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Led by Margaret Irene Vance-Foster Simulacrum
Eight tutorials on advanced management accounting — the move from operational technique to strategic accounting. Foster Simulacrum leads, with Eliyahu Goldratt Simulacrum joining for the Theory of Constraints modules. Covers strategic management accounting, the Theory of Constraints and throughput accounting, lifecycle costing, target costing, environmental and social cost accounting, strategic performance measurement, and decision-relevant costing at depth. Stage 3 of the Accounting & Finance (UK) programme; Stage 2 management accounting strongly recommended as preparation.
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Led by Margaret Vance-Foster Simulacrum
The question
An introduction to the shift from operational management accounting — the monthly close, variance analysis, the budget cycle — to strategic management accounting, the discipline that supports decisions about competitive position, product lifecycle, and where the firm's cost structure should sit in three years. Foster Simulacrum walks through the three pillars of strategic cost management (value-chain analysis, strategic positioning, cost-driver analysis) and the working role of the management accountant as a finance-team business partner inside a UK plc.
Outcome
The student can articulate the difference between operational and strategic management accounting, identify the three pillars of strategic cost management, and read a value chain in cost-structure terms. (Foundations of strategic accounting)
Practice scenarios
You take the role of strategic management accountant at Halberd plc, a UK-listed engineering group considering a major capex decision. The CFO asks for a strategic value-chain analysis and a cost-driver-based assessment of the firm's competitive position before committing capital. The work tests whether you can frame a strategic question in management-accounting terms rather than retreating to operational variance analysis.
Your goals
Led by Eliyahu Goldratt Simulacrum, with Margaret Vance-Foster Simulacrum
The question
Eliyahu Goldratt's Theory of Constraints in operational practice. Goldratt Simulacrum and Foster Simulacrum work through the Five Focusing Steps — identify the constraint, exploit it, subordinate everything else to it, elevate it, then repeat — using a worked engineering case. The module covers the contrast with Lean and Six Sigma, the Drum-Buffer-Rope implementation, and the cultural challenge of accepting idle non-constraints when traditional cost-accounting incentives push the other way.
Outcome
The student can identify the constraint in a described system, articulate the Five Focusing Steps, and explain why traditional cost-accounting incentives can drive the wrong behaviour in a TOC operation. (Theory of Constraints foundations)
Practice scenarios
You walk through a Five Focusing Steps analysis on a constrained UK contract-manufacturing line where an automation investment looks attractive on traditional ROI but Goldratt's framework points to a different bottleneck. The work tests whether you can identify the real system constraint and resist the cost-accounting incentive to optimise non-constraint resources.
Your goals
Led by Eliyahu Goldratt Simulacrum, with Margaret Vance-Foster Simulacrum
The question
Throughput accounting as the alternative to absorption costing. The module works through the three operational measures (Throughput, Inventory, Operating Expense), the priority order of T then I then OE, and the central decision metric of *Throughput per Constraint Minute*. Worked examples show how a throughput recommendation can flatly contradict the absorption-cost recommendation on the same data, and how a management accountant runs both systems in parallel — absorption for external accounts, throughput for internal decisions.
Outcome
The student can prepare a throughput-accounting income statement, calculate Throughput per Constraint Minute for a product mix, recommend a product-mix decision under TOC, and explain why a throughput-accounting recommendation can differ sharply from an absorption-costing recommendation on the same data. (Throughput accounting)
Practice scenarios
You produce a throughput-accounting income statement for a four-product manufacturer where absorption costing recommends keeping all four products and throughput accounting recommends dropping two. The work tests whether you can hold two incompatible costing answers in mind simultaneously and explain to operations why the decision differs from the management-accounts headline.
Your goals
Led by Margaret Vance-Foster Simulacrum
The question
Lifecycle costing — accounting for a product across its entire lifetime, from R&D and tooling through manufacturing and into warranty and disposal. The module covers the four phases (development, introduction, maturity, decline), the central insight that 70–90% of total lifetime cost is committed by design freeze even though only a small fraction of cash has yet been spent, and the practical application of discounted lifecycle cashflow to an industrial-product capex decision. Toyota's *Genka Kikaku* tradition and the Rolls-Royce *power-by-the-hour* aerospace model run as worked examples.
Outcome
The student can build a five-phase lifecycle cost-and-revenue model for a hypothetical product, calculate lifecycle profit with and without discounting, and identify which phase is the cost-management leverage point. (Lifecycle costing)
Practice scenarios
You build a 14-year lifecycle cashflow for a new industrial product line at a UK manufacturer, including R&D, tooling, manufacturing, warranty, and end-of-life environmental cost, and discount to NPV. The work tests whether you can structure a multi-decade capex decision and identify the design-stage decisions that lock in lifetime cost.
Your goals
Led by Margaret Vance-Foster Simulacrum
The question
Target costing — the Japanese-developed discipline of designing products to a market-determined price rather than pricing by cost-plus. The module covers the target-cost calculation (market price minus required margin), design-stage cost engineering, value engineering as a systematic challenge of every component, the role of the management accountant inside the cross-functional design team, and kaizen costing through the manufacturing phase. The worked scenario takes a smart-thermostat consumer-electronics startup from a £180 retail price target to a closed cost gap through value engineering and supplier collaboration.
Outcome
The student can perform a target-cost calculation, identify the cost gap on a hypothetical design, propose value-engineering responses to close the gap, and explain when target costing is and is not the right pricing/costing discipline. (Target costing)
Practice scenarios
You run a target-cost design exercise for a smart-thermostat startup whose product must hit a £180 retail price; initial design cost is £142 against a target cost of £126. The work tests whether you can apply value engineering systematically and run a closing supplier-negotiation step to close the cost gap.
Your goals
Led by Margaret Vance-Foster Simulacrum, with Penelope Smythe-Bottomley Simulacrum on disclosure interfaces
The question
How the management accountant brings environmental and social costs into the firm's decisions. The module covers the three layers of environmental cost (direct cash, contingent provisions, external impact), internal carbon pricing as a shadow cost applied in capex appraisal, Material Flow Cost Accounting (ISO 14051), natural-capital approaches drawing on the Dasgupta Review, and the integration with external sustainability disclosure under CSRD, UK SDR, and IFRS S2. A capex case compares a gas boiler to a heat pump under both traditional and carbon-priced NPV — the carbon shadow cost can flip the recommendation.
Outcome
The student can build a capex appraisal that incorporates an internal carbon price, identify the difference between direct, contingent, and external environmental costs, and articulate when natural-capital accounting is appropriate. (Environmental and social cost accounting)
Practice scenarios
You apply internal carbon pricing to a capex appraisal at Halberd plc, comparing a gas-boiler replacement to a heat-pump alternative on a UK manufacturing site. The work tests whether you can build a shadow-priced NPV that incorporates a £70/tCO₂e price and explain the decision to a board sceptical of any number not in the management accounts.
Your goals
Led by Margaret Vance-Foster Simulacrum
The question
Strategic performance measurement beyond the textbook Balanced Scorecard. The module covers Kaplan and Norton's Scorecard and Strategy Maps in genuine application (not as a template-fill exercise), the Performance Prism, OKRs as used in technology firms, the discipline of the *critical few* against measurement-system bloat, Goodhart's Law and the gaming problem, and the design of a measurement system aligned to a stated strategy. The worked exercise builds a Scorecard for a UK mid-market commercial bank pursuing a five-year cost-income and ROE target.
Outcome
The student can design a strategic performance measurement system from a stated strategy, identify the critical few measures across four or five perspectives, anticipate the gaming risks for each measure, and articulate the cultural conditions under which the system will or will not drive intended behaviour. (Strategic performance measurement)
Practice scenarios
You design a Balanced Scorecard for a UK mid-market commercial bank with a five-year cost-income and ROE target. The work tests whether you can move beyond template-fill scorecard design to a small set of genuinely strategic measures, and whether you can anticipate the gaming behaviour each measure will provoke.
Your goals
Led by Margaret Vance-Foster Simulacrum
The question
Three canonical decision types worked at depth — make-or-buy, special-order pricing, and transfer pricing — using strict relevant-cost analysis. The module shows how absorption-cost numbers (the only numbers most firms have to hand) are systematically misleading for these decisions, and builds the discipline of identifying which costs and revenues actually change with the decision. The closing scenario walks through three decisions arriving on a CFO's desk in the same week and the politically charged divisional dynamics that surround each.
Outcome
The student can perform a make-or-buy analysis using only relevant costs, evaluate a special-order proposal using marginal-cost reasoning, structure a transfer-pricing recommendation that takes account of divisional incentives and tax requirements, and articulate why each decision is more than its arithmetic. (Decision-relevant costing at depth)
Practice scenarios
Three decisions arrive on the CFO's desk in the same week — a make-or-buy on a low-margin component, a special-order pricing question from a major customer, and an internal transfer-pricing dispute between two divisions. The work tests whether you can apply strict relevant-cost analysis under political and time pressure and resist the absorption-cost numbers that produce the wrong answer in each case.
Your goals