| CODE | ACC3221 | ||||||||
| TITLE | Fundamentals of Management Accounting | ||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 03 - Years 2, 3, 4 in Modular Undergraduate Course | ||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 6 | ||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 4 | ||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Accountancy | ||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | This study-unit introduces the fundamental techniques of management accounting and explores its role in supporting managerial decision making. The areas covered include: • Differences between management accounting and cost accounting; • Differences between management accounting and financial accounting; • Cost volume profit analysis; • Measuring relevant costs for short-term decision-making; • Activity-based costing – further aspects; • Decision-making under conditions of risk and uncertainty; • Advanced standard costing and variance analysis. Study-Unit Aims: This study-unit aims to give students a thorough understanding of the fundamental principles and techniques of management accounting. It will emphasise the decision-support role of management accounting and how the various techniques can contribute to valid information to decision-makers. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Critically evaluate the responsibilities of the management accounting function, together with the skills necessary to discharge this function and its relationship with the cost accounting and financial accounting functions; - Identify, select and critically evaluate appropriate tools and alternative methods relevant to cost volume profit analysis, particularly related to a specific level of activity or volume fluctuations in relation to making optimal short-term decisions; - Comprehensively and critically analyse the principles of measuring relevant costs and revenue for decision making, and formulate how costs and revenues are to be measured for a range of non-routine short-term and long-term decisions; - Decisively apply various tools and techniques to measuring resources consumed by cost objects and how these differ from the traditional process costing approach; - Critically and effectively evaluate decision making under conditions of risk and uncertainty through the application of various tools, thus mitigating the identified risk by recommending appropriate risk diversification measures; - Critically ascertain and apply a set of analytical tools related to the advanced technical aspects of accounting control systems, including the critical evaluation regarding the key features of a standard costing system that enable the appraisal and interpretation of the differences between the planned and actual outcomes to be investigated in detail through the computation of a variety of variances. 2. Skills By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Recognise and review the responsibilities of the management accounting function and how to discharge this function in relation to other accounting tasks, particularly the cost accounting and financial accounting functions; - Define and propose appropriate tools and alternative methods applicable to cost volume profit analysis, particularly related to a specific level of activity or volume fluctuations in relation to making optimal short-term decisions; - Critically analyse, prescribe and apply the principles of measuring relevant costs and revenue for decision making, and formulate how costs and revenues are to be measured for a range of non-routine short-term and long-term decisions; - Illustrate and review various tools and techniques to computing resources consumed by cost objects and how these differ from the traditional process costing method; - Analyse, employ, and assess various tools for decision making under conditions of risk and uncertainty to mitigate envisaged risk by prescribing appropriate risk diversification strategies; - Illustrate, prescribe and apply a set of analytical tools related to the advanced technical aspects of accounting control systems (variance analysis), including the computation, assessment and understanding of the differences between the planned and actual outcomes for further investigation. Reading List: Main text - Colin Drury, Management & Cost Accounting, latest edition, Cengage. Supplementary Reading - Terry Lucey, Management Accounting, latest edition, Continuum. |
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| RULES/CONDITIONS | Before TAKING THIS UNIT YOU MUST TAKE ACC2971 | ||||||||
| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture and Tutorial | ||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Emanuel Camilleri |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2024/5. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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