Study Programmes 2015-2016
GEST1056-1  
Analytical accounting and management control
Duration :
35h Th, 25h Pr
Number of credits :
Bachelor in business engineering5
Lecturer :
Didier Van Caillie
Language(s) of instruction :
French language
Organisation and examination :
Teaching in the first semester, review in January
Units courses prerequisite and corequisite :
Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program
Course contents :
"Cost accounting and management control" discusses the fundamentals of cost and management accounting and the fundamentals of management control, those that are necessary to understand how an organization measures, monitors and controls its costs and how it translates this information into an efficient management control system.
In a first part, this course presents the main techniques that are used for management accounting purposes and shows why they are useful in a decision-making perspective.
In a second part, it describes the characteristics of the main management control systems that are in use in most organizations and proposes an overview of the main techniques and tools that are specific for results controls, action control and individual or cultural controls.
More specifically, having highlighted the specificities of management accounting and havind defined its main terms and concepts, this course presents first the cost accumulation process for inventory valuation and profit measurement. Then, it proposes an in-depth analysis of the different techniques used to manage accounting information in a decision-making perspective (cost-volume-profit analysis, activity-based and process-based costing, profitability analysis and pricing decisions and decision-making under conditions of risk and uncertainty).
In its second part, this course discusses the main characteristics of an efficient management control system and presents the different techniques that are used in organizations to ensure that they are efficiently managed daily. A special focus is put on techniques allowing for results controls (financial and accounting approach and organizationnal approach), for action controls (organizationnal approach and production management focus) and for individual control (incentives mechanisms).
Learning outcomes of the course :
This course intends to meet the ILOs such as defined for this course in the program of "Bachelor in Business Engineering", insisting particularly on the following aspects :
  • Ability to master the fundamentals of cost and management accounting.
  • Ability to master the principles and the fundamentals of organisational management control.
  • Ability to realize a basic audit of an internal accounting system and of a management control system in an organisation.
Prerequisite knowledge and skills :
General accounting.
Planned learning activities and teaching methods :
Theory : - "Ex-caethedra" teaching (cost and management accounting) : 20 h - "Ex-caethedra" teaching (management control) : 15 h Exercises : - Exercises presented and prepared under supervision (accounting-based decision making) : 10 h - Audit of an analytical accounting process in an organization : 15 h.
Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning) :
Lessons are organized:
  • every Monday, from 13.00 to 15.00, Room 138, Building N1
  • every Wednesday, from 15.30 to 17.30 in Room 050, Building N1
Start of the lessons on 14/09/2015
Organisation :
Either theoretical lessons or exercises depending on the way we progress in the course planning
Recommended or required readings :
Van Caillie D. (2005) : Principes de comptabilité analytique et de comptabilité de gestion, Liège : Editions de l'Université de Liège - 2ème édition, 242 p. (it will be published in an electronic format on the Campus website section for this course)
Merchant K, Van der Stede W. (2011) : Management control systems - Performance measurement, evaluation and incentives, Prentice Hall, 2nd Edition, Chapters 1 to 10
Assessment methods and criteria :
During JANUARY: A written exam based on Multiple Choices Questions :


  • about PARTIM 1 - Cost and management accounting : Theory (25 %) + exercises (25 %).
  • about PARTIM 2 - Management control (25 %)
During the semester :
Audit of an analytical accounting process in an organization (25 %) : Practical work realized in an organization chosen by the student and dealing with a basic model of the operations conducted by the organization and with a simple modelization of one of its analytical accounting processes (estimation of the global cost of a cost object) (individual report, between 12 and 15 pages excL exhibits).
!!! The written work has to be submitted before December, 20 2015 !!!
Work placement(s) :
Period of observation into an organization to allow the writing of the individual work. Estimated time : 12 hours.
Organizational remarks :
All the supports that are necessary are available in the space reserved for the course in your Moodle
Contacts :
Professor : VAN CAILLIE Didier Rue Louvrex, 14 - Bureau 102 4000 Liège Tél. : 04/232 74 34 E-mail : D.VanCaillie@ulg.ac.be
Items online :
Exercises - Lessons 1 & 2
Here are the supports for the first two sessions of practical works
Reference book
Reference book to use in addition to the elements considered during the course
Xmind file
Xmind support for the course