Program Outline

Module 1: Understanding Management Information

• Appreciate the importance of financial and non-financial information for planning, control and decision-making purposes
• Recognize the variety of cost units, cost centers and profit centers
• Differentiate between direct and indirect costs; fixed and variable costs; period and product costs; controllable and uncontrollable costs; avoidable and unavoidable costs; etc.
• Identify cost classification for decision-making and planning
• Appreciate cost behavior patterns including linear, curvi-linear and step functions
• Appreciate the importance of unit costs for both financial and management decision making

Module 2: Accounting for Materials, Labor, and Overhead Costs

• Describe the methods and procedure of storekeeping, stocktaking and inventory control
• Explain and illustrate the perpetual inventory system and its procedures documentation
• Explain and illustrate the methods available for pricing stores issues and for inventory valuation
• Explain the impact of different remuneration methods on the cost of finished goods
• Explain and illustrate the problems and procedures of identifying, analyzing, allocating and absorbing overhead costs
• Explain the different bases for overhead absorption rates
• Compute overhead absorption rate
• Differentiate and calculate plant-wide overhead rates and departmental overhead rates
• Explain and illustrate the principles and methods of treatment of under and over-absorption of overhead costs

Module 3: Accounting for Materials, Labor, and Overhead Costs

• Explain the flow and accumulation of costs when using job costing
• Describe the purpose and content of job cost sheet
• Identify appropriate units for accumulation of control costs
• Explain the treatment of profit/loss on contracts including uncompleted contracts
• Demonstrate the application and identification of cost units
• Explain and determine the equivalent units and cost per equivalent unit
• Demonstrate how costs are assigned to equivalent units using process costing

• Demonstrate cost accounting methods used in cost processes, process losses and work in progress
• Explain the difference between joint product and by-product costing

• Establishing of Internal Controls to safeguard assets most specially Cash
• Single entry bookkeeping systems
• Reconstruction of Incomplete records
• Conversion of Cash -basis to accrual accounting
• Correction of Errors
• Analysis and Interpretation of Financial Statements

Module 4: Budgeting for Planning and Control

• Identify and apply techniques for forecasting revenue and expenditures
• Prepare operational, cash, and capital expenditure budgets
• Explain the differences between fixed budgets, flexible budgets and reforecast
• Calculate variances and identify their cases
• Explain and illustrate the concept of zero-based budgeting
• Explain the uses and limitations of standard costing
• Identify and determine different standards; basic, ideal, attainable and current standards
• Identify and calculate sales and cost variances
• Prepare standard product cost and analyze different types of variances between standard and actual product costs
• Identify the significance of, and inter-relationship between, variances

Module 5: Estimating Costs and Revenues for Decision-Making

• Calculate and explain the usefulness of contribution margin and contribution margin ratio
• Determine the sales volume required to earn a desired level of operating income
• Identify the purposes of break-even analysis
• Illustrate and determine the margin of safety
• Use Cost Volume Profit (CVP) relationships to evaluate a new marketing strategy
• Identify assumptions underlying CVP analysis

What they say about Registered Cost Accountant Program?

"This four-day program is a good refresher course for CPA’s. This reaffirms that my role as a Cost Analyst does not end in the mathematical computation of cost and variances but being able to translate those financial information to a language that will be useful for management decision making. True to the concept of Management by Exception, I hope to be able to filter the many financial informational handle in my work, such that uses of my reports/output can better evaluate and act on those that will produce more positive impact for the company."

Anne Margrette P. Jariol
Cost Analyst, United Laboratories

"I am thankful that I have decided to attend for the RCA program. This is very essential especially that I am interested to work in a manufacturing company. Thus, topics on cost behavior, cost accumulation, forecasting, budgeting, overhead and standard costing is relevant to my present job."

Jean Shiela B. Tataro
Accounting Analyst, UCPB General Insurance Co. Inc.

"The RCA program is of great help to me to refresh my costing knowledge that I can apply to my current work. I can highly recommend it to my college so they can benefit also to the learnings that I’ve got here. Thanks NIAT."

Ernielyn Nieva
Senior Accountant, Xerox Business Services

"CAT Level 2 program offers a great venue, opportunities and career advancement. It helps a lot in broader your knowledge and import ideas with their industry."

Gina Alano
Finance Analyst & Coordinator, World Vision