All the material objects that surround us are manufactured at production sites - factories and plants. In these places during the conversion process materials (raw materials, packaging, consumables etc.) are transformed into semi-finished products with the addition of labor, energy and equipment operation, and then into finished products.

In general manufacturing businesses are material-intensive: the share of raw materials in total costs can reach 60-70%. That is why reporting, analysis, planning and control of material costs form an important set of tasks, that is critical for a modern enterprise.

Financial controllers, analysts and production economists are the ones engaged in solving these tasks. Such specialists should have a wide range of skills and competencies, be familiar with variety of accounting systems, understand the scope of all plant departments, its responsibility areas and interrelations.

In this course you will go through the following subject areas:

• Typical configuration of the production site (factory layout)

• Architecture of material module in financial systems: storage locations, material types, material movements, etc.

• Standard/planned prices, principles of its calculation and the impact on the financial result (standard costing methodology)

• Analysis of purchasing activity, what is PPV (purchase price variance)

• Inventory accounting and stock value calculation in accordance with IFRS (IAS 2). The process of stock revaluation

• Analysis inventory turnover, calculation of necessary reserves (write-off provision)

• Types of inventory stock-takes, the role of the financial controller

• Assessment of the production operational efficiency using variance analysis: usage variance, recipe (BOM) variance

Through the course you will live a 4-month business cycle of a confectionery factory. During this time, together with the plant, you will purchase materials, produce semi-finished products and finished goods, perform an annual stock-take, manage slow-moving inventories, analyze production efficiency and, of course, prepare and deeply analyze financial statements related to material costs.

The course is ideal for everyone who works in manufacturing environment - first of all, financial directors and controllers of production sites, as well as anyone who is interested in this professional area. This course is not on accounting, but on controlling - nevertheless, it would be of value for accountants