BACHELOR OF COMMERCE IN ACCOUNTING

MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING FOR DECISION-MAKING

❑ SCOPE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING & FINANCE 3A

The MAF3A
FURTHER ASPECTS IN BUDGETING
module comprises
THE INVESTMENT DECISION 5 learning units
MANAGEMENT OF WORKING CAPITAL
ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION OF FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING IN THE MODERN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
❑ MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING & FINANCE 3A LEVEL OUTCOMES
On successful completion of the module, you should be able to:

Outline the nature and Recognise the importance Prepare and analyse
purpose of a number of of the management of forecast statements/budgets
recent developments in working capital in a
management accounting business context
practice 2

1 3 5

Analyse financial statements Apply capital investment

and reports appraisal techniques for the
implementation of business
decisions
❑ RECOMMENDATIONS FOR MASTERY OF MAF 3A MODULE:
▪ Accounting is a professional field; thus, you are REQUIRED to read, interrogate &
practice lot on your own !!
▪ The Notional learning Hour Table in the MG shows that only 20% of your learning time
will take placed in a facilitator-student session. Thus, 80% of the learning is on your
OWN.
▪ The MAF 3A module should be studied using the recommended and prescribed
textbooks and the relevant sections of this Module Guide.
▪ You must first read the appropriate section of Module Guide before you start reading the
textbooks in detail.
▪ Ensure that you make your own notes as you work through both the textbooks and the
module guide. For example, when studying life cycle costing, make your own note by
drawing from the MG, Webinar presentations, prescribed textbook and recommended
reading on target costing. Include all examples demonstrated during the webinars.
▪ Work through the PowerPoint presentations and Practical examples on MS WORD !!!.
❑ PRESCRIBED & RECOMMENDED TEXTBOOKS
Prescribed Reading/Textbook
▪ de Wet, S.R. (2022) Fundamentals of Cost and Management Accounting. Nineth
edition. Durban: LexisNexis.
▪ Skae, F.O. (Ed.) (2022). Managerial Finance. Nineth edition. Durban: LexisNexis.

Recommended Readings
▪ Correia, C. (2019). Financial Management. Ninth edition. Durban: Juta.
▪ Drury, C. (2020) Management and Cost Accounting. Eleventh Edition. Cengage:
Hampshire.
▪ Marimuthu, F, and Steyn, F (Ed.) (2020). Cost and Management Accounting: Operations
and Management. Third edition. Cape Town: Juta.
▪ https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/topics/management-accounting.html
▪ https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/ufaj20
 UNIT 1:

MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING IN MODERN

BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

STRATEGIC COST MANAGEMENT AND VALUE CREATION

❑ UNIT 1 LEVEL OUTCOMES
On successful completion of unit 1 of the module, you should be able to:

Understand & explain the role played by value chain analysis in adding value to an entity

Discuss the roles that MRP-I, MRP-II, and ERP play in creating and enhancing competitive advantage

Identify and evaluate all the aspects of an organization that contribute to the production and delivery
of a top quality product or service.

Discuss the phases in the life cycle of any product and the implications for product profitability.
Define BPR and discuss the fundamental elements that make up BPR & explain
the benefits of benchmarking
❑ CONTENT OF TODAY’S PRESENTATION
▪ Introduction to contemporary issues about Management Accounting & Finance.
▪ Identify and evaluate the components of a Value Chain Analysis in order to determine
the impact on overall business efficiency.
▪ Identify the contributions of Material Requirements Planning, manufacturing resource
planning, and enterprise resource planning to the cost effectiveness.
▪ Evaluate and classify the elements of Total Quality Management (TQM) in order to
understand their role in the modern business environment.
▪ Discuss the advantages of Life Cycle Costing in order to determine their role in
enhancing competitive advantage.
▪ Examine the benefits of Business Process Re-engineering in order to identify the
impact on organisational processes.
▪ Identify and discuss the fundamental aspects of Benchmarking in light of the
contribution to productivity, cost control and strategic changes.
▪ Summary
❑ AN INTRODUCTION: M.A.F IN THE MODERN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
▪ The expansion of digital technologies has significantly changed most economic activities
and professions.
▪ Digital technologies have penetrated managerial accounting and have a vast potential to
transform this profession.
▪ Over the last decade, technological advances generated by the increasing use of
technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), big data (BD), blockchain (BC), cloud
computing (CC), and the Internet of Things (IoT), were the vectors of the technological
revolution known as Industry 4.0.
▪ These emergent technologies can significantly affect cost reduction, efficiency
enhancement, and profit-boosting (PwC Global Industry 4.0 Survey.).
✓ http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/industry-4.0.html
✓ https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/20/8669
✓ https://www.shs-
conferences.org/articles/shsconf/ref/2021/40/shsconf_glob2021_06010/shsconf_glob202
❑ AN INTRODUCTION: M.A.F IN THE MODERN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
▪ Business orgs have faced dramatic changes in their business environments over the
past 2 decades of changes:
✓ Globalisation; Competition; & Deregulation:
✓ Technological advancements: 4IR and the evolving technological landscape
✓ Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues.
▪ ESG and total quality management (TQM) are emerging as two relevant mechanisms
that hold great promise for a progressive and sustainable world (Amel-Zadeh &
Serafeim, 2018: Lim, Ciasullo, Douglas and Kumar, 2022; ).

✓ Amir Amel-Zadeh & George Serafeim (2018). Why and How Investors Use ESG
Information: Evidence from a Global Survey, Financial Analysts Journal, 74:3, 87-
103, DOI: 10.2469/faj.v74.n3.2
✓ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-07/bankers-face-esg-risk-with-potential-to-upend-
deals-study-shows
❑ AN INTRODUCTION: M.A.F IN THE MODERN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
▪ Success in the Modern Business Environment requires certain changes:
o 4IR: Technological advancements & rapid innovations: significant reductions in product
life cycles & the need to meet increasingly discriminating customer demands.
o Success in this hyper-competitive environment requires firms to make customer
satisfaction an overriding priority.
o Adoption of new management approaches: Manufacturing companies have changed
their manufacturing systems & invested in new technologies such as Automation, ML, AI,
Robotics
o Current global discussions on ESG disclosures & the need to build resilient &
transparent ESG plans and new reporting requirements & calls from potential investors
for reliable information (COP27/Paris climate accord).
▪ These changes have had a significant influence on management accounting systems.
❑ VALUE CHAIN ANALYSIS
▪ Value chain analysis as prescribed by CIMA: ‘the systematic interdisciplinary examination of factors
affecting the cost of a product or service, in order to devise means of achieving the specified purpose
most economically as the required standard of quality and reliability’
▪ A value chain analysis is used to analyse, coordinate and optimize linkages in the value chain (Drury,
2020:618). Essentially, it is systematic analysis that identifies and selects best alternatives for designs,
materials, processes & systems.
▪ In order for a firm to benefit from value chain analysis, it must first be able to identify and understand
the value chain that underlines its entire business processes.

Value Chain (Drury, 2020:618)

❑ VALUE CHAIN
▪ Coordinating the individual parts of the value chain together creates the conditions to
improve customer satisfaction, particularly in terms of cost efficiency, quality and delivery.

▪ Each activity within the value chain ought to focus on providing the greatest satisfaction
to the customer, implying that it is essential to get feedback from the customer in order to
improve all the activities that are involved in the value chain
▪ Value chain analysis is inextricably linked to supply chain management. Costs
associated with the purchase of materials from suppliers usually account for at least 60%
of production costs, implying that it is essential for a firm to have a thorough
understanding of its relationship with suppliers, and the supplier’s own costs, in order to
manage and minimize its production costs.

▪ Firm that perform value chain activities more efficiently, and at a lower cost than its
competitors, will gain a competitive advantage.
❑ VALUE CHAIN QUESTION

ABC Limited is currently considering using AI-driven analytics to enhance its value
chain. Which of the following scenarios best illustrates how this integration could
lead to improved profitability?
A. Leveraging AI to analyse supplier cost structures, thereby negotiating reduced prices on
materials.
B. Using AI to benchmark competitor performance and enhance targeted customer
engagement.
C. Applying AI to identify cost drivers and eliminate non-value-adding activities, allowing
resources to be redirected toward product design and customer support.
D. Reducing overall fixed costs by implementing AI for predictive maintenance on
equipment used in non-core activities.
❑ MATERIAL REQUIREMENT PLANNING, MANUFACTURING RESOURCE
PLANNING & ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING
▪ Material requirements planning (MRP-I) refers to those activities that manufacturing
organisations have put in place to optimise the procurement process, thereby managing
associated costs

▪ Manufacturing resource planning (MRP-II) builds on MRP-I by adopting techniques

that will optimise the overall production process of the organisation. This means taking
steps/actions that would result in the ability to manufacture more product, of a higher
quality, in less time, at a lower cost.

▪ Enterprise resource planning (ERP) goes further than MRP-II in that it refers to those
activities that improve the overall performance of the entire organisation.
❑ MATERIAL REQUIREMENT PLANNING:
▪ Material requirements planning (MRP-I) refers to those activities that manufacturing
organisations have put in place to optimise the procurement process, thereby managing
associated costs
▪ Summary:
✓ MRP-I is a computer-based inventory management system used to manage
manufacturing processes. It primarily focuses on ensuring the timely availability of
materials for production.
✓ MRP-I uses information such as the master production schedule (MPS), bill of materials
(BOM), and inventory data to calculate the required materials and order them at the
right time, thereby minimizing inventory levels while avoiding shortages.
▪ Key Focus:
✓ Material availability; Inventory control; Production scheduling
❑ MATERIAL REQUIREMENT PLANNING:
❑ MANUFACTURING RESOURCE PLANNING:
▪ Manufacturing resource planning (MRP-II) builds on MRP-I by adopting techniques
that optimise the overall production/manufacturing process of a firm. This means taking
steps that would result in the ability to manufacture more product, of a higher quality, in
less time, at a lower cost.
▪ Summary:
✓ MRP-II expands on the concepts of MRP-I by integrating all aspects of production
planning, including materials, labor, machines, financials (i.e., capacity planning,
workforce, & production scheduling). [Manages manufacturing processes]
✓ MRP-II aims to provide a more holistic approach to manufacturing resource
management, helping businesses optimize all their resources in the production process.
▪ Key Focus:
✓ Integration of materials, labour, & equipment; Capacity & resource planning; Production
and financial management
✓ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bs__xHSv4zo
❑ MANUFACTURING RESOURCE PLANNING:
❑ ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING:
▪ Enterprise resource planning (ERP) goes further than MRP-II in that it refers to those
activities that improve the overall performance of the entire organisation.

▪ Summary:
✓ ERP is an integrated software system that manages core business processes in real
time, often covering various business functions such as finance, human resources,
inventory, sales, procurement, and manufacturing.
✓ Unlike MRP-II, ERP goes beyond just the manufacturing process and facilitates
communication and data sharing across departments, providing a comprehensive view
of the entire organization. ERP systems improve efficiency, accuracy, and decision-
making by centralising information across an organisation.
▪ Key Focus:
✓ Cross-functional integration (finance, HR, inventory, etc.); Real-time data sharing;
Enterprise-wide resource management
❑ ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING:
❑ EVOLUTION OF THE 3 SYSTEMS:
❑ MRP-I, MRP-II & ERP QUESTION
When comparing the functions of Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP-II) and
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, which of the following illustrates how
ERP extends beyond MRP-II to enhance a company’s strategic flexibility?

A. ERP integrates real-time data from various departments like finance, sales, and
inventory, facilitating a more accurate forecast of demand.
B. MRP-II uses historical data to create a production schedule based on prior sales and
inventory requirements.
C. ERP allows material ordering based on preset production requirements without requiring
cross-functional data.
D. MRP-II operates independently from supplier systems, reducing the complexities of
inventory and demand planning.
❑ TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT (TQM)
▪ The main objective of total quality management (TQM) is to continuously improve the
quality of the products which a firm manufactures and sells, or services which a firm
renders to customers, by continuously refining the production processes.

▪ TQM is defined as ‘an integrated and comprehensive system of planning and controlling
all business functions, so that products or services that meet or exceed customer
expectations are produced’
▪ Core Characteristics
✓ TQM is customer-oriented
✓ TQM strives to create an organisational environment in which it is common practice for
employees to strive for continuously improvement: Kaizen
✓ TQM is a practice that more and more companies are adopting today, contrary to the
past when the majority of companies tended to favour quantity over quality.
❑ TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT (TQM):DIMENSIONS OF QUALITY
▪ Performance: The extent to which the product or service functions consistently.
▪ Fitness of use: How well the product is able to perform its functions as advertised.
▪ Reliability: Can this product / service consistently meet its requirements over a specific
length of time?
▪ Aesthetics: How physically appealing is this product to the customer? How does it look?
Aesthetics is very often undervalued. Nobody wants to buy an ugly car, no matter how
reliable it is.
▪ Serviceability: Can the product be easily repaired or serviced? Before you guy a
particular vehicle, make sure there is at least one service centre in a 15kilometre radius.
▪ Features: What are the aspects/attributes of this product that make it different from other
products that claim to perform the same functions? What makes it stand out? What is it
about the iPhone that makes people want to get one at any cost?
▪ Durability: for how long can the product perform its functions?
❑ COST OF QUALITY
▪ The purpose of TQM is to reduce costs while continuously improving on product quality;
thus, TQM can only be successful if the number of defects is kept to a minimum

▪ The following 4 categories of costs that are incurred in the quest for quality assurance:
▪ quality conformance or compliance costs:
✓ Prevention costs: Costs incurred in taking pre-emptive measures to ensure that the
product or service meets its functional specifications.
✓ Appraisal costs: Costs incurred in ensuring that the product or service meets the
required standard(s).
▪ the costs of nonconformance or non-compliance:
✓ Internal failure costs: These are post-production costs, incurred when the
organisation realises that the finished product does not meet the quality standards
favoured by customers
✓ External failure cost: At this point, the product has already reached the customer
❑ COST OF QUALITY REPORT
▪ This report presents the compiled costs of quality, all under the four categories
discussed above, as a percentage of the overall turnover or the total costs of the
organisation

▪ Prevention and appraisal costs are sometimes referred to as quality conformance or

compliance costs,

▪ The internal and external failure costs are alternatively referred to as the costs of
nonconformance or non-compliance
✓ Compliance costs are incurred with the intention of minimizing or eliminating the costs
of failure,
✓ Compliance costs are discretionary in nature, meaning that the organisation can decide
whether to incur these cost or not
❑ TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT (TQM): QUESTION
A company is experiencing high defect rates due to process inconsistencies across shifts. How could AI be used to
address this quality issue effectively?
A. Standardising processes and incorporating AI-driven quality checks that allow for continuous improvement and cross-shift
feedback.
B. Using machine learning algorithms to rotate workers between shifts, increasing versatility and shared learning.
C. Increasing the frequency of AI-based quality inspections during all shifts.
D. Implementing AI-driven compliance measures to detect and minimize deviations from quality standards.

In a Total Quality Management (TQM) framework, how could AI be leveraged to enhance long-term customer
satisfaction and operational efficiency?
A. Using AI for quality control training focused on end-stage product inspections.
B. Deploying AI to engage employees in identifying and resolving quality issues through predictive quality monitoring.
C. Increasing automation to produce consistent quality output, thus minimizing human involvement.
D. Developing a machine learning-based performance system focused on meeting quarterly quality targets.
❑ LIFE CYCLE COSTING
▪ Allows a firm to accurately identify the costs that are incurred in the different stages of a
product’s lifecycle, with the aim of managing (minimizing) the total costs that are incurred
throughout the lifespan of the product
▪ CIMA defines life cycle costing as ‘the period which begins with the initial product
specification and ends with the withdrawal from the market of both the product and its
support’.
▪ The purpose of life cycle costing is to enable a firm identify the costs that will be incurred
as a result of designing, developing and selling a product, thereby making it possible for
the firm to identify parts of the product’s life cycle in which costs can be most effectively
reduced without compromising the quality of the product
▪ One could surmise that the chances of making a profit increase significantly if an
organisation takes the time to find out the lifecycle of its intended product, the stages that
make up this life cycle, and the costs that are likely to be incurred at every stage of the
product’s lifecycle.
❑ LIFE CYCLE COSTING
▪ The typical lifecycle of most products comprises three main phases: the planning and design stage,
the manufacturing stage, and the service and abandonment stage
▪ Committed or locked-in costs are those costs that have not been incurred but will be incurred in
the future on the basis of decisions that have already been made.
❑ PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE PHASES
▪ Product planning and design stage: These costs are not incurred at this phase, but are committed
or locked-in because once the decision has been made to proceed with the actual manufacturing of
the product, those costs will be incurred no matter what.
✓ The most sensitive stage of all is the product planning and stage.
✓ A decision is made regarding which costing technique as well as which pricing policy would be most
rewarding for the company.
✓ Considerations is given to techniques like target costing, cost plus pricing or reverse engineering ( a
completed product sold by a competitor is dismantled piece by piece in order to decipher exactly how
it was manufactured and, where possible, find ways to improve upon the product in order to get a
competitive advantage)
▪ Product manufacturing and sales stage: The largest portion of costs are incurred at this stage.
Remember that these are costs that were already committed to, in the previous stage, in which case
the organisation can do little or nothing to change the nature or the amount of these costs
▪ Product service and abandonment stage: The organisation starts to incur costs relating to
advertising, marketing and customer support, as well as its commitments to redressing whatever
negative impacts which the manufacture of the product might have had on the environment
❑ TARGET COSTING
▪ Target costing is a mechanism for determining selling prices.
▪ Target costing is used as a cost management and value creation tool.
▪ Target costing originated in Japan in the early 1970s. It was developed mainly by the
Japanese auto industry, particularly Toyota, and involves the following stages:
✓ Stage 1: Determine the target price that customers will be prepared to pay for the
product: determine the customers’ perceived value of the product
✓ Stage 2: Deduct a target profit margin from the target price to determine the target cost.
✓ Stage 3: Estimate the actual cost of the product.
✓ Stage 4: If estimated actual cost exceeds the target cost investigate ways of driving
down the actual cost to the target cost.
▪ This process results in the determination of a target selling price. The target profit
margin depends on the planned return on investment for the firm as a whole and profit
as a percentage of sales.
▪ The Chinese economic miracle to some extent depends of using target costing.
❑ TARGET COSTING: EXAMPLE 1
1. GKT Limited has determined from a market research that the price that customers will
be prepared to pay for a unit of product under development is R5 000. The firm wants
to earn a return on investment amounting to 25% of the target cost.
Required
1.1. What should be the actual cost of a unit of the product?

Target price = Target cost + profit margin = X + 25%X =1.25X

X = R5 000/1.25 = R4 000
1.2. A cost accountant attached to the product development team has estimated that the
total cost per unit of the prototype is R4 600. Recommend ways of driving down this cost to
the target cost.
Answer?
❑ BUSINESS PROCESS REENGINEERING
▪ Business process re-engineering (BPR) is quite the opposite of TQM.

▪ BPR advocates for a complete breakaway from the past, and a radical and dramatic
redesign of how the organisation’s core processes are executed

▪ The intention of BPR is to cause huge shifts in organisational processes within a very
short period.

▪ The overall objective of BPR is to ‘…improve the key business processes in an

organisation by focusing on simplification, cost reduction, improved quality, enhanced
customer satisfaction and t become a world-class competitor.’
❑ BUSINESS PROCESS REENGINEERING

▪ The four main characteristics of BPR:

▪ Fundamental: BPR focuses on the main processes of the organisation and seeks ways
of changing them.
▪ Radical: Changes that are implemented are seismic and are usually a complete
breakaway from the past. For instance, most movie theatres are completely self-service
now. Nobody stands around to take payment for anything.
▪ Processes: Business processes are the main focal point of the radical changes
advocated by BPR.
▪ Dramatic: The objective of BPR is to create huge improvements in performance.
❑ BENCHMARKING
▪ Benchmarking: seeks to identify the best way of performing activities and business processes, by
comparing key activities or processes with best practices found within and outside the organization.
▪ External benchmarking attempts to identify a process, such as customer order processing, that
needs to be improved, and finding a non-rival organization in which similar processes exist and that is
considered to represent world-class best practice for the process, and studying how it performs that
process.
▪ Internal benchmarking compares different business units within an organization that perform the
same processes. The unit that is considered to represent best practice becomes the target to achieve.
▪ Benchmarking is often used to measure performance compared to competitor companies or
departments using specific performance metrics such as cost, productivity or cycle time per unit of
measure.
▪ League tables summarizing selected metrics into a weighted overall score are widely used in the
public sector to present the results of benchmarking.
▪ League tables enable many different areas of performance to be summarized into one final score thus
providing an indication of how well the organization has performed overall. Ideally, league tables
should improve competition among the organizations and provide an incentive for organizations to
improve and move up the table.
❑ TYPES & LEVELS OF BENCHMARKING
▪ Internal benchmarks: Comparisons between different depts or functions within an organisation.
▪ Competitive benchmarks: Comparisons with competitors in the business sector through techniques
e.g. reverse engineering (buying a competitor’s product and dismantling it to understand its content
and configuration).
▪ Functional (operational/generic) benchmarks: Internal functions are compared with those of the
best external practitioners of those functions, regardless of the industry they are in. E.g., comparing
the performance of the internal accounts receivable department with that of a leading credit card
company.
▪ Strategic benchmarks: A type of competitive benchmarking aimed at strategic action and
organisational change.
▪ Cost benchmarking is the process of measuring and comparing your costs against those of similar
firm or processes. The goal is to identify gaps, strengths, and opportunities for improvement. Cost
benchmarking can help you answer questions like: How efficient are we? How do we rank among our
peers?
❑ THE BENCHMARKING PROCESS
▪ Eight steps are typically employed in the benchmarking process.
✓ Identify processes, activities, or factors to benchmark and their primary characteristics.
✓ Determine what form is to be used: strategic, functional, competitive, or internal.
✓ Determine who & what the benchmark target is: firm, industry, or process.
✓ Determine specific benchmark values by collecting & analysing info from surveys,
interviews, industry info, business/trade publications, technical journals, etc.
✓ Determine the best practice for each benchmarked item.
✓ Evaluate process to which benchmarks apply & establish objectives & improvement
goals.
✓ Implement plans and monitor results.
✓ Recalibrate internal base benchmarks.
❑ ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES OF BENCHMARKING
▪ Advantages of Benchmarking
 Benchmarking sets the foundation of performance improvement by showing how to improve continuously.
 It helps with cost reduction.
 It improves the quality of operations.
 It can be used both in the public and private sector.
 It is an effective method of implementing change.
▪ Disadvantages of Benchmarking
↓ Benchmarking reveals the standards attained by competitors but does not consider the circumstances under which the
competitors attained such standards,
↓ A bigger disadvantage of benchmarking is the danger of complacency and arrogance. Many organisations tend to relax after
excelling beyond competitors' standards, allowing complacency to develop. The realisation of having become the industry
leader soon leads to arrogance, when considerable scope for further improvements remains,
↓ Many organisations make the mistake of undertaking benchmarking as a stand-alone activity. Benchmarking is only a means
to an end, and it is worthless if not accompanied by a plan to change.
❑ SUMMARY
▪ The rise of 4IR: MI, AI, Robotics and the disruptions they have caused in operations but
also management accounting.
▪ Value chain analysis: for improved organisational performance
▪ Material requirements planning (MRP-I), Manufacturing resource planning (MRP-II) and
Enterprise resource planning (ERP)
▪ Total quality management (TQM) and cost of quality
▪ Life cycle costing and product life cycle phases
▪ Business process re-engineering and contrasted it against TQM
▪ We have also highlighted the central importance of benchmarking as an improvement
tool.