Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) Business and Technology (BT) and Management Accounting (MA) Syllabus

Business and Technology (BT) and Management Accounting (MA) syllabus — full chapter and topic list

Expand any chapter to see its topics and sub-topics. This is the whole examinable outline for Business and Technology (BT) and Management Accounting (MA) in Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), not a summary of it.

1. 1

   Business Organisation and Environment

   4 topics

   • Nature and purpose of business organisations
     • Profit vs not-for-profit and public sector entities
     • Stakeholders and their competing objectives
     • Mendelow's power-interest matrix
   • External environment analysis
     • PESTEL framework
     • Porter's five forces
     • Macroeconomic factors and policy
   • Organisational structure and culture
     • Mintzberg's organisational configurations
     • Handy's cultural types
     • Centralisation vs decentralisation
   • Business ethics and corporate governance
     • Agency theory and the principal-agent problem
     • Role of the board and non-executive directors
2. 2

   Accounting and Reporting Systems, Control and Technology

   3 topics

   • The role of accounting within the organisation
     • Financial vs management accounting
     • Sources and types of data
   • Internal control, fraud and authority
     • Internal control objectives
     • Fraud, error and money laundering
   • Information technology and systems
     • Big data and data analytics
     • Automation, AI and cloud accounting
     • Cyber security threats
3. 3

   Leading and Managing People

   4 topics

   • Leadership and management theory
     • Trait, contingency and situational theories
     • Adair's action-centred leadership
   • Recruitment, selection and development
     • Recruitment and selection process
     • Training and the learning cycle
   • Motivation theories
     • Maslow and Herzberg
     • Expectancy theory
   • Team building and performance
     • Belbin team roles
     • Tuckman's group development stages
4. 4

   Cost Classification and Behaviour

   3 topics

   • Cost classification
     • Direct vs indirect costs
     • Product vs period costs
   • Cost behaviour and estimation
     • Fixed, variable, semi-variable costs
     • High-low method
   • Accounting for materials, labour and overheads
     • Inventory valuation FIFO, LIFO, AVCO
     • Labour cost and idle time
     • Overhead absorption rates
5. 5

   Costing Methods and Budgeting

   3 topics

   • Costing systems
     • Absorption vs marginal costing
     • Job, batch and process costing
     • Activity-based costing
   • Budgeting and forecasting
     • Functional and master budgets
     • Fixed and flexible budgets
     • Time series and regression forecasting
   • Standard costing and variances
     • Material, labour and overhead variances
     • Sales variances and reconciliation
6. 6

   Decision Making and Performance Measurement

   4 topics

   • Cost-volume-profit analysis
     • Breakeven point and margin of safety
     • Target profit and breakeven charts
   • Short-term decision making
     • Relevant costing
     • Limiting factor analysis
   • Investment appraisal basics
     • Payback and accounting rate of return
     • Discounting and net present value
   • Performance measurement
     • Financial and non-financial indicators
     • The balanced scorecard

Business and Technology (BT) and Management Accounting (MA) flashcards for Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA)

22 of 65 cards from the Business and Technology (BT) and Management Accounting (MA) deck — real questions with worked answers.

1. What are the three main types of business organisation by legal structure?

   Sole trader (one owner, unlimited liability), partnership (two or more owners sharing profits/liability), and limited company (separate legal entity with limited liability for shareholders).

2. Define a 'stakeholder' and name Mendelow's two axes for mapping them.

   A stakeholder is any party affected by or able to affect an organisation's activities. Mendelow's matrix maps stakeholders by their level of Power and level of Interest (giving four strategies: keep satisfied, manage closely, monitor, keep informed).

3. What does each letter of a PESTEL analysis stand for?

   Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental (ecological), and Legal factors of the external macro-environment.

4. Name the five forces in Porter's Five Forces model.

   Threat of new entrants, bargaining power of suppliers, bargaining power of buyers, threat of substitute products, and competitive rivalry among existing firms.

5. In Mintzberg's organisational configuration, name the five building blocks of an organisation.

   Strategic apex, middle line, operating core, technostructure, and support staff.

6. Distinguish between 'tall' and 'flat' organisational structures.

   A tall structure has many management levels and a narrow span of control (more supervision, slower communication). A flat structure has few levels and a wide span of control (more delegation, faster communication).

7. What are Handy's four types of organisational culture?

   Power culture (central control), role culture (bureaucratic, rules-based), task culture (project/team focused), and person culture (serves the individuals within it).

8. State the four levels of Carroll's Corporate Social Responsibility pyramid from bottom to top.

   Economic responsibilities (be profitable), legal responsibilities (obey the law), ethical responsibilities (do what is right), and philanthropic responsibilities (be a good corporate citizen).

9. List the seven principles of public life (Nolan principles) underpinning ethical behaviour.

   Selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty, and leadership.

10. What is the main purpose of corporate governance?

    To direct and control a company in the interests of shareholders and stakeholders, ensuring accountability, transparency, and the separation of ownership from control (reducing the agency problem).

11. In governance, what is the 'agency problem'?

    The conflict of interest where directors (agents) may act in their own interests rather than those of the shareholders (principals) who own the company.

12. What are the two broad branches of accounting and their primary users?

    Financial accounting (external users: shareholders, lenders, tax authorities — historic, regulated) and management accounting (internal users: managers — forward-looking, no fixed format).

13. State the three core objectives of an internal control system.

    To safeguard assets, ensure the reliability of financial records/reporting, and promote operational efficiency and compliance with laws and policies.

14. What are the three elements of the 'fraud triangle'?

    Motivation (pressure/incentive), opportunity (weak controls), and rationalisation (justifying the act).

15. Define 'segregation of duties' as an internal control.

    Splitting responsibility for a transaction so that no single person controls authorisation, recording, and custody of assets, reducing the risk of error and fraud.

16. What do the letters in a typical data quality acronym (ACCURATE) require of good information?

    Information should be Accurate, Complete, Cost-effective, Understandable, Relevant, Accessible/Adaptable, Timely, and Easy to use — qualities of useful management information.

17. Distinguish between data and information.

    Data are raw, unprocessed facts and figures. Information is data that has been processed, structured, and given context so it has meaning and value for decision-making.

18. Name the three main management/leadership styles in Lewin's classification.

    Autocratic (leader decides), democratic (participative decision-making), and laissez-faire (minimal direction, team self-manages).

19. What two dimensions form Blake and Mouton's Managerial Grid, and what is the ideal position?

    Concern for people (vertical) and concern for production/task (horizontal), each scored 1–9. The ideal is 9,9 — 'team management'.

20. According to Henri Fayol, what are the five functions of management?

    Planning, Organising, Commanding (directing), Coordinating, and Controlling.

21. Distinguish leadership from management per Kotter.

    Management copes with complexity through planning, organising and controlling to produce order. Leadership copes with change by setting direction, aligning people, and motivating/inspiring.

22. Name the stages of a systematic recruitment and selection process.

    Identify the vacancy, prepare job analysis/description and person specification, advertise/source candidates, shortlist, interview and test, select, make an offer, and induct.

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