1. Competencies
   1. PK:MA:01 Designs, evaluates, and advises on the organization’s performance measures to ensure alignment with corporate strategy, and recommends changes as required (KPIs and balanced scorecards)
   2. PK:MA:02 Develops, analyzes, and monitors operational plans and budgets, and recommends corrective action as needed (annual budgets, special project budgets, budget variance analysis)
   3. PK:MA:03 Identifies, assesses, and advises on information required for management decision making (cost-volume-profit relationships, cost classifications and flows, market or industry data, non-financial factors)
   4. PK:MA:04 Designs, evaluates, and advises on the organization’s management accounting systems to ensure that information is relevant, accurate, and timely (costing models, non-financial reporting,planning and forecasting, activity-based cost models, KPIs and balanced scorecards, responsibility accounting)
   5. PK:MA:05 Implements, monitors, and updates management accounting systems (costing models, non-financial reporting, planning and forecasting, activitybased cost models, KPIs and balanced scorecards, responsibility accounting)
   6. PK:MA:06 Analyzes and evaluates information from management accounting systems, and makes decisions (pricing and costing decisions, transfer pricing decisions, make or buy decisions, performance-based compensation plans)
   7. PK:MA:07 Recommends organizational improvements based on results from management accounting systems (cost reduction strategies, revenue growth, business process re-engineering, compensation criteria)
2. Concepts
   1. Costing methods
   2. Strategic Analysis
      1. Porter's 5 Forces
         1. Current competitors
         2. potential for new entrants
         3. equivalent products or services
         4. bargaining power
            1. customers
            2. suppliers
      2. SWOT
         1. Strengths
            1. R&D
            2. weak
            3. customer
            4. supplier
            5. good reputation
         2. Weaknesses
            1. R&D
            2. cash flows
            3. strong
            4. customer
            5. supplier
            6. high cost structure
         3. Opportunities
            1. competition
            2. collapse of competitor
            3. market
            4. change in product demand
            5. fashion/trend
            6. economy
            7. change in interest rates
            8. economic improvement
            9. economic hardship (eg McDonalds)
            10. increase sales
            11. increase market share
         4. Threats
            1. competition
            2. political changes
            3. economic changes
            4. legislative/regulatory changes
            5. international pressures
         5. Internal
         6. External
   3. Budget Variance & Analysis
   4. Transfer Pricing
      1. effects
         1. profitabliity of subunits
         2. management compensation
         3. performance evaluation/measurement
      2. methods
         1. market-based
            1. general market must be available
            2. usually leads to optimal pricing
            3. where interdependence of subunits is minimal
            4. no additional costs or benefits to compaines
            5. long-run average can be used with high variances
         2. cost-based
            1. methods
            2. straight
            3. absorbtion
            4. full cost
            5. minimum should be variable costs of production for selling unit
            6. maximum should be market price
            7. proration is acceptable
            8. dual can be used when selling uses cost-based and buying uses market
         3. negotiated
            1. ensure that price optimises organizations returns/goal congruence
            2. managers given autonomy
            3. aids in management training
   5. Corporate Governance
      1. definition
         1. system of law and sound approaches by which corporations are directed and controlled, focussing on the internal and external corporate structures with the intention of monitoring the actions of management and directors and thereby mitigating agency risks which may stem from the misdeeds of corporate officers
         2. specifies distribution of rights/responsibilities
         3. specified rules & procedures for corporate decision making
         4. provides structure through which corporations set and pursue objectives
         5. reflects the context of social, regulatory & market environment
         6. mechanism for monitoring
            1. actions
            2. policies
            3. decisions
         7. alignment of interests among stakeholders
      2. principles
         1. rights & equitable treatment of shareholders
            1. respect rights
            2. help exercise rights
            3. openly and effectively communicate
            4. encourage shareholders to participate in general meetings
         2. interests of other stakeholders
            1. legal
            2. contractual
            3. social
            4. market-driven
            5. include
            6. employees
            7. investors
            8. creditors
            9. suppliers
            10. local communities
            11. customers
            12. policy makers
         3. roles & responsibilities of the Board
            1. sufficient relevant skills & understanding
            2. review & challenge management performance
            3. adequate size
            4. appropriate levels of independence & commitment
         4. integrity & ethical behaviour
            1. fundamental requirement
            2. code of conduct for directors and executive
            3. promote ethical and responsible decision making
         5. disclosure and transparency
            1. clarify and make publicly known roles & responsibilities of board & directors
            2. implement procedures to verify & safeguard integrity of financial reporting
            3. disclose material matters
            4. timely
            5. balanced
            6. all investors have access to clear, factual information
         6. mechanisms
            1. ownership concentration
            2. degree to which large-block shareholders influence activities of management
            3. usu. financial institutions, municipal funds, pension plans
            4. pressure to maximize returns
            5. sometimes remove managers who are perceived as inefficient in meeting goals
            6. board of directors
            7. internal governance mechanism
            8. monitor's managers
            9. elected by shareholders to oversee the management team
            10. protects rights & interests of the shareholders
            11. executive compensation
            12. used to ensure long-term actions align with owners' interests
            13. difficult to design & implement
   6. Inventory management and valuation
      1. break-even analysis
         1. sales-variable costs = contribution margin
         2. CM - fixed costs = profit or loss
         3. at B/E contribution = fixed (p/l = $0)
      2. managing constraints
         1. produce only what can be sold
         2. bottleneck
            1. add overtime or another shift
            2. hire new workers
            3. acquire new machinery
            4. subcontract productoin
            5. streamline production process
      3. pricing differences
         1. long-run
            1. cannot be changed in short-term
            2. usu. fixed costs
            3. set to earn reasonable ROI
            4. all costs are variable in long run
            5. time horizon of one year or longer
            6. competitive forces often set prices
            7. accurate full cost data is a decision requirement
         2. short-run
            1. immediate impact
      4. Costing system
         1. Absorption costing
            1. all costs of production are product costs
            2. cost of a unit of product
            3. direct materials
            4. direct labour
            5. variable o/h
            6. fixed o/h
            7. allocates portion of fixed costs to each unit of product with variable costs
            8. all costs of production = "full cost"
            9. do not include selling & admin
         2. Variable costing
            1. only costs that vary with output are product costs
            2. fixed costs are treated as period costs
            3. no fixed o/h costs
            4. aka direct costing or marginal costing
            5. do not include selling & admin
         3. Activity-based costing
            1. two stage
            2. allocates activities into pools
            3. overhead costs assigned to products/services on basis of iterations of each activity in each pool
         4. activity-based management
            1. thorough understanding of tasks, activities processes carried out in pursuit of goals
   7. Financial and non-financial performance measures
      1. Examples
         1. Gross profit margin
         2. net profit margin
         3. ROI
         4. ROE
      2. good indicators for periodic comparison
         1. based on past data
         2. can be manipulated
      3. performance measures
         1. should include financial and non-financial
            1. financial
            2. lag indicator
            3. can be manipulated
            4. management accountants provide information on effectiveness of strategy implementation
            5. non-financial
            6. other factors contributing to success
         2. Balanced Scorecard
            1. a balance of indicators
            2. financial
            3. customer
            4. internal business processes
            5. learning & growth
            6. management system
            7. aligns business activities to vision of strategy
            8. improves internal & external communication
            9. clarify vision & translate into action
            10. feedback for internal processes & external outcomes
            11. transforms strategic planning from academic exercise to nerve center of an enterprise
   8. Management compensation and bonuses
      1. agency costs (audits)
         1. avoid negative ramifications of earnings management
         2. information assymetry
      2. management & and owner goals
         1. congruent
         2. eliminate rationale for managers to engage in earnings management
      3. indicators
         1. net income
            1. short-term management
            2. subject to manipulation
         2. share price
            1. subject to external influences
            2. long-term growth
         3. industry benchmarks
         4. controllability principle
            1. accountable only for areas over which managers have authority/can influence
   9. Cost of quality
      1. factors
         1. fitness for use
         2. meet customer needs
         3. conform to design specs
         4. conform to engineering requirements
      2. aspects
         1. quality of design
            1. how closely meets needs and wants of customers
         2. conformance
            1. performance according to design and production specs
            2. does product meet design and production specs?
      3. Categories
         1. Prevention
            1. support activities
            2. reduce # defects
         2. Appraisal
            1. identify defects before shipping
            2. also called inspection costs
         3. Internal Failure
            1. scrap
            2. rejected products
            3. reworking of defective units
            4. downtime caused by quality problem
         4. External failure
            1. warranty
            2. repairs
            3. replacement
            4. recalls
            5. liability/litigation
            6. reputational effects
            7. lost sales
            8. migration of customer base
      4. Analysis
         1. Control charts
            1. random & non-random variation in processes
         2. Pareto diagrams
            1. frequency of defect by type
         3. Cause/Effect diagrams
            1. "fishbone"
            2. root of problems