ACCT6004 Report: Roles and Responsibilities of Management Accounting

This report delves into the realm of management accounting, examining the roles and responsibilities of cost and management accountants. It begins with an introduction to the field, emphasizing its importance in managerial decision-making, planning, and control. The report then presents data collected from various job websites, outlining ten different positions for cost and management accountants, along with their respective descriptions, sector, and responsibilities. A detailed data analysis follows, comparing the requirements of each position with the learning outcomes of ACCT6004, highlighting the alignment between academic knowledge and practical application. The report also summarizes website search findings, common sectors, and job classifications. Furthermore, it identifies the most common and less common skills required for these roles, emphasizing the importance of certifications like CA and CPA. Challenges faced by cost and management accountants, along with the implications of future studies in ACCT6004, are also discussed. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and providing references.

Running head: MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING
Management Accounting

Management Accounting 1
Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Data Collection......................................................................................................................................2
Data Analysis........................................................................................................................................3
Report....................................................................................................................................................8
Website search summary...................................................................................................................8
Most common cost and management skills required.........................................................................9
Less common cost and management skills required..........................................................................9
Challenges faced by cost and management accountants..................................................................10
Alignment of ACCT6004 to positions.............................................................................................10
Future study implications ACCT6004.............................................................................................11
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................11
References...........................................................................................................................................12

Management Accounting 2
Introduction
Management accounting refers to the analysis and the interpretation of the
accounting information in such a manner so as to help the top level management regarding
decision making. It helps the management in functions like planning, analysing, forecasting,
reporting and so on. Management accountants are the one who analyse and interpret the
financial data in order to help the managers in taking decisions and control over the business.
Cost accountants does the work of creating the budgets and managing the cost of
organisation. This report is all about the responsibilities and role of a cost and management
accountants and the job description for the position of cost and management accountant, its
selection criteria and the skills required for this position (DRURY, 2013).
The below table shows the 10 different job positions of cost and management
accountant and their description collected from the different websites.
Data Collection
Table 1: Cost and Management accounting positions.
No
. Position Title
Sector(Indu
stry or
Government
) Position Description Date Listed
Website
Address
Search
word or
phrases
1
Cost/
Operations
Accountant Industry
Preparation of the annual
budget, keeping the cost up
to date and analysing
various cost. 18-Oct-17
www.seek.c
om.au Accountant
2
Management
Accountant Industry
Database management and
providing monthly
management reports 13-Oct-17
www.adzun
a.com.au
Managemen
t
Accountant
3
Cost
Controller Industry
Tracking and managing the
cost, doing estimations and
preparing budgets. 27-0ct-17
www.seek.c
om.au Cost

Management Accounting 3
4
Regional
Management
Accountant Industry
Providing management
analysis and monitoring
junior staff. 27-Oct-17
www.seek.c
om.au
Managemen
t accountant
5
Project
Accountant,
Project Cost
Controller. Industry
Review of cost and
expenses, budgeting and
forecasting, report on WIP
and projects. 1-Nov-2017
www.carrer
one.com.au
Cost
Accounting
6
Senior
Management
Accountant Industry
Reviewing the financial
policies and procedures and
overall financial
performance of the
organisation 18-Oct-17
www.au.jor
a.com
Managemen
t accountant
7
Financial
Analyst Industry
Report to senior financial
analyst, making annual
budgets and forecasts. 19-Oct-17
www.apsjo
b.gov.au Accounting
8
Cost
Accountant Industry
Cost reporting, product
costing management,
analysing inventory, balance
sheet and implementing
reductions of cost 7-Nov-2017
www.career
jet.com.au Accountant
9
Management
Accountant Industry
Giving decisions to finance
department and executives
of university. 25-Oct-17
www.au.jor
a.com
Managemen
t.
10
Manufacturing
Cost
Accountant Industry
Time to time costing of
manufactured items, reports
on analysis of cost and
manufacturing 5-Nov-17
www.recrui
t.net accountant
Data Analysis
The given table shows the analysis of the data collected related to the job positions
of cost or management accountant.
Table2: Data Analysis
No
.
Position Title Position Requirements
(responsibilities)
Cost and Management
Accounting
criteria required for
position
Alignment
with learning
outcomes of
ACCT 6004
1. Cost/
Operations
Accountant
 The key role is
to develop
standard
costing and
updating costs.
 Analysing
material,
labour. And
overhead costs
 CPA or CA
 Excellent
Interactive skills.
 Excel knowledge
and analytical
skills.
 Capable of
working
independently and
Yes

Management Accounting 4
 Monthly
accounting,
reporting and
reviewing the
process of
supply chain
and
manufacturing.
 Ad hoc cost
analysis,
inventory
analysis.
 Preparing
budgets and
forecasts.
as a part of a team.
2. Management
Accountant
 Doing trend
analysis and
helping
marketing,
sales teams.
 Working
efficiently
with others in
order to reduce
cost and
increase
efficiency.
 Managing
databases and
creating ad hoc
reports.
 Reporting and
variance
analysis.
 CA or CPA
qualified.
 Experience in the
similar industry or
Big 4 experience.
 Knowledge of
inventory.
 Ability to interact
with other staff
(non-financial).
 Very good excel
skills.
 Determined
towards the work.
Yes
3. Cost Controller  Evaluating
cost
performance
 Cost estimates
for projects
delivery.
 Making
standard cost
as per industry
standards.
 Analysing the
scenario of
uncertainty.

Understanding
flow of cost
 Accounts training
such as
ERP/SAP/Pronto.
 Accounting
Qualifications like
CPA/CA.
 Experience counts-
5 years
 Good
communication
and management
skills.
 Capable of
working
independently and
as part of team.
Yes

Management Accounting 5
with help of
tracking tools.
4. Regional
Management
Accountant
 Giving
analysis and
reports on
management
to the
companies.
 Coordinating
with the senior
and junior
staff.
 Interacting and
working with
other staff also
(non-finance
and
operations).
 CPA/CA
 Having experience
of the same
position.
 Active, determined
and an autonomous
worker.
 Great
communication
skills.
Yes
5. Project
Accountant,
Project Cost
Controller
 Providing
financial
support.
 Reporting to
project
director.
 Involvement in
process of
business
control,
planning
process.
 Doing
management
of contract and
working
capital.
 Cost and
expenditure
review.
 Project and
WIP reporting.
 Budgets and
forecasts.
 Qualification-
CA/CPA.
 Technical skills in
project accounting.
 Have leadership
qualities.
 Highly focused on
the work.
 Capability of
giving good
customer services.
Yes
6. Senior
Management
Accountant
 Supporting the
Business
Finance
Manager.
 Developing
good relations
with the
people at all
 Pursuing or
completed CA or
CPA.
 Advanced excel
knowledge.
 Good at interacting
with people.
 Have been used a
Yes

Management Accounting 6
levels.
 Reviewing the
performance
and analysing
the factors
affecting it.
 Making
financial
objectives and
policies.
 Capable of
working to
strict
deadlines.
large ERP system.
 Must take
initiatives.
7. Financial
Analyst
 Have to be a
member of
budgets and
forecasting.
 Must report to
senior
financial
analyst.
 Responsible
for the
delivery of
outputs for
Defence
Housing
Australia
(DHA)
 Providing
corporate
plans, budgets
and forecasts
 Professional
accounting
knowledge.
 High level
analytical and
forecasting skills.
 Great
communication
skills.
 Maintain relations
with stakeholders
and top
management.
 Meeting the
required medical
standards and all
the security checks.
Yes
8. Cost
Accountant
 Analysis and
accounting of
inventory,
balance sheet
and profit &
loss.
 Budget
analysis,
product
costing
management,
BOM’s
scorecard, KPI
and reporting
of cost.
 Cost
 CPA and having a
degree of
professional
accounting.
 ERP knowledge
such as JDE.
 Experience of
accounting in
manufacturing.
 Communicating
with senior finance
and stakeholders.
 Good interacting
skills.
Yes

Management Accounting 7
reductions
implementatio
n and
improving
profits.
 Developing
cost
accounting
models.
 Analysis and
management
of variances
and projects
proposal.
9. Management
Accountant:
Budgeting and
Course
Costing.
 Supporting in
decision
making
process.
 Budgeting,
forecasting
and assisting
the manager.
 Doing course
costing.
 Performing all
the desired
task by
preparing a
framework
which ensures
quality, and
transparency.
 CA, CPA
 Planning
experience.
 Strong analytical
skills required.
 Information about
using ERP system.
 Effective
communication.
Yes
10. Manufacturing
Cost
Accountant
 Accurate
costing of
manufactured
and purchased
items.
 Providing
support to
ARC head
office.
 Properly
maintained,
prepared
manufacturing
cost elements.
 Reports on
cost analysis
and
manufacturing.
 Tertiary
qualification such
as CA, CPA,
CIMA.
 Experience in
manufacturing
costing.
 Strong
communication and
organisational
skills.
 Have experience in
financial
modelling.
 Have used Symix
before.
Yes

Management Accounting 8
 Support
strategic
improvement
initiatives.
Report
Website search summary
Job websites: The data is collected from different job websites named as seek,
adzuna, carrerone.com, au.jora, apsjob.gov.au, careerjet.com and recruit.net. Seek is
considered to be the Australia’s number one job website.
Common sectors: All the positions mainly belong to the industry sector.
Classification of jobs: The jobs are classified in two categories:
Cost accountants: Cost/ Operations Accountant, Cost Controller, Project
Accountant, Project Cost Controller, Cost Accountant and Manufacturing Cost Accountant.
Management accountants: Management Accountant, Regional Management
Accountant, Senior Management Accountant, Financial Analyst, Management Accountant:
Budgeting and Course Costing.
Common requirements and responsibilities of job positions
Basic and common requirements for these two job profiles are that, either being a
cost or management accountant, one should be familiar with the work of preparing reports,
budgets and forecasts. The person should know how to analyse the various costs, to find the
reasons for the inaccuracies and variances, to manage the financial accounts of a business,
inventory, doing ad-hoc projects and to support the other managers of the cost centre and the
directors in decision making process.
Requirements related to cost and management accounting knowledge and skills
To get selected for the profile of cost and management accountant, the person should
have a solid accounting background and should have qualified CA, CPA, CIMA, CMA and

Management Accounting 9
ACA. Excellence in MS Excel, used to ERP system, strong analytical skills and a very good
communication skills.
Most common cost and management skills required
CA, CPA, CIMA, ACA and CMA are considered as the most common and
important cost and management accounting skills required for the job positions of the cost
accountant and management accountant. These are the various professional courses
conducted by the institutions such as ICAI, AICPA, and ICAEW. These courses are very
beneficial as they help in getting high level education, aggregated information, specialisation
and professional knowledge, helps in attaining good designation in an organisation. To get
the job of an accountant, one need to excel in these courses as they are the basic requirements
for these jobs.
As per my opinion, CPA and CA are the most desirable, common and important
accounting skills required to get the position of the accountants. Although there are many
skills that are require to attain the job of accountant, but these two skills are most
considerable among all of them. Every organisation seeks CA and CPA knowledge in every
candidate who applies for the job of accountant.
Less common cost and management skills required
There are many diploma courses in accounts and undergraduate course which are not
given much priority for the position of accountant. These courses have a short duration and
does not attract a good job profile. They do not provide high level specialisation in the field
and generally considered on a basic level. To be a management and cost accountant, one have
to gain higher professional knowledge by pursuing course like CA, CPA and so on.

Management Accounting 10
As per my opinion, having degrees like bachelor in commerce and bachelor in
commerce honours, will not help the candidate to meet the selection criteria of the accountant
job. These bachelor courses and degrees are not considered to be specialised and professional
courses. A candidate need to pursue some higher skill to get selected for the job.
Challenges faced by cost and management accountants
Other than accounting knowledge and skills, there are various challenges faced by
management accountants. The factors which bring changes in the profession of management
accounting are environmental and organisational factors. Environmental factors are termed as
external factors such as market globalization, changes in business environment, up gradation
in the production technologies, and so on which influence the role of a management
accountant. Emergence of new regulations and new tools of manufacturing has also made it
more challenging for the accountants. Organisational factors generally deal with relation
between customer and supplier, team work, strategies, uncertainties and so on. They directly
affect the day to day operations of a business Changes in the work pattern, quality of product,
changes in attitude are turned out as the challenges which are being faced by accountants at
organisational level. There is a need to react to these changes and making the role less
challenging.
Alignment of ACCT6004 to positions
The topics covered in ACCT 6004 gives the concept of cost and management
accounting, cost classification and allocation, cost- volume-profit analysis, job and process
costing, variance and cost analysis for the purpose of decision making. All these topics give
the thorough knowledge about accounting skill which is required to be gained for the position
of an accountant. The learning outcomes of this subject explain the nature, importance,
current roles and responsibilities of a management accountant and also analyse the

Management Accounting 11
organisational issues. These outcomes are aligned to the job positions to the great extent as
they help in a better understanding of the responsibilities of an accountant. The person is
capable of attaining such job positions only, when he has the basic knowledge about cost,
management and accounting. The jobs clearly elaborate the role and duties of accountants
which in turn explains the learning outcomes of this subject (Abdallah, 2017).
Future study implications ACCT6004
Cash flow statement and fund flow statement are the topics, which are not covered
in ACCT 6004. They are also a part of management accounting. Cash flow statement shows
the inflow and outflow of cash in the different activities of an organisation whereas fund flow
statement show the changes in the working capital of a company. It gives the information
about the application and sources of the funds. I think these topics should be covered in this
subject as they give a better view of circulation of money in a business and provide
accountant, the information about the financial position of the company, change in asset
level, uses of the fund and many more. On a whole, this information is very useful for the
management accountant for preparing the accounts and reports.
Conclusion
From the above report, it can be concluded that cost and management accounting
skills and knowledge are the basic requirements for the job position of cost accountant and
management accountant. These job positions perfectly align with the learning outcomes to
ACCT 6004 as they require the knowledge of what management accounting is. Its nature,
importance and the positions also clearly states the roles and duties of a management
accountant.