Super Awesome Study Guide To Help You Crack Management Accounting!

Introduction:

Accountancy as we all know can be bifurcated into three segments, financial accounting that we learnt in semester 1, cost accountancy that we learnt in semester 2 and managerial accounting that we are learning now. Financial accounting was done in a way that all details and records can be shown to the share holders and stake holders of the company. Cost accounting to help us analyze the various costs associated with the business and management accounting is done to by the managers or the top level of decision makers in a company to analyze and evaluate the accounts of a firm.

These accounts are not for public disposal and usually stay within the company. Managerial accounting helps the managers in decision making and is future oriented as compared to financial management that is historical in nature.

Management accountancy can be used during strategic management decisions, performance management decisions and risk management decision making.

Why do we have to Study this subject?

Put two and two together and the answer is very logical, we are management students which is why management accounting is most important branch of accountancy we must be aware of. For any person who is working at a managerial level, decision making is a part of their job and the knowledge of management accounting helps them in doing so.

Is it a Boring subject?

No, accountancy being a practical subject is not boring, management accounting since it deals with decision making concepts, there is a little more proportion of theory than what you had done in the past subjects of accountancy, but that does not mean this is boring in any way.

Is it Difficult?

Practice makes perfect and that is the golden rule with all practical subjects, if you do not work hard then yes this subject is going to be difficult, but if you put in a little time and efforts then it will be a lot of fun.

Do I need to join a Coaching Class for this subject?

Yes, a coaching class is the preferred option for a subject like this. They ensure you study regularly and clear your concepts and doubts well, which you will find difficult with self study.

What is the Syllabus for this Subject?

1. Nature of Management Accounting,
2. Functions of a Management Accountant,
3. Different types of costing,
4. Job costing,
5. Batch costing,
6. Process costing,
7. Uniform costing,
8. Standard costing,
9. Managerial costing and Break even Analysis,
10. Budgetary control,
11. Types of Budget,
12. Flexible Budgeting,
13. Capital Budgeting.

How do we Study this Subject?

We do know that we need to attend coaching classes for this subject, and so our study schedule will more or less depend upon the way they plan and complete the syllabus. Another known fact is that we need a lot o practise for learning this subject, so here are 4 quick steps to make studying managerial accountancy interesting:

1. Make an accountancy play list, you can pick up all or a few of your favourite songs which are peppy and lively and make a play list for yourself.
2. Whenever you sit to solve accountancy sums you can plug in those songs and ensure you do not sleep in between those long spells of numbers and more numbers.
3. While solving complex sums, do not use music as it will distract you, you can use it while doing the easy sums.
4. Play formula quiz, write down all your formulas on a sheet and learn them, then get together your friends and quiz each other; this system really works and is a lot of fun too!

Ensure that you are doing your theory on time, so before you start practicing sums, read and understand the theory of a chapter as that ensures you know what you are studying and makes solving sums easier.

As you get home from college or coaching classes, ensure you do all the sums that have been taught in the day at least once as that is the best way to memorize the steps of solving the sums especially the complicated ones.

Learn all the formulas for half an hour on alternate days, they are very important and students lose a lot of marks because they have missed out on formulas in the exam.  Another very common problem is with the format of the sums, students in the stress of exams tend to mix up with the formats of the different types of sums and lose out on a lot of marks, this can be prevented if you have practiced your sums so many times that even if you are nervous your brain does not deceive you.

Students usually take theory for granted and end up losing a lot of marks in the bargain, theory is important not just for the question answers that are present in the question paper but also for the basic understanding of the chapter and the sums, you may know the sums really well but if you don’t know the theory you don’t know much of what you are solving, what is its application and why do you need to solve it. If you don’t know this then after your exams there are 100% chances that you will forget everything that you had studied and all the efforts will be wasted.

Top 5 mistakes students make in Managerial Accounting paper:

1. Forgetting calculator
2. Making calculation mistakes
3. Forgetting formulas or writing wrong formulas
4. Making the format of one sum for another
5. Making up answers and writing them in theory questions

All of these are very common mistakes and 85% of the students have done this at least once in their test papers or internal exams, please do not do any of these in your end semester exams, it will just pull down your grades and waste your efforts.  

There are so many students who complain of not liking practical subjects or not understanding practical subjects but they do not realize that practical subjects are like gold mines for marks, you may work super hard for a theory paper but at the end of the day the marks you get will never be as much as the efforts you put in because you won’t ever get full marks in a theory paper.

The case with subjects like accountancy, mathematics and statistics is very different. Here you have a lot of scope for scoring full marks in every sum you attempt because if you have put in genuine efforts the answer is bound to come out correct. These subjects have a very black and white approach meaning, you are either correct or you are incorrect there are no grey zones of possibility and chance. In a theory subject every answer falls in a grey zone because what you understand and write should match up to what the faculty understands and wishes to read out of that answer.

There are no fixed or prescribed textbooks and so, nothing that you write is 100% correct or incorrect.  Not all subjects are gold mines for marks, so when you get one in any semester do make sure you work hard on it and reap its benefits well!

Where can I get Notes for this subject?

Managementparadise.com – Managerial accounting Notes

All the best for your exams 🙂