This module aims to develop students’ ability to employ management accounting to support planning, controlling, performance evaluation and decision-making activities.
The management accounting framework & the design of management accounting systems - including topics such as the objectives of management accounting in relation to planning, control, performance evaluation and decision making, the effective use of management accounting techniques, behavioural considerations pertaining to the design and operation of management accounting systems, contingency theory and trends and developments in management accounting techniques and methods.
Costing and cost analysis – including topics such as the selection and application of suitable techniques for costing and cost estimation and behavioural implications. Specialist cost and management accounting techniques such as activity based costing, target costing, life-cycle costing, throughput accounting and environmental accounting.
Budgeting & Standard costing – including topics such as the budget process, approaches to cost estimation, approaches to budgeting, the role of budgeting in the context of planning, control and performance evaluation, the evaluation and determination of standards, the calculation and interpretation of variances, such as material mix and yield variance and sales mix and quantity variances.
Performance management – including topics such as sources of management information, the design and distribution of management reports, the balanced scorecard, external considerations, divisional performance evaluation, transfer pricing.
Management of resources – including issues such as limiting factors and CVP analysis.
Decision making – including topics such as pricing, relevant costing, risk and uncertainty, profitability analysis and strategic considerations.
Topics will usually be introduced by means of traditional lectures. Students’ capacity to apply and critically evaluate concepts will be developed through their engagement in class discussions, problem solving and case study analysis. Students will receive formative feedback throughout the semester by having the opportunity to mark their own solutions to pre-assigned problems and case studies against solutions presented by the lecturer. Students will also receive formative feedback on their performance in the interim written examination.
| Module Content & Assessment | |
|---|---|
| Assessment Breakdown | % |
| Formal Examination | 90 |
| Other Assessment(s) | 10 |