By the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Define ‘cost accounting’
• Identify the purpose of cost accounting
• Describe different costing systems
• Classify different types of costs
• Compare cost behaviour
• Classify costs according to type and behaviour
• Describe the purpose of management accounting
• Explain standard costing and its significance to planning and performance management
• Define variance analysis for various types of organisational costs
• Identify relevant costs and their treatments within the context of cost accounting

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Define ‘budgeting’ and the various elements of budgets
• Discuss budgetary control and the use of budgets in performance management
• Describe the purpose of budgeting and the advantages of using budgets
• Explain the use of forecasts in the budgetary process
• Compute fixed and variable costs using statistical methods
• Discuss the use of linear programming in resource allocation and planning
• Contrast the different risk criteria used in decision-making involving uncertainty
• Describe the fundamental methods used to analyse risk for decision-making and planning

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Define ‘cost-volume-profit analysis’
• Identify the elements of a cost-volume-profit calculation
• Describe the contribution to sales ratio
• Discuss the break-even point
• Contrast the margin of safety and operational gearing of entities
• Compute required revenue
• Analyze operational gearing ratios
• Compare the contribution to sales ratios of entities
• Discuss the concept of ‘required revenue’
• Summarize the significance of operational gearing

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Describe the purpose of budgeting and the advantages of using different approaches to budgeting
• Define ‘incremental budgeting’, ‘rolling budgets’, ‘zero-based budgets’ and ‘budgetary control’
• Discuss budgetary control and the use of budgets in performance management
• Define ‘management accounting’, ‘cost accounting’ and ‘budgeting’
• Identify the purpose of management accounting, activity-based costing and throughput accounting
• Explain activity-based costing, activity-based management and activity-based budgeting
• Identify throughput accounting costs, marginal accounting costs, direct costs and relevant costs
• Outline alternative approaches to budgeting in the multinational environment
• Compute throughput accounting ratios and total factory cost (TFC)

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Discuss cost classification and the use of cost classifications in performance management
• Compute profit based on marginal costing systems and absorption costing principles
• Apply costing theories to reach strategic objectives
• Assess the suitability of different costing systems
• Define ‘management accounting’ and ‘cost accounting’
• Explain the purpose of management accounting in terms of decision-making and strategic planning
• Calculate the cost per unit based on different costing theories
• Identify the objectives of management accounting, activity-based costing and cost accounting
• Discuss the role of management accounting in terms of planning activities
• Describe the objectives of cost accounting and the advantages of using different costing systems

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Define the purpose of financial statement analysis and the objectivity of individual ratios in different situations
• Recognise the key elements an analysis needs to consider when implementing an analytical framework
• Identify the stakeholders and users of information for the company under review
• Analyse financial performance using a company's annual financial statements and the notes to the published statements
• Calculate key financial statement-based figures like capital employed and working capital
• Assess financial performance using appropriate classes of ratios such as activity and performance ratios
• Compare the performance of different entities using standard ratios and defined concepts to enhance comparability
• Contrast the performance of a single entity between different periods using consistent accounting policies