Cost Analysis to Support Strategic Decisions Course

Course Overview:

The Cost Analysis to Support Strategic Decisions training course equips participants with the necessary levels of knowledge and skills to improve cost consciousness and its relevance in strategic decision-making.

At the end of the training, the trainees should be able to apply different techniques in cost analysis and performance measurement that would enhance responsiveness to business decisions and value creation. Topics include but are not limited to cost classification systems, activity based costing, flexible budgetary control systems and variance analysis, and the Balanced Scorecard for the evaluation of corporate performance.

This paper discusses the relevance of cost management tools in the context of organizational strategies and business objectives. Intended for planners, costers and people involved into strategic analyses of organizations, this course enables learners to provide relevant information to relevant authorities in various sectors in an appropriate manner.

Course Objectives:

At the end of this Cost Analysis to support strategic Decisions training course, participants will be able to:

• How to add value to the bottom line
• Enhance cost awareness and its relationship with strategy
• Describe specific cost analysis and performance measurement techniques
• Learning how to get from cost to strategy and then to performance measurement
• Broadening the management accounting knowledge
• Deliver more timely and useful information to decision-maker
• Identify and manage key financial and non-financial indicators for the business

Who Should Attend?

This Cost Analysis to Support Strategic Decisions Course is ideal for:

• All business professionals and sectors of industry, irrespective of functional responsibilities, where personnel have to plan and cost, and who are responsible for strategic analysis
• Other professionals who would like to increase their skills by having the opportunity to consider new ideas and methods
• Personnel on a fast-track development

Course Outlines:

Introducing the Linkages Between Strategy and Costing

• Managing contemporary organization
• Strategic Plan, Budgeting, Costing, and Management Control
• Management Accounting for organizational control systems
• Responsibility accounting and the process-view
• The context for costing
• The Budget and its role in achieving organizational targets
• What is it the situation in your organization?

Cost Analysis and Classifications

• Cost terms and classification
• Inventoriable vs. period costs
• Manufacturing vs. non-manufacturing costs
• Variable vs. Fixed costs (CVP analysis)
• Direct vs. indirect cost
• Under-costing and Over-costing problems
• Problems and Examples – Case study illustration

From Cost Accounting to Management Control

• Cost allocation: traditional costing and activity-based costing (ABC)
• From traditional budgeting to Activity-based budgeting (ABB)
• Activity-based management
• Decentralized organizations
• Cost/Profit/Investment centers
• Transfer-pricing issues
• Problems and Examples – Case study illustration

Flexible Budgets and Variance Analysis

• The features of budgetary control
• Define the master budget and explain its major benefits to an organization
• Describe the difference between a static budget and a flexible budget
• Compute flexible-budget variances and sales-volume variances
• Explain why standard costs are often used in variance analysis
• Integrate continuous improvement into variance analysis
• Case study, problems, and exercises

Linking Strategy to Actions: Beyond Costing

• Shortcomings of traditional approaches to measurement
• The Balanced Scorecard: linking Strategy to Performance Measurement
• Financial perspective, Customer perspective
• Internal Business Process perspective, Learning, and growth perspective
• Developing and adapting scorecard
• Case study illustration

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