ACCA PM study plan
ACCA PM · Give each week a clear focus.
8 weeks · About 6 hours per week
Specialist management accounting techniques
Explain the purpose and limitations of activity-based costing and distinguish it from traditional absorption costing
Calculate activity-based costs and cost driver rates for a given set of activities
Compare ABC profit outcomes with absorption costing outcomes for the same scenario
Identify when ABC is most appropriate based on cost structure and diversity of products
Your checkpoint
A one-page worked ABC example (own numbers) reconciling ABC profit to absorption profit with a written note on why they differ
Specialist management accounting techniques
Apply target costing to derive a target cost from a competitive selling price and required margin
Derive the cost gap and propose specific cost reduction actions to close it
Explain the life-cycle costing stages and allocate costs across them
Calculate throughput accounting ratios including return per factory hour and throughput accounting ratio
Recommend how to relieve a bottleneck using throughput principles
Your checkpoint
A timed 25-mark style written answer covering target costing and throughput accounting, self-marked against the syllabus areas you missed
Decision-making techniques
Construct a pay-off table and apply maximax, maximin and minimax regret decision rules
Calculate and interpret expected values and state the limitations of using them
Explain the value of perfect and imperfect information in decision-making
Apply relevant costing to decide whether to accept a special order, including opportunity costs and sunk costs
Your checkpoint
A decision-rule comparison table for one scenario showing the recommended choice under each rule, with a justified final recommendation
Decision-making techniques & Budgeting and control
Apply limiting factor analysis to rank products and determine an optimal production plan for a single constraint
Explain how linear programming extends limiting factor analysis to multiple constraints
Prepare a functional budget from given data (sales, production, materials, labour)
Prepare a cash budget and identify the causes of any net cash shortfall
Your checkpoint
A full budget pack (functional budgets plus cash budget) built from your own assumptions, with a short note on the limiting factor ranking used
Budgeting and control
Calculate direct material, direct labour and variable overhead variances and reconcile budgeted to actual profit
Calculate fixed overhead expenditure and volume variances and split the volume variance into efficiency and capacity
Interpret favourable and adverse variances and distinguish controllable from uncontrollable causes
Explain the behavioural consequences of using variances for performance evaluation
Your checkpoint
A complete operating statement reconciling budgeted profit to actual profit for a scenario you construct, with variance causes explained
Budgeting and control & Performance measurement and control
Prepare a fixed and flexible budget and use them to separate planning and operating variances
Calculate planning and operational variances for materials and labour
Explain the advantages and criticisms of planning and operational variance analysis
Distinguish planning, operational and control weaknesses in a variance report
Your checkpoint
A planning and operating variance reconciliation with a written critique of the approach and its behavioural implications
Performance measurement and control
Calculate and interpret ROCE, RI and EVA for divisional performance appraisal
Explain the behavioural problems of ROI including sub-optimal investment decisions, and how RI addresses them
Calculate the balanced scorecard perspectives for a given organisation and propose suitable measures
Apply the building block model of Fitzgerald and Moon to a service organisation
Evaluate financial and non-financial performance indicators for not-for-profit and public sector organisations
Your checkpoint
A divisional performance appraisal report for one scenario covering ROI, RI, EVA and three non-financial measures, with recommendations
Specialist management accounting techniques & Decision-making techniques & Budgeting and control & Performance measurement and control
Complete two full mixed-topic mock papers under timed conditions
Identify your three weakest syllabus areas from mock results and revise them first
Practise written discussion answers to at least four 10-mark style questions
Review and correct every calculation error from the mocks into a personal error log
Your checkpoint
A completed error log and a scored mock summary showing improvement between the two papers
Milestones
Week 2: Can calculate ABC costs, target cost gaps, life-cycle costs and throughput ratios unaided within 30 minutes total
Week 4: Can produce a full functional and cash budget and an optimal limiting factor plan without notes
Week 6: Can reconcile budgeted to actual profit, including planning and operational variances, with no calculation errors
Week 8: Two timed mocks completed with a documented error log and a clear list of remaining weak areas