Management Accounting

Lecturer:

Bernard Langford

Module description

This module examines management accounting from a theoretical perspective by considering the purposes of generating management accounting information. It will review and extend basic management accounting concepts and techniques by looking at their role in providing appropriate information for economic decision-making, organisational control and performance evaluation.

It offers students (including those with no previous management accounting background) an opportunity to study the subject from a conceptual standpoint.

Where possible, the course will consider the impact of technological change, the current commercial environment and the needs of different types of businesses on the design of management accounting systems.

In the context of the above framework, the course will include consideration of more recently developed techniques of activity based costing, total quality management, economic value added and the balanced scorecard.

Learning outcomes

On completion of the module, participants should be able to discuss the issues involved and where appropriate, produce numerical examples in the following areas:

(a) The nature of costs

(b) Cost behaviour and cost estimation

(c) Income effects of different costing method, including ABC

(d) Budgeting and responsibility accounting

(e) Profit centre and investment centre performance management

(f)   Transfer pricing between divisions 

The changing environment of management accounting