Description

Throughout this unit, you will delve into the fundamental concepts and principles underpinning management accounting methodology and techniques. By doing so, you’ll gain insights into how organisations manage costs and the reasons behind their varied treatment of them. Additionally, you will develop the ability to recognise diverse approaches to cost management, enabling you to present well-informed and rational arguments to assist the management team in decision-making.

Moreover, this learning experience will underscore the significance of effective management accounting for any organization, allowing you to comprehend its pivotal role in ensuring overall success and strategic planning.

You will acquire comprehensive knowledge and practical skills related to dealing with direct costs and revenues. The focus will be on mastering various techniques for handling short-term costs. You’ll also learn how to make informed decisions by utilising estimates of costs, revenues, and cash flow, encompassing all the associated methodologies.

You will be exposed to a range of procedures commonly performed in real-world finance teams. These include conducting budgetary overhead apportionments and generating recovery rates, as well as carrying out essential analyses such as variance analysis and cost-volume-profit (CVP) analysis. Moreover, you will become adept at calculating changes in forecasted unit costs and profits, evaluating working capital measures, creating straightforward budgets, closely monitoring cash flow, and effectively reporting accounting information.

Learning outcomes

• Understand the purpose and use of management accounting within organisations
• Use techniques required for dealing with costs
• Attribute costs according to organisational requirements
• Investigate deviations from budgets
• Use spreadsheet techniques to provide management accounting information
• Use management accounting techniques to support short-term decision making
• Understand principles of cash management