Strategic Management Accounting Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Advanced Certificate on completion
Who attends Finance Business Partners, Management Accountants 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-111

Before you join: Participants should have practical experience with management accounting, budgeting, forecasting, cost analysis or business performance reporting.

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

Strategic management accounting turns financial and operational information into decisions about markets, products, customers, capacity and capital. Finance teams are often asked to explain past variances while executives need evidence on where to compete, which customers create value, how cost structures constrain strategy and whether investment proposals will deliver their promised returns. This course addresses that gap by connecting accounting analysis directly to strategic choices and performance management.

Participants examine the methods used to assess competitive position, analyse value chains, model cost-to-serve, set target costs, evaluate customer profitability and develop pricing decisions. The course covers activity-based costing, life-cycle costing, throughput accounting, driver-based budgeting, rolling forecasts, balanced scorecards, strategy maps, investment appraisal and strategic risk analysis. Participants learn to identify the operational drivers behind financial results and present decision-ready analysis to senior managers.

Instruction combines short technical briefings with sector-based cases, group analysis, financial modelling tasks, management-report simulations and structured application planning. Cases may draw on banking, public services, manufacturing, telecommunications, energy and consumer businesses. Participants leave with a strategic management accounting toolkit containing reusable analysis templates, performance measures and an application plan for improving a live finance process or decision area.

The course is suited to experienced finance professionals who support business units, investment decisions, planning processes or executive reporting. It is also relevant to operational leaders who need to interpret management accounting information and challenge the financial basis of strategic proposals.

What you will be able to do

  • Apply value-chain analysis, PESTLE and Porter's Five Forces to strategic finance questions
  • Design activity-based costing and cost-to-serve analyses for products, customers and channels
  • Build target-costing, life-cycle-costing and throughput-accounting models for operating decisions
  • Evaluate pricing, customer profitability and transfer-pricing decisions using relevant financial evidence
  • Construct strategy maps, balanced scorecards and KPI definitions linked to strategic objectives
  • Develop driver-based budgets, rolling forecasts and scenario models for resource allocation
  • Appraise strategic investments using NPV, sensitivity analysis and real-options reasoning
  • Produce decision-ready management reports, risk analyses and finance business-partnering action plans

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Stronger credibility in strategy, investment and commercial decision discussions
  • Reusable methods for diagnosing cost drivers and profit erosion
  • Clearer recommendations on pricing, customer portfolios and capital proposals
  • Improved ability to challenge budgets and forecasts using operational evidence
  • Practical materials for improving finance business-partnering conversations

For your organisation

  • Better visibility of customer, channel and product profitability
  • More disciplined resource allocation through driver-based planning and scenario analysis
  • Earlier identification of cost pressure, capacity constraints and strategic risks
  • Performance measures tied directly to strategic objectives and accountable owners
  • Higher-quality investment cases supported by explicit assumptions and post-investment review

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can frame strategic finance questions using external, industry and capability analysis.

  • Strategic management accounting roles in strategy formulation, execution and control
  • Value-chain analysis identifies cost drivers, linkages and margin pressure
  • Porter's Five Forces tests industry profitability and bargaining power
  • PESTLE separates macroeconomic, regulatory, technological and social strategic uncertainties
  • Resource-based view distinguishes valuable, rare, inimitable and organised capabilities
  • Strategic hypotheses translated into finance questions, assumptions and evidence requirements

Participants can analyse cost structures and identify activities affecting strategic profitability.

  • Cost-object hierarchy distinguishes unit, batch, product, customer and facility costs
  • Activity-based costing assigns resource costs through activities and cost drivers
  • Time-driven ABC uses capacity cost rates and time equations
  • Cost-to-serve analysis exposes unprofitable channels, orders and service promises
  • Activity-based management removes non-value-added work and unused capacity
  • Process maps connect operational drivers to controllable cost pools

Participants can apply strategic costing methods to product design, production and service decisions.

  • Target costing starts with market price, required margin and allowable cost
  • Value engineering challenges specifications, components and process choices systematically
  • Kaizen costing sets continuous cost-reduction targets during production
  • Life-cycle costing captures development, warranty, disposal and support commitments
  • Quality-cost reporting separates prevention, appraisal, internal and external failure
  • Throughput accounting prioritises constrained resources using throughput per bottleneck minute

Participants can assess pricing and customer decisions using relevant revenue, cost and capacity information.

  • Contribution analysis distinguishes incremental, avoidable and opportunity costs
  • Price-volume-profit models test mix, capacity and break-even consequences
  • Elasticity estimates inform price corridors, discounts and promotional responses
  • Customer profitability analysis combines revenue, service consumption and cost-to-serve
  • Strategic pricing addresses competitor reactions, segmentation and value propositions
  • Transfer-pricing policies align divisional incentives, capacity decisions and tax constraints

Participants can design performance measures that connect strategic objectives with accountable actions.

  • Strategy maps connect financial outcomes with customer, process and capability drivers
  • Balanced Scorecard designs balance leading indicators with lagging outcome measures
  • Critical success factors convert strategic priorities into measurable performance themes
  • KPIs require definitions, owners, targets, thresholds and data lineage
  • Responsibility centres distinguish cost, revenue, profit and investment accountability
  • Residual income and EVA assess capital use beyond accounting profit

Participants can develop adaptive planning processes that support changing strategic priorities.

  • Beyond Budgeting principles replace fixed annual contracts with adaptive management
  • Driver-based budgets link operational volumes, rates and resource requirements
  • Rolling forecasts refresh assumptions, scenarios and resource outlooks regularly
  • Scenario planning tests demand shocks, inflation, currency and supply disruption
  • Flexible budgets separate volume effects from spending and efficiency variances
  • Forecast accuracy metrics diagnose bias, timing error and assumption quality

Participants can evaluate strategic investments using cash-flow, risk and value-based methods.

  • Relevant cash-flow analysis excludes sunk costs and allocated overheads
  • Net present value discounts incremental cash flows at risk-adjusted rates
  • Internal rate of return limitations under non-standard cash-flow patterns
  • Real-options reasoning values staging, deferral, expansion and abandonment choices
  • Sensitivity analysis isolates variables driving investment value and downside exposure
  • Post-investment reviews compare approved cases with realised benefits and assumptions

Participants can integrate risk, uncertainty and control considerations into strategic finance recommendations.

  • Strategic risk registers connect objectives, events, causes, controls and owners
  • COSO ERM frames governance, strategy, performance, review and information
  • Risk appetite statements define tolerances for earnings, liquidity and compliance
  • Monte Carlo simulation models distributions rather than single-point planning assumptions
  • Control self-assessments test design effectiveness and residual risk ratings
  • Management reports distinguish decision-useful exceptions from routine operational detail

Participants can specify reliable management information and present analysis for executive decisions.

  • Data lineage traces KPI values from source transactions to board reports
  • Master-data controls protect customer, product, supplier and cost-centre consistency
  • Power BI dashboards show driver trends, variances and drill-down evidence
  • Variance bridges reconcile plan, price, volume, mix and productivity effects
  • Exception reporting applies materiality thresholds and named action ownership
  • Model governance documents assumptions, version control and review responsibilities

Participants can lead structured finance discussions and plan implementation of strategic accounting improvements.

  • Finance business partnering frames challenge around decisions, trade-offs and evidence
  • Stakeholder maps identify decision rights, information needs and likely resistance
  • Monthly performance dialogues separate explanation, accountability, decisions and follow-up
  • Strategic accounting calendar sequences forecasts, reviews, investment gates and reports
  • An application plan assigns priorities, sponsors, milestones and measures
  • Professional ethics addresses bias, confidentiality, conflicts and performance pressure

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

What you take back to work

  1. Strategic finance diagnostic template
  2. Activity-based costing model structure
  3. Customer profitability analysis template
  4. Strategy map and Balanced Scorecard design pack
  5. Driver-based budgeting and rolling forecast framework
  6. Strategic management accounting application plan

Who should attend

  • Finance Business Partners — to challenge commercial decisions with operational and financial evidence
  • Management Accountants — to connect costing, planning and reporting with strategic priorities
  • Financial Planning and Analysis Managers — to improve forecasts, scenarios and performance insight
  • Finance Managers — to strengthen investment, pricing and resource-allocation recommendations
  • Commercial Managers — to assess customer, channel and product profitability decisions
  • Operational Directors — to use performance measures and cost drivers in strategic execution

Skills and tools covered

Strategic cost analysisCustomer profitability analysisPerformance measurement designRolling forecast modellingInvestment appraisalStrategic risk reporting

Tools and standards

Porter's Five Forces, Balanced Scorecard, COSO ERM, Power BI

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce each method, followed by case work, group exercises, financial analysis tasks and management-report simulations. Participants interpret cost, pricing, forecast, investment and performance data resembling decisions faced by senior finance teams. Facilitated discussions compare alternative assumptions, metrics and recommendations. Application planning sessions help participants select priority methods for their own reporting, planning or commercial decision processes. Trainers adapt cases and discussion emphasis to the sector and experience of each cohort.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical experience with management accounting, budgeting, forecasting, cost analysis or business performance reporting. They should be comfortable interpreting income statements, balance sheets, cash flows, contribution margins and basic investment-appraisal calculations. Experience using spreadsheets for financial analysis is expected. The course assumes participants have worked with business-unit managers, budget holders or commercial teams. Prior study of professional accounting qualifications, advanced statistics, programming, Power BI or specialist enterprise systems is not required. Participants do not need to bring a completed strategic plan or live financial model.

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

Participants should already understand core management accounting concepts, including budgets, contribution, variances and financial statements. The course builds on this knowledge and focuses on strategic application rather than introductory accounting mechanics.

Bring a laptop if possible, as it will help with financial analysis tasks and reusable templates. Participants may also bring a current planning, costing, pricing or performance-reporting issue to use during application planning.

It is designed for experienced management accountants, finance business partners, FP&A professionals, finance managers and commercial leaders. It is particularly useful for people who advise decision-makers rather than only produce periodic reports.

Introductory management accounting courses focus on costing, budgeting and variance analysis fundamentals. This course uses those methods to support competitive strategy, customer profitability, investment choices, performance management and strategic risk decisions.

Participants can use the templates and methods to review a customer portfolio, improve a forecast, redesign KPIs, test an investment case or identify cost-to-serve issues. The application plan identifies a priority initiative, stakeholders, milestones and measures.

The programme runs from 08:30 to 16:30 each day, with approximately 6.5 contact hours daily. Time is allocated across ten modules in teaching order, combining instructor input, cases, group analysis, simulations and application planning.

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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