Module 1 - Cost and Management Accounting Decisions

1. Understanding Cost for Informed Decision Making
   • Basic building blocks of costing and the different rationales for costing
   • Cost classification and the behavior of costs
   • Job order and process cost accounting
   • Digital costing
   • Absorption costing and marginal costing
   • Activity based costing and activity based management
2. Cost Analysis for Product Mix and Pricing Decisions
   • Separation of mixed costs using various techniques (e.g. high-low point method, scatter graph, regression analysis, etc.)
   • Cost-volume profit analysis
   • Differential cost analysis
   • Product mix decisions
   • Pricing strategies and methods in pricing the firm’s goods and services
3. Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) Decisions
   • Risks in CAPEX decisions
   • CAPEX decision tools (e.g. payback method, discounted payback, profitability index, EVA, NPV, IRR, etc.)
   • Consideration of the time value of money in CAPEX decisions
   • Ranking of projects and consideration of real options in CAPEX Decisions
   • Sensitivity analysis in CAPEX decisions
   • Lease or buy and asset replacement decisions
4. Responsibility Accounting & Performance Management
   • The firm’s responsibility accounting and reporting system
   • Preparation of budgets and forecasts
   • Standard costing and analysis of variances
   • Segment performance measurement and related decisions
   • Balance scorecard
   • Quality management
   • Ethical considerations in cost and management accounting decisions

Module 2 - Corporate Finance and Financial Decisions

1. Financial Statement (FS) Analysis & Working Capital Management
   • Overview of the Income Statement, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow Statement, Statement of Changes in Equity, and Disclosures in the Notes to FS
   • Calculating and using the various liquidity, activity and profitability ratios and the Dupont analysis to assess the firm’s performance, identify red flags and implement corrective measures
   • Working capital management: knowing the various sources of short term funds, calculating their cost, and managing current assets and liabilities to create value for the firm
   • The time value of money and the risk and return trade-off.
2. Long Term Funds, Their Cost & Related Decisions
   • Understanding the capital markets
   • Various sources of long term funds, their related risks and costs (calculating the cost of debt, cost of preference shares, cost of ordinary shares, and calculating the WACC)
   • Theories on dividends
   • Formulating the firm’s dividend policy
3. Mergers, Acquisitions and International Managerial Finance Decisions
   • Mergers, acquisitions and divestiture fundamentals
   • Valuation of bonds, preference shares, ordinary shares, and of going concern entities
   • The capital asset pricing model, and the arbitrage pricing model
   • Managing opportunities and risks of multinational companies (MNCs)
   • Hedging strategies for MNCs
   • Statutory reporting compliance issues for MNCs
4. Risk Management Decisions for Wealth Preservation
   • Definition of risk and identification of the different types of risks
   • Statistical probability tools in risk measurement: calculating the mean, the expected value, the standard deviation, the range, the coefficient of variation and the correlation coefficient in order to asses risk of a single asset or of a portfolio of assets
   • Risk and return trade-off
   • Use of the capital asset pricing model and the risk adjusted rate of return in risk management decisions
   • Risk management tools: insuring, diversifying, hedging and the use of derivatives in managing risk
   • Managing risk using the transfer, avoid, reduce and accept (TARA) framework
   • Ethical considerations for the organization

Module 3 - Special Topics in Management Accounting

1. Corporate Governance and Statutory Compliance Concerns
   • The code of corporate governance
   • Establishing an effective internal audit (IA) function
   • IA’s relationship with the external auditor, the board audit committee, and the board of directors
   • Quality assurance review for IA
   • Putting in place internal controls, and promoting an ethical culture in the organization
   • Statutory financial reporting compliance issues (with the SEC)
   • Statutory tax reporting issues (with the BIR and with the LGUs)
2. Data Analytics Tools for the Management Accountant
   1. Descriptive analytics
      1. What-if analysis with data tables: designing a make-or-buy decision model with manufacturing and outsourcing costs, quantity, and fixed costs as inputs using one-way data table, 2-way data table, and goal seek tool
      2. What-if analysis with scenario manager: quantifying the impact of changing multiple inputs (a set of multiple inputs called a scenario) on one or more outputs of interest in an amusement park daily-profit model
   2. Predictive analytics
      1. Linear regression analysis: forecasting the effect of time as an independent variable on sales performance as dependent variable using simple and quadratic analysis
      2. Time series with seasonal trend analysis: predicting the effect of time in year and quarterly period as numerical and categorical variables on sales revenue as dependent variable using trend and seasonal variation analysis
   3. Prescriptive analytics
      1. Monte Carlo simulation with random numbers: understanding the profit and loss potential of a new product using discrete, uniform, and normal distributions for cost and volume inputs with profit frequency distribution as output
      2. Linear and Nonlinear Programming: determining the optimum quantity and pricing decisions with limited manpower resources to maximize profit of a manufacturing company using a Data Solver tool .
3. Computerized Systems Controls and Business Continuity Concerns for the Management Accountant
   • Managing the firm’s digital transformation under the new normal
   • Computer security/cybersecurity concerns: vulnerability & threats; protection of the firm’s networks, devices, programs and data from attacks and unauthorized access
   • Cloud computing: benefits; risks and risk mitigation measures; using the cloud in managing the firm’s digital assets
   • Business continuity planning(BCP): BCP governance; business impact analysis; assurance measures for business continuity, maintenance and testing, and other concerns
   • Managing disruptions: crisis communication and operations management during disruptions, and moving on to recovery and resumption of operations to pre-disruption levels
4. Operations and Project Management Concerns for the Management Accountant
   • Production scheduling and control issues: the theory of constraints; bottle neck work centers
   • Production cost management: developing the production budget; materials requirements planning; inventory management models; implementing a JIT inventory system
   • Project management and control concerns; project planning and scheduling tools; the work breakdown structure (WBS); PERT/CPM
   • Project performance monitoring; calculating the earned value and the schedule performance index; change management; claims management and control
   • Evaluation of project risks; risk mitigation measures; red flags