Certificate in Cost Analysis, Control and Optimization
Cost management is an important topic in accounting and finance as its effects stretch to all departments and impact the financial position of the organization. Cost mana…
Cost management is an important topic in accounting and finance as its effects stretch to all departments and impact the financial position of the organization. Cost management covers several cost concepts such as job and batch orders and absorption costing. The pinnacle of any cost management training is activity-based costing which helps in making better decisions. Among these decisions are whether to drop or keep a product, make or buy, and replace or keep a piece of equipment. Moreover, cost management includes allocating costs of service departments internally. Also covered in this course are cost estimations and transfer pricing. The course will close with evaluating performance and a brief discussion on the balanced scorecard and managing scarce resources.
Course Methodology
This course aims at making this advanced subject easier for participants to understand by covering the material using several examples and exercises. In addition, there will be explanations from the subject matter expert and a sharing of knowledge between participants.
Course Objectives
By the end of the course, participants will be able to:
Discover the importance of analyzing and managing costs
Develop important tools for planning and decision making
Explain Activity-Based Costing (ABC) and Activity-Based Management (ABM)
Estimate costs and allocate them properly
Evaluate and manage performance through strategic cost management
Target Audience
Financial managers or directors, accountants, financial assistants, budget accountants, analysts, budget and planning managers and coordinators, operations managers, facilities managers and professionals interested in cost management.
Target Competencies
Distinguishing relevant costs
Analyzing costs
Allocating costs
Calculating product costs using different methods
Assessing value adding costs
Choosing between cost alternatives
Advising management to buy or manufacture
Evaluating performance
Course Outline
Strategic need for analyzing and managing costs
Definition of cost management
Dimensions of cost management
Product costing systems: concepts and design issues
Cost behavior, types and hierarchy
Cost accumulation job shop
Batch production operations
Variable versus absorption costing
Cost management decisions
Decision making process
Identifying relevant costs
Evaluating alternatives
Outsourcing decisions : make or buy
Add or drop product or business line
Replacing equipment
Special order pricing decisions
Activity based management
ABC systems
Analyzing value added versus non value added activities
Activity-based management
Managing customer profitability
Managing quality and time to create value
Cost estimation and transfer pricing
Cost estimation techniques
Identifying and choosing a cost driver
Simple regression analysis
Multiple regression analysis
High-low method
Applications in Microsoft Excel
Allocating costs of support departments
Direct method
Step method
Reciprocal method
Inter-group transfer pricing issues
Evaluating and managing performance
Cost, volume, profit analysis
Breakeven point
Breakeven point for multiple products
Target income
Operating leverage
Margin of safety
Managing scarce resources
Flexible budget
Activity-based budgeting
Strategy, balanced scorecards and performance measurement
Schedule & Fees
2026 Schedule & Fees
There are no public sessions remaining for the course this year. Please contact us if you wish to have a customized in-house session, or to find out how an additional public session can be scheduled.
