Management Accounting

Catherine Gowthorpe BA FCA is an ICAEW Chartered Accountant with over thirty years' experience as a lecturer and researcher in higher education in the UK and Spain. For many years, she was an examiner for two of the UK’s leading professional accounting bodies. She has published many articles on accounting and related areas such as auditing and professional ethics.

1. Introduction to management and cost accounting. 2. Management Accounting and Organizations. 3. Product and Services Costing. 4. Activity-based costing. 5. Pricing. 6. Marginal Costing and Decision Making. 7. Capital Investment Decisions. 8. Budgets. 9. Accounting for Control. 10. Performance measurement. 11. Themes and issues in management accounting.

• 1. Introduction to management accountingDefects of financial reports from a manager's point of viewWhat is management and cost accounting?Managers and the management accounting processSome useful features of cost and management accounting informationOrganisation of the rest of the book2. Management Accounting and OrganisationsTheories of organisations and managementMotivation and incentives3. Product and Services CostingCosting in BusinessProduct CostingCosting of ProductsTraditional costing: is it still relevant?Costing of services4. Activity-based costingPrinciples of ABCABC: implementationThe use of ABC in practiceBenefits, constraints and problems in applying ABC5. PricingThe relationship between price and quantityCompetition in the marketHow do producers decide on prices?Market-based pricingSpecial casesPricing in context6. Marginal Costing and Short-Term Decision-MakingIssues in decision-makingCost variabilityMarginal costing for decision-makingCost-volume-profit analysisFurther applications of break-even in practiceSpecial decisionsLimitations of analysis based on marginal costing7. Capial Investment DecisionsCapital investment in contextSimple appraisal techniquesMore complex appraisal techniquesChoosing between projectsStrengths and weaknesses of the common investment appraisal techniquesThe social context of decision-makingInvestment appraisal in practice8. BudgetsThe relationship between strategy and budget settingPrincipal types of budgetThe budget processSetting the budget: a practical exampleMonitoring outcomesBudgeting and its benefits and drawbacks9. Accounting for Control Organisational control mechanismsStandard costing, flexible budgeting and variance analysisStandard costingOverhead variancesInvestigating the reasons for variancesStandard costing: issues and problems10. Divisional performance and transfer pricingDivisionalisation: advantages and drawbacksMeasurements fo divisional performance: return on investment, residual income, economic value addedIntroduction to transfer pricingTransfer pricing problems and issues: conflict between divisions, sub-optimal decisions and tax consequences11. Issues in management accountingInformation for strategic managementMarket orientation: analysis of markets, competitors and activitiesThe balanced scorecardNon-financial performance measurement