Management Accounting

SECTION 1 ? Introduction and background to commercial business organisations CHAPTER 1 Introduction to business organisations and finance Forms of business organisation. Sole traders, limited companies and partnerships contrasted. Finance for business. Fundamentals of taxation. CHAPTER 2 Starting a business Financing the small business. The business plan. Why do businesses fail (and why do some of them succeed)? CHAPTER 3 The growing business Stages in business growth and expansion. Making money. Risk. CHAPTER 4 Large businesses Sources of finance for companies. The UK Stock Market. Organisation and operation of the London Stock Exchange. Flotation and other share issues. To list or not to list? The role of information in stock markets. CHAPTER 5 The role of accounting in business The need for accounting information. Users of accounting information. Characteristics of useful financial information. Financial accounting and management accounting. The role of the accountant in business organisations. Why do business managers have to understand accounting reports? SECTION 2 ? Management accounting CHAPTER 14 Management and cost accounting information Contrasting financial accounting and cost and management accounting. Some features of cost and management accounting. Cost accounting and management accounting. The purpose and uses of management accounting. Determining business objectives. Strategic decisions. The management accounting process. CHAPTER 15 Costing Costing in business. Cost classification: direct and indirect costs. Cost classification: product and period costs. Costing of products and services. Materials costs. Labour costs. Production overheads. Activity based costing. CHAPTER 16 Budgeting What is a budget? The budget process. Benefits of effective budgeting. Some problems with budgeting. Preparing the budget: principal types of budget. Setting the budget ? a practical example. Monitoring outcomes. CHAPTER 17 Standard costing, flexible budgeting and variance analysis Identifying and attributing variances. Standard costing. Establishing standard costs. Standard costing and variance analysis ? a demonstration. Overhead variances. Overhead variance analysis ? a demonstration. Investigating the reasons for variances. CHAPTER 18 Marginal costing for decision making Cost classification: variable, fixed and semi-variable costs. Costing for decision making. Marginal costing. Cost-volume-profit analysis. Further applications of break-even analysis. Special decisions: accepting contracts. Special decisions: major increases in activity levels. Special decisions: limiting factors. Limitations of analysis based on marginal costing. CHAPTER 19 Pricing The importance of pricing. The relationship between price and quantity. Competition in the market. How do producers decide on prices? Special cases (tendering, highly restricted supply of unique products, target pricing, discounting, auction). CHAPTER 20 Capital investment decisions What is capital investment? Capital budgeting. Capital investment appraisal in practice. Accounting rate of return. Payback. Net present value. Internal rate of return. Choosing between projects. Strengths and weaknesses of the common investment appraisal techniques. CHAPTER 21 Divisional Performance Measurement Profit and investment centres. Return on investment. Economic value added. Index Answers to Self-test Questions Answers to Exercises