues in the chosen area.
Contain and reference new learning that has occurred.
Build upon class activities or incidents that facilitated learning and understanding.
Present specific current and/or future applications and relevance to the typical workplace.
The Final Paper should also focus on real-life, real-time application of topics covered in this course: the uses you have seen and the uses you can envision. The paper must be submitted to your instructor no later than 11:59 pm of the time zone in which you reside on the last day of class.

Submit a paper on one of the major topics listed below and incorporate at least five scholarly/peer-reviewed or credible sources of your choice in addition to the course textbook, including a minimum of two from the Ashford Online Library. Support your statements by citing real world examples and include a complete references list in APA format at the end of the paper.

Choice 1: Cost-Volume-Profit Analysis

How does a firm use Cost-Volume-Profit Analysis to assess performance?
How would you use such a system to measure how costs change as production changes?
How do you develop a break-even analysis for a given firm, and how would you use it?
Choice 2: Activity Based Costing

What is Activity Based Costing and how does it work?
What does it do for a firm employing such a system?
How do you go about developing such a system in a firm?
What are the steps?
What would an example look like?
Choice 3: Cost Accounting

Why is cost accounting so important to the success of the firm?
What are the various methods of cost accounting and how are they used?
Choice 4: Operating Budgets

How does an operating budget work to discipline a firms management?
What are the elements of a budget?
How are budgets constructed?
What is Variance Analysis and how is it used?
The Cost Accounting Final Paper

Must be eight to 10 double-spaced pages in length, and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
Must include a title page with the following:
Title of paper
Students name
Course name and number
Instructors name
Date submitted
For further assistance with the formatting and the title page, refer to APA Formatting for Word 2013 (Links to an external site.).
Must utilize academic voice. See the Academic Voice (Links to an external site.) resource for additional guidance.
Must include an introduction and conclusion paragraph. Your introduction paragraph needs to end with a clear and succinct thesis statement that indicates the purpose of your paper.
Must address the topic of the paper with critical thought.
Must end with a conclusion that reaffirms your thesis.
For assistance on writing Introductions & Conclusions (Links to an external site.) as well as Writing a Thesis Statement (Links to an external site.), refer to the Ashford Writing Center resources.
Must use at least five scholarly/peer-reviewed or credible sources in addition to the course text, including a minimum of two from the Ashford Online library.
The Scholarly, Peer-Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources (Links to an external site.) table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment.
To assist you in completing the research required for this assignment, view this Ashford University Library Quick n Dirty (Links to an external site.) tutorial, which introduces the Ashford University Library and the research process, and provides some library search tips.
Must document any information used from sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Centers Citing Within Your Paper (Links to an external site.) guide.
(Links to an external site.)Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. See the Formatting Your References List (Links to an external site.) resource in the Ashford Writing Center for specifications.