Management Accounting Course Online

Understanding Accounting Reports for Decision Making

Course Methods:  Online Course / Distance-learning (Self-study)
Course Venue:     Online (email and courseware downloads)
Course Duration:  1-2 weeks

Course Audience 

• CFO's Team: Finance Managers, Treasurers, Investors Relations Managers, and Accounting Managers

• Non-Finance Managers with P&L responsibility: Entrepreneurs, General Managers, Business Unit Managers, Operations Managers, Project Managers, and Management Accounting Consultants.

Course Objectives 

• Provides an understanding of the management accounting framework - The planning, control and audit of accounting reports

• Offers experiential analysis to understand the challenges of CFOs and Accounting Managers in managing financial information

• Covers financial and business accounting information used for planning, analysis, and control

• Focuses on best practices, tools, models to facilitate managerial decision-making

• Provides insights on how to develop strategies, initiatives and programs to introduce and manage financial controls

• This course focuses on accounting for management decision-making and control. The course does not prepare the participants to pass tax or CPA exams

Course Focus

Develop the core management accounting skills and competencies. The core competencies include accounting knowledge, planning, control, problem-solving and communication

Key Concepts

• Top CFO questions. CFO challenges

• Decision-making using accounting reports and financial statements including: Balance Sheet, Income Statement, Cash Flow Statement

• Capital and operational budgeting techniques

• Key accounting concepts and formulas: Accounting Costs. Expenses. Revenues. Profits and Loss. Break-Even Analysis (BEA). Assets and Liabilities. Stocks. Shares. Bonds. Earnings. Dividends. Shareholder's Equity. Cash Flow. Debt. Debt Collection Period. Earnings Per Share EPS. EBITDA.

• Financial Analysis: Business Performance Ratio Analysis.

• Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) framework. International Accounting Standards (IAS) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)

• Analysis of Annual Reports of Public Companies.

• Accounting Audit. Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) and Internal Controls.

Course Outline / Customization Subjects

• Accounting principles, processes and procedures. 

• The functions and practices of accountants, including the maintenance of bank accounts, developing financial statements, cash flow and financial performance analysis

• Accounting systems, types of costs, and cost allocation, budgeting, performance measurement and reporting

• Development of internal accounting data, and use of this information to assist internal decision making

• Revenue recognition and cost allocation

• Assets and liabilities, shareholders' equity issues

• The interpretation of information contained in accounts prepared by public companies

• Understanding the sources of information contained in accounting statements.

• An overview of modern capital and operational budgeting techniques

• Auditing and Control: Managing the accuracy and timeliness of financial reporting. Nature of internal and operational auditing.

• Accounting regulations with special focus on Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) compliance

Online Courseware Content

IIM's management accounting online courseware includes:

1. Participant's coursework and assessment project guide

2. Executive summary of the subject matter (in power-point lecture notes format):

   • Summary of essential concepts and accounting best practices

   • Examples and case studies

3. Accounting toolkit (management frameworks, decision models, checklists, etc.)

4. Experiential work-based assessment project

5. Online resources for the completion of the experiential assessment project

Performance Evaluation (Optional)

• Performance will be evaluated on the basis of individual or team project deliverables

• Candidates can complete customized experiential / work-based projects such as developing a relevant analysis document, management strategy, action plan or a senior management presentation

• IIM course advisor will review the deliverables and provide improvement feedback

• There are no traditional quizzes or theoretical exams.

Course Prerequisites 

• From our experience, success in distance learning requires a well-organized person who has good English language skills, is comfortable with online technologies and used to self-study and research methods.

Course Registration

• Management Accounting Course Online
  • Distance-learning course (self-study)
  • Includes assessment project evaluation and feedback from IIM course advisor via email
  • Requires registration and application review