Cost and Management Accounting

By the end, you can calculate product costs, build a budget, do break-even and variance analysis and explain the result to a manager.

Job-ready skillAbout 100 hours3 stagesFree

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Management accountants help managers make decisions using numbers: what a product really costs, which customers are profitable and whether to make or buy. Factories, retailers and service firms all use them.

Turn on JavaScript to track your progress. The lessons are:FoundationsUnderstand costs: fixed, variable, direct and overheads.Task: List all the costs of a small business you know (for example a car wash) and sort them into fixed and variable, direct and indirect.Core skillsLearn costing, budgeting, break-even and variances.Task: Build a spreadsheet that calculates the cost per unit, break-even point and profit at three different sales volumes for a simple product.Applied practiceUse numbers to support decisions.Task: Compare budget with actual results for a sample month, explain the three biggest variances and recommend what management should do.

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What competent looks like

Classifies costs correctly
Calculates unit cost and break-even
Builds a monthly budget
Explains variances in plain words
Supports decisions with numbers

The South African route

Recognised routes include CIMA (CGMA), SAIPA and a BCom in accounting. The FASSET SETA funds finance learnerships.

Free resources

Finance sector learnerships and bursaries
FASSET
Free study resources
OpenTuition

These links go to free courses and sites run by other organisations. We chose them in October 2026 but do not run them, so check costs, dates and entry requirements on their site. Broken link? Tell us.

Jobs it can lead to

Cost clerk
Junior management accountant
Budget assistant
Finance intern