Certified Professional Cost Accountant (CPCA)
Exam Code: CPCA-001
Cost accounting involves determining fixed and variable costs. Fixed costs are expenses that recur each month regardless of the level of production. Examples include rent, depreciation, interest on loans and lease expenses. Variable costs are expenses that fluctuate with changes in production level, such as supplies, labor, and maintenance expenses. These costs are related to production in that the more units of a product produced, the more expense there is associated with the materials and labor that went into making the product.
Cost accounting is a facet of management accounting that determines the actual cost associated with manufacturing a product or providing a service by looking at all expenses within the supply chain. It is done for the purpose of budget preparation and profitability analysis. The information derived from this process is useful to managers in determining which products, departments or services are most profitable and which ones need improvement.
Cost accountants are responsible for the collection, adjustment, auditing and scrutinizing of all financial information. The purpose of cost accounting is for budget preparation and profitability analysis. They collate the numbers which includes data about planning systems, wages, bonuses and operating policies into financial reports. The purpose of this is to help the management take decisions on the basis of this information.
The CPCA® Certification require’s strong technical skills as cost accountants spend a lot of time analyzing data so they need to have some experience with the latest software. They also need to have strong analytical skills and interest in finance.
Course Outline
Module Information – 1
Module 1 – The Manager and Management Accounting
Module 2 – An Introduction to Cost Terms and Purposes
Module 3 – Cost-Volume-Profit Analysis
Module 4 – Job Costing
Module 5 – Activity-Based Costing Activity Based Management
Module 6 – Master Budget and Responsibility Accounting
Module 7 – Flexibile Budgets, Direct-Cost Variances, and Management Control
Module 8 – Flexible Budgests, Overhead Cost Variances, and Management Control
Module Information – 2
Module 9 – Inventory Costing and Capacity Analysis
Module 10 – Determining How Costs Behave
Module 11 – Decision Making and Relevant Information
Module 12 – Pricing Decisions and Cost Management
Module 13 – Strategy, Balanced Scorecard, and Strategic Profitability Analysis
Module 14 – Cost Allocation, Customer-Profitability Analysis, and Sales-Variance Analysis
Module 15 – Allocation of Support-Department Costs, Common Costs, and Revenues
Module Information – 3
Module 16 – Cost Allocation: Joint Products and Byproducts
Module 17 – Process Costing
Module 18 – Spoilage, Rework, and Scrap
Module 19 – Balanced Scorecard
Module 20 – Inventory Management, Just-in-Time and Simplified Costing Methods
Module 21 – Management Control Systems, Transfer Pricing, and Multinational Considerations
Module 22 – Capital Budgeting and Cost Analysis
Module 23 – Performance Measurement, Compensation, and Multinational Considerations
Target Audience
Students of accounts/finance/costing: If you’re a student of any of the domain – costing, accounting, or finance, this course is perfect for you. You would get so much value out of this course that you may not need to study any other material on the cost accounting.
Cost/Finance/Management accounting professionals: If you’re already a cost accounting/finance accounting/management accounting professional, you can use the course as a refresher or an additional edge for your professional upliftment.