The seminar covers 7 main areas:

1. Financial, management and cost accountants.
2. Costing fundamentals – the concept of ‘cost.
3. Activity Based Costing – keeping track of overheads.
4. Strategic costing – the use of ‘Strategic Management Accounting Information Systems (SMAIS).
5. Standard costing and variance analysis – a cybernetic system.
6. Cost models for decision making – the emphasis is on short-run problems.
7. Budgets and budgetary control – planning and tracking success.

The approach taken in the seminar will be practical as well as conceptual, qualitative as well as quantitative, and strategic as well as tactical. The intention is that you’ll be able to apply conceptual principles to practical situations at whatever level of management involved. The seminar will incorporate various solved examples and case studies with step-by-step guidelines at appropriate intervals so that you get an opportunity to integrate practice and theory with ample chance to discuss various issues aired during the seminar. We want you to be able to apply your new knowledge from Day 1 back at work!

You’ll gain an insight of:

• The role and work of cost and management accountants – and how your organisation can employ their services.
• Costs and how they are incurred – and the importance of knowing how they are classified.
• How to select the cost and management system that’s right for your organisation.
• Cost reports and how to use them to improve your organisation’s success rate.
• The value of cost analysis for price setting, including the use of modern approaches, such as target costing – and how it can help increase your sales.
• Modern cost accounting techniques, such as an ABC-based product and customer profitability – how they can assist your organisation make important cost-based decisions.
• Break-even analysis and how it aids investment decisions.
• The importance of planning and controlling overheads – how you can best share them out.
• How cost and management accounting is increasingly being used at board level.
• Standard costing and variance analysis – how it can be used in your organisation.
• ‘True’ costs and their importance in short-run decision models.
• Budgets and budgetary control – how the process is a planning and control tool for your organisation.
• How to select the best budget system for your organisation.

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Accountants, cost professionals and financial planners.

Executives or other personnel with responsibility for financial management and control.

Any manager or executive in whatever functional area, project team-leader, facilitator or member of the finance team who wants an incisive understanding of how to use the services of management and cost accountants or wants to be able read, understand and interpret costing statements.

For those managers, executives or personnel with little or no background in finance wanting to gain understanding in the work of management and cost accountants.

For those managers, executives or personnel promoted or recruited to the area of cost and management accounting needing to gain knowledge on the work involved.
 

Topic 1. Financial, management and cost accountants – their world

Financial, management and cost accounting – Why so many different accountants?
Financial accounts – what they give – and what they don’t.
Goodbye cost accounting – hello management accounting.
Understanding the role of management accountants – one word is enough!
The rules of management accounting are changing – the new commandments.
The 4 levels of management decisions – lot’s of managers need help.
Roll-over conventional industry and make way for:
- Just-in-time
- lean manufacturing and six-sigma
- process re-engineering
- the theory of constraints (TOC)
- advanced manufacturing technology
- activity value-chains.
The business environment – it’s hostile, dynamic and complex.
Ethics, ethics and ethics again – the fundamental requirement.
 

Topic 2: Costing fundamentals – the concept of ‘cost’

What is costing – where does costing stop and management accounting start?
The 9 types of cost – analysing costs for different tracking purposes.
Cost behaviour – it means analysing the costs.
Semi-fixed cost versus semi-variable ….. how and why?
6 techniques for calculating the break-even point – numbers and visual.
The ‘margin-of-safety’ – what it tells you.
 

Topic 3: Activity Based Costing – keeping track of overheads

Value-chain analysis – the idea of sequential activities
The theory of Activity-Based-Costing (ABC)
Volume-based absorption –is there still a place for it?
Definition of ‘process’ as used in ABC – the 5 characteristics of a modern process.
Traditional versus ABC – a focus on ‘what’ rather than ‘where’
The 8 steps of ABC – a simple process for loading product costs.
Activity, resource, drivers, consumption rates – and all that!
What drives the cost drivers? – How to decide the basis of resource usage.
8 benefits of ABC – what it tells you.
Problems with ABC – know its pitfalls.
Using ABC as a forecasting tool – the use of Activity Based Budgeting (ABB).
The use of ABC in Customer Profitability Analysis (CPA) – always, always, emphasis on customer!
 

Topic 4: Strategic costing – the use of ‘Strategic Management Accounting Information Systems (SMAIS)

Pricing orientation – sales versus cost versus competitive.
7 ways of setting prices based on costs.
A little of calculus - straightening a curve to make things easy.
The learning curve – can it still be used?
Target costing – the customer comes first!
Throughput costing – it’s essential to set the actual point of profit.
Total-Life-Cycle costing – making sure that products/services are charged with ALL costs.
Key Performance Indicator Analysis (KPIA) – linked to critical success factors.
Strategic benchmarking – improvement, improvement and improvement!
The role of modern IT and e-business systems – warehousing, mining, knowledge based.
 

Topic 5: Standard costing and variance analysis – a cybernetic system

The concept of cybernetics – feedback versus feed-forward.
The purpose and nature of standards.
The standard costing cycle outlined.
How and when standards are set – and who is responsible.
Standards in a manufacturing environment versus service environment.
The operating control report – who receives?
The use of standards – strategic, tactical, project.
How to calculate all the common marketing and cost variances
5 ways of identifying which budget variances warrant investigation – it’s a real conundrum!.
The trade-offs between variances – can throw up interesting conclusions.
 

Topic 6: Cost models for decision making – the emphasis is on short-run problems

The ‘economist’s model’ versus ‘accountant’s model’ – the difference is fundamental.
Definition of constraints and ‘limiting factor’.
The concept of ‘cost relevance’ – what costs are ‘real’ and what are not.
Limiting factor analysis used to decide mix of products or services – with an eye on profit maximisation.
Limiting factor analysis used to choose between mutually exclusive options.
The ‘make’ or ‘outsource’ decision – quantitative and qualitative considerations.
The ‘shut-down’ or ‘carry-on’ decision.
 

Topic 7: Budgets and budgetary control – planning and tracking success

The design and use of responsibility centres in an organisation – pointing the finger
The issues related to responsibility accounting – a roller-coaster.
6 concepts of budgets all managers must know.
7 essential rules for setting up robust budgets.
Flexing budgets to report meaningful performance variances.
8 characteristics of a well-prepared budget statement – to make sure that performance is accurately reported.
Bringing it all together.