England
| Start | End |
|---|---|
| 04 Apr 2026 | Sept 2026 |
Unit 1 begins by providing an overview of the nature and role of management accounting and its core functions. It explores the historical context of management accounting and how it has evolved over time. It emphasises the importance of management accountants as key players in all aspects of a contemporary organisation and how they provide vital information and analysis to managers to aid in planning, evaluating, and controlling activities to achieve the organisation's objectives. The unit also highlights the changing context in which management accountants operate and the significance of considering environmental factors in organisational decision making. Additionally, you'll have the opportunity to gain insights into the practical application of management accounting by listening to a recorded interview featuring a practising management accountant. This will provide a comprehensive understanding of the role, context and significance of management accounting, as well as the responsibilities of management accountants. This foundational understanding will be built upon in subsequent units where specific management accounting techniques are examined in greater detail.
Unit 2 focuses on cost accounting and its importance in planning and decision making. It begins by addressing the importance of accounting for inventory, labour, and overheads, both from financial and management accounting perspectives. It also explores absorption and marginal costing and the effects of these two costing techniques on inventory valuation and reporting profit. In addition, it highlights the various costing and accounting methods such as job, batch, contract, and process costing, activity-based costing and alternative costing techniques such as target costing and lifecycle costing for calculating the cost of several types of products, processes, and services. This unit also consists of various practice-based activities that provide an opportunity to practice what you have learnt.
Unit 3 is concerned with the nature and purpose of a budget. It outlines the various types of budgets, how they all fit together, and how they may be used for planning, control and decision making within an organisation. It also explores the budgeting approaches and procedures that are commonly used, and the issues associated with the design and operation of budgetary processes, as well as behavioural aspects of budgeting.
Unit 4 looks at different types of costing approaches and considers how variance analysis is carried out in an organisation. It explains the significance of variance analysis for budgetary control, looks at how variances are investigated, and considers how budgetary reconciliation can identify and resolve potential problems. It also highlights the causes and steps of budget revision to cut off excess spending and reallocate revenues. Finally, the unit explains the application of standard costing in service industries, as well as discussing the limitations of standard costing.
Unit 5 explores performance management through an examination of approaches to performance measurement. It looks at performance management systems and how different activities and techniques can be used to improve performance. The unit considers benchmarking, the balanced scorecard framework, and Fitzgerald and Moon’s Building Block Model. Furthermore, it highlights the concepts of economy, efficiency and effectiveness. It describes, calculates and interprets financial performance indicators (FPIs) for profitability, liquidity and risk in both manufacturing and service organisations. It also focuses on how performance could be measured in not-for-profit organisations and the public sector. Finally, the unit describes environmental, social and governance (ESG) and sustainability reporting and how this enables companies to be more transparent about the risks and opportunities they face.