AC101: Management Accounting and Data-Driven Decision Making

How do firms decide which products are profitable? How should managers set targets and design bonus systems that motivate employees? Management accounting provides the practical toolkit that managers and consultants use every day to make a firm work: setting objectives, turning strategy into action, allocating resources, and designing performance-driven bonus systems. This course introduces these tools, combining data analytics with real-world cases to give you a clear understanding of how managers use data to make these decisions.

The goal of the course is to build your ability to apply analytics tools to real managerial decisions. We focus on the skills consultants and managers rely on most: forecasting costs, evaluating investment trade-offs, and designing bonus systems that motivate employees and support organisational goals. No prior knowledge of accounting or business is required, as you will learn how to work with financial and managerial data from the ground up.

Rather than teaching “the right answer,” the course teaches the logic and process behind sound decision making more generally: how to frame managerial problems, evaluate them, and reason through alternatives. These analytical and critical-thinking skills are essential in today’s business environment and highly valued in consulting, entrepreneurship, and general management.

The course is practical and applied. You will learn the same tools that managers and consultants use to diagnose problems, evaluate options, and implement solutions. By the end of the course, you will have a strong command of managerial accounting tools and be prepared to apply them in a wide range of business settings.

Prerequisites: There are no prerequisites for this course

Level: 100 level. Read more information on levels in our FAQs

Fees: Please see Fees and payments

Lectures: 36 hours

Classes: 18 hours

Assessment: Two written examinations

Typical credit: 3-4 credits (US) 7.5 ECTS points (EU)

Please note: Assessment is optional but may be required for credit by your home institution. Your home institution will be able to advise how you can meet their credit requirements. For more information on exams and credit, read Teaching and assessment

This course is ideal if you want a practical understanding of the tools managers use to make core business decisions. No prior background in accounting or business is required. The course is well suited if you are preparing for a career in consulting, strategy, or general management. The course is also a strong fit if you plan to pursue an MSc or MBA and want a solid foundation in managerial accounting and data-driven decision making.

By the end of the course, you will be able to:

• Apply core management accounting concepts to real business decisions.
• Use techniques such as cost estimation, regression analysis, variance analysis, and target setting to evaluate performance and guide managerial decisions.
• Understand how strategic, market, and technological factors affect management accounting practices.

The design of this course is guided by LSE faculty, as well as industry experts, who will share their experience and in-depth knowledge with you throughout the course.