Management Accounting
MODULE CODE
CREDIT VALUE
DELIVERY
Module Aims
Aim 1
It aims to help students develop a deeper understanding of a range of management accounting techniques, including critical appraisal of decision-making models.
Module Content
Indicative Syllabus would include:
Cost Behaviour Analysis
• Analysis of cost behaviour: including the high-low method of determining cost behaviour and graphical representations.
Establishing Product Cost
• Product cost determination under a range of costing techniques.
• The basic models in context & advanced models of cost.
• Decision making and control.
Cost Allocation
• Joint and by products: decision making in a joint product environment.
• Activity Based Costing (ABC): Attaching costs to products via activities. Critique of ABC and discussion of the implications of this approach for management generally.
• Overhead allocation and absorption: rationale and critique; reallocation of cost centre costs; monitoring of over/under recovery of overheads
Management of Working Capital
• A consideration of the importance of and techniques available for controlling inventory levels and short-term debt monitoring.
Budgetary Control and Standard Costing
• Standard costing and variance analysis.
• Flexible budgets.
• A detailed consideration of budgetary control incorporating rationale, setting and operation, in manufacturing and/or service industries.
• Brief overview of the behavioural aspects of budgeting: management, organisation, motivation.
Decision Making
• Shorter term decision making: Relevant costs, opportunity costs, constraints, linear programming, sensitivity analysis cost/volume/profit analysis.
• Longer term decision making: A survey of investment appraisal techniques including the consideration of the time value of money under condition of certainty and uncertainty and the implications of capital rationing.
Pricing Decisions
• Includes a consideration of the Accountant vs the Economist model.
• Price setting for ad hoc contracts and pricing policy under conditions of spare and maximum capacity levels.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module, a student will be able to:
Teaching Methods
| Material will be introduced in a weekly lecture followed up by directed reading and discussion. There will also be one group session each week comprising work on case material in seminars. In this way, students gain experience of the practical applications of the theory of financial accounting. Students are expected to complete pre-set exercises prior to each workshop.
Management accounting at this level is a subject that, for the student, involves acquiring knowledge, developing conceptual models, critical appraisal of those models and applying those models to real-world situations. The teaching strategy supports this in highlighting and explaining the key features of models (as exemplars) and then encouraging students to develop their own skills. Students’ main participation in learning activities is working on their own and preparation of material for group sessions. Every group session provides opportunities for student input, though this is not mandated by formal presentations. Theory and practice are integrated in problem-solving situations presented, discussed and solved at group sessions. The module is structured to facilitate student-centred learning. Students will draw on and enhance graduate attributes of planning, communication, literacy and analysis which aid employability with the accounting profession and careers in general business management. Against this background, the assessment criteria (3-hour exam accounting for 75% of the overall marks on the module) is designed to meet the professional exemption criteria. The exam (25%) will assess areas not covered in the year-end exam. Formative feedback on seminar and practice questions is provided to students on a weekly basis, with additional support available in the timetabled Technical Support Workshops. |
Assessment Methods
This module is assessed through a 25% and a 75% examinations.
View The Other Course’s Modules
Compulsory
