Module: Managerial Accounting: A Strategic Emphasis

Module Specifications..

Current Academic Year 2023 - 2024

Please note that this information is subject to change.

Module Title	Managerial Accounting: A Strategic Emphasis
Module Code	AC572
School	DCUBS
Module Co-ordinator	Semester 1: Julie Bertz Semester 2: Julie Bertz Autumn: Julie Bertz
Module Teachers	Julie Bertz
NFQ level	9	Credit Rating	15
Pre-requisite	None
Co-requisite	None
Compatibles	None
Incompatibles	None

Repeat examination
Array

Description

The purpose of this module is to bring students' knowledge of the principles and practice of management accounting to an advanced level. It seeks to integrate the study of management accounting with the study of strategy, behavioural science, organisation theory and sustainability. It also aims to develop students' ability to interpret and communicate management accounting information, including knowledge of underlying information systems tools and software. The module examines, from both research and practice perspectives, issues relating to the role of management accounting in organisations, cost management, control and performance management and decision support.

Learning Outcomes

1. Critique the role of management accounting in modern organisations.
2. Ascertain current developments (research and practice) in cost management and illustrate the application of various costing approaches and techniques.
3. Examine traditional budgetary control techniques and calculate and interpret advanced variances.
4. Appraise current developments (research and practice) in control and performance management and evaluate their relevance and usefulness to modern organisations.
5. Evaluate advanced decision-making theory and tools and apply various techniques to complex scenarios.

*Type*	*Hours*	*Description*
Workload	Full-time hours per semester
Online activity	88	A combination of live zoom and asynchronous lectures during semester 1 and semester 2
Independent Study	254	Revising module material; reading assigned articles/chapters; attempting assigned questions; revising for continuous assessment and final exam.
Directed learning	20	Regular readings
Assignment Completion	10	Preparation and completion of continuous assessment.
Directed learning	3	Final exam
Total Workload: 375

All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml

Indicative Content and Learning Activities

The changing environment of management accounting
Multiple roles of management accounting; Changes in external and internal environments and implications for management accountants; Criticisms of management accounting and pressures for change; Conceptual foundations of management accounting and the importance of interdisciplinarity; The accounting profession, professional competence and professional responsibilities and ethics.

Cost management
Problems with traditional cost allocation; Activity-based analysis - ABC and ABM; Value analysis, cost reduction, customer profitability analysis, target costing, life cycle costing, theory of constraints, total quality management.

Management control and performance management
Budgetary Control - the role of budgets, budget setting, criticisms of budgets, activity-based budgets, zero-based budgeting; Standard costing and variance analysis - criticisms of standard costing, calculation of advanced variances (e.g. mix/yield variances for materials and labour, sales mix and sales quantity/yield variances, market share and market size variances, planning and operational variances and reconciliation from actual to budget) interpretation, disposition and investigation of variances, opportunity cost approach; Management control frameworks - designing control systems, contingency theory; Behavioural issues - motivation theories, use of quantified targets, dysfunctional behaviour, style of evaluation, target difficulty, participation; Performance management (i.e. linking strategy to performance management) within organisations - non-financial factors, KPIs and the balanced scorecard, the beyond budgeting debate, interpreting conflicting performance measures.

Decision making
Decision making framework; Decision making scenarios including consideration of scarce resources using linear programming, theory of constraints and throughput accounting; Uncertainty, decision tree analysis, expected value of perfect information, utility functions, maximin, maximax, minimax and regret criteria; Qualitative factors in decision making. Responsibility centres and performance evaluation, centralisation v decentralisation of decision-making, accounting measures and alternative measures of performance, including use of return on investment, residual income and economic value added; varying scenarios and dealing with conflict; Transfer pricing - context, issues, methods/approaches of calculating transfer prices, varying scenarios and dealing with conflict.

Conclusion
Future roles of management accountants as value-adding members of organisations; Challenges and potential conflicts; Data Analytics.

Assessment Breakdown
Continuous Assessment	20%	Examination Weight	80%

Type	Description	% of total	Assessment Date
Course Work Breakdown
In Class Test	Open book (in-class) Question.	20%	As required

Reassessment Requirement Type
Resit arrangements are explained by the following categories; 1 = A resit is available for all components of the module 2 = No resit is available for 100% continuous assessment module 3 = No resit is available for the continuous assessment component
This module is category 1

Indicative Reading List

Will, Rhode, Garrison and Noreen: 2018, Management Accounting, 6th, McGrawHill,
Colin Drury,: 0, Management and Cost Accounting, 11th,
Burns, Quinn, Warren, Oliveira.: 2013, Management Accounting, 9780077121617
Clarke, Peter: 2016, Managerial Accounting, Costing, Decision Making & Control, 3rd, Chartered Accountants Ireland,
Blocher, E. Stout, D, Cokins, G. and Chen, K.: 2008, Cost Management: A Strategic emphasis. , 4th, McGraw Hill.,
Emmanuel, C.R., Otley, D.T. and Merchant, K.A: 1990, Accounting for Management Control, Chapman Hall,
Johnson, H.T & Kaplan, R.S.: 1987, Relevance Lost: The Rise and Fall of Management Accounting, Harvard Business School Press,
References to other books will provided during lectures and seminars: 0, Various,

Other Resources

None

Programme or List of Programmes

MBS	MSc in Accounting

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