Mary MacAusland, CPA, Ph.D., is a senior lecturer at the Nolan School of Hotel Administration in the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, where she teaches courses in financial and managerial accounting and financial statement analysis. Prior to joining Cornell, Professor MacAusland was actively engaged in both academe and industry, serving in senior positions in several organizations. She was previously on the faculty at the University of New Hampshire and Franklin and Marshall College, and taught for several years at a small community college. Professor MacAusland also worked in the life-care management and development field as a controller and has held numerous positions with the United States Tennis Association (USTA), most recently as vice-chair of the audit committee. She served on the executive boards of USTA Middle States and the Berks County Chapter of the American Red Cross for many years and chaired several special events, raising significant amounts for local charities. Professor MacAusland was also a longtime member of the investment committee for the Berks County Community Foundation, where she helped to establish investment guidelines and monitor performance for $50 million in managed assets and was integral in establishing a permanent fund with the foundation to provide grants for tennis programs for at-risk youth.
Preparing the Operating Budgets and Monitoring PerformanceCornell Course
Course Overview
In this course, you will pull together the tools of USALI accounting, using revenue and cost projections, to prepare an operating budget for a property.
Hotel decision makers use the operating budget to identify ways to control costs and improve profitability. An operating budget is a living — not static — document; you will develop skills to monitor it over time and develop best practices for interpreting what it's telling you to take appropriate corrective action. You will practice working with occupancy estimates that come from external sources in the industry, such as CBRE's widely used economic analysis reports. You will develop cost estimates, including fixed, variable, and mixed.
You are required to have completed the following courses or have equivalent experience before taking this course:
- Examining the Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry (USALI)
- Benchmarking Hotel Performance
- Using Financial Statements for Decision Making
- Applying Managerial Accounting Tools to Improve Flow Through
Key Course Takeaways
- Use revenue and cost projections to prepare the budget
- Use the operating budget to identify ways to control costs and improve profitability
- Monitor the living document and develop best practices and corrective action
How It Works
Course Author
Who Should Enroll
- Hotel owners
- Hotel general managers and directors
- Hotel managers and department heads
- Hotel employees using financial information for decision making
- Accounting professionals seeking to move into the hotel industry
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