ICAN Management Accounting (MA): study notes Area by area, with worked examples and quizzes.

1. 01A. Management InformationWhat management accounting is for and how it differs from financial and cost accounting, the roles and ethics of the management accountant, and why managers need information to plan, control and decide. The module then covers management information systems, the difference between data and information, the attributes and limits of good information and its internal and external sources; spreadsheets in costing and budgeting; big data and data analytics; and the cost vocabulary the rest of the paper depends on: cost classification and behaviour, cost coding, and the estimation of fixed and variable costs by the high-low method, least squares regression and correlation.7 lessons · 4h 15m+

   • Management accounting and the management accountant30 min
   • Management information systems and good information40 min
   • Spreadsheets in costing and management accounting35 min
   • Big data and data analytics35 min
   • Classifying and coding costs45 min
   • Cost behaviour and estimation: high-low, regression and correlationFree preview55 min
   • Module 1 quiz15 min
2. 02B. Accounting for Cost ElementsHow the three elements of cost are recorded, controlled and charged to products. Materials: the documents of the ordering, purchasing, receiving, storing and issuing cycle, inventory control procedures and control levels, holding and ordering costs, the economic order quantity and the order quantity decision with quantity discounts, and the pricing of issues by FIFO, LIFO and the average methods, with just-in-time. Labour: recording and monitoring, direct and indirect labour cost, time-based, piecework and incentive schemes, labour turnover and the payroll entries. Overheads: allocation, apportionment and reapportionment, including reciprocal service costs by repeated distribution and by simultaneous equations, absorption rates, under- and over-absorption, and activity-based costing.6 lessons · 5h 10m+

   • Materials: procedures, inventory control and reorder quantities60 min
   • Pricing issues of materials: FIFO, LIFO and average cost, and just-in-time55 min
   • Labour: recording, remuneration, turnover and payroll60 min
   • Overheads: allocation, apportionment and reciprocal service costs
3. 03C. Costing Methods and TechniquesHow costs are gathered for the cost units of different kinds of business, and how they are treated once gathered. The module covers the specific order methods (job and batch costing, with job pricing by mark-up and margin), process costing (normal loss, abnormal loss and abnormal gain with scrap values; equivalent units with opening and closing work in progress by weighted average and FIFO; joint products apportioned at the split-off point and the treatment of by-products) and service costing with composite cost units. It then compares marginal and absorption costing, with income statements under both and the reconciliation of their profits, and ends with cost control and cost reduction: work study, organisation and methods, and value analysis and value engineering.7 lessons · 5h+

   • Job and batch costing45 min
   • Process costing: normal loss, abnormal loss and abnormal gain50 min
   • Process costing: equivalent units, work in progress, joint products and by-products60 min
   • Service costing
4. 04D. Forecasting, Budgeting and Budgetary ControlHow to forecast with time series, then how to turn the forecast into a budget. The module covers the components of a time series, centred moving averages, additive and multiplicative seasonal variations and the forecasts built from them; the purposes of budgeting, the stages of the budgeting process and the principal budget factor; the sales, production, material usage and purchases, and labour budgets; and a simple cash budget and master budget, with every working laid out as an ICAN Section B answer expects.4 lessons · 2h 55m+

   • Forecasting with time series55 min
   • The budgeting process and functional budgets50 min
   • Cash budgets and the master budget55 min
   • Module 4 quiz15 min
5. 05E. Standard Costing and Basic Variance AnalysisWhat a standard costing system is for, how it operates, the types of standard and how to prepare a standard cost card; then every variance in ICAN's syllabus, worked through one Nigerian manufacturer: material price and usage; labour rate, idle time and efficiency; variable overhead expenditure and efficiency; fixed overhead expenditure, capacity and efficiency; and the selling price and sales quantity variances. The module ends with the causes and remedies of variances, how they interact, which to investigate, and the operating statements that reconcile budgeted and actual profit under standard absorption costing and standard marginal costing.5 lessons · 3h 30m+

   • Standard costing systems and the standard cost card40 min
   • Material and labour variancesFree preview50 min
   • Overhead and sales variances50 min
   • Interpreting variances and reconciling budgeted and actual profit
6. 06F. Decision Making TechniquesHow management accounting supports short-term decisions. Cost-volume-profit analysis for a single product: contribution, the breakeven point, the margin of safety and the sales needed for a target profit, the traditional, contribution and profit-volume charts, and the limitations of the model. Relevant costing: which costs and revenues a decision changes, opportunity costs, and the relevant cost of materials, labour and overheads in specific decisions such as pricing a one-off contract. Limiting factors: identifying a single scarce resource, ranking products by contribution per unit of that resource to find the best production plan, and deciding which items to make and which to buy.4 lessons · 3h 10m+

   • Cost-volume-profit analysis and breakeven charts60 min
   • Relevant costs and opportunity costs55 min
   • Limiting factors and make-or-buy decisions60 min
   • Module 6 quiz15 min

• AManagement Information
• BAccounting for Cost Elements
• CCosting Methods and Techniques
• DForecasting, Budgeting and Budgetary Control
• EStandard Costing and Basic Variance Analysis
• FDecision Making Techniques

Questions