(pdf) Management Accounting: Assignment Solution

RUNNING HEAD: MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING
Cost and management accounting

Management accounting 2
Introduction
This report contains a detailed description of cost and management accountant job positions.
Ten job are been shortlisted from various Australian websites which lay down the role and
responsibilities of an accountant. The report also includes information about the cost and
management accounting skills required for getting such jobs. In the last, a conclusion is
provided stating the importance of cost and management skills.
Data collection
No
.
Position
Title
Sector(Indust
ry or
Government) Position Description Date Listed
Website
Address
Search word
or phrases
1
Cost
Accountant
Hays
Accountancy
and
Finance(recruit
ing and human
resources
services)
Work related to
preparation of budgets,
assisting the CFO and
contributing to the
planning and
development. 16th march www.seek
.com.au
Cost
Accounting:
More jobs
from Hays
Accountancy
& Finance
2
Management
Accountant
Boral
Industries
(manufacturing
and supplying
building and
construction
material)
Giving accounting
support, budget
preparation, and
forecasting and system
development. 20th march
www.inde
ed.com.au
Management
Accountant-
GRA
(Adelaide)
3
Management
Accountant -
Property
Jill
(Professional
services and
management
firm for real
estate)
Work is to assist the
commercial manager in
order to meet the
financial reporting
requirements. 27th march
www.seek
.com.au
Management
Accountant –
Property
4
Cost
Accountant
MPAU
Finance (Name
not specified-
civil
constructing
company)
Work is related to
analysing and
maintaining the company
cost, CAPEX and OPEX
tracking and accurate
annual budgeting. 19th march
www.inde
ed.com.au
Cost
Accountant
Melbourne
Region –
MPAU
5 Cost
Accountant
Anderfield
(Accounting
and finance
Support in decision
making, absorbs vast
amount of complex data
5th march www.seek
.com.au
Cost
Accountant

Management accounting 3
consultants)
and work related to
month end financial
reporting.
6
Management
Accountant
Entree
Recruitment
(Building and
construction
industry).
Reporting to finance
manager, preparing
financial statements, cost
data management and
other related work. 19th march
www.entre
e.com.au
Management
Accounting
All Adelaide
7
Cost
Accountant
BOC Team
(Supplier of
gas, chemical
and
equipment)
Managing product
costing mailbox, accurate
evaluation of BOC’s
products, inventory
movement analysis. 20th march
www.inde
ed.com.au
Cost
Accounting
job
8
Management
Accountant
Robert Walters
(Recruitment
Consultancy )
Identify the ways for
leveraging the systems
better, reconciliation and
reporting of accounts. 26th march
www.seek
.com.au
Management
Accountant
9
Management
Accounting
Government
Job - CBD
Providing assistant to the
Financial controller,
analytical work, business
reporting and partnering.
Conducting financial
investigations and
forecasting. 26th march
www.jobs
earch.gov.
au
Management
Job
10 Management
Robert Half
(Recruitment
Agency- Name
not specified-
Non-profit
organization)
Developing costing
models, responsible for
providing timely advice,
monitoring and analysing
the budgets and making
variance analysis. 5th April
www.seek
.com.au
Management/
Cost
Accounting
Data analysis
No. Position Title
Position Requirements
(responsibilities)
Cost and
Management
Accounting criteria
required for
position
Alignmen
t with
learning
outcomes
of ACCT
6004
1 Cost
Accountant
 Strong management
accounting costing
skills and reporting to
the CFO.
 CA and CPA
qualified.
 Good
communicati
on skills.
Yes

Management accounting 4
 Preparation of
budgeting and cash
flow forecasting, as
well as providing
statutory accounting
assistance.
 Assisting the CFO
with the
implementation of MS
Dynamics and
applicants will have a
working knowledge of
this ERP.
 Contribute to the
planning,
development and
evaluation of Faculty
programs and
initiatives.
 Undertaking analysis
and costing new
initiatives
 Used to Ms-
Dynamics
and ERP
systems.
2
Management
Accountant
 Accounting support
by means of sound
management
accounting and strong
communication skills.
 Provides opportunity
to work with a market
leading company
covering a wide
variety of
responsibilities, but
not limited to
Reconciliations.
 Preparation of budgets
/ forecasts monthly
Systems development
and process
improvement.
 Having a
professional
degree of
accountant.
 Strong
analytical
skills
 Knowledge
of Cost and
management
accounting
 Ability to
forecast
about the
trends. Yes
3 Management
Accountant -
Property
 The main duty of
management
accountant position is
to deliver a high
standard of is
 An
accounting
degree of CA
and CPA is
required.
 High
Yes

Management accounting 5
responsible for
assisting commercial
manager to meet the
financial reporting
requirements of the
properties.
knowledge
about the
financial
reporting
requirements.
 Accruals
commercial
accounting
with
excellent
excels skills
and strong
communicati
on Skills
4
Cost
Accountant
 This Cost Accountant
position will be focus
on analysis and
maintenance of
company costs and
Reporting to the CFO.
 Actual v budget
costing analysis
CAPEX and OPEX
tracking and analysis
ensuring that costs are
accounted for in a
consistent manner.
 Accurate annual
budgeting and
forecasting constantly
improving company
procedures reporting.
 Constantly improving
and implementing
procedures to increase
profitability to the
company.
 Ensure that
manufacturing costs
are accounted for in
accordance with
standards.
 Experience
with using
CAPEX and
OPEX.
 Ability to
prepare
budgets.
 Having a
degree of
CPA or CA
or equivalent. Yes.
5 Cost
Accountant
 Operations and
finance, involving
decision support, and
high attention to detail
around financial
month end; the role
 An
accounting or
business
degree.
 Experience
in cost
Yes

Management accounting 6
has the ability to
influence outcomes
and the bottom line
across this high
volume and complex
operation.
 Absorb vast amounts
of complex financial
data, and provide
financial reports to
head office and
commercial
stakeholders to
support the business.
 Immediate start on a
temporary basis for a
period of 6-12
months. Also further
opportunity in the
business is possible
for the right
candidates.
 Month end financial
reporting, Cost based
accounting, transfer
pricing Liaise with
financial and non-
financial stakeholders
across the business.
accounting
disciplines.
 Able to work
in teams.
 Have used
ERP systems.
 Handling
financial and
non-financial
stakeholders.
 High Ms-
Excel
knowledge
and computer
skills.
6 Management
Accountant
 This role sits within a
professional and
friendly finance team
and is charged with
the vital responsibility
of accounting and
reporting for an
allocation of
companies which will
shifts overtime giving
a broad company and
industry exposure.
 Reporting to the
finance manager,
financial statement
preparation, general
 Qualified and
Experienced
accountant.
 Proper
knowledge
about
financial
accounting.
 Strong
communicati
on skills.
 Ability to
deal with the
allocation
and shifting
of the
companies.
Yes

Management accounting 7
ledger reconciliations,
business plan budget
and forecast are the
key duties of this
position.
7
Cost
Accountant
 Cost data
management,
maintaining all cost
objects.
 Ensuring the business
uses Order type
properly and WIP
recognition is in line
with posting in SAP
FI
 Management of
Product Costing
mailbox.
 Accurately calculate
and evaluate across
BOC’s product for
both Standard and
Actual price.
 Analysis of inventory
movements, including
stock reporting,
costing data
management.
 CA or CPA
qualified.
 Understandin
g of business
process and
strong SAP
skills.
 Strong
communicati
on and
analytical
skills.
 Flexible and
proactive
approach. Yes
8 Management
Accountant  Reconciliation,
reporting and analysis.
Ensure all applicable
balance sheet
reconciliations are
fully reconciled and
all relevant journals
are posted on a
monthly basis.
 Prepare annual
budgets and rolling
forecasts across the
portfolio.
 Resolve revenue,
operating cost and
CAPEX queries from
 Financial
modeling and
communicati
on skills
 CA or CPA.
 Experience
holder in
management
accounting
duties.
 Excellence in
using Ms
Excel.
Yes

Management accounting 8
business leaders
which support
Understand
performance, trends,
risks and opportunities
across financial &
non-financial metrics
to support decision-
making
 Review reporting
processes to ensure
that information is
being compiled
accurately and
efficiently.
9
Management
Accounting
 Management
accountant will
provide assistance to
the Financial
Controller.
 Assisting in
formulating budgetary
and accounting
policies. Preparing
financial statements
for presentation to
board of directors,
management,
shareholders and
governing and
statutory bodies.
 Conducting financial
investigations.
 Cost management,
Pricing, forecasting,
strategic governance
of organizations and
undertaking audits.
 CPA or CA
degree
holder.
 Having
experience is
the same
field.
 Good
communicati
on and
problem
solving
skills.
 Have strong
financial or
accounting
background. Yes
10 Management
Accountant
 Responsible for
partnering with
department manager,
business analysis.
 Leading the
budgeting,
forecasting, variance
analysis and
 Accounting
degree of CA
or CPA or
any
equivalent
one.
 Have used
ERP and
Yes

Management accounting 9
monitoring of key
expenditure and
revenue items.
 Responsible for
providing timely
advice to the
management
accounting manager
on key operational
issues.
 Monitoring and
analysing budgets and
assisting with ad hoc
costing analysis.
Microsoft
office.
 Strong
problem
solving
skills.
 Monitoring
and
analytical
skills.
Final report
Part 1
1. The above data analysis and data collection table reflects the two job profiles named
as cost accountant and management accountant. Various Australian job websites are
been used for finding out the 10 job positions of both the accountants. The data is
collected from the websites such as seek, indeed, entree and jobsearch.gov.au. The
positions are classified as cost and management account and are categorized in
different industries. The common requirements of the positions are related to
preparing reports, budgets, forecasting and maintaining the cost systems in the
organization. To get selected for the job, an individual must have proper knowledge
about analysing the various costs, finding the reasons for variances, managing the
financial accounts, inventory and to support the other finance managers in decision
making process. According to the cost and management accounting skill, one should
be CA or CPA qualified or have a degree equivalent to it. The individual must have a
solid accounting background to get selected for the profiles. Also the person must
have strong communication or interpersonal skills, have used ERP systems and great
knowledge of Microsoft Office tools.

Management accounting 10
Part 2
2. Degrees like CA, CPA, CIMA and other equivalent courses are most common cost
and management accounting skills. These courses are very important in order to have
a job of an account. They are considered as professional degrees and give high level
education and professional knowledge regarding the work of accountant. Also they
help in attaining good designation in an organization. Every organization or company
who is recruiting accountant keeps a high demand of such courses and degrees. Apart
from the theoretical knowledge, one should also be excel at using the tools of
Microsoft office and must be aware about the ERP systems.
3. The less common or less weighted accounting skills and knowledge are the graduate
courses like Bachelors of Commerce and other diploma courses of accounting. They
are not considered as professional ones and hence are less in demand by the
companies. They are not highly sought as the CPA or CA degrees because they do not
provide high level of specialization and knowledge about the work of accounting.
Also they are not able to attract a good job position of an accountant. To be a
management and cost accountant, higher professional skills are required which can
only be ascertained by pursuing the specialized courses.
4. Now days, being a management account is not an easy job. There are various
challenges faced by them as per the growing demands of the companies. In today’s
era, organizations are demanding for more proactive accountants who can easily and
quickly adopt the changing conditions of the environment (Mishra, 2011). However,
some of the challenges are:
 Some environmental reports like globalization, changes in customer
preferences and rapidly changing technology contributes to the change in

Management accounting 11
business environment. As a result of which, accountants have to face such
modifications and deal with them effectively.
 Some of the organizational factors like changing strategies, modifications in
products design, risk and uncertainty also comes out as a big challenge for
management accounts as they need to cope with them quickly in order to
maintain the success of the organization (Zainuddin & Sulaiman, 2016).
 Other challenges related to change in government regulations, variations in
policies framed by the government and other political changes also affects the
working of an organization. To face them is a big challenge for accountants as
they are required to comply with such changes instantly
5. ACCT 6004, covers topics like context and nature of management accounting costs
which includes its concepts and behavior that helped in increasing cost and
management skills of a person. Topics related to CVP analysis, variance analysis,
budgetary control, ABC costing lay more emphasis on cost accounting. The learning
outcomes of the subject clearly explain the nature, importance and role of
management and cost accountant in an organization. The outcomes are aligned to the
job descriptions to a great extent that each and every job profile discussed above
require a basic accounting knowledge and a professional degree of CA or CPA.
6. Apart from the above topics, ACCT 6004 should also include concepts like cash flow
management and fund flow management. As they are also a part of management
accounting and specially pay more focus on cash management skills (Palanivelu,
2007). Cash flow statement basically shows the inflow and outflow of cash within the
business whereas fund flow reflects the sources and applications of the fund or money
available. The changes in working capital are shown in fund flow statement and the
cash made from or used in operating, financing and investing activities is present in

Management accounting 12
statement of cash flows. It is the duty of a cost or management accountant to have
proper knowledge about such topics in order carry out their responsibility in a very
effective manner (Jury, 2012).
Conclusion
The report concludes that in order to get an accountant job, one must pursue all the required
skills and knowledge and should have appropriate experience in the field. Also, job positions
perfectly align with the learning outcomes to ACCT 6004 and clearly states the duties of a
cost and management accountant.
References

Management accounting 13
Jury, T. (2012). Cash flow analysis and forecasting: the definitive guide to understanding
and using published cash flow data (Vol. 653). United Kingdom: John Wiley & Sons.
Mishra, D. (2011). Management Accountant: Role & future challenges. [Online]. Available
from: https://poseidon01.ssrn.com/delivery.php?
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409910308302300000101801012203800402707310308302500601011102006801208600010
012011601310409400302002204206607200207706710203107606602910211701211208612
4113106089118080072124066009072&EXT=pdf [Accessed 5 May 2018].
Palanivelu, V. R. (2007). Accounting for management. New Delhi: Firewall Media.
Zainuddin, Z. N., & Sulaiman, S. (2016). Challenges faced by management accountants in
the 21st century. Procedia Economics and Finance, 37, 466-470.