Management Accounting Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Management Accountants, Finance Analysts and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-A-124

Before you join: Participants should understand basic accounting language, including revenue, expenses, assets, liabilities, profit and cash flow.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Management accounting turns operational and financial data into decisions about pricing, capacity, cost control, investment and performance. Many managers receive monthly reports but cannot distinguish fixed from variable costs, identify the cost drivers behind a product margin, or judge whether a proposed action improves profit and cash generation. This course addresses those gaps through the methods used to plan, measure and control business performance.

Participants learn how costs behave, how products and services absorb costs, and how to calculate contribution, break-even points and target profit. They build operating budgets, flexible budgets and rolling forecasts; investigate variances against standards; and assess short-term decisions using relevant costs, opportunity costs and incremental cash flows. The course also covers responsibility accounting, balanced scorecards, transfer pricing and management reporting for operational managers and senior decision-makers.

Teaching combines concise instructor briefings with worked calculations, sector-based cases, group analysis and spreadsheet-led reporting tasks. Cases can be adapted to manufacturing, banking, public services, NGOs, retail, energy and professional services. Participants leave with a reusable management accounting toolkit including cost analysis models, budgeting templates, variance investigation formats and a management reporting pack structure.

The course is suited to finance staff moving into business partnering, operational managers with budget responsibility, analysts and professionals who need to interpret management accounts. It is delivered over five instructor-led days, either in a classroom in more than 50 cities or live online. Each training day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides approximately 6.5 contact hours. Participants receive a certificate of completion.

What you will be able to do

  • Classify costs by behaviour, traceability, function and decision relevance
  • Calculate unit costs using absorption costing, marginal costing and activity-based costing
  • Prepare contribution, break-even and target-profit analyses for products and services
  • Build operating budgets, flexible budgets and rolling forecasts from business assumptions
  • Investigate price, volume, efficiency and spending variances using standard costing
  • Evaluate short-term decisions using relevant costs, opportunity costs and incremental cash flows
  • Design responsibility reports and balanced scorecard measures for accountable managers
  • Produce a management reporting pack linking financial results to operational drivers

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Explain product margins and cost drivers clearly to non-finance colleagues
  • Prepare more credible budgets supported by explicit operating assumptions
  • Identify the causes of adverse variances rather than merely reporting them
  • Assess pricing, outsourcing and capacity proposals using relevant financial evidence
  • Build a portfolio of reusable management accounting templates and analyses

For your organisation

  • Improved cost visibility for products, services, customers and operating activities
  • More disciplined budgeting linked to volume, staffing and resource assumptions
  • Earlier identification of cost overruns and operational performance problems
  • Better pricing and make-or-buy decisions based on relevant costs
  • Management reports that connect financial outcomes with accountable operational drivers

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can explain how management accounting information supports planning, control and operational decisions.

  • Purpose of management accounting in planning, control and decision support
  • Financial accounting versus management accounting: users, timing and reporting focus
  • Cost, revenue, profit and cash measures used by managers
  • Management information flows from source transactions to decision reports
  • Roles of accountants, budget holders and operational decision-makers
  • Data quality, materiality and timeliness in internal management reports

Participants can classify costs and estimate their behaviour for planning and analysis.

  • Direct, indirect, product and period costs distinguished accurately
  • Fixed, variable, stepped and mixed cost behaviour patterns
  • Relevant range assumptions behind fixed and variable cost models
  • High-low method used to estimate mixed cost components
  • Scattergraphs and regression concepts for cost behaviour estimation
  • Cost drivers linked to activities, volumes and resource consumption

Participants can calculate unit costs using appropriate costing methods and allocation bases.

  • Cost objects defined for products, services, customers and contracts
  • Job costing applied to customised orders and project-based work
  • Process costing used for continuous production and equivalent units
  • Overhead allocation, apportionment and absorption rate calculations
  • Departmental service costs redistributed using reciprocal or direct methods
  • Absorption costing reconciled with marginal costing profit results

Participants can use activity-based costing to analyse overheads and identify cost improvement opportunities.

  • Activity-based costing assigns overheads through activities and cost drivers
  • Activity cost pools constructed from resource consumption patterns
  • Transaction, batch, product and facility-level activities distinguished
  • Cost driver selection tested for causality, measurability and practicality
  • Customer profitability analysis identifies costly service and fulfilment demands
  • Activity-based management targets non-value-adding activities and process waste

Participants can evaluate profit sensitivity using contribution, break-even and target-profit analysis.

  • Contribution margin calculated per unit, customer and sales mix
  • Break-even volume derived from fixed costs and unit contribution
  • Target-profit sales calculated for planned operating profit requirements
  • Margin of safety measures exposure to volume shortfalls
  • Multi-product break-even analysis uses weighted average contribution margins
  • Operating leverage explains profit sensitivity to sales volume changes

Participants can prepare integrated budgets and forecasts based on operational assumptions.

  • Budget purposes distinguished: planning, coordination, control and performance evaluation
  • Sales budgets built from volume, price and market assumptions
  • Production, staffing and procurement budgets linked to demand plans
  • Cash budgets schedule receipts, payments and financing requirements
  • Master budgets integrate operating budgets with projected financial statements
  • Flexible budgets restate expected costs at actual activity levels
  • Rolling forecasts update assumptions and extend the planning horizon

Participants can calculate and investigate material, labour, overhead and sales variances.

  • Standard costs set for materials, labour and production overheads
  • Material price and usage variances isolate procurement and consumption effects
  • Labour rate and efficiency variances identify workforce performance drivers
  • Variable overhead spending and efficiency variances analysed separately
  • Fixed overhead expenditure and volume variances explained clearly
  • Sales price and sales volume variances assess revenue performance
  • Variance investigation prioritised by materiality, controllability and recurrence

Participants can evaluate alternatives using relevant costs, benefits and capacity constraints.

  • Relevant costs identified by future cash flow and decision differences
  • Sunk costs excluded from incremental decision analysis
  • Opportunity costs measured where scarce resources have alternative uses
  • Make-or-buy decisions compare avoidable costs with supplier quotations
  • Special-order pricing assessed against contribution and available capacity
  • Product mix decisions use contribution per limiting factor
  • Sell-or-process-further decisions compare incremental revenue and processing costs

Participants can design performance measures and reports aligned with managerial accountability.

  • Cost, revenue, profit and investment centres assigned accountabilities
  • Controllable and non-controllable costs separated for fair performance evaluation
  • Return on investment and residual income compared for investment centres
  • Balanced Scorecard links financial, customer, process and learning measures
  • Key performance indicators defined with owners, targets and calculation rules
  • Transfer pricing methods compared: market, cost-plus and negotiated prices

Participants can structure concise management reports that direct action on performance issues.

  • Management report design starts with decisions, users and reporting frequency
  • Actual, budget and forecast results presented with meaningful comparisons
  • Variance commentary distinguishes cause, impact, owner and corrective action
  • Dashboards combine financial metrics with operational leading indicators
  • Exception reporting directs management attention to material performance deviations
  • Report narratives communicate assumptions, risks and recommended decisions
  • Personal application plan prioritises immediate reporting and analysis improvements

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Cost classification and behaviour analysis template
  2. Absorption costing and activity-based costing model
  3. Contribution, break-even and target-profit analysis worksheet
  4. Integrated operating budget and rolling forecast template
  5. Standard costing variance investigation checklist
  6. Management performance reporting pack structure

Who should attend

  • Management Accountants — build practical analysis and reporting capability for business decisions
  • Finance Analysts — interpret cost, margin and performance data with greater confidence
  • Finance Business Partners — support operational leaders with decision-relevant financial insight
  • Budget Holders — plan resources, monitor spending and explain performance variances
  • Operations Managers — understand cost drivers, capacity choices and unit economics
  • Accountants Moving into Industry — apply financial knowledge to internal management decisions

Skills and tools covered

Cost behaviour analysisProduct cost calculationBudget preparationVariance investigationRelevant cost decisionsPerformance reporting

Tools and standards

Activity-Based Costing, Cost-Volume-Profit Analysis, Balanced Scorecard, Standard Costing

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce each method, followed by worked examples, individual calculations and group case analysis. Participants analyse management accounting data from realistic operating scenarios, including product costing, budget preparation, variance investigation and investment choices. Spreadsheet-based tasks show how calculations become repeatable reporting tools. Facilitated discussion examines assumptions, trade-offs and common reporting errors. Participants finish by translating course methods into an application plan for their own reporting, budgeting or decision-support responsibilities.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should understand basic accounting language, including revenue, expenses, assets, liabilities, profit and cash flow. Experience reading an income statement and working with percentages, ratios and simple spreadsheet formulas is helpful. The course assumes some exposure to budgets, cost reports or operational performance measures, whether from a finance or management role. Prior study of management accounting is not required. Advanced financial modelling, statistical analysis, programming, professional accounting qualifications and knowledge of a particular accounting system are not required.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should be comfortable with basic accounting terms such as revenue, expenses, profit and cash flow. You do not need a professional accounting qualification or prior formal study of management accounting.

Bring a laptop with spreadsheet software if possible, as several calculations and reporting tasks use spreadsheet formats. You may also bring a non-confidential budget, cost report or management report from your workplace for reference.

It is designed for finance professionals, budget holders, operations managers and analysts who use cost and performance information. It is particularly useful for people moving into management accounting or finance business partnering roles.

Financial accounting focuses on external reporting, accounting standards and published financial statements. This course focuses on internal decisions: costing, budgeting, variance analysis, pricing, performance measurement and operational reporting.

Participants can use the templates to review product or service margins, prepare budgets, investigate spending variances and improve management reports. The application planning component helps participants select a relevant workplace issue to address after the course.

The programme is delivered through ten modules covering cost analysis, costing methods, planning, control, decisions and performance reporting. Each day combines instructor explanation with calculations, cases, discussion and reporting tasks during approximately 6.5 contact hours.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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