Introduction to Management Accounting and Finance
Management Accounting and Finance is becoming a more important and integral aspect of ITC exams
due to the changing nature of the profession and the roles CA’s are expected to play within
organisations post-qualification. The subject area (which also includes strategy and risk) makes up
between 25% - 40% of the overall mark allocation for the ITC exam. The importance of the MAF subject
area can therefore not be overemphasised.
How studying should be approached
Management Accounting and Finance is arguably one of the more challenging subject areas for
students during their undergrad and post-grad studies. This is mainly due to students trying to apply
a method of learning which is not conducive to the subject area. Many students aim to practice as
many tutorials as possible and where they find they are unable to come up with an appropriate
solution, they ‘audit’ the solution or use it as a way of seeing how to start a question. This is probably
one of the worst things that a student could do as it deprives them of an opportunity of thinking
through the tools (that the subject teaches) which are needed in order to answer questions. It is
extremely uncommon to see MAF questions which are similar to previous ones you have completed.
As a result the ‘auditing’ of solutions technique is misleading as it provides a false sense of security to
students.
The key to succeeding in MAF questions is through having a solid foundation of the tools that are
available to solve business problems. Understanding the ‘what to do’ is significantly more important
and difficult to figure out than the ‘how to do it’. The crunching the numbers part (‘how to do it’) of
solutions is never particularly complicated however deciding on what tools you should use when doing
the crunching (‘what to do’) is the challenge. For this reason, it is critical that students attempt
tutorials under exam conditions without using any of the suggested solutions until they have given
the question a solid attempt. It is only through following this process that gaps in your understanding
of the use of the tools (i.e. ABC/relevant costing/transfer pricing/etc) will come through and allow you
to understand your short comings.
Approaching the Tutorials and Notes
The tutorials have been have selected to provide coverage from a MAF perspective of the
competencies required by SAICA Competency Framework Detailed Guidance for Academic
Programmes 2016. Therefore even though MAF is more of an applied subject with no standards, by
doing the tutorials appropriately you can rest assured that you are covering the syllabus required for
ITC.
As mentioned before, the tutorials must be attempted blind and under exam conditions. This will
allow you to accurately gauge your grasp of particular content areas as well as improve your exam
technique (working under time pressure, improving layout, etc.). When marking your attempt, be
critical of yourself and constantly ask yourself ‘WHY’ the solution has used a particular approach
when it differs from yours. This is key to filling the gaps in the application of the tools.
Equally important to doing tutorials blind is also to reflect on tutorials after having written and
marked them. This allows you to consolidate your theory and understanding of how to apply theory
in a particular problem setting. It also helps with understanding why certain questions required a
certain method in answering a question (solving a problem) while another question which appears
similar may have used a completely different method in answering it.
Where it is found after marking a particular tutorial that there is a clear lack of knowledge in a topic,
students are strongly encouraged to use the provided course notes which include a summary of
each of the examinable topics in MAF. There are also concept videos available on Vula for selected
topics which can further assist students struggling in a particular area. The list of concept videos is
provided below:
1) Sources of finance
2) Performance evaluation
3) Relevant costing
4) Risk management
5) Cost of capital
6) Activity based costing
7) Standard costing
8) Free Cash flow valuations
Online lectures
There are three online lectures scheduled for Management Accounting and Finance. The purpose of
these lectures is NOT to teach you the content, but rather to assist you to best prepare to write the
ITC examination.
As a guide, the following will be covered in the respective lectures:
1. How to approach studying MAF, exam technique tips to start implementing now
2. How to effectively read scenarios and interpreting requireds
3. How to score marks effectively, exam technique and SAICA ITC trends
*these topics are provisional and may change
