CMA to conduct webinar on ‘Lean Accounting and Activity-Based Costing — A Choice or a Blend’

Gary Cokins, CPIM

The Institute of Certified Management Accountants of Sri Lanka (CMA) will conduct a webinar on ‘Lean Accounting and Activity Based Costing – A Choice or a Blend’ on Thursday, 18 February from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. via online Zoom platform. 

CMA Sri Lanka is the national professional management accounting body in Sri Lanka set up by an Act of Parliament and member of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) the global body for the accounting profession, South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA) the regional body for the South Asian Region and the Confederation of Asian and Pacific Accountants (CAPA) the accounting body for the Asian and Pacific region. 

This presentation addresses confusion that management accountants have. There are debates in the management accounting community about what is the most appropriate costing method. There are rival camps. For example, some lean accounting advocates who create ‘value stream maps’ criticise activity-based costing (ABC). There are passionate advocates of ABC because it provides much greater cost accuracy and visibility to cost drivers compared to the flawed and misleading costs from traditional and grotesquely cost distorting cost allocation methods. Who is correct? 

What is needed is to ask a different question that resolves this dilemma. That question is about how a company might have two or more co-existing management accounting methods. There can be different costs for different purposes used by different types of managers and employee teams. 

Gary Cokins presentation includes ‘What has created interest in activity-based costing (ABC)?’, ‘How do you design an ABC model that becomes an ABC system?’, ‘What are barriers preventing organisations from implementing ABC?’, ‘What are solutions that overcome those barriers?’, ‘What is the purpose and benefits of lean accounting?’ and ‘How can organisations apply both lean accounting and ABC?’

The webinar will be conducted by Gary Cokins, an internationally recognised expert, speaker, and author in advanced cost management and performance improvement systems. He is the founder of Analytics-Based Performance Management, an advisory firm located in Cary, North Carolina at www.garycokins.com. Gary received a BS degree with honours in Industrial Engineering/Operations Research from Cornell University in 1971. He received his MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management in 1974.

The webinar will conclude with a question-and-answer session where participants will also have an opportunity to discuss practical applications and obtain clarifications via chat option. 

Those who wish to attend are requested to send an e-mail to: [email protected].