Advanced Management Accounting

Cost and management accounting

In expository methodology of the main concepts and theoretical foundations will be used,

In the resolution and discussion of practical cases, the active and interrogative method will be used, thus allowing students to better understand its application to strategic cost management in organizations

 Learning Objectives

 1. Support Master’s students in identifying new trends in Management Accounting.

 2. Reflect critically and in-depth on management accounting concepts and techniques, confronting the different opinions and experiences of master’s students.

 3. Sensitize students to the aspects of greatest interest in current accounting from a cost strategic management perspective of organizations, bearing in mind the current context of change and turmoil, and to the economic, social, environmental and human aspects of accounting, namely in a dynamic perspective of changing the behavior of organizational elements and teams.

 SKILLS

Upon completion of the UC, the student must obtain the following general skills:

• Capacity for analysis and synthesis and decision making;
• Critical and self-critical capacity;
• Ability to understand theory and apply it to practice;
• Abilities to work in a group.

And the following technical skills:

•  Master’s students must identify the information needs in the context of Strategic Management Accounting and know how to produce continuous or punctual information that allows an effective cost management in the company.
•  Master’s students must know how to adapt the knowledge obtained to the various sectors of activity.
•  In business terms and within the scope of strategic cost management, Master’s students must know how to obtain information, analyze it and always transmit it within a framework of team work.

1. NEW TRENDS IN MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

2. MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING AND MANAGEMENT PROCESS – MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING AS A VALUE ACTIVITY.

3. COST MANAGEMENT AND VALUE CREATION:

• Activity Based Techniques, ABC (Activity Based Cost), ABM (Activity Based Management) and TDABC (Time Driven ABC)
• Target Costing
• Kaizen Costing
• Value Engineering and Process Reengineering (BPR)
• Total Quality Management (TQM)
• JIT Systems
• Life–cycle Costing
• Internal and External Benchmarking

 4. MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING AND DECISION MAKING

•   Behavior and Cost Estimation
• The Learning Curve (Experience)
• Cost management and decision making – the relevant cost approach
• Outcome Modeling: Cost-Volume-Result Analysis 
• TOC – Theory of Constraints

The student will be evaluated by a mandatory workgroup carried out in the scope of the curricular unit and by a written test carried out in the normal evaluation period. It will be approved if the final grade is equal to or greater than 10 (ten) values. The final grade will be equal to 70% of the work grade, plus 30% of the written test grade. However, the grade of the work will only be considered if the student obtains a minimum grade of 5 values in the written test (on a scale from 0 to 20). If the minimum grade of the written test is not met, the final grade will be equal to the grade obtained in the written test.

If the student wishes, the grade of the group work can be used in the appeal period. In this case, the same conditions as in the normal period are maintained (minimum grade of 5 in the written test and weighting of 70% for the work and 30% for the written test).

If the student didn't do the group work or does not intend to use the grade obtained in the appeal period, the appeal exam will be the only evaluation element and will have a weighting of 100%.

NAO