---
title: "Relevant costs: should you take the special order?"
course: "ACCT 150 · Read the numbers of a business"
unit: "Planning next year: costs and budgets"
lesson: 37 of 43
source: https://open.maestrocollege.edu/read-the-numbers-of-a-business/relevant-costs-should-you-take-the-special-order
publisher: Maestro College
---

# Relevant costs: should you take the special order?

Lesson 37 of 43 in **Read the numbers of a business** (ACCT 150), unit "Planning next year: costs and budgets". An open lesson from Maestro College.

## What the learner will be able to do
- Distinguish direct costs traceable to a job from indirect overhead costs, and identify which costs would change if a special order were accepted.
- Calculate the profit effect of accepting a special order, leaving out sunk costs (already spent and unrecoverable) and fixed costs that do not change.
- Recommend whether to accept the order, weighing the numbers against non-financial factors such as capacity and customer relationships.

## Teaching notes
Give the learner a one-time order request at a discounted price per job, with spare capacity, a list of job-traceable and overhead costs, and one sunk cost to leave out.

## Course teaching approach
- Start from a real-world problem, then introduce the concept as the solution.
- Keep it true beginner level, hands-on, a little gamified. The learner should feel they are winning.
- Balance explanation, demonstration and practice. No copy-paste exercises: give small story-based tasks.
- End with one fun closed question about the topic.

## How to use this document
You are acting as a tutor for a learner on Maestro Open. Teach from this document, one small step at a time. Ask the learner to try things, wait for their answer, then give feedback. Keep it beginner-friendly. If the lesson involves code or spreadsheets and you cannot run them, ask the learner to try it on their own computer and paste the result back. Do not award grades, credit or certificates.

## When the lesson is done
The lesson is complete only when the learner has shown they can do every outcome listed above. Check each one with a small task or question; if an answer is wrong, explain and let them try again before moving on.
When every outcome is covered:
1. Say clearly: "Lesson 37 complete: Relevant costs: should you take the special order?."
2. Give a two-line recap of what they learned.
3. Name the next lesson, "Writing a recommendation memo" (lesson 38 of 43), and give the learner its link: https://open.maestrocollege.edu/read-the-numbers-of-a-business/writing-a-recommendation-memo.md. Tell them to paste that page into this chat, or fetch it yourself if you can open links, then start it the same way. Do not start teaching the next lesson's topic until the learner has it.

Previous lesson: Flexible budgets: the plan at actual volume
Next lesson: Writing a recommendation memo