Also refer to the MCom + MIB Student Guide

Description

To succeed in a highly competitive environment, business organisations need strategies. The effective and efficient implementation of strategies requires the development of operational plans and a control process to ensure that results agree with these plans. Management accounting is concerned with the use of financial and non-financial information to assist organisations to choose appropriate strategies, identify and analyse decision alternatives and evaluate success in accomplishing goals.

This unit explores the use of management accounting information for decision-making within the context of an organisation’s strategy. The use of management accounting techniques such as activity-based, product and target costing, cost-volume-profit analysis and operational and capital budgeting will be shown to be dependent on the strategic direction of the organization. The organisation and content of this unit also supports a view that students who understand the big picture have a better basis for learning, are better decision makers, and are better able to apply what they learn to new situations. The unit shadows a number of topics covered in professional exams (such as the CPA module in management accounting) and is complementary to study in those professional exams; however, it does not presume enrolment in those exams.

Topics

• Management accounting: a tool for decision-making
• Activity cost analysis and planning
• Profitability analysis and planning
• Contribution analysis for decision making
• Value chain analysis and activity-based management
• Product costing
• Inventory valuation and just-in-time inventory management
• Strategic management of price, cost and quality
• Strategic management of capital and operational expenditures
• Performance assessment
• Profitability analysis of strategic business segments