ACCA MA study guide
ACCA MA · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
Management Accounting (MA) - widely known by its earlier code, F2 - is one of the exams in ACCA's Applied Knowledge/foundations stage of the ACCA Qualification. It is aimed at students who are starting professional accountancy study, typically alongside Business and Technology (BT) and Financial Accounting (FA), and who need a working grasp of how internal financial information is produced and used inside an organisation. ACCA describes the exam as developing management accounting techniques that help businesses plan, control and monitor performance, teaching different ways of managing finance to enhance business performance. The syllabus is broad rather than deep. The ACCA MA study guide has 5 sections and about 1,660 words.
01Management Information
Data are raw, unprocessed facts and figures. Information is data that has been processed so it is meaningful to its user.
329 words, about 2 min02Cost and Management Accounting Techniques
Direct costs are traceable to a unit; indirect costs (overheads) are not. Costs behave as fixed, variable, semi-variable or stepped fixed.
331 words, about 2 min03Budgeting
Budgets provide planning, control, coordination, communication, motivation, resource allocation and a basis for performance evaluation. The cycle is: set objectives → identify the principal budget factor (the limiting factor) → prepare functional budgets → prepare the master budget (budgeted income statement, statement of financial position and cash budget) → monitor actual results and feed back.
325 words, about 2 min04Standard Costing
Standards may be ideal, attainable, current or basic. Attainable standards are the most motivating.
353 words, about 2 min05Performance Measurement
Profitability (gross margin, net margin, ROCE), liquidity (current and quick ratios), activity (receivables days, inventory days, payables days, asset turnover), gearing and investor ratios (EPS, dividend cover). A single ratio is meaningless: comparisons are needed across time, against budget or against competitors, and accounting policies and year-end balances can distort them.
322 words, about 2 min