This unit examines the role of accountants in providing information to management. Major topics covered include activity analysis, cost behaviour and estimation, advanced costing methods, budgeting and performance evaluation, and decision-making. The focus of the unit is on decision-making, providing practical knowledge in preparing and analyzing information derived from accounting systems.

✔ Learning outcomes:

• Define management accounting and its role in organisational decision-making
• Analyse and interpret cost behaviour, cost estimation, and carry out activity analysis for informed decision-making
• Apply job costing and process costing to determine product costs
• Develop and apply an activity-based costing system to support informed business decisions
• Develop and interpret master budgets and standard costs to support organisational decision-making
• Examine cost-volume-profit relationships and apply this knowledge to support business decisions
• Assess and communicate organisational performance using Balanced Scorecard, life cycle costing, and different relevant costing techniques
• Evaluate organisational performance using divisional performance analysis and transfer pricing strategies

✔ Unit content:

1. The Changing Role of Management Accounting 2. Basic Cost Management Concepts 3. Activity Analysis, Cost Behaviour and Cost Estimation 4. Product costing & Process Costing 1 5. Product costing & Process Costing 2 6. Activity Based Product Costing & Management 7. Profit Planning & Activity Based Budgeting 8. Standard Costing: A Managerial Control Tool 9. Decision Making: Relevant Costs & Benefits 10. Cost-Volume-Profit Analysis  11. Balanced Scorecard and Life cycle costing 12. Divisional Performance Analysis and Transfer Pricing Strategies.